The problem with some of the comments here has to do with underlying assumptions and preferences. What does "crap food" mean? What does "OMG they charge for some alcohol" mean vis-a-vis praise for the big three lounges?

The free house red wine in the Admiral's club - the "admiral's club special" as I call it - is like drinking motor oil. I almost just can't even be bothered with it, it has gotten so bad. Meanwhile, the AS PDX lounge has several free local red wines from the Northwest to choose from. The selection or brand of red wine does not seem to be consistent across the AS lounges, but I rather like that variety. Want free beer in the admiral's club? You get Bud light or some crap like that. Meanwhile, AS at least gives you a little higher quality free beer to choose from. And I kinda like the strictly enforced "no tipping" in the AS lounges at the bars/windows where you get alcohol.

What about that supposed "crap" AS food? Well, I can hardly stand to eat anything in the Admirals club lounges anymore. American Airline's club food looks like and tastes like crap to me. Aside from the seasonal offering of the green chile soup, the variety of items is very very limited. They've made some recent reforms slightly improving things, but it's still crap to me. Contrast this to AS, where even after breakfast, you can still get a yogurt if you like (in the PDX lounge). Heck, usually you can still get pancakes. You can get a healthy salad in the AS lounge, and put all manner of toppings on it. You can get 4 different kinds of cookies - pre-packaged, yes, but better than that fake pretend-baked crap that American serves.... AS has animal cracker cookies, lemon cookies, ginger snap cookies, chocolate chip cookies. And lets talk about pretzels. There are no pretzels so to speak in the Admirals club... just some kinda gross snack mixes.

And here is the final kicker, I've gotten sick (digestive issues!) several times eating food at the admirals' club..... which has made me even more wary of their food. Never happened at AS.

I will say that United has somewhat decent food in their lounges, and some lounges have better wine selections, but the free food / wine at United lounges is not blowing away AS.

But again, to get back to my original point, these are just my own food preferences (regarding my preferences for the food in the AS lounge compared to AA or UA). My spouse likes the AA lounge food better, but that is because my spouse is not interested in eating salad or pancakes, etc. At any rate, I don't see where there is such a huge contrast in quality to justify some of the comments made on this page regarding AS lounge food and drinks. I mean, these basic airline lounges (aside from the Centurion lounge or super uber flagship premium lounges) are what they are.

The one spot lacking in the AS lounges (perhaps only as it relates to the PDX lounge and the LAX lounge) is that the furniture and furniture accouterments are dated. The PDX lounge needs some new furniture (badly worn leather chairs). But, the new Seattle lounge is great (and though I haven't been to JFK, it looks really nice too). I've been to ANC, and I absolutely loved the fireplace and the view of the runway. And at $295 for my AS boardroom lounge membership (with access to a host of other lounges), well, you can't beat that price. And as for service? I've found UA lounge personnel to be quite rude sometimes. Admirals club employees are usually generally nice, but not as nice and service-oriented as AS lounges.

But, again, to just say that the AS club has "crap" food and that the big 3 are so much better is like trying to claim that vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate ice cream or vice versa. It's a bit disingenuous, because it's a matter of peoples' preferences. It's a fruitless discussion in terms of the current state of food/drink options at all the major airline lounges. The main differences I think are just the sizes of the AS lounges (on the whole they are smaller), their inability to really help you with your tickets and irregular operations in the same way that Admiral's club employees can, and their lack of having showers - though not all big 3 lounges have showers at their locations.