Mortyman From Norway, joined Aug 2006, 3231 posts, RR: 2 Posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 3703 times:
The best food I've had on an airline, was on Air New Zealand. Fantastic lamb casserole and lovely ham / cheese and also chicken sandwiches and great wines. First time I have actually liked the airline food.
I flew Air New Zealand from London - Los Angeles - Auckland - Tahiti - Rarotonga - Tahiti - Rarotonga - Auckland - Sydney - Auckland - Los Angeles - London
LXA340 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2104 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3666 times:
No doubt the best food is found on premium airlines such as CX, SQ, EK, LH or LX however the consistency is not always the same. It often depends from where the food is catered. Usually you get the best quality of food from the airlines home airport. Don't know why that is, is food maybe cheaper for them as they have a catering contract that is much greater as for instance from a destination where the airline flies 1 -2 times daily that gives them worse pricing conditons which make them save on the quality? Then Gate Gourmet in the USA should be able to produce a identical quality than in Switzerland for instance, it's the same company etc.
LXA340 From Switzerland, joined Nov 2006, 2104 posts, RR: 4 Reply 5, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3526 times:
Quoting Express1 (Reply 3): I'm wondering how long airline food is stored and how fresh it is before it reaches the plane?
I've seen already that the food can get loaded onto the aircraft up to 2 hours prior to the esceduled departure time maybe even longer. So I gues up to 5-6 hours before departure it get's produced if not even longer as there are huge fridges that can store all the carts etc in the catering departments. So maybe up to 10 hours before a flight anybody have any exact idea?
No airline can be declared as the best, as food is quite a subjective issue....tastes differ in different parts of the world.....at best, airlines can be classified as good, average and below average.....
PlateMan From United States of America, joined May 2007, 904 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3510 times:
My best would be actually be a tie between two. Sure, you don't get much on airlines now, but I am thinking way back.
The top food I had were:
1. United PE on SFO-JFK-Amazing combo of different Italian pastas. Was really good, better then some resrtraunts.
2. Virgin Atlantic-Economy from LHR-JFK. A nice chicken tikki marsala dish that was excellent. Came with salad, bread and rice. Also a nice dessert of chocolate pods. Don't know if any UKers had them, but they were amazing. The flight attendants saw how much I enjoyed them and brought me extra.
CHRISBA777ER From UK - England, joined Mar 2001, 5964 posts, RR: 63 Reply 8, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3464 times:
I actually LIKE airline food - even the cheap and nasty stuff in Economy on charter carriers.
MYT do a lovely sausage & omlette breakfast.
BA did a Christmas dinner in Y back in 1999/2000 - that was yummy.
Bulgoki on KE is very nice indeed just not enough of it.
All the Gulf carriers seem to serve the ubiquitous Chicken Medina (also spelt Madinah) curry - always very nice as well.
Had some lovely red snapper fillet and rice in Y on Etihad a while ago IIRC.
Had a very tasty Chicken Tikka Massala, Pilau rice and chocolate cream brownie on VS a few times.
UA's cajun chicken warm sandwich snack roll they do between meals long-haul - v nice.
I had a really yummy beef casserole with baby carrots, peas and mash once - I cant remember what airline though. Might have been TOM actually.
Had some odd cold chicken noodles with wontons and hoi sin sauce once - that was AA bizarrely enough.
I still think they should do pasties and pies on planes. Can you imagine a full size West Cornwall Pasty Co Steak pasty served warm out of the trolley with the mash and peas and gravy on your tray as normal? Yummy!
What do you mean you dont have any bourbon? Do you know how far it is to Houston? What kind of airline is this???
CHRISBA777ER From UK - England, joined Mar 2001, 5964 posts, RR: 63 Reply 9, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3447 times:
Quoting PlateMan (Reply 7): 2. Virgin Atlantic-Economy from LHR-JFK. A nice chicken tikki marsala dish that was excellent. Came with salad, bread and rice. Also a nice dessert of chocolate pods. Don't know if any UKers had them, but they were amazing. The flight attendants saw how much I enjoyed them and brought me extra
Quoting CHRISBA777ER (Reply 8): Had a very tasty Chicken Tikka Massala, Pilau rice and chocolate cream brownie on VS a few times.
I hear ya brother!!!
What do you mean you dont have any bourbon? Do you know how far it is to Houston? What kind of airline is this???
CanadianNorth From Canada, joined Aug 2002, 3371 posts, RR: 10 Reply 11, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 3447 times:
Quoting Express1 (Reply 3): I'm wondering how long airline food is stored and how fresh it is before it reaches the plane?
Our kitchen has told me that it's a Transport Canada rule for it to be no more than 24 hours from the time the dish is made to the time it is served. No idea if it is true or not, but that's what I've been told.
The airline I work for the meals for afternoon/evening flights are made that morning, and the meals for morning flights are made the night before. All meals are stored in a large cooler, and then ice packs are added when it's time to load the carriers onto the aircraft, which is usually done within 30 minutes of boarding time.
