Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[downgraded]

Today's steak on QF 37. In no way overcooked. Very good actually. Sorry it's half eaten...

 

[Mr_Orange]

Today's steak on QF 37. In no way overcooked. Very good actually. Sorry it's half eaten...View attachment 500765

That looks rather good!

 

[SYD]

Today's steak on QF 37. In no way overcooked. Very good actually. Sorry it's half eaten...View attachment 500765

It’s never “overcooked”, just over reheated.

Pretty sure all airlines load them as “medium rare”. So it’s a fine line between defrosting and sufficiently warmed to lurching towards well done …

But that looks like they followed the reheat timings!

 

[downgraded]

It’s never “overcooked”, just over reheated.

Pretty sure all airlines load them as “medium rare”. So it’s a fine line between defrosting and sufficiently warmed to lurching towards well done …

But that looks like they followed the reheat timings!

I don't think the verb really matters ( what gets presented is what counts) and this was a fine piece of meat. The peas were a bit more challenging for me but Mrs D would disagree with me on that one so I have to say all in all a fine meal.

 

[SYD]

I don't think the verb really matters ( what gets presented is what counts) and this was a fine piece of meat. The peas were a bit more challenging for me but Mrs D would disagree with me on that one so I have to say all in all a fine meal.

Yes, it looked good!

My point was they invariably leave them in the ovens too long and rather reheating just sufficiently to be served, they end up coming close to cremating them. Why?

 

[jase05]

they end up coming close to cremating them. Why

Hey, that’s how I like my meat

 

[Berlin]

That looks rather good!

So- it is definitely possible. Even on Qantas! That looks indeed excellent!

 

[Captain Halliday]

QF188 AKL-MEL.

The menu said beef with baked vegetables and cous cous.

I say stew.



Beef was rubbery.

Vegetables were soggy.

The cous cous was…. Interesting.

 

[vhojm]

QF79 MEL-NRT 20 March VH-QPG.

Service amazing today, same crew I had to Singapore a few months ago and whilst not entirely polished they make you feel at home and comfortable.

Chose the Japanese meal (I never eat pork usually) and everything was very good. Especially the sake lol,

The crew were not impressed that I couldn’t get an award seat home tomorrow or Sunday and have to fly JAL ))

 

[VPS]

QF188 AKL-MEL.

The menu said beef with baked vegetables and cous cous.

I say stew.

View attachment 500835

Beef was rubbery.

Vegetables were soggy.

The cous cous was…. Interesting.

That roll looks very ordinary too. It's not that hard to find nice bread rolls

 

[Captain Halliday]

QF880 MEL-OOL

Chicken salad was really nice and a good lunch option.

 

[Coathanger]

QF41 SYD-CGK

Great crew today.

Duval-Leroy was the champagne.

The CSM also happened to be one of the sommeliers that train cabin crew so we had a good chat about reds and I enjoyed a Cab Sav and Shiraz pairing with the beef.

Thai fish cakes are a winner for the pre-landing snack.

 

[vhojm]

QF431 SYD-MEL 9:35am departure VH-VXH.

Karen was great and the crew were working as hard as I’ve ever seen to get people’s bags in the overhead lockers. Why they allow people to walk on with 3 or 4 pieces is beyond me especially on a flight with zero empty seats.

Food options were the smoked salmon bagel or spinach leek and cheese crumpets. I’d moved forward from the 11:35 to the 9:30 and was in 3C but surprised they hadn’t run out of the crumpets. Anywho went the bagel having eaten far too much in Japan and on JAL the previous day/night as well and thought it was very tasty.

 

[Pushka]

Excellent service on QF 295 Sydney to Bangkok. Finnair plane and crew in Finnair uniforms and likely Bangkok based. And they were exceptional.

Gin Spritz. Excellent







The soup, and Sav Blanc.


One of the nicest meals I've had on a plane. Chicken was excellent.



I didn't like the look of the pre landing meal so not long after takeoff and the main meal service, crew gathered a sample of all the snack available and brought them to me so they didn't get taken by others. Very thoughtful.



