Danks Street Depot, Sydney Airport

There are many things I associate with airports – tearful farewells, joyous reunions, the romance of leaving your cares behind and travelling to faraway places and, unfortunately, bad airport food with jacked up prices. But all this has changed with Danks Street Depot’s outpost at Sydney Airport, with many more non-fast food dining options to come.

I first ate here when seeing Mum off on a trip in November, and again a month later when Monsieur Poisson and I left for holidays ourselves. There were small changes to the menu in that short period between visits, which is testament to Danks Street Depot’s mission to use seasonal, sustainable produce.



A word of note: do not attempt to order the following two dishes between two people unless you’ve been just rescued from being stranded on a deserted island for days (or similar unlikely scenario), as it is simply way too much food! The ‘Silverbeet Hash’ is laden with potato chunks and is understatedly billed on the menu as “Two poached eggs, herbed tomato, sourdough toast & butter”. Danks Street Depot’s take on the Reuben contains corned Wagyu braised in balsamic, sugar and spices but leaves me wanting more sauerkraut. There are plenty of fluffy-centred and well-seasoned hand-cut chips on the side, and it is saddening to be unable to finish them.


Our second visit saw us show much more restraint prior to a mid-afternoon flight. The ‘Spaghetti Picante’ is light, non-greasy and provides plenty of tasty crunch with garlic, chilli, capers, anchovies, breadcrumbs and parsley. A beetroot and orange salad topped with fetta and walnuts affords us some much-needed hydration prior to 9 hours of being confined to a pressurised aeroplane cabin.

And what of cabin food? Well, economy class offered us the usual frozen dinner meals flanked by tubs of potato salad and bread rolls (though Lurpak butter is a nice inclusion), with the light meal towards the end of the flight comprising of a cheese and mustard sandwich on (dry) wholemeal bread, Cadbury’s chocolate and a muesli slice.


The overnight return flight to Sydney was much the same, but with fruit salad, a muffin and juice for breakfast.


At least there’s the comfort of knowing there’s good food at the airport before embarking on a holiday trip. There’s also the comfort of good coffee at nearby Don Campos – I highly recommend their piccolo affogato which skews the ratio of vanilla ice-cream to espresso much in favour of the ice-cream.


Espresso coffee is not one of Hong Kong’s fortes – something which Monsieur Poisson missed whilst we were there – but more on that and other things in a series of posts on Hong Kong to come!

Terminal 1, Sydney International Airport NSW
Tel: (02) 9669 0755

2/21 Fountain St, Alexandria NSW
Tel: (02) 9690 0090

Don Campos on Urbanspoon

happy eating!

24 comments:

  1. Wow - airport Danks looks fab (esp in comparison to the airplane food!). It's been too long since my last international flight :(

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  2. I think the trick with traveling by plane these days is to make sure you eat before you get on the plane. That food at the airport sure looked better than the food on the flight.

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  3. Oooo, perhaps I can check out Danks Street Depot before our flight to Singers in a few weeks. I have such great things about the food - but I'll be careful not to over order.

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  4. i saw this on my last visit to HK but didnt get a chance to eat there.
    very much looking forward to reading your HK posts :)

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  5. Good review. I've always thought it was too expensive to eat here though, especially before a flight.

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  6. Looks like the airport could be a food destination in itself (if you can afford the parking fee). Can't wait to see your HK posts!

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  7. glad you ended up trying danks street depot! just letting you know i’ve awarded you with the ‘cute blog award’. swing my my blog when you get a sec to pick it up.
    panda x

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  8. i must thank you for this. I hate being at the airport, hungry and faced with nothing but maccas or disappointing cafes food. Finally something good has come along.

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  9. i love the good morning sticker on the fruit salad hehe.

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  10. Never got around to trying danks street depot. Hope the next flight out allows me to try it. The beetroot and orange salad looks like a must order

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  11. I have been here before, I was a little intrigued at the price of a glass of wine though! Food looks much better than the time I went. I always order the vegetarian cabin food so I get a curry or something. No nasty sandwiches for me! and I get my can of pringles and glass of wine :P

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  12. Did not even realise there was a Danks St at the airport. Guess I'll be popping by here the next time I fly out somehwere.. :)

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  13. Will be heading to the airport tonight so I'll make sure I grab some food from Danks St before boarding!

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  14. It's nice knowing that you don't have to resort to fast food or low quality food of the old guard cafes.

    Also, nice touch with the courtesy censorship of the person's face. Unless they face is usually like that... :P

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  15. When I went to the States I had a kebab at the airport. Just as I had my last bite I saw Danks Street Depot and suffered food rage.
    The cabin food was good though, we flew Qantas. Surprising!

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  16. I didn't even know there was a Danks St Depot at the airport. I am hightailing it over there next time I fly!

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  17. the meal looks better than air china. nuff said LOL!

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  18. I have a strange affinity for plane food ^^" I love how everything is separated into their own compartments and it's all laid out in front of you :) mm that spaghetti picante looks and sounds deliciously healthy!

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  19. Wow they were very generous portions in deed! It is nice to know food is picking up at the airport and there are now a couple of decent places to grab a pre flight meal.

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  20. Dammit, good to know about Danks St Depot - we couldnt find any good food at the airport when we were there! I love airplane food. it's all that compartmentalisation... gets the control freak in me excited lol

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  21. I'm heading to the airport in about 1 hour actually, but it's Melbourne Airport, not Sydney. Dang! I would have loved to try this place, even though it's dinner time. :P I don't think my plane food's going to be nearly as good as yours though. Flying with Air China. :S

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  22. I knew i should have eaten here before our flight to Bangkok before Christmas. I had a burger (fast food option) instead. Hanging head in shame!

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  23. A place to bookmark for a future trip to Sydney.....perhaps. I love the sound of the corned Wagyu beef!

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  24. Hey Tina, it's nice to have a little more choice at the airport.

    Hey Hotly Spiced, I miss the glamorous days of flying!

    Hey MissPiggy, hope you're having a great time in Singapore!

    Hey gastronomous anonymous, this was but the start of a food-fuelled holiday!

    Hey joey, more expensive than their parent outlet of course, but still within reason in my opinion.

    Hey Bel, lucky there are the 15 minute pick-up zones now!

    Hey panda, I made it a mission to eat here after reading about it on your blog! And thank you so much for the award =D

    Hey Food is our religion, more choice is always welcome!

    Hey Dolly, it definitely helped to cheer me up after only a hour or two of sleep haha!

    Hey julie, the salad was surprisingly satisfying!

    Hey Cass, I avoid alcohol when flying so wouldn't know any better!

    Hey Tina, file it away for whenever you're heading away on holidays =)

    Hey Jacq, looking forward to hearing about your travels!

    Hey Simon, I do my best to protect the innocent haha!

    Hey JasmyneTea, the Qantas food of my childhood was so, so good!

    Hey Anna, it's an option away from the usual airport food.

    Hey sugarpuffi, I've never flown China Air but you've got me concerned about the food!

    Hey Vivian, the little compartments are great! I just remember there used to being more of them.

    Hey Sara, Melbourne airport has a Cafe Vue, which is pretty cool!

    Hey catty, same! The compartments appeal to my anal nature but I'd still like the food within to be nicer haha =p

    Hey Jenny, you're the second person who's mentioned Air China and now I'm curious to see their food!

    Hey The Food Sage, actually Danks Street Depot had a burger special the first time we were there, but which then disappeared off the specials - d'oh!

    Hey Kitchen Butterfly, so when are you going to get here? =)

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