Tortas Frontera Offers Some of the Best Eats at Chicago O’Hare International Airport

by Anthony Losanno
Tortas Frontera

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Celebrity Chef Rick Bayless is known for his modern interpretations of traditional Mexican cuisine. His flagship restaurant, Frontera Grill and Michelin-starred Topolobampo have been highly praised since they opened in Chicago (in the late 1980s). In 2011, Bayless opened the first location of one of my favorite airport eateries, Tortas Frontera. There are now three locations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Terminals 1, 3, and 5. On Friday night, we grabbed some delicious tortas before our flight.

Tortas Frontera Kiosk

For years (even before I lived in Chicago), I used to look forward to traveling to or through O’Hare so that I could grab one of these delicious sandwiches. Orders are placed by cashier or kiosk. I used the kiosk in Terminal 3 to place my order.

Tortas Frontera 1

The kitchen is open and you can watch your sandwich or customized guacamole made fresh.

Tortas Frontera 2

Many of the ingredients are locally sourced. A board tells diners where their food is coming from (with many items coming from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa).

Tortas Frontera 3

I like being able to see my food prepared and watched as the cooks quickly cranked out meals.

Tortas Frontera 5

This trip, I had the Crispy Chicken Milanesa. It had breaded chicken, Napa Cabbage, pickled jalapeños, Cotija cheese, avocado-tomatillo salsa, and cilantro crema. Tasty as always.

Tortas Frontera 4

There is also a bar at the far end for margaritas, beer, and more.

Anthony’s Take: Tortas Frontera offers some of the best quick meals at O’Hare and arguably any airport in the US. I’ll definitely be back for more.

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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.

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