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Eating at Gatwick in one minute
The geography does most of the deciding. Nearly all of Gatwick's restaurants sit after security, in the departure lounges, so the practical rule is to clear the checkpoint first and treat the airside floor as the restaurant quarter; landside is a handful of sit-down venues and the grab-and-go basics. Both terminals cover the full spread airside, from coffee counters and quick food to table service and pubs, and each keeps a Wetherspoon: the Red Lion at North, the Flying Horse at South. What Gatwick does not have is the fast-food giants; the current directory lists no McDonald's, Burger King or KFC anywhere on the airport, so the burger is Shake Shack and the chicken is Nando's.
Prices run closer to the high street than airport folklore suggests, with the pubs and coffee chains near normal rates and a markup mostly on table-service mains. The names below are the durable picture; the airport's live food and drink directory carries this week's hours and menus, and the two terminal pages on this site walk every venue in detail.
At the North Terminal
North is the breakfast-and-burgers side. Airside it runs The Breakfast Club for pancakes and full Englishes from 03:30, Shake Shack, wagamama, Tortilla, Pure and Sonoma for meals fast and slow, Juniper & Co as the gin-led bar-kitchen, BrewDog with 20 craft taps and a games zone, and the Red Lion pub from about 03:00, with Krispy Kreme, Black Sheep Coffee and Pret on the counters. Landside is deliberately thin: Sussex House, the local-produce restaurant on the check-in side, serves 04:00 to 23:00, backed by a 24-hour Pret and M&S Simply Food in arrivals.
The full walk-through, venue by venue with the peak-hour tactics and the family detail, is in the North Terminal restaurants guide. Flying from this side and short on time, the shape to remember is: three doors (Breakfast Club, Juniper & Co, Red Lion) open earliest and stay open to the last flights, and everything else runs roughly 04:00 to 20:30.
At the South Terminal
South has the wider quick-food tier and the airport's only Nando's. Airside: wagamama, PizzaExpress and Wondertree for sit-down meals, itsu, Joe & The Juice, GAIL's and Pret for the fast-and-good tier, then three drinking-led doors in the Flying Horse, Big Smoke (the Surrey brewer's taproom) and the English-wine-led South Downs Bar. Landside is the strongest at the airport, because the railway station keeps this terminal awake: The Beehive and Giraffe serve 04:00 to 23:00, and Caffè Nero, Black Sheep Coffee, Greggs, Pret and the M&S run around the clock in and before arrivals.
The venue-by-venue version, including the 03:00 openers and the Bloc hotel discounts, is in the South Terminal restaurants guide. The one-line summary: eat airside for choice, but South is the terminal where being landside, early, late or not flying at all still gets you fed properly.
Hours, the banks and the 24-hour list
Food hours follow the flight schedule. The first airside doors open at 03:00 to 03:30 for the earliest departures, the whole floor is trading by 04:00, and most venues close with the shops, around 20:30 at North and 21:00 at South. Each terminal then keeps three venues running to the last flights (Breakfast Club, Juniper & Co and the Red Lion at North; Big Smoke, the Flying Horse and Wondertree at South), so a late departure always has somewhere, just not everywhere. The pressure point is the other end of the day: the 04:30 to 08:00 short-haul banks fill the sit-down floors in the holidays, so on an early flight either order promptly or use the counters, which clear queues far faster.
Around the clock, the list is landside: both arrivals areas keep a 24-hour Pret and M&S Simply Food, and South adds Caffè Nero, Black Sheep Coffee and Greggs, which is why the overnight crowd gathers on that side of the airport; the sleeping at Gatwick guide covers that whole scenario. Families get the same kit at both terminals, kids' menus, highchairs, bottle warming and power at the tables, with the specifics in the travelling with children guide.
Lounges, shops and duty free
The departure lounge sells more than meals, and two of the alternatives change the eating maths. A lounge replaces buying food piecemeal with one fixed price: entry starts around £34 to £46 depending on the room, food and bar included for a standard three-hour stay, which can undercut a family's table-service bill outright; the lounge guide compares every room at both terminals. And the same airside floor carries the retail: the shops directory lists everything from Boots and WHSmith to Harrods and LEGO, and the duty free guide explains what the walk-through World Duty Free store genuinely saves and the 10% Reserve & Collect discount for ordering ahead.
If you are still deciding where any of this happens, the terminal lookup settles which building your airline uses, and each terminal's own guide covers the full picture around the food, from check-in zones to gates. This page and its two terminal listings stay current with the airport's directory; when a venue changes, the listings change with it.