Dining advice - vegetarian strategy in J class flights

[SBD]

Hi all,

I'm booked SQ 266 BNE-SIN, then SQ24 SIN-JFK, in J for both flights.

There's only one vegetarian book the cook option on SQ24 out of Singapore, and I've booked it.

No vegetarian BTC options are available on SQ266, and I expect at least another meal/snack during 18 hours on SQ24.

Am I better off taking my chances on board with the menu options, or booking generic vegetarian special meals?

Grateful for advice/experiences.

Thank you,

SBD

 

[FL360]

If I am you I will book ahead, and when onboard talk to the FAs and see if their J default vege meals could be better, Y/J default meals nowadays will almost always have a vege option. You can then inspect and see if you like it or not.

 

[anat0l]

You can view the onboard menus of upcoming flights from SQ's website: Singapore Airlines - In-flight Menu

You can see if there are any options that are suitable for you, or whether you may need to order ahead. As far as I can tell, these menus rarely change (unless you have some weird event like Finnair / Helsinki strikes which cooks the schedule, pun intended).

It doesn't go very far ahead if your flight is ages away, so maybe it can only give you a guide.

If you do go with just what's on board, it might be an idea to see if you can kindly ask a FA in advance to save a particular option from the menu for you due to your dietary condition.

EDIT: I've just looked up a SQ266 J menu about a week from now. Quite surprised there is absolutely no vegetarian dishes on it at all, except for desserts. I've flown SQ before but never occurred to me that they may not have any vegetarian options at all on the standard menu, cf. QF which always seems to try and include one.

Same thing looking up a SQ24 menu - everything is not suitable for vegetarians except for desserts, bakery, chocolates, vegetarian noodle soup light meal and assorted ambient snacks.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi all,

I'm booked SQ 266 BNE-SIN, then SQ24 SIN-JFK, in J for both flights.

There's only one vegetarian book the cook option on SQ24 out of Singapore, and I've booked it.

No vegetarian BTC options are available on SQ266, and I expect at least another meal/snack during 18 hours on SQ24.

Am I better off taking my chances on board with the menu options, or booking generic vegetarian special meals?

Grateful for advice/experiences.

Thank you,

SBD

There are at least 4 ‘meatless’ options for BTC ex Singapore.

Having a look at the menus as suggested by anat0l is a good idea. You can search up 8 days from today’s date, but it will give you an idea of the sorts of options available, even if it’s too early for your flight.

The main issue with SQ is that the appetizer/entree is almost always seafood. No escaping that. And of course the satay is meat. So that really only leaves you the mains, and maybe one choice on that.

SQ can be very painful with their vegetarian meals. You may not be offered things like the bead basket, instead being stuck with a wholemeal roll. Dessert may just be a piece of fruit. On a couple of flights I chose vegetarian I was given a banana, and a request for cheese and ice-cream was refused. When pressed, the FA had to consult with the cabin manager, who then had to come and ‘discuss’ with me that cheese could contain animal products, and so could the ice cream (etc etc).

That’s great if you’re bordering on vegan, but for me I just didn’t want to eat fish!

These days I tend to stick with book the book, skip the seafood entree, and then enjoy the satay, breads, cheeses etc.

It depends on how strict a vegetarian you are, and whether you’re more vegan or lack-ovo.

 

[SBD]

You can view the onboard menus of upcoming flights from SQ's website: Singapore Airlines - In-flight Menu

You can see if there are any options that are suitable for you, or whether you may need to order ahead. As far as I can tell, these menus rarely change (unless you have some weird event like Finnair / Helsinki strikes which cooks the schedule, pun intended).

It doesn't go very far ahead if your flight is ages away, so maybe it can only give you a guide.

If you do go with just what's on board, it might be an idea to see if you can kindly ask a FA in advance to save a particular option from the menu for you due to your dietary condition.

EDIT: I've just looked up a SQ266 J menu about a week from now. Quite surprised there is absolutely no vegetarian dishes on it at all, except for desserts. I've flown SQ before but never occurred to me that they may not have any vegetarian options at all on the standard menu, cf. QF which always seems to try and include one.

Same thing looking up a SQ24 menu - everything is not suitable for vegetarians except for desserts, bakery, chocolates, vegetarian noodle soup light meal and assorted ambient snacks.

Yep, I was similarly surprised. I won't starve, but it's a low-end frustration given how much they spruik their meals. SBD

Post automatically merged: May 8, 2025

There are at least 4 ‘meatless’ options for BTC ex Singapore.

Having a look at the menus as suggested by anat0l is a good idea. You can search up 8 days from today’s date, but it will give you an idea of the sorts of options available, even if it’s too early for your flight.

The main issue with SQ is that the appetizer/entree is almost always seafood. No escaping that. And of course the satay is meat. So that really only leaves you the mains, and maybe one choice on that.

SQ can be very painful with their vegetarian meals. You may not be offered things like the bead basket, instead being stuck with a wholemeal roll. Dessert may just be a piece of fruit. On a couple of flights I chose vegetarian I was given a banana, and a request for cheese and ice-cream was refused. When pressed, the FA had to consult with the cabin manager, who then had to come and ‘discuss’ with me that cheese could contain animal products, and so could the ice cream (etc etc).

That’s great if you’re bordering on vegan, but for me I just didn’t want to eat fish!

These days I tend to stick with book the book, skip the seafood entree, and then enjoy the satay, breads, cheeses etc.

It depends on how strict a vegetarian you are, and whether you’re more vegan or lack-ovo.

Thank you for this - it's valuable intel that will factor into my thought process as the flights near. SBD

 

[aspro2]

That’s great if you’re bordering on vegan, but for me I just didn’t want to eat fish!

These days I tend to stick with book the book, skip the seafood entree, and then enjoy the satay, breads, cheeses etc.

I'm very similar to @MEL_Traveller in my dietary needs. However, I'm a bit more assertive Sick of the assumption that vegetarians have no taste (or in my case, no-pesc) I go for pre-bookable or known-menu choices where possible and then flag beforehand with crew that I can't do seafood. 70% of the time I still end up with the bloody seafood entree and I refuse it, asking for another solution. It's a great test of a cabin crews' willingness to help. Oddly, it's rare that they return with more nuts (from drink time) for instance.

On MH they gave me a chocolate brownie FFS in replacement of a prawn salad. On SQ a flight attendant actually put together something from some other dishes... becoming a sort of small tofu-and-grain salad. So impressive! But seriously, it shouldn't be so hard to find a really simple alternative of some sort, whether a piece of fruit, more nuts/crackers, or a repotted salad from Y!

On a side note, because China Airlines loves to have about 80% seafood on their J menus, I've been forced to order vegetarian many times. The standard VLML/VGML is unimpressive, the AVML (Indian vegetarian) was ok but not J-level, and the VOML (oriental vegetarian) was more innovative but often an acquired taste.

Pre-covid I had a number of really interesting and tasty vegetarian meals on TG! And perhaps the best was actually... wait for it... LH* short haul (thank god for all those German vegetarians! ) also just before covid.

* Back in the 90s, LH actually had a bookable NoSeafoodMeal. Awesome solution, many times. Except the time the NoSeafoodMeal (correctly labelled) was a fillet of fish.

 

[daft009]

If you don't mind Indian food. Go the Indian veg special meal. Usually decent albeit slightly too salty for my liking.. traditionally Indians love extra salt.. I'm not one of those

I recently went for the non veg Indian meal and my entree was tandoori cauliflower.... Everyone else got satay chicken so I asked for one of those top

 

[carls888]

The Asian vegan meal is yummy. We have booked all the versions of veggie, western vegan, fruit only platters. My fave is the Asian vegan one. We can't have dairy. Other things we enjoy on the normal menu are the buckwheat pumpkin pancakes, the Japanese eggplant dish, the waffles (we order without marscapone).

 

[rurounimaikeru]

I recently flew SQ J and selected a mix of BTC (Miso Eggplant), Western Vege, Asian vege and Indian Vege.
As noted by others, BTC still gives you non-vege entrees and the Miso Eggplant was pretty underwhelming (especially compared to the Penang Curry fish - I'm vege-pesce). I wouldn't bother with vege for BTC.

Note also that BTC has different options depending on origin. Ex-SIN has a lot more options than others. Ex-CDG had a vege bean dish that looked kinda boring...

Indian vege and Asian vege I've generally found fine. Western vege can be mixed.

Also, FWIW, my family of 4 found that BTC only really works for 'big' meals when you would be eating dinner. You can BTC at other times, but sometimes ends up with a heavy dish at odd times on your trip....

 

[somebol]

As a vegetarian myself, I can confirm that SQ don’t have any veg options on their standard menu. You have to order a special meal to be guaranteed your dietary preferences. You can always politely ask the crew for normal butter, bread and dessert.