A visit to the First Lounge at Qantas’ home airport is the perfect way to start an international trip. The Qantas Sydney First Lounge boasts great views over both the airport and Sydney, lots of comfortable seating, a small library and even a spa. But for many international travellers, the highlight is the dining menu.
The food & drinks menu at the Qantas First Lounge is a cross between what you’d find at a high-end Aussie pub bistro and a fine-dining restaurant. The menu rotates every quarter, and contains a mix of seasonal specials and classics that have been served for years.
In Qantas’ overseas lounges, like in Singapore, you’ll also find some delicious local dishes.
The First Class Lounge in Sydney is the Qantas’ flagship airport lounge. It’s exclusively for Platinum, Platinum One and Oneworld Emerald frequent flyers, as well as First Class passengers. As a special benefit, Qantas Premier Titanium cardholders also receive two annual First Lounge invitations.
The Qantas Premier Titanium Card
- Card Name
- Qantas Premier Titanium
- Earn
- 1.25
- Signup Bonus
-
150,000 Qantas Points
- Annual Fee
- $1200 p.a.
- Read more
- Go to offer
Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points on everyday purchases
When visiting this lounge, you can order anything you want from the à la carte menu. It’s all included. The only problem? It can be hard to decide if you’re visiting the Qantas First Lounge for the first time!
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We taste-tested everything on the menu
I was recently fortunate enough to be travelling with three of my colleagues from AFF on a business trip to New Zealand. Myself and Wilson, our other writer, are both Qantas Platinum members. