Mac + Cheese Kitchen — Restaurant in San Jose

I think this is a must try at the SJC airport but there are some improvements that can be made. Expect usual airport prices. It was $40.70 for pulled pork Mac and cheese, modelo and loaded tots.

Firstly, I asked for regular tots but got loaded ones which are $10 as opposed to $6. Besides the server who dropped my food off, the staff wasn’t very friendly and welcoming. I think this is particularly disappointing because these are passengers that you may never see again. It’s imperative to make a lasting impression.

The food was actually tasty. It had large noodles. The pulled pork sandwich had both good flavor and good texture. I didn’t sense a smoked smell from it. Good roux and not too thick or runny. It’s a decent portion. I didn’t finish it.

The loaded Tots came with bacon, jalapeño, and creamy cheese sauce. The tots were not very crispy and it was completely overcome by the toppings. This made it a mushy mess unfortunately. But again, it did have good seasoning so I gave it a pass. Good size portion again but probably not worth $10 IMO outside of the airport.

Modelo was cold and crisp. Nothing more to add except it really hit the spot.

Ambience was fairly quiet. There’s 3 televisions above the bar. Plenty of cocktail drinks to order but only 8 seats at the bar itself. There are 4 other seats inside and 10 seats outside.

The staff is very unprofessional. The manager argued with another employee about giving a customer a complimentary item due to a payment issue. This is a huge turnoff.

Further, I was left unattended from 5:13 at my time of order until 6pm when I left. So there isn’t much follow up or checking during the visit. This is why asking for a tip at the POS is a red flag. No service was provided. Everyone was busy doing things. They pulled a cart of items into the tiny restaurant/ bar area to unload it at 530p. This was inconvenient for customers.

Quality 3/5 Time to be acknowledged 5/5 Time to be served...

It was open at 5:30 and has only been in operation a week, service was good, portion size huge and cost for breakfast was $17 which is absurd but in keeping with this airport for a large breakfast.

So, I had the Mac+cheese with eggs, ham, sausage and bacon. The sausage is fennel forward, which isn’t my thing… and it had very little in the way of eggs, the cheese sauce also does very little for the meal. The prep is simplified but having something like this without some browning on the top seems like a failure. given their kitchen it is probably possible but challenging to pull off a higher quality experience to make you feel ok about paying that much for a pretty simple pasta.

They also have a full bar, which wasn’t something I wanted to test at 5:30 in the morning.

I’d rate it as ‘fine’ but even considering it is an airport, food experience is a bit low for the money but well within what could be fixed if they...

I decided to eat here prior to my flight. They were very short handed and the guy taking orders was also prepping food in the back. My food rolled out of their rolling oven and literally sat there for 10 minutes. I ordered the green chili chicken Mac and cheese with an order of loaded tots and specifically asked for "No onions". The guy who was multi tasking cooking food and running the register said: "The tots don't come with onions" "not even our loaded tots come with onions". Even though the menu said they did, I took his word for it. I've attached a pic of my loaded Mac and cheese with no onions. I didn't take them back because I feared it would take another 10 minutes to remake them. The food was blah! The tots were good, minus the onions and then they got soggy really fast. So, if you are ever in Terminal B at the San Jose airport, save your money and eat...