Regret on the plate: The “worst pizza in the country” at Miami Airport shows why airport food is always terrible – with one exception
Maestro Pizza in Miami airport goes viral because it’s more of a horrible circle of regret than anything resembling food.
Maestro Pizza – MIA Airport
byu/TheIndustrialMachine inPizza
Online reviews are roughly what you would expect.
Probably the worst pizza ever. It looked like a pizza box with melted cheese on top. Little Cesar’s looks like a 5 star pizza in comparison.
Only food option in this area of the airport. My kids and I had to wait about 45 minutes to get two small pizzas. The pizzas were already pre-made and in the warmer, but the line moved very slowly. The staff was also not friendly.
I have to agree with all the other reviews about this place. There really isn’t much else in this part of the terminal. You have to eat from here.
Just don’t do it. It’s way too expensive for a flat piece of rubber with sauce and cheese on top. 4 little slices of yuck.
It is striking that people surprised of what they get, but most people do not travel often enough to develop a theory and understanding of what to expect at the airport.
- Food is not selected for quality. It is chosen to feed an addictive audience while generating a return for the airport, concessionaires and licensed brands – all while covering far higher than usual labor and food costs. The selection of suppliers at airports is often corrupt.
- And airport operating restrictions make it almost impossible to get a decent meal.
An airport restaurant is probably bad because:
- Restaurants must bring everything through security checks You cannot make timely delivery of food. There are limits for When Things can be brought in, they usually cannot bring supplies through the hall during peak times.
- You cannot work with the best providers There are often regulations about which companies are allowed to bring food through security checks.
- Space is limited So they can’t store much. In fact, Tortas Frontera has a separate preparation kitchen that customers can’t see, and from there the ingredients are brought into the hall.
- Electric hobs The airport may not allow gas ovens, so everything will have to be recreated with electricity.
- Knives chained to the wall Security limits the work of your chefs; their knives must often be attached to the wall to prevent them from being stolen (and inventoried daily).
- Employees are hard to come by They have to pass security checks, and that takes time, so it’s difficult to hire someone right away. They often get worse employees who pass a background check, but have few less inconvenient options that don’t require a commute to the airport.
- Cooking with the lowest common denominator Passengers usually choose a restaurant because it is there, they do not go to the airport because of the restaurant (Tortas Frontera is an exception that influences some passengers’ connection choices). People need to be served quickly, and tastes vary. Space must be used to serve as many people as possible as quickly as possible. There are even brands that don’t serve breakfast outside the airport, but do offer breakfast dishes (Asian restaurants that serve eggs or breakfast tacos). Rents are high, so you need high volume too.
- Despite high costs and effort, you cannot ask for more Many airports have street pricing rules that limit the price of additional items in the airport (the price may not exceed the price outside the airport by more than 10%).
Ultimately, concession companies like HMSHost, Delaware North, and OTG deliver a terrible product to many people who need to be served quickly.
And I don’t want to hear your protests about One flew south in Atlanta. There is only one airport food stand that serves food worth eating if you weren’t trapped there: Tortas Frontera.
It’s a highlight because renowned chef Rick Bayless cared more about the product than his interpretation, and he had the courage to pull it off.
- Obtaining a separate license for access to the airport by a supplier used by local suppliers
- He actually optimized the recipes by having them test in to-go boxes for an hour (since people take the food, walk to their gates and board, and often eat it once they’re in their seat) – the food is actually optimized to improve people’s experience.
- Refusal to prepare the food and rejection of HMSHost’s advice to avoid spices
- Insist on a separate prep kitchen for restaurants to overcome space constraints
I actually chose to connect through O’Hare because I know I can eat a Tortas Frontera sandwich there and not the other options available elsewhere. And I’m going to get one of those instead of eating at the American Airlines Admirals Club and skipping a first class meal on my next flight. There’s no other airport restaurant in the country that I would say the same about, and in fact no other airport eatery outside of Asia that that’s true about.
