The Lounge, Boston Logan Airport, Terminal C

Update Review, Dec 2021 & July 2022 Visits

I didn't visit The Lounge for a few years due to Covid closure, but finally did in late 2021, and again the next summer.  Things had changed though, and when I tried to visit in December 2022, I wasn't able to get in, as the lounge was full, and they had a waitlist of an estimated 45 minutes.  I tried in vain to get permission to just use the bathroom, but also, nope.  Lounge crowding is a thing these days!

Small Plates Display.

During Covid the lounge moved to a packaged format, with nothing self-serve.  By July 2022 it was a hybrid - soup, stir fry and rice, pretzels, peanuts were self-serve, and then little plates with veggies, hummus, and cheese cups were pre-made, covered in plastic wrap, but you could help yourself to them from the fridges below.  They had a sample display so you could see what was in the different snack plates.

Veggie Plate (+ peanuts).

Since I don't care for hummus, the pita and hummus platter, and the veggie and hummus platter didn't appeal, nor did the kinda mediocre cheese offerings (particularly as I was planning to visit the Air France lounge too).  I did grab a veggie plate and some peanuts though.

The peanuts were, well, peanuts.  Just plain, salted peanuts.  Pretty boring.  The only other snack was pretzels, gone are the days of the candy jars.  ***.

The veggies were fine, pretty standard quality carrots and celery sticks, and mediocre tomatoes. ***.

Honey Roasted Peanuts.

During one visit, they had pretzels and gummy bears available from the snack jars (they serve them though), and the next, honey roasted peanuts and pretzels.  I missed the extensive candy jar lineup!

I didn't care for the gummy bears, they were the style that is chewer than I prefer.

It sounds silly, but I really appreciated the honey roasted peanuts.  Sweet and crunchy, very satisfying at the time, and slightly different from standard pretzels and plain nuts.  I may have gone back for seconds.  Just honey roasted peanuts, but very good ones.  ****.

Update Review, 2019 Visits

Another flight out of Logan airport, another quick stop into The Lounge pre-depature to grab some of my favorite club snacks.

The food lineup was as always (see prior reviews), a couple sandwich wraps, two varieties of soup (tomato, lentil ... sadly not the actually good clam chowder), cookies, brownies, and the salad bar and snack mix bar.  I went straight for the last two sections only.

Salad Bar.

The salad bar was as always a basic base for assembling your own salad (mixed greens, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, edamame, peppers, black olives, croutons), dressing, and one pre-mixed salad.

Dressing.

I tried the ranch dressing on some greens, as I have been in a ranch mood lately, but it wasn't particularly good ranch.

Decent Salad.

I tried the pre-made salad, which wasn't labelled, and it was actually pretty decent.  It had chopped pecans for crunch, and dried cranberries for sweetness, and wasn't over-dressed nor soggy.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Snacks!

And then for my favorite part: the snack jars!

10 jars this time, featuring: Chia mix, roast peanuts, wasabi peas, BLUE M&M, energy mix, neopolitan mix, gummy bears, banana chips, honey mustard pretzels, jolly ranchers.  Basically the same lineup as usual, but with the blue only M&Ms added, a rather amusing touch.

I went right for my favorites, which I've reviewed before, so I won't bore you with the details again, but, yes, honey mustard pretzels, Neapolitan mix, Chia ReCharged Stix Mix, and Dark Chocolate Energy Mix.  All were fabulous as always.  #stockup

Original Review, 2018 Visits

The Lounge is located in Terminal C, right near gate 19.  It accepts Priority Pass, and is accessible airside from Terminal E as well, although that terminal has several other larger lounge options (Air France and The Club).

I only cruised through quickly once when arriving in Boston, and once when outbound, but I was rather pleased with exactly two things: the clam chowder and the snack/candy bar!  Besides that though ... its a domestic lounge, and meets basic expectations.

Setting

The lounge isn't huge, but it was never that busy when I was there (3pm, 8pm).  I don't think they had showers.

Lounge Seating.

I never sat down, but the "comfortable" seating area was fairly sparse, and the chairs, although plush, didn't really look comfortable.

Dining Tables.

More space is dedicated to dining tables, all plastic and sterile feeling.

The flooring and some of the walls have a nice feel to them, but the furnishings really do not.

Bar.

Unlike many lounges, the bar is not self-serve, although it is also not really attended.  On both visits I needed to stand there for a while before someone came to assist.

Wine offerings are all lower end screw top bottles.

Coffee / Tea Station.

Coffee and tea are self serve, with brewed coffee, a robot machine, and T2 brand tea.

Buffet Area.

Food is self-serve, from a U shaped buffet area, with cold beverages below.

Cold non-alcoholic drinks are also self-serve, I was pleased that they had large bottles of sparkling water (Perrier).  They also have a shockingly large variety of canned fruit juices (like white grapefruit!)

Cuisine

All Day Menu.

A menu on the side lists the options, although it isn't exactly detailed, and sounds WAY better than it actually is.