As for food goes I think Air North has it pretty good on our South flights. Both the YVR flights and the YYC/YEG flights are around 2 hours via 737, and the meals for Y class alternate between:
-Freshly baked muffins (we have several flavours that we rotate through, usually have at least 2 types on a flight)
-sandwiches made with freshly baked bread, multiple layers of either ham/roast beef/corn beef/turkey/veggies, etc
-deli plates which are basically cheese and crackers, some fresh fruit and either some nice veggies or a few slices of ham/turkey/roast beef/caribou sausage.
Snacks/pretzles are also served, Dessert is a slice of either chocolate cheesecake or strawberry cheesecake, and some candies are handed out shortly before landing. A variety of cookies and granola bars are also available.
J class meals are now mostly hot meals.
Breakfast: A plate of cheese and fruit with a choice of yogurt or crepes
Lunch/Supper: Rotates between Roast Beef, Stir fry, Spaghetti, Rotini, Caribou stew
Hawker flights are offerings of pretzels, snacks, cheese and crackers, beef jerky, cookies, and granola bars on regular flights and sandwiches (same as on the 737s minus the cheesecake etc) on flights around meal times.
BlueShamu330s From UK - England, joined Sep 2001, 2515 posts, RR: 25 Reply 13, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 3333 times:
Quoting CHRISBA777ER (Reply 8): I still think they should do pasties and pies on planes.
LDIkaros From United States of America, joined Apr 2007, 175 posts, RR: 0 Reply 15, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 3231 times:
My best airline food ever was on a NH flight SFO-NRT. It was salmon in some kind of cream sauce, and it tasted delicious. The sake afterwards was the icing on the cake, so to speak
NG1Fan From Australia, joined Aug 2007, 446 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 3188 times:
I used to enjoy the food catered by Do & Co on Lauda Air. Now they do the catering for the Austrian Airlines Group, some pretty tasty offerings, but only out of VIE, IMHO.
Davescj From United States of America, joined Jun 2007, 2244 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 3147 times:
I think the best pasta dish I've had in J was in a DL flight. It also had the best lamb.
My fav bbq was an AA flight, FCO to ORD, 2nd meal.
Fav fish, also AA (the salmon "starter" was more generous than some restaruants).
Fav presentation DL
Fav wines BA
Fav after dinner drinks DL/BA tie up for me.
Overall? I'd give a slight nod to BA.
If you want to see a large number of meal photos, I suggest www.airlinemeals.net
They also accept meal pics and then post to their site so you can see (literally) different meals/menus/routes.
RyanairGuru From Australia, joined Oct 2006, 2533 posts, RR: 2 Reply 18, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 3137 times:
Far and away the best food I've ever had in economy was on Emirates. It was simply delicious!!! No seriously it could have been served in a resteraunt, especially the food served on the DXB-SIN-BNE legs.
The best food Ive had on a charter flight was on Thomas Cook (TCX). Compared to FCA etc. very impressive.
I've only ever flown Business once, so I can't reall compare it to anything, but I'd still like to commend Continetal International Business First - the food in that cabin isn't given five stars by Skytrax for nothing!
However, the biggest every aviation cullinary dissapointment was Singapore Airlines. Perhaps they have been hyped far too much! The food on my fights two weeks ago from MAN to BNE via SIN ranged from idocre (best) to downright revolting (worsed). I will not be flying them again in a hurry! Apart from the fact that they have 9 abrest on a 777, compared to 10 on EK, resulting in a wider seat, they were inferior to Emirates in every single respect.
N710PS From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 1166 posts, RR: 4 Reply 19, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 3118 times:
The best one in recent times is the meals that my darling at home makes and sends me off to work my trips with. Now if we are talking about the stuff airlines shovel down your throat well for breakfast Air Jamaica used to do a lovely job even on the ATL MBJ run. EK is wonderful, Alitalia at once was great and TWA across the pond in the old days was enough to make you go ga ga. Currently though I am a major fan of VA and Air France.
There is plenty of room for Gods animals, right next to the mashed potatoes!
JRDC930 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 20, posted (5 years 6 months 2 weeks 17 hours ago) and read 3113 times:
Definately AM, really good food in econ, something that doesn't exist in the U.S. Apart from first class i dont think you could count any U.S. carriers, as a snack box is an insult , and the trans Atlantic/pacific Y class food is basicaly regurgitated vomit from my experiences. Id venture to say the food is really good on airlines from nations that value service.. (obviously not The U.S.). LH and AF have been very good too IMHO.
Mauiman31 From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 434 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 2932 times:
US domestic -- YX's - buy on board - "Best Care Cuisine" consistently good quality. Pre cutbacks their complimentary meals were exceptional.
TACAA320 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (5 years 6 months 1 week 18 hours ago) and read 2931 times:
Quoting Mortyman (Thread starter): The best food I've had on an airline, was on Air New Zealand. Fantastic lamb casserole and lovely ham / cheese and also chicken sandwiches and great wines. First time I have actually liked the airline food.
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