The Finnair seats. I loved them. MRP didn't. Said it reminded him of reading in bed which he never does. But I do.

 

[bPeteb]

CBR-BNE this afternoon on an E190. A quite tasty lamb pie with mushy peas and ‘crispy’ (not) potatoesVoyager Estate semillon sav blanc or two also very nice.

 

[Berlin]

I’m well aware that this is a Qantas thread but I’ve seen “comparison” posts on here before and usually find them quite interesting to see. There once used to be a thread on trans-Tasman service comparison in particular which I used to be very active on but I can’t find it for the life of me. So mods- please move if you must!

I’ll keep it on the food though- wanted to book Qantas SYD-AKL while they offered a “special” which turned out to be roughly the same as all the competing airlines but the flight times that I actually needed, of course were roughly double that and on these tired old 737s. So despite my usually way too close loyalty to Qantas, I made the plunge. Especially knowing that QF’s trans Tasman service has been downgraded to “Domestic plus proper champagne” since the pandemic.

So- just for reference, Air NZ (on the outbound) still serves the proper 3 course International meal that it always did. Awful coffin seats (though they are, as slowly as Qantas would, finally getting rid of those) but still better than any 737 recliner. Menu and two photos below:




^^^Yes, this is garlic bread rather than the same old boring “plain or seeded sourdough”. And yes, this is me voluntarily going for the fish dish as a starter- NZ smoked salmon got me back to trying fish in rare cases and this one was as delightful as ever. Tassie salmon does not even come close in my experience (sorry to all the Tassie salmon lovers but it tends to taste about three times as fishy which is definitely not for me). The lamb main was rather disappointing given NZ’s reputation for lamb, lots of fat and inedible shoe-sole style meat. Not good but the potatos and grilled eggplant on the side were good. And it was properly presented- not just some Domestic slop like what Qantas usually does these days on this route:



But, probably more interesting, on my way back after three delightful nights at one of my favourite hotels in the Southern Hemisphere, the Park Hyatt Auckland, I chose China Eastern. After some really great flights domestically within China on various airlines a year ago, I was curious to see how this would go on the trans Tasman. Plus- this was a rare chance to practice my shaky Mandarin so what’s not to love! Aircraft was a 13yo old A330ceo with lie flat but older style seats in 2-2-2 configuration (pretty much the exact same product as LATAM has on the non refurbished older 787s). Now- many people call the crews on mainland China carriers robotic but I’ve never felt this way but maybe that’s me speaking a tiny bit of Chinese since I spent half my childhood living in Singapore? I don’t know. I found the crew to be a delight and my stuttering Mandarin (while looking like the most Germanic person you can imagine- beer tummy and blonde hair included) certainly helped.

The meal consisted of a proper starter (unfortunately prawns, which I really can’t eat without an instant vomit attack) and then a choice of 4 (!) different mains, presented on a hand held post-it note in both Chinese and English. I asked whether the pork or the beef would be the Chinese dish (vego and scallops being the other, not considered options) and was enthusiastically assured that the beef was very spicy and authentic. What I then really got (together with a choice of bread, including a rather stale garlic bread) was essentially a Chinese goulash. Very spicy indeed but it still reminded me more of Budapest than Shanghai. But the best bit here: The meat quality! Qantas- take note. It was amongst the best and most tender cubes of beef that were ever served on an airplane. I was stunned as I kind of got used to the cheap off cuts that NP selects as “only the finest produce” (yea-right!).





And before I forget- I asked for champagne and it was to die for! I had never heard of this (apparently inexpensive but hardly available) brand but it was a Haslinger &Fils from Epernay. No one else in this half empty J class cabin had any of it to my knowledge so I ended up gulping up the entire bottle over this 3 hour flight which strangely was always served in the same finger-printed glass. I always find it odd that on many airlines, you get a fresh glass with almost every refill but this was a bit too much of the same glass after a while. Oh well- down the hatch, and the stemmed champagne glass was actually rather lovely (as is the flower printed amenity kit and the cute little bags for the slippers with the red ribbons on it). Loved this entire flight!