California - SAN airport question

I'm going to be flying in to SAN this summer for work reasons and my flight will be arriving about an hour before another co worker's who asked me to wait for her. Since it will be a long flight and i'll probably be hungry, i was wondering if i can go to baggage claim and pick up my bags and return to the main terminal to eat, or will i have to re clear security? From looking at the terminal maps at the SAN website it is not immediately clear.
Thanks!

There are several fast food type restaurants located not far from the baggage claim area in Terminal 1. You shouldn't have to go back through security to eat unless you want to do that.

I guess i should have mentioned ill be arriving into T2. :p

Yes, you can do this in T2. Bag claim is at street level, and the food is up on a mezzanine, by the security line for AA & NW.

However, the food choice isn't the greatest - a handful of fast food places - McDonalds, a Mexican and (IIRC) a sub place plus a couple of others. The Mexican is reasonable.

If your friend is arriving on AA or NW they can come out of security right by the food court. If on CO and the other airlines at the other end they'll have a bit of a walk to meet you (though the 2 halves of the terminal are connected, so you can walk across and go out of the exit by the food court).

OTOH, there's really no reason why you couldn't stay and eat airside and then get your bags - unless you are worried about your bags being stolen. Personally, I'd stay airside to eat - there's a CPK over at the CO end, and a bar that does OK food at the AA end.

OTOH, there's really no reason why you couldn't stay and eat airside and then get your bags - unless you are worried about your bags being stolen. Personally, I'd stay airside to eat - there's a CPK over at the CO end, and a bar that does OK food at the AA end.

Not a bad idea, especially since SAN seems to be on the slower end of things when it comes to getting bags out onto the carousel.

Thanks, this info helps a lot.We will both be coming in on CO, so i may just do that. I've eaten at CPK's before so i can handle that.
I was concerned about my bags getting lifted, which was why i was going to go there first.How slow are we talking here? I guess it will be busy in SD that week, its the week of the San Diego Comic-Con.

If it were me, I'd eat landside. I agree that the landside dining choices aren't all that robust, but my experience has been that baggage doesn't take all that long to come out. Maybe 15 minutes tops. I've certainly waited much, much longer domestically.

I have only checked bags with AA coming into terminal 2 though; I haven't flown in on CO so perhaps their process is slower getting bags out to baggage claim.

T2 bags seem to be much better in general than bags coming out at T1. The La Salsa Mexican fast food isn't bad on the upper level of T2 landside.