Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[Quickstatus]

1) QF meal presentation is often very shoddy and 2) there's a lot of variation

I dont think that is a QF issue per se. You will find Similar issues on other airlines.
Though what is the standard you are comparing against?

 

[Seat0B]

It's truly a sad state of affairs that when flying J people need to worry about this to get their food choice. QF should be ashamed.

I had this recently on CBR-BNE on QF1950 in J on E190, scheduled for 1315 (ish) departure but left late. I was in 3E - which is actually only 5 seats into business (because row 1 only has a single seat) and the meal was lamb pie and peas. They had run out by the time they reached me so I was offered an economy meal “if there are any spare” or a cheese plate. I said to FA that I thought this was pretty poor for a lunch time flight to run out with still 5 people to serve and she said it was because so many people had received upgrades to J on this flight. I was on a fully paid fare so I was pretty unimpressed.

I submitted a complaint to QF, not expecting much but making the point that the flight was clearly under catered, that it was a lunch time flight so hardly surprising that people would want lunch, and that if it was indeed correct that I had missed a meal because of upgrades I would be upset about it. Further that if this was not the case I had been fobbed off with falsehood I would be upset about it too.

Imagine my surprise to receive a genuine response (not AI, but a real person judging by style and tone and that it did not just parrot back “we know you are upset about *fill in your own exact words from the complaint*) and offering 10,000 points as compensation. Probably worth more than the pie!

 

[mad_atta]

I dont think that is a QF issue per se. You will find Similar issues on other airlines.
Though what is the standard you are comparing against?

The most immediate point of comparison for me is QR, who are completely at the opposite end of the spectrum - their business class plating and meal presentation is exemplary. In fact you could sometimes level the opposite criticism at QR, that a bit less obsession with presentation might allow more to be spent on the quality of certain dishes - though the quality on QR is also well above QF in my experience.

I'm about to set off on a trip combining QF and QR, and I know from doing a similar combined itinerary last year that the contrast between the two, when flown back to back, is stark indeed.

Most other airlines are somewhere in between...

 

[RooFlyer]

Spend lots of time plating and with 26 or 42 pax, those towards the end are perhaps going to get food that’s been sitting, heating, longer. And possibly on the side of overcooked?

'Dine on demand' spreads things out.

 

[SYD]

'Dine on demand' spreads things out.

Which would require reheating in smaller batches (hence my earlier question).

 

[RooFlyer]

Which would require reheating in smaller batches (hence my earlier question).

I know when I've done DoD on QR an WR, they either ask for a time later or say that they need about 30 mins notice. I don't think the reheat needs 30mins, but it gives them time to juggle requests if needs be. Usually the meal comes early in my experience.

I can't see why they can't heat just one meal Vs have the re-heat ovens full.

When I'm on QR next, November, I'll make a point to ask them how its all done.

 

[Flyfrequently]

I had this recently on CBR-BNE on QF1950 in J on E190, scheduled for 1315 (ish) departure but left late. I was in 3E - which is actually only 5 seats into business (because row 1 only has a single seat) and the meal was lamb pie and peas. They had run out by the time they reached me so I was offered an economy meal “if there are any spare” or a cheese plate.

@Seat0B
I'd be miffed on a paying fare too.

and offering 10,000 points as compensation. Probably worth more than the pie!

Seems like a complaint "feedback" gets 10k points these days - got that for a charging port that wasn't working.

 

[mad_atta]

Here's the menu for today's QF41 SYD-CGK:

And here's the wine list:


A couple of odd things about the wines. QF still seems to be pretending that a rosé is a white wine, which is ridiculous, and unfortunately reduced the choice of onboard white wines to a pretty pedestrian chardonnay. Of course you could argue that the champagne is a variation of white wine, and under normal circumstances I'd probably revert to drinking that if the still wines weren't to my taste, but the champagne onboard today tasted really odd, and not in a good way. We all (ie me and my two travelling companions) noticed it. I checked to find out what it was, and apparently it's the Duval-Leroy, which is extra confounding because I usually consider that the best of Qantas's 2-3 champagne choices - and I certainly don't ever remember it tasting like this. Bad bottle? Or is D-L going through a bad patch?

Having eaten plenty in the FLounge I wasn't very hungry but just ate out of a a weird sense of compulsion. Opted for the chicken skewers (fine) followed by the barramundi (pretty dull) and the cheese plate (not too bad, despite the presentation).





Given the uninspiring whites on offer I decided to try the Avro Spritz pre-mixed coughtail, which I quite liked. Chardy with mains did the job in a very uninspiring way, then the Schoolhouse merlot with the cheese plate made for a pleasant conclusion.


Overall meal gets about a 6 out of 10 from me.

 

[SYD]

Yeah, I’m not impressed with a single real white. Had that once going the other way (QF42). I’ll find out in a few weeks if that trend has unfortunately stuck…

If you get one of those feedback surveys, mention the poor wine selection. I will if it happens.

 

[jase05]

Exact same menu I had MEL-CGK a month or so back.

 

[markis10]

I was more interested in the inventory loadout above the wines, pity all options were not captured . I will keep my expectations low for Mondays ex CGK

 

[Flyfrequently]

Exact same menu I had MEL-CGK a month or so back.

Yep @jase05 @mad_atta
7 June MEL-CGK
Chicken skewers

 

[Kangol]

Exact same menu I had MEL-CGK a month or so back.

Identical to MEL-HKG from a few months ago.

 

[RooFlyer]

QF505 SYD-HBA scheduled 14:15 departure, actual 16:25

Choice was chicken pie or cheese plate. Reluctantly chose the pie, as I was hungry - this was lunch! But the OJ was fresh-squeezed, or very close to it. Extra points for that.

 

[Quickstatus]

OJ was fresh-squeezed,

You mean squeezed on board?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

You mean squeezed on board?

lol no

Freshly squeezed off site somewhere. As opposed to Tang

 

[TheRealTMA]

lol no

Freshly squeezed off site somewhere. As opposed to Tang

Freshly squeezed from the carton.

 

[DejaBrew]

Freshly squeezed from the carton.

No doubt with some tang to it

 

[Kangol]

Freshly squeezed from the carton.

Just like the pie was freshly reheated

 

[mad_atta]

Yeah, I’m not impressed with a single real white. Had that once going the other way (QF42). I’ll find out in a few weeks if that trend has unfortunatel
If you get one of those feedback surveys, mention the poor wine selection. I will if it happens.

A couple of odd things about the wines. QF still seems to be pretending that a rosé is a white wine, which is ridiculous, and unfortunately reduced the choice of onboard white wines to a pretty pedestrian chardonnay. Of course you could argue that the champagne is a variation of white wine, and under normal circumstances I'd probably revert to drinking that if the still wines weren't to my taste, but the champagne onboard today tasted really odd, and not in a good way. We all (ie me and my two travelling companions) noticed it. I checked to find out what it was, and apparently it's the Duval-Leroy, which is extra confounding because I usually consider that the best of Qantas's 2-3 champagne choices - and I certainly don't ever remember it tasting like this. Bad bottle? Or is D-L going through a bad patch?

I noticed that QR is also pouring Duval-Leroy as it’s non-rosé option on its Asian/Australian routes at the moment, so I tried it today on CGK-DOH.

Despite being poured from an identical looking bottle to the one I saw in the Qantas galley (though to be fair I didn’t see it being poured - so there’s a chance that what they served pre-departure on the ground was something else, though the crew said otherwise), this tastes completely different and vastly superior.

Was it a bad bottle on QF or did someone do a cheeky bait and switch for the PDB?