The Landings – Carlsbad, CA

The Landings burger

For this review we visited the “The Landing’s” at Palomar Airport with our guest reviewer Jeff  “Meat Sickle” Falk. Also, tagging along to review the stupid veggie burger was Caitlyn Bragelmann (which really doesn’t really count for anything but we let her go anyway). We know what you’re thinking.  Why would these UBR high rollers hit an airport for a burger?  And no, it’s not where we keep the UBR corporate jet. You see, back in the day, we use to frequent a little greasy spoon called the Palomar Airport Café.  It was located on the old airport’s tarmac.  You’d weave your way through the parked airplanes, climb up the rickety staircase to the second floor of this cool old building. Here you were met by the classic American diner, complete with a panoramic view of the little regional airport. And man, did they have a good burger! Unfortunately, they became a victim of progress.  Because of the needs of a growing airport, the building was torn down and classic yummy airport burgers are a thing of the past.  Welcome to the new age of the airport diner.  The Landings is now located within the new airport terminal. Sadly, without the yummy burger part. The new Landing’s is nothing like the old crusty burger hole in the wall. It’s all posh with granite topped tables and comfortable chairs and a fancy bar. One really cool thing is the glass wall that gives you a ground level view of the tarmac where you can sit and watch the planes taxi around. They also have a nice outdoor patio area which would be a great place to hang and have a beer on a warm sunny day. A special mention needs to go out about our server, Jackie, who was cute, fun and attentive. We surmised that her Mom must be a real hottie too! On to the burger; if you have ever eaten a burger at an airport you know you can’t set your expectations too high.  And this place proved to be no exception. Despite taking our request for cooking requirements (which gave a false sense of hope), all the burgers showed up well done. While the burger displayed some positive visual traits, like a good burger-to-bun ratio and decent patty thickness, it earned a dismal and flavorless 2.67 on the UBR scale. Additionally, the fries, as ‘Meat Sickle’ Falk said, were “Stiff” like some rigor mortis stricken, long dead, heat lamp warmed leftover from yesterday’s lunch. It’s pretty hard to screw up your standard fry type, but they managed to go out of their way to pull that off. For you weirdoes like Caitlyn, that bypass the normally delicious meat factor, it’s a “pass” on the stupid veggie burger too (for what that’s worth). While the Landing’s probably have better things on their menu, sadly it’s a pass on the burgers and fries. This proves progress and posh are not always a good thing.  We miss you Airport Café.  

The Landings