On this page (3 sections)
Eating airside
The choice opens up once you are through security: sit-down restaurants, bars and grab-and-go counters along the departure lounge.
The real choice is airside, up on the first floor, where the restaurants, bars and coffee stops line the departure lounge. For a proper meal, All Bar One does cocktails and a menu near gates 1 to 20, Giraffe covers all-day family food with a global slant, and a new Wagamama is joining them as part of the airport's 2026 refit. Bottega serves an Italian breakfast and a prosecco brunch into late morning, which suits an early start to a holiday.
The cheapest sit-down by a distance is the airside Wetherspoon, which trades here as The Factory Bar and Kitchen: pub prices on fish and chips, pies, burgers, curries and a big grill menu, and it opens earlier than almost anything else. For something quick, Pret A Manger, Costa, Starbucks and Burger King handle coffee and food to go, with Millie's Cookies for something sweet. If you would rather sit somewhere quiet with food and drink included, the lounges are the alternative to paying cafe by cafe, from around £21 a head.
Before security
Landside is thin and skewed to early coffee; the choice is on the far side of the queue.
Before the security queue, the offer is limited and built for the early rush. For a dawn flight there is usually a Costa in the arrivals area and a bakery open through the night, plus the landside SPAR for a drink and a snack, enough to keep you going until you are through. The World News Cafe does hot and cold food with runway views from early morning too. None of it is a destination, and that is the point: Birmingham keeps the real choice airside.
So unless you are waiting a long time before bag drop opens, the sensible move is to check in, clear security and eat on the far side, where the restaurants and the seats are. If you are here to meet someone off a flight rather than to fly, the landside picture and where to wait are covered in the arrivals guide.
Early flights and eating for less
The Wetherspoon opens around 04:00; a meal deal or a lounge can beat the cafes on price.
Early departures are the thing to plan around. The Factory Bar and Kitchen opens from around 04:00, and the coffee and grab-and-go counters open early too, but the full sit-down restaurants can start later, so a 06:00 flight may mean a bacon roll rather than a cooked breakfast. Birmingham is a silent airport, with no boarding calls over a tannoy, so whatever you order, keep an eye on the departure boards and leave time to walk to the gate.
For a cheaper bite than the cafes, the Boots meal deal, a main, a snack and a drink for one price, and the food-to-go aisle in WHSmith both undercut a sit-down. And on a long wait or with a family, a lounge can work out better value than four covers at a restaurant once the drinks and snacks add up. The departure lounge overview pulls the shops, food and lounges together.