SFO United Polaris Lounge

Hallelujah! The SFO Polaris lounge is once again open. This is one of my favorite airport lounges in the world.

The United Polaris Lounge is located to the right after you go through security in the International Terminal. Show your boarding pass and enter the 28,120 sf lounge. A first or business class ticket on any Star Alliance long-haul flight gets you access. Hours are 6:30am to 1am.

The upstairs is the main dining area. There's a buffet area where you can get cold & hot food. There were the usual salads, fruit, cold cuts, sandwiches, grilled vegetables, cheese and desserts (chocolate chip cookies). Today's hot foods included lentil curry soup and mojo marinated chicken thigh.

The Polaris Lounge has a sit-down restaurant where there is table service. It's a small section. I recommend going as soon as you arrive--we arrived at 11 am on a Tuesday and there was a 50 minute wait to get a table. Once seated, we were served quickly and done in 30 minutes.

Roasted Corn Chowder--tasty but nothing too exciting.

Cheese Plate--Point Reyes blue cheese with fig jam. The fig jam was very good.

Seafood Coppiono--this was a small portion. It had a thick tomato base that was very tasty. Mussels, shrimp and cod were the seafood. On the bottom were a few haricot vert.

Polaris Signature Burger. I was not impressed--the beef short rib patty was cooked well done (despite asking for it medium rare) and it was dry. It would have been better with an aioli. It came with wedge potatoes and a pickle.

The desserts were the highlight of the meal. We ordered one of each of the desserts. Warm Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. This was my 2nd favorite of the 3 desserts. The cookie was moist and the ice cream was very good.

Olive Oil Chocolate Cake--very moist and my favorite dessert. It was a small serving--literally4 bites.

Thai lime budino. This had a good taste--key lime in flavor, but it was grainy.

Order a cocktail or glass of wine with your meal. You can also order at the large bar. I had a Virgin Bloody Mary, which was the best I have ever had. It had a good dose of horseradish and huge olives.

The lounge is divided into multiple areas. While the dining section was quite busy, the rest of the lounge was quiet. There are individual seats where you can work.

Restrooms are individual rooms and cleaned after each use, which was nice during Covid.

On the lower level, there are quiet cubicles where you can take a nap. There's a pillow but I didn't see any blankets.

Showers are also available.

I miss the self-serve snacks throughout the lounge. The Polaris Lounge is run by a new concessionaire and the manager said that United is promoting healthy snacks. The new snacks weren't available yet. I miss the wasabi peas and gummy bears.

If you have access to the Polaris Lounge, it's definitely worth it to get to the airport early just to enjoy the amenities. The food was amazing and all FREE! Not to mention the free cocktails, wine and beer. Just leave a tip in the Dining Room and bar.

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