Inside San Francisco’s Expanded Centurion Lounge (Now Double Its Former Size)

Update: Due to the ongoing renovation of Terminal 3 at San Francisco International Airport, the permanent Centurion Lounge location has temporarily closed. Starting June 15, 2025, a temporary location will open near Gate D12 in Terminal 2, which we've also reviewed (with photos). The permanent location is expected to reopen in 2027.

San Francisco’s American Express Centurion Lounge underwent a huge renovation and expansion in late 2022 that brough it to 16,000 square feet, which is nearly double its former size.

Whereas the old SFO AmEx lounge used to consist of two living room-type areas plus a large dining area next to the buffet, the recent renovation offers far more places to eat, drink and lounge — most notably, there are two bars and two buffets. Restrooms are larger, and there are even a few private phone rooms.

The SFO Centurion lounge is located in Terminal 3 on the airport’s mezzanine level. Though it’s accessible to travelers departing from other terminals (and the airport is fully-connected post-security), it can be a long hike to other terminals.

Particularly if you're flying out of International Terminal A or Harvey Milk Terminal 1 (on the opposite side of the airport), budget 20-30 minutes to get to your gate from this lounge.

American Express invited me in for a tour, which transpired on a Wednesday in January 2023 around the middle of the day. Here’s what you’ll find inside the Centurion Lounge at SFO, starting with the best part: the food.

It’s not just me who prioritizes lounge food — basically, everyone else does, too. In a November 2022 AmEx Trendex survey of 2,000 travelers, 64% of respondents said that premium food and beverages are their favorite parts of airport lounges.

» Learn more: Everything to know about AmEx Centurion Lounges

Buffets

The SFO Centurion Lounge menu at this buffet is designed by Ravi Kapur, the Executive Chef at Liholiho Yacht Club, a popular restaurant in San Francisco. Dishes are a fusion of flavors inspired by Kapur’s lineage (Kapur, born in Hawaii, has a Hawaiian-Chinese mother and his father is from India). 

The first of the lounge’s two buffets is located in the same spot as the original. It’s mostly the same aside from a few minor changes, such as a new backsplash.

This buffet serves hearty food that feels relatively healthy, creative and fresh — a nice mix from stereotypical airport food.

Menu items in this section of the San Francisco Centurion Lounge include:

• Gochujang-marinated chicken thighs.

• Baby carrots cooked with black vinegar, honey and sesame seeds.

• Roasted red cabbage and wild rice with golden raisins, dill and mint.

• Roasted garnet yams in miso-honey butter.

There’s also a salad bar that’s a step up from generic greens and croutons. The variety of self-serve toppings includes broccoli and cauliflower, making it far easier to eat healthy while traveling.

New to the main buffet is a center island devoted entirely to desserts, including cookies and mango panna cotta.

Meanwhile, the second buffet leans toward bar bites. Venture across a long walkway and you’ll be greeted by a buffet with menu items that are completely different from the others.

The second buffet menu includes options like:

• Butternut squash flatbread with goat cheese, citrus, pepitas and mint.

• Turmeric chicken skewers.

• Roasted tofu and pineapple.

It all adds up to excellent protein options for vegans and carnivores alike.

There’s also a charcuterie area with a variety of cheeses, prosciutto, salami, pita chips, olives and hummus.

Bars

Upon entering the lounge, the bar is likely the first thing you’ll see. The bar menu centers around specialty wine flights highlighting four regional wines curated by Anthony Giglio, a sommelier and author.

The bar is a fixture from the original lounge, but it got some updates, including an area that’s wheelchair accessible.

There’s also a wine wall with seasonal wines from across California, a holdover from the original incarnation of the lounge.

Then, there’s an entirely new bar in the back room, which is much bigger relative to the original bar.

Coffee and nonalcoholic options

Nonalcoholic choices can be found at a self-serve bar with hot chocolate, teas and flavored water.

The espresso machine is fairly standard.

