I sort of enjoy arriving a bit early to airports more than I used to... I used to arrive early as I hated the feeling of possibly missing a flight (I have actually missed one...), but these days, I also have a nice perk from the Crypto.com VISA debit card that gives me a Loungekey pass. And that means that I have an allowance of 36 AUD to spend at any participating food outlet at the airport.

Now, in the larger airports, it can be a bit of a pain in the arse to actually find the participating places... and the lounges aren't the nice ones anyway. But in the smaller airport of Canberra the three participating places are quite close to each other (and the airport isn't large...).

I had already tried one of them... and I thought it would be a great chance to try another different one this time. Noodles XO is a place that is a little bit further away from the security gate... but as I already mentioned, nothing is really that far away in the Canberra airport!

The Space

There is a nice amount of seating at the restaurant... and as I was walking up to it, it seemed like it was going to be just pre-cooked bistro food... however, when I got closer, I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually was likely to be much better than that!

The Menu

The menu was a bit a wide variety of Asian food from a wide variety of different countries... normally, that would be a red flag as to the quality... but, in an airport, you are a bit of a captive audience. Plus, I really wanted to try it out... it was either this, or the brewery. And I'm not that keen on drinking in the daytime and definitely not before a flight.

The Food

In the end, I settled on a Salmon Soba salad. I've been wanting to try the cold Soba noodles for ages now... and I was keen for a light meal instead of something heavier. When I'm travelling, I really do like to eat light.

Wow, this was really quite something! It was expensive (but I didn't have to pay for it...), but so worth it! Just the right size for a travelling lunch and with nice fresh tasting ingredients... just the spot for a humid and warm day. The only thing that I wasn't so keen on were the roasted seaweed wafers... they could have been baked to a crisp instead of just coming out of a packet.

... and a housemade Raspberry Ice Tea! There were also Peach and Lychee options... and well, I'm just saying that I will have to learn how to make my own ice teas! We do have a large glass container for exactly this at home... I've run out of excuses, this is perfect for a warm summer day!

The Experience

I had misgivings when I saw that this was a mixed Asian food place.. but actually, now, I think I do prefer this Noodles XO over the place that I was going to beforehand (which was more of a typical cafe sort of place). The only down side is that it didn't serve coffee... but the ice-tea was a great alternative, and I'm keen to try out the different types of noodle dishes on offer in future airport visits!

Opening Times

Monday 7 am–8 pm
Tuesday 7 am–8 pm
Wednesday 7 am–8 pm
Thursday 7 am–8 pm
Friday 7 am–8 pm
Saturday 7 am–4 pm
Sunday 7 am–8 pm

Contact Details

Address: Canberra Airport Terminal 2 Canberra Airport, ACT 2609
Phone: (02) 6190 1652