Which Airlines Have the Best In-Flight Food?

[Sprucegoose]

Good point. I'm yet to find a decent breakfast in Y, on any airline for that matter. Doesn't help when I don't like milk, so cereal is a chore.

Qantas have a simple Bircher Muesli that is both light and filling, good call by them I say.

I remember when you used to get toast........

 

[JessicaTam]

With my limited overseas carrier experience I would still rate TK tops.
Worst was a Y SQ meal (followed by the next SQ meal which was great)!

I think choosing the vego option does test the airline (contract) kitchen.

 

[amaroo]

Our best & also most memorable meal was our first J flight QF SYD-LAX back in 1998. The meal seemed to go on for hours with course after course of yummy food.

Maybe it was because it was our first LH flight in J......

 

[Noob]

The issue with such articles is they just represent one person's opinion based on the airlines they fly. It also isn't known how often they fly, or how long ago they actually took the flight. Airlines are always changing their in flight food offerings e.g. VS recently upgrading their in-flight catering which wouldn't be taken account in the case where the author's opinion is based on a flight over a year ago.

 

[Sprucegoose]

With my limited overseas carrier experience I would still rate TK tops.
Worst was a Y SQ meal (followed by the next SQ meal which was great)!

I think choosing the vego option does test the airline (contract) kitchen.

I am not a vego, but used to eat vego on LH F flights, agrees with me more, less digestion and interruptions.......

 

[JessicaTam]

I am not a vego, but used to eat vego on LH F flights, agrees with me more, less digestion and interruptions.......

I like the early service a special meal provides, but the variety can be a bit hit and miss.

 

[Shelf]

I agree with Jessica's comments!

 

[Baysider]

My vote is CX in J.

I've found the most reliable "special meal" selection in Y to be Indian Vegetarian - never had a bad one.

 

[anat0l]

The issue with such articles is they just represent one person's opinion based on the airlines they fly. It also isn't known how often they fly, or how long ago they actually took the flight. Airlines are always changing their in flight food offerings e.g. VS recently upgrading their in-flight catering which wouldn't be taken account in the case where the author's opinion is based on a flight over a year ago.

The fact that it is one's view is not really much concern - what is bigger concern is that there is no basis of comparison presented.

It's like saying 30 degrees Celcius is a hot temperature. Why? 30 degrees on a humid day probably would be quite warm. On the other hand, 30 degrees being your core body temperature is fatally cool!


I've never ordered a special meal before, but I do feel sorry for those who need to out of necessity as almost all of them time they are not getting anything satisfying.

 

[Mal Ware]

Thinking about it Ansett Domestic wasn't too bad either.

Best meal I ever had on a flight was on a Ansett Domestic J flight from Alice Springs to Brisbane.

The food and service were devine.

How I miss Ansett. (Sigh)

 

[Mattg]

One of the nicest meals I ever had in Y was the pork and fettucine supper on Vietnam Airlines. Unfortunately this was followed by a very ordinary breakfast...

 

[Sprucegoose]

Best meal I ever had on a flight was on a Ansett Domestic J flight from Alice Springs to Brisbane.

The food and service were devine.

How I miss Ansett. (Sigh)

Please dont start...

 

[Mal]

The shocking meal I had on scoot is by far the worst I have endured.

Even BA with their flatulence inducing egg sandwiches were better.

Kudos does go to Cathay years ago. I used to love the trolley in j where they plated food at your seat.

These days it is difficult to choose. Qantas does have ok catering but in premium cabins IMHO emirates is better.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[tuapekastar]

As an overall meal experience, the QF F degustation menu ex-MEL is hard to go past.

For particular courses, DJ is responsible for the best and worst I can recall (both posted somewhere else on this board in the past)

Best: Zucchini, basil and parmesan soup entree in J transcon - quite the tastiest soup I can recall.
.
Worst: A snapper main, also on DJ transcon in J, almost unrecognisable as fish, and as tough as old boots

And for nostalgia, roast beef carved on the trolley in front of me to order, in F on a QF 707 (Good BTW)

 

[Berlin]

Funny how most airlines manage to give you a really remarkable meal the one day and then a shocker the other... Thai has always been good with this, both in Y and J- you never know what to expect. SQ, EK and QF (yes!) have been pretty consistently been at least "acceptable" if not excellent, again both in Y and J though I can very well imagine that I've just been lucky.

Saying all that- as much as I love good food, I also have a soft spot for the real classic Y airline meal, particularly the hot breakfast. Not many things on my plate make me more excited than a half-edible pale-colored egg "thingy" with an uncooked "chicken sausage" and some soggy "hashbrown" triangle Unfortunately, this type of meal seems to be mostly gone these days and replaced by a "cold option" which is a shame. One of the "best" classic Y breakfasts I got lately has been on British Airways, even included a truly coughpy egg-thingy. On inner-European J that was though! :shock:

Which reminds me of the worst food I've ever had on an airplane- actually just a year ago: Air Pacific managed to take the Y breakfast delight to new highs: It was a kind of pre-made Egg Mc Muffin in a plastic wrapper, the bun entirely hard like a rock, inside an extremely smelly pattie of some sort of meat (better don't even think about what kind of "meat" it might have been) with some type of not very pleasant tasting paste in between. It was one of the grossest thing I've ever eaten!

 

[JohnK]

Interesting question.

None of my airline meals have been memorable so it would be difficult to remember the best. Most times the meal is passable and would not consider it gourmet in any way.

As a general rule my preference is lamb/beef/pork then prawn/mussles then chicken then pasta and lastly fish.

I try to avoid any meal where half the plate/dish is boiled rice or curry. Most times this is possible except a CX flight recently where they had 2 rice options and I cannot remember the third but it was not for me.

BA has really nice breakfasts. I like a full English breakfast. I don't like cereal and do not eat it. So any airline with egg type breakfasts is going to get my vote.

For dinner I would say QF is quite OK as I know most times I will get some sort of steak option. The Asian carriers are OK but their main focus is on rice/curry meals which are not my favourites. I can boil rice just as good as the best of them.

CX has some really nice desserts and I have been known to have more than one.

Economy meals. I think best left alone....

 

[Major]

I flew BNE-SIN on Thursday with EY and had the best J meal ever. The experience started with a glass of Mumm (also had one prior to departure) and a bowl of warm nuts. Entre for me was a salmon terrine and oven roasted eggplant/capsicum/zucchini. A small multigrain breadroll with an olive oil dip.

I chose the lamb dish so moved to a 2006 Bordeaux. This dish turned out to be a whole lamb shank cooked to perfection. It was moist, not fatty or covered in a glutinous sauce but fell off the bone. There was a slightly minted sauce on the side with beans and aubergine. My glass was never empty and topped up without having to ask.

For dessert I decided on the ice cream rather than the chocolate thingy. This was helped with a superb Sauterne.

I couldn't handle the cheese platter so just had another glass of Sauterne

All in all it was great food and the service was outstanding. One of my best flights