Toastie Wars: Qantas Club vs Virgin Lounge

The humble toastie. Warm, cheesy and oh so satisfying – it’s a classic comfort food. Plus, it’s cheap and easy to make – which is probably why it’s been a common sight in Qantas Club lounges all around Australia for years!

Not to be outdone, Virgin Australia has now finally gotten in on the action. Earlier this year, Virgin equipped each of its seven airport lounges with a DIY toastie press as well.

Over the years, we’ve made lots of comparisons between Australia’s two largest airlines. For example, our recent AFF Point Valuations found that Qantas Points were slightly more valuable than Velocity Points… although, that was before this week’s Qantas devaluation which will almost certainly change the result in the next round.

Now, it’s time for the head-to-head battle to end them all: The toastie war. In this article, we ask the question nobody dared (OK, cared) to ask: Does Qantas or Virgin do a better airport lounge toastie?

My review: The Virgin Australia Lounge toastie

Virgin Australia is the new entrant in this field, so let’s start with them.

Last month, I tried the toasties in several different Virgin Australia Lounges. You know, for science. 😉

Virgin’s lounge toastie setup is fairly consistent across all the lounges, with one exception. The Melbourne Lounge has a special local relish which I didn’t find in the other locations.

The Virgin lounges offer thick-sliced white or brown bread, with gluten-free bread also available on request.

Unfortunately, the only substantial fillings on offer in the Virgin lounges are tasty cheese slices and tomato. There’s no meat, nor other salad fillings. However, I appreciate the multiple different types of mustard and various relishes which add a welcome tang.

The butter of choice in the Virgin lounges is Lurpak, which was easily spreadable – probably because it had been sitting out for most of the day.

After preparing your sandwich, you would need to compete for the use of a single toastie press.

Overall, the cheese and tomato toasties on offer in the Virgin Australia Lounges are nice. But they’re missing something…

My review: The classic Qantas Club toastie

Over the past month I also visited numerous Qantas Club and domestic Qantas Business Lounges in search of a great toastie.

Compared to the Virgin lounges, some of the Qantas lounges had rather luxurious fillings like pastrami, lettuce, spinach, hummus, beetroot, carrot or even pickled capsicum in the buffet. These extra ingredients add some welcome flavour, variety and nutrition. But the different Qantas Club locations had a less consistent array of sandwich fillings. You wouldn’t necessarily find all of those ingredients at every lounge.

At the very least, all the Qantas lounges I visited offered cheese, tomato and ham to fill your toastie. Most locations also had two types of mustard, as well as relish and mayo on hand to spruce up your sandwich. That’s more than the Virgin Australia offering.

The Qantas lounges typically have more varieties of bread available too, with a choice of thin-sliced white, brown or multigrain bread, as well as gluten-free bread and in some cases even wraps.

The butter de jour in the Qantas Club is premium Tatura salted butter, with margarine also available. And most Qantas lounges have two sandwich presses on hand – reducing the amount of time you’d need to wait to cook your sanga during busy periods.

I noticed only a small difference between the sandwich fillings offered in the Qantas Clubs compared to the Business Lounges. The time of day seemed to have a greater impact, with more fillings available after breakfast was over.

The verdict

Good on Virgin Australia for adding another much-needed food option in its lounges! But overall, Qantas is the clear winner of the toastie wars. It has a better variety of fillings, more bread choices, more sandwich presses and Australian butter.

For what it’s worth, I also tend to find that Qantas Club lounges have higher quality and a greater variety of food & drink options overall. This is especially the case when it comes to the wine – and it’s no competition when it comes to spirits, since the Virgin lounges don’t have any.

Do you agree? Let us know on the AFF forum!