Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[Berlin]

MEL-SYD, “dinner time” departure on 737:
Crew seemed very stressed as they had come in late from Brissy. Luckily, despite leaving Melbourne about half an hour late, we arrived into Sydney 5 minute ahead of schedule.

Meal service seemed quite rushed though the attendant serving us was actually really lovely- those friendly but professional slightly older Qantas ladies who air the personality of a loving but strict mother. Don’t ever cross them, my dear!

Meal choice was chicken curry with (waaaay too much) rice or some salmon-y cold salad which appealed to neither myself nor my partner. The white wine I had was some sort of “blend” which turned out to taste really good- they good that the lovely crew gave me a just opened bottle to “finish at home” at the end of the flight. I love how Qantas crew often do this, so much better than just throwing all the good wine away!




As usual on flights, curries keep quite well in the airline cool down/heat up on board cycle and this was no exception. Could have done with more spice in my opinion but hey, they’re going for mainstream tastes here. To my surprise/delight the chicken was an actual whole piece of chicken breast, no bad bits or anything yuckie in sight. Torture-bred cage chicken must have been on special this day because I’m far too used to getting yuckie bits and off-cuts on Qantas Domestic.

Before landing, my eyes caught a little bottle I had never seen before and it was this lovely Aussie made “Scotch” (what would be a good term for this- Autch?) that I had never tried before. I was quite wary as I very much like my real Single malts but it was actually quite pleasant. Maybe a bit more one the sweeter side while I prefer the peaty stuff but not bad as an Aussie made whiskie. Wasn’t a fan of the sticky date tart but my partner was so he got two, lucky one that he always is!

 

[The-Aviator]

April 2025 | QF148 | AKL to SYD

Returning home from Auckland on the last Sydney departure of the evening. Arrived at the airport reasonably early and despite the QF lounge still being open for a couple more days I made my way straight to the far nicer EK lounge, where I was the first passenger to arrive! It's looking very nice post-renovations.



And as always, they have one of the better J lounge buffets you will find.



Boarding for the flight commenced right on time however there was a small delay in departure due to some late passengers, time which was made up in the air. Stuck with water for my PDB on the ground.

Dinner options were a roast beef salad, pork loin with potatoes and vegetables or mushroom linguine however by the time they reached me in 2D, only the mushroom linguine and pork loin were available. Me and my seatmate both went for the linguine.



Fellow AFFers, this was, by far, the worst meal I have ever had on a QF J flight. The pasta was a gooey mess, swimming in oil at the bottom and could be best described as having the mouth-feel of eating glue. I hadn't been feeling too well and thought it might just be me but nope, my seatmate and I were both looking at it in horror. A couple of bites was enough to know I would not be finishing it, and the salad was not much better either.



CM Lisa was excellent and noticed pretty quickly that we weren't eating it and sought our feedback to relay to the caterers. They didn't really have any other meals to offer but she offered lots of snacks and chips which I refused. Kāpiti ice creams were brought around later which I skipped.

It was a stark contrast to my experience on QF3 on the way over and hopefully a one-off but would be interesting to know if others have experience the same with AKL catering. I'm just glad I filled up at the EK lounge beforehand otherwise it would have been a very hungry arrival into SYD.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

What's with the endless salmon salads. Gross

 

[JIMMYTHEJET]

What's with the endless salmon salads. Gross

Take the salmon out if you don’t like

 

[anat0l]

Me and my seatmate both went for the linguine.

View attachment 441816

Fellow AFFers, this was, by far, the worst meal I have ever had on a QF J flight. The pasta was a gooey mess, swimming in oil at the bottom and could be best described as having the mouth-feel of eating glue. I hadn't been feeling too well and thought it might just be me but nope, my seatmate and I were both looking at it in horror. A couple of bites was enough to know I would not be finishing it, and

Looks just like a linguine (or whatever passes as linguine these days) with a mushroom cream sauce and melted cheese - a notionally delicious dish that I've cooked many times - except this one has been severely overheated (if it were cooked in a home on the ground, someone left this too long in the microwave).

The cream has basically melted and its fat gives you the oil bath you discovered. Pasta obviously has overcooked; if it were (deliberately) undercooked to attempt to account for further (re)heating, it's probably failed in that regard and instead it's just made tough pasta even more congealed. (That said, someone said that a true Italian al dente pasta actually feels a bit like gluey for those who don't know, because it is much harder than most people are comfortable with). Of course, mushrooms release water as they are heated, so that's not helping things at all. Looking at the cheese, the degree (pun intended) of which it has been heated to melting suggests that its own fat/oil has also leaked into the dish.

While I don't mind chilli with a dish like this, it's a bit brave just to put it on top like that for any given passenger, though I assume the dish was heated without the chilli (so it hasn't had any chance to "leach" a spicy flavour into any of the dish).

To successfully serve a dish like this, they probably needed to separate the pasta and the sauce (and maybe even the mushrooms) so both had the chance to be heated differently (or prepared for reheating differently), and the cheese is finally sprinkled on top without necessarily melting it.

the salad was not much better either.

Where's the dressing?

Or, you could have drained some of the oil from the dish as the dressing.

What's with the endless salmon salads. Gross

Ever since we have noticed QF supply more than just a bowl of leaves for side salads, this has been one of the mainstay side salads available. Many were quite happy with it, though one sliver of smoked salmon?

Maybe QF should provide choices of side salad (much more prone to run out of choices before the later rows are served, but at least the variety is there).

Take the salmon out if you don’t like

Then you have a minor issue that some of the salad has taken on the salmon smell, which I presume, for those wanting to discard the fish, contributed to the reason for not wanting it there in the first place.

 

[RooFlyer]

Then you have a minor issue that some of the salad has taken on the salmon smell, which I presume, for those wanting to discard the fish, contributed to the reason for not wanting it there in the first place.

Wonder if the vegetarian option is the leaves without the salmon on top?