Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[anat0l]

While I love a good pie as much as the next person (or at least when I'm not on a low carb kick like now) they never convey the "premium" vibe which should be in evidence on J service. Unfortunately QF has fallen short in this way too many times since covid

I have to agree. I tend to let premium flights count as an indulgent "cheat treat" when it comes to some of the unhealthier options, but some of the recent options just in the last few pages of the thread e.g., pies, quiches, cheese/cold cut snack plates, fruit breads, etc., look more like buy-on-board economy fare than a J-class meal, let alone on a "premium" carrier.

VA's main course options look consistently more interesting and tastier to me, which doesn't seem like it makes intuitive sense.

I agree, pre-COVID it was definitely much better. In fact, when QF did their own catering, they did much better.

I think what we are seeing is what used to be somewhat the domain of Economy is now in Business, and Economy is getting something very cheap. That said, we seem to be almost the only people who care about it this much. My casual observation of J pax when I fly J are that they are pretty ambivalent about the food. Some only eat about half of it and then return the rest, and I'd bet good money that that is not because what they ate was disgusting.

Mind, they used to serve soup in domestic J (short / medium haul). They were actually quite delicious, though some people might claim that's a cheap cop out for a meal.

If we really want to compare against VA.... then in my opinion neither is significantly better than the other. But I suppose if the argument is meant to be if QF is "more premium" than VA, then being slightly better or about the same is not good enough.

Overall, I agree that QF domestic J food (and maybe even QF international J food) isn't as delightful as it used to be. I can only be glad that it doesn't taste disgusting. I should pull out some old food photos from those days and share them here to compare.

 

[anat0l]

This bovine based meal aficionado rarely says no to the offer of a beef fillet, even though I knew it would be too well done. It was, but still very tender and the red chimichurri sauce was very flavoursome.

I've had a couple of surprisingly good beef experiences as you described - well done cook and yet tender, and a decent to great sauce to go with it.

There's been other times when the beef is both done well (not well done) and has the texture of dry cardboard (EK F was a notable culprit), which makes me scared to order beef every time (but I will do it if the other options don't look appealing at all).

 

[DrJ]

Good to see QF loaded a good film to watch.

Actually the first time I've ever seen Casablanca! Must look up some more of these old classics, particularly with so much cough being produced nowadays...

 

[trendwhore]

QF79 MEL - NRT last week. A bit average.

Don't think this menu has changed in a while, I recall having the same options earlier in the year.


Mushroom soup to start, bad choice; probably should've gone the Salmon but 50/50 on that as well. If only Qantas had garlic bread.


Went for the vegetarian main, doubly bad choice. Tasteless and watery, probably worse than some things I make at home and that's saying something. Also weirdly it took extremely long to come out. Most passengers were finished their whole service before I even received this. Should've chanced the beef.


At least the dessert was nice. Typically no complaints there from me.


Second meal went for the Barra which was nice and tender, and generally fine. And again the dessert was tasty.

Also never received my margarita Fairly inattentive flight crew on this one. Ah well, there's always next time.