Sections are "Farmer's Market Salads", "Harvest Bread Basket", "Bountiful Bowls", "Antipasto Bar", "Deli Delight", "Market Ripe", "The Pantry", "Sweet Street"

Details however are of the form: "Bountiful Bowls: a selection of seasonal and regional soups" ... which means, in reality, "clam chowder and creamy tomato soup".

"Market Ripe: seasonal berries and melons" were nowhere to be found.

Salad Bar ... er "Farmer's Market Salads" and "Antipasto Bar".

"Fresh select and regionally inspired salads and dressings."

"Pasta salads, marinated peppers, and a variety of Mediterranean, Spanish, and Kalamata olives."

Ok, lol.  These descriptions promised ... something more exciting than reality.  Reality was a pretty sad basic salad bar, with lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and croutons, plus simple balsamic viniagrette and ranch dressing.

I tried one pasta salad, it was ok, not mushy, but the dressing was quite oily.

Soup ("Bountiful Bowls"): Clam Chowder, Creamy Tomato.

"A selection of seasonal and regional soups."

Ok, I'll give them that clam chowder is a pretty Boston soup, so, "regional" isn't entirely off here.

It was also shockingly good.  Really creamy, well seasoned.  The clams were chewy, but the chowder really was perfect comfort food, and turned out to be exactly what I wanted when I landed in Boston late in the evening.  My companion also enjoyed it, opting to go back for a second bowl.

Another time I visited, I made a beeline for the soup station (not something I *ever* do, but I was so excited for clam chowder!), and alas, it was replaced with ... mac and cheese?  It wasn't the worst, it was creamy, and the pasta wasn't mushy, but, not what I wanted, and the cheese flavor wasn't particularly strong.

"Deli Delight".

The sandwich section came with its own menu, with full details of the 3 sandwich selections on offer: Chicken salad BLT (on 12 grain bread), Fresh mozzarella Caprese (on dinner roll), and Cubanelle Tuna (wrap).

Sandwiches ("Deli Delight") and Brownies ("Sweet Street").

I didn't try these deli delights, nor the pita (?) bread next to them.

"A broad array of hand crafted cookies, brownies, and fruit bars."

So, uh, about that "broad array" of sweets.  They had the same little brownies both times I visited, which I did not try.

Snacks & Candy ("The Pantry").

"Fruit and granola bars, dried fruit and trail mix, mini cookies, fresh whole fruit."

In this section however, the lounge really delivered!  "Dried fruit and trail mix" turned out to be mean awesome snack mixes and jars full of candy!  

This was actually quite awesome.  The snacks all come from  trulygoodfoods.com, and I tried ... basically all of them, since I love snacks!

The lineup on my first visit was 9 jars, featuring: jelly beans, gummy bears, m&ms, roasted edamame, banana chips, mustard pretzels, neopolitan mix, energy mix, honey roasted peanuts.  When I visited a week later, the jelly beans and energy mix were absent.  I didn't care about the jelly beans (Jelly Belly brand), but, I really wanted that Energy Mix again!

Mustard Pretzels.

"A crunchy pretzel with a delicious, tangy mustard seasoning. A great anytime snack."

I loved the savory pretzels when I visited when I landed in Boston, perfect after a long flight.  Nice seasoning, good flavor, so salty, and apparently, what I was craving.  I didn't like them quite as much when I was leaving Boston, but, they were still flavorful and good.

Honey Roasted Peanuts

"Good luck trying to eat just one of these salty snacks covered in a sweet honey coating. It’s a crunchy treat that is always a crowd favorite."

The honey roasted peanuts were well coated, sweet, enjoyable, a nice sweet compliment to my salty pretzels.  Addicting.

Neapolitan Mix

"Like the classic ice cream flavor, you get the best of all worlds. Neapolitan Mix tastes like your favorite chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavors.  The snack mix consists of yogurt pretzels balls, strawberry yogurt raisins and chocolate brownie bites."

The Neapolitan mix was a pleasant surprise, as the white things were not yogurt covered raisins or peanuts, but rather ... pretzels!  I loved them, crunchy inside and creamy coating, although not particularly "vanilla" flavored.

The brown ones were *also* not just peanuts or raisins, but instead, chocolate covered brownie bites!  They were awesome combined with the pretzels.

The pink ones however were yogurt covered raisins, and they did not taste like strawberry as promised. Meh to those.  Overall though, a winner, and I found it way too easy to devour handfuls of the non-raisins.

Dark Chocolate Energy Boost ---> Chia ReCharged Stix Mix.

"Chia is one of the hottest superfoods right now and this mix is a tasty way to get the health benefits.  Chia ReCharged Stix Mix™ is part of our ReCharge® line of natural snack mixes that contain antioxidant benefits. It’s a savory and sweet mix with chia sticks, cranberries, roasted and salted almonds, dark chocolate chunks, yogurt raisins, low sugar, no sulfur pineapple and white cocoa chips."

This was actually pretty good (although mislabeled), the almonds nicely roasted and salted, the chia sticks crunchy and also quite salty, the pineapple sweet with a nice chew, and I loved that the little white chips were white chocolate, not yogurt!  Not a bad blend, really.

I was sad this was not there my second visit, but the next time, they had not one, but two jars of it.