It's the day before Christmas and I'm watching a skinny guy try to smash a 12-patty, 12-cheese…read moremonster burger that Lashings owner Ilker Boga has put together as a man vs food challenge. Later on Ilker brings out one of those hoverboard things and spins around the store on it. Why can't all food be this fun? There are 22 burgers on the menu, including one called The Herbert. I can barely count to 22. You know what's important in a good burger? Balance. You can have all kinds of crazy stuff and one giant patty and whatever, but for mine everything needs to be in proportion and work together, and the cunningly named Single Decker did just that - juicy thin patty, cheese, pickles, mustard, sauce and bun that all meld into a hand grenade of deliciousness. Just pull the pin and throw it at your face. Can't wait to try more. Full disclosure: a colleague bought this burger for me. Oh, and the results of the man vs food challenge? Close, but no cigar: 2.5 cheese-slathered patties left on the table.

Talk about a huge variety of fabulous burgers! It's not often a burger joint will have such a wide…read moreselection of burgers other than beef. There usually one or two chicken options, and one or two vegetarian options, but this place had so much to choose from, I couldn't decide and had to ask the friendly owners which they recommended. How could I go past a burger that specifically listed pickles as one of the ingredients. PICKLES!! The Herbert was incredibly, and luckily I went the healthy option of wholemeal bread! (Make that a diet coke, I'm watching my weight) Haven't you heard? It makes all the difference. The chips were addictive; damn that chicken salt. Add to it the amazing dip options and I was shoveling those in my mouth non-stop. There was pickle mayo, guys...PICKLE mayo! I will definitely be back to try some of the other chicken burgers and/or the lamb burgers and definitely the pickle mayo again. Maybe I can order a glass of pickle juice.

Touchdown is the downstairs bar in the Rydges Hotel at Sydney Airport. I'm not sure what is more…read moreconfusing: the fact that it is named after an American football term; or the fact that they couldn't make a basic cocktail correctly. (More on that later). The vibe here was laid back sports bar with a focus on beers, wine and simple drinks. Sadly, the beer list was short and standard (Australian macrobrews like VB, Carlton, etc.) The short food list was actually better than I expected, with a selection of apps (wings, meatballs), entrees (burgers, steak, salmon) and desserts. It was certainly enough to suit me, so I ate here for dinner and watched some local sports (continuing my increasing fascination with cricket). My burger and fries were pretty good, and just what I wanted. But after a few mediocre beers I decided to test the bar by ordering something basic. Specifically, I asked for an Old Fashioned (It's a never-ending quest). The young bartender got busy, muddling some fruit, adding sugar and bitters, before finally adding the liquor (which I couldn't see). The result tasted familiar, but strange...REALLY strange. I sipped slowly, but it never got any better. After about 15 minutes, the bartender proudly showed me the single malt scotch he made it with... [Insert Forehead Slap here]. No wonder it tasted strange - This drink is made with Rye or Bourbon only; and what a waste of a single malt! Dear management- you might want to think about training your bartenders to do something more than pour wine and beer.

Top-notch lounge close to my gate. It is part of the Star Alliance Gold. Very clean, organized and…read morea great buffet. Need to go to the counter and use the pad to order a variety of coffees and chai tea. Lots of seating areas. Make you sure you bring an adaptor to charge your phone. Bathrooms very clean.

This is a beautiful lounge. There is even a barista here to make your coffee drink. The lounge…read moredoes become rather crowded. The food is decent as is the overall experience.

The Qantas First Lounge at Sydney's international terminal is a very nice place to wait for your…read moreflight. Like most Elite Lounges I've visited, there are self serve coffee/tea/snack stations. Unlike most, there is no buffet or self serve bar. There is an attentive staff that take your food/drink order off a very nice selection on their menu. Both menus highlight Australian produced food and wines. Very nice! The lounge is large and sirs over the Qantas gates, so its easy to see when your plane is at the gate. They also use the archaic mechanical flight screen that gives a delightful click-click-clack every time it updates. Guaranteed to bring back delightful memories for us older travelers!

What an awesome experience at the lounge this time round. Anna is amazing. She greeted us at the…read morefront entrance and was kind to inform us at a high level, the One World perks. We entered the lounge and the deco was awesome. Escalator up we did another round of check in and were guided towards the seating area. You can choose to sit anyone but those who would prefer to eat get seated in a reserved area for food. We sat in the casual area for some coffee and champagne and then later decided to eat. We had a full meal of options to choose from. They have an open kitchen and the variety did not disappoint. I had the corn soup and fish with veggies which was good. We also had lamb and fries which did not disappoint. Lounge has a great variety of wine and champagne. If you have a lot of time you can use their Spa. The lounge itself is very clean, and everyone here is very friendly and helpful. Location is awesome as well. View of plane landing and taking off. Our gate was below us so we could see our plane landing. This was our third time using the lounge at Sydney airport and was the best experience.

Gayle and I were flying home to Reno (via LAX) on United, and were given a choice between the Air…read moreNew Zealand or the Singapore Airlines lounges. We were talked into the former, and wondered what we missed with the later. In any event, it was a very nice and relaxing lounge experience. The food was good, barista coffee was slow coming out but good, the view of the runway was nice, and lounge staff were professional and courteous. It also wasn't too crowded. The only real "complaint" we had was it was a fairly long walk to the United gate.

Great lounge in Sydney! I was on an international flight and went to this relaxing lounge - and not…read moreas crowded as the American Express lounge. Breakfast foods were a plenty, yogurt, fruit, pancake maker, made to order omelettes, great pastries. I highly recommend this lounge!

The lounge is spacious and the more people that came in the more room there seems to be…read more Food quality was amazing and the staff attending to passengers were very friendly and lively. One gentlemen which I did not get his name helped me and my mom with smiles and happiness all around. Lively experience in general and would definitely recommend it

So this was supposed to be a Business class lounge. I'll start with the ups. This large had PLENTY…read moreof seating and was pretty spacious. Chairs were comfy enough as well. The down sides. I could barely find charging ports and the ones that I did find were very loose. I came just as they were transitioning meals so they were cleaning up the previous meal service and were bringing out a whole new set of fresh food. When I finally came up after they swapped all the food out, it turned out to be one of the most lacking lounge buffets I had ever seen. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is an airport lounge. I understand that this isn't a full-fledged restaurant. But for a business class level lounge, I just expected a better offering aside from quinoa, salad and veggies. No alcohol either?? Even the lowest level of lounges have some kind of alcohol offerings whether paid or free. I'm being especially harsh because this is, in theory, supposed to be a more exclusive higher level lounge and they just didn't hit the mark. Side note whatever protein they put in their mid salad (tuna?), it was so dry chalky. I left QUICK to the Amex Centurion lounge. PS: even the Fiji Airport Priority lounge had better offerings than this lounge. Substantial food, coffee bar and alcohol (albeit on the smaller side)

Better than gen pop, but not by much…read more Small lounge with not much going on. The breakfast offerings were basic and not very good at all. They do make a good coffee though. Staff was pleasant enough.

We dropped by this lounge b4 our flight back to LAX bc the Amex & House lounges were not near our…read moregate. There were positives & negatives: Positives: Nice lady in front; Lotion in restroom; Decent food and they make your coffee to order Negatives: Small space w/ single person rest rooms; All in all, a positive experience. Lounges are a great way to relax b4 a flight.

Very nice and clean lounge. Small but plenty of seats. Lots of tables for easy dining. Staff were…read morevery attentive cleaning, collected used dishes, and asking if they could bring anything. Nice self-serve espresso machine for fancy drinks. Solid variety in terms of food options, including hot noodles, sandwiches, salads, and snack items. The outlets at the seats are super convenient.

It's overall a standard airport lounge…read more Pluses: They have seating by the window Decent assortment of food including Pad Thai (way to go on variety!) Outlets at the seats Negatives: They don't announce flights The signage to find it could use some help (walked into the American Express lounge by accident as they have better signage)

The food isn't bad at all here. I wouldn't say it's the best Centurion Lounge, but it's not the…read moreworse. The walk is what kills you. Hopefully you don't have a flight through a gate with single digits, it's a walk. It's located on the lower floor with the other lounges. It's located near Gates 50-63 in the Depatures area. The decor is nice and there chairs are comfortable. The drinks are easy to get to and the area is wide open. I came during the evening on a Saturday and the place is empty. There are a lot of outlets by each table and the music is quite soothing. The service here is really good. The bartender was very friendly and quick. The waiters here are very attentive and take your dirty plates quite quickly. Overall, if you have an international flight, this will satisfy you for your trip back to the states. The clean sitting areas and decent selection of beers will make sure that your flight is a sleepy one.

This was a HUGE step up from the Quanta's Business Lounge, but even then, you notice some things…read morethat are lacking. It's not necessarily their fault but it is what it is. They are the Amex Centurion Lounge... run by Plaza Premium. I don't believe I've had a chance to try a Plaza premium lounge so is this what would be expected? Possibly. In any case for an AMEX lounge it definitely was lacking in 2 places: the bar and the seating. This is without a doubt, the smallest centurion lounge that I've been to. Really not that much seating compared to others, yet still much more accommodating than the average priority lounge. Service: They were transitioning meals at the time and so it took a good chunk of time before we could actually get food. The sign asked for 20 minutes to change over. Realistically, it shouldn't take 20 minutes just to swap out food. If that's the case, then you should leave up the previous meal service so that people can get what they need and leave if they're in a rush. Then just transition the food to the next meal when the food is ready. As for the table, it took a while to lock in a table and get it cleaned. We had asked the workers, whenever they get a chance to please wipe down a couple of dirty tables of people who had left but it took a while for anyone to come over. By the time someone had come, we already started just getting drinks. As for the bar, it moved VERY SLOW but I don't hold that against them. They had a combo alcohol/coffee bar. At the time it was one person running both sides so it took my family a very long time to get their coffees. Because of this, I decided not to get coffee. The woman working the counter did her best and she was so nice. Eventually another person came to help her so it started to move much faster. When she came over to the bar side the woman was able to pump those drinks out quickly. The downside to the alcohol side of the bar, it's not at the level of a typical centurion lounge. I'm used to a large full bar with plenty of offerings, and more importantly, its own cocktail list inspired by the location but this place did not have that. Maybe because it's technically a plaza premium lounge? As for the food I will say I was pleasantly surprised for the most part. A good selection of substantial food. Some of the foods include:"salads," cakes, noodles, a veggie dish with tofu, pizza and even braised beef bourguignon. Big negative mark for dirty forks.