Breakfast at O'Hare

Hello,

My friend has a layover in Chicago in a month for a few hours at breakfasttime. I rarely see her so we thought it would be fun for me to meet her there for breakfast. She does not have enough time to leave the airport so it has to be something in O'Hare.

Are there any food courts/restaurants/kiosks with tables where I (a non-ticketed person) could meet up with her? I am pretty unfamiliar w/the airport as I do not travel much so I don't know what's out there for non-traveler to gain access to.

I frequent terminal three, and the only thing on the non-ticketed side of security there is a couple of Starbucks kiosks.

Maybe you could bring her breakfast there (croissants or bagels or...) and get some coffee from Starbucks.

As far as I know all the food options are on the other side of the security gates now.

Maybe you could bring her breakfast there (croissants or bagels or...) and get some coffee from Starbucks.

I think I will do just that. Now....where to get good breakfast stuff to go....

Thanks for the help!

I was in exactly this situation on two occasions in the past year, for a breakfast and a lunch. All the restaurants in the terminals are located inside security, so those are not an option for a non-passenger. The passenger you're meeting will need to leave the secured area to meet you.

Where we went is the Andiamo restaurant in the O'Hare Hilton. This is the hotel right in the middle of terminals 1, 2, and 3. The person you're meeting can walk across the roadway on the baggage level, or walk below it as though he's going to the parking garage. For you, as a visitor, follow signs for "Hourly Parking" and you can park on the first floor of the parking garage in the short-term hourly parking for $4 for up to three hours. (Rates are steep if you're there longer than that - $21 for 3-4 hours.) From the first floor of the parking garage, you just walk across the driveway into the hotel, and the restaurant is on the first floor, so you can park really close. It's a shorter walk from your car to the restaurant than at most hotel restaurants in the suburbs. And, compared with any place outside the airport, the ability to wait for your friends by sitting inside the restaurant and meeting them there, rather than having to sit in the cell phone lot and hook up via cell phone and deal with traffic around the terminal to pick them up and drop them off, is a real convenience, for you as well as for them.

As a long-time resident here, I had remembered the hotel (and the underground tunnels leading to it) from years ago as being not so great, but they've remodeled and it's nice, about what you would expect from a Hilton. For breakfast, they have a choice between an all-you-can-eat buffet (scrambled eggs, bacon, and the usual breakfast buffet type foods you find in hotel restaurants) and ordering a la carte off the breakfast menu. The food was good and tasty - not fine dining, but perfectly adequate, and the convenience of the location was perfect. Prices were a few bucks higher than you would find in a nice suburban hotel - which means it's not inexpensive, but not what I would consider a rip-off, either. (We ended up paying $18/person including tax/tip for the buffet - expensive for a breakfast, but totally worth it for a nice time with my companions in a place that was so easy to meet at, as well as for all the food you can eat. You can pay significantly less than that if you don't get the buffet.) And it's a nice dining room, a quiet, relaxing place to get together for a few hours. The service was good and nobody minded that we were there for a couple of hours. Casual attire was totally acceptable. It was perfect for my needs.

I should also add that, if this is someone who has been on an overnight flight, especially in these times when an airline meal often consists of peanuts, they may arrive very hungry, in which case the breakfast buffet is perfect (and croissants and bagels might not be the best answer). In my case, the individuals I was meeting were ravenous and greatly appreciated the breakfast buffet.

They open at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast every day.

[url=http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/CHIOHHH-Hilton-Chicago-O-Hare-Airport-Illinois/dining.do]Andiamo
Hilton Chicago O'Hare Airport[/url]
OHare Intl Airport
Chicago, Illinois, United States 60666
Tel: 1-773-686-8000

There is a Wolfgang Puck's in terminal 3 in back of the ticket counters across from gate k1. I am almost positive it is on the non-secured side. The map on the O'hare site totally sucks, so I couldn't verify that.

Also, if you exit O'Hare through the "side-door" on Bessie Coleman Drive (near the remote parking lots) there is a restaurant at the intersection of Manheim and Higgins that specializes in breakfast (good omlettes). It is only a 5-7 minute drive from the terminals (follow the signs for remote parking and car rental returns).

Pine Grove Restaurant
6580 Mannheim Rd
Rosemont, IL 60018
(847) 298-5110
http://pinegroverestaurant.com/

d4v3 wrote:There is a Wolfgang Puck's in terminal 3 in back of the ticket counters across from gate k1. I am almost positive it is on the non-secured side. The map on the O'hare site totally sucks, so I couldn't verify that.

The Puck's restaurant is inside security (i.e. in the secured area).

nsxtasy wrote:

d4v3 wrote:There is a Wolfgang Puck's in terminal 3 in back of the ticket counters across from gate k1. I am almost positive it is on the non-secured side. The map on the O'hare site totally sucks, so I couldn't verify that.

The Puck's restaurant is inside security (i.e. in the secured area).

Are you sure? There are 2 of them in terminal 3.

d4v3 wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:

d4v3 wrote:There is a Wolfgang Puck's in terminal 3 in back of the ticket counters across from gate k1. I am almost positive it is on the non-secured side. The map on the O'hare site totally sucks, so I couldn't verify that.

The Puck's restaurant is inside security (i.e. in the secured area).

Are you sure? There are 2 of them in terminal 3.

Definitely on the secured side.

d4v3 wrote:Are you sure? There are 2 of them in terminal 3.

I am sure. I've eaten there several times while awaiting outbound flights, at the one where you describe, right behind the ticket counter. It's just on the other side of the escalators down to the baggage area from the security entrance in the middle of terminal 3. It's definitely inside security.

Yeah, I guess you're right. I've never eaten there, so I'll have to defer to you guys. I know the lunchcounter that used to be there was outside security, but they must have moved the glass-wall when they made it a Puck's.

Basically, the entire area on the opposite side of the wall behind the ticket counters is secured now. For example, if you're arriving on a flight, you can walk from the H and K concourses in the middle of Terminal 3 (or the L concourse at the end), to the end of the terminal building, into the rotunda (past the G concourse), and into Terminal 2 (where the post office is) without having to exit the secured area.

PlayItGeorge wrote:

Maybe you could bring her breakfast there (croissants or bagels or...) and get some coffee from Starbucks.

I think I will do just that. Now....where to get good breakfast stuff to go....

Thanks for the help!

Depending on your route, you might be able to pick up bagels at New York Bagel and Bialy, which has locations on Touhy and Dempster. Or there's Krispy Kreme at Touhy and Mannheim.

New York Bagel & Bialy
4714 W Touhy Ave, Lincolnwood, IL
(847) 677-9388

New York Bagel & Bialy Corp
3556 Dempster St, Skokie, IL
(847) 673-9388

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
7050 Mannheim Rd, Rosemont, IL
(847) 827-8800

The area near the airport is pretty barren, so I think you're better off bringing something from further away... so then that depends on your route from home to the airport.