Design

Inside are two custom floor-to-ceiling wallcoverings by abstract artist Tracie Cheng.

Some design styles that were hot in 2014 have been refreshed for the new decade. Neon green pops of color have been replaced with muted, darker tones. American Express said the new interior design “takes cues from the local vineyards, landscape and the iconic San Francisco fog to give guests a sense of relaxation.”

Seating areas

With the lounge expansion comes more seating options. An entirely new, living room area has dozens more seats, with arrangements including couches, plush swivel chairs and booths.

Work spaces

On a practical level, there’s plenty of power outlets, including some built directly into tables to cut back on rogue cords everywhere.

Bathrooms

The bathroom area has been massively expanded with more stalls. In the past, wait times for the loo were common. The new bathrooms offer pleasant touches like elegant tiling and L'Occitane amenities.

There’s also now an all-gender restroom and shower room.

Other upgrades include a custom baby-changing table, an improvement over the generic plastic one.

Getting into the lounge is exclusive enough, but two specific seating areas are even more exclusive — reserved for Centurion members only. Centurion membership is for the most elite AmEx customers, and it’s invitation only.

Public details on Centurion membership are minimal, but rumor has it that the annual fee costs many thousands of dollars, and benefits include an Equinox gym membership and a personal concierge. It also includes perks like automatic elite status in a handful of travel programs. One example is Hilton Honors Diamond elite status, which includes bonus points, a daily food and beverage credit, room upgrades (if available) and executive lounge access.

I only saw one guest enter one of the Centurion member-only areas during my hourlong visit. Though, a staff member said that the SFO Centurion Lounge, alongside Las Vegas and Hong Kong lounges, gets the highest Centurion member traffic. She estimated about three dozen Centurion members visit SFO’s lounge each day.

I set foot in the lounge around 11 a.m., and it felt semi-crowded. There was seating for everyone, but you couldn’t be choosy. The cozy nook seating with built-in power outlets got snapped up quickly — but bar seating on tall, firm stools was aplenty.

Lunch items hit the buffet at 11:15 a.m. sharp — upon which people swarmed the steaming platters. But by noon, crowds had largely subsided, presumably aligned with flight schedules.

My visit coincided with the bizarre Federal Aviation Administration outage that halted flights nationwide and led to thousands of cascading delays and cancellations, so crowds might have been heavier than usual as lingering guests waited for disrupted flights.

Noise levels were appropriately energetic. It was far too loud to hear crickets (of which there were none in the highly-sanitized environment), but also struck the balance of “loud enough that no one else would eavesdrop on my conversation” and “I can think and hear my own thoughts.”

Though, it’s not the only lounge at SFO.

Many travelers argue that SFO’s Delta Sky Club is actually superior.

And don't overlook the Priority Pass network. San Francisco’s Priority Pass lounges are generally inferior in quality to the Centurion Lounge, but there’s one big reason why they might win: cardholders can bring one guest into the lounge at no charge.

But for folks not flying on Delta or who are flying solo, it’s hard to argue why it wouldn’t be worth making a stop in.

The question for most is whether holding one of those high-annual-fee, access-granting cards is worth it. For frequent flyers who would otherwise pay for airport refreshments, it very likely is.

To quote Amanda Ling in “Crazy Rich Asians,” “No one loves free stuff more than rich people.” And for what it’s worth, the free food, drinks and blissful respite of the AmEx Centurion lounge at SFO is tough not to love.

People go gaga for airport lounge access, and before the expansion, many were willing to wait in long lines for the privilege of getting inside. Many folks intentionally arrive early and camp out in the lounge on their laptops, as the work environment tops any cubicle.

It’s easy to see why. Food quality is likely the best you’ll find anywhere in the airport. The abundance of outlets saves you from hunting for one within the main terminal, and you won’t have to cram your bag into a dirty restroom stall.

Now that the lounge is larger, the odds of a waitlist are significantly reduced, which makes a visit hard to pass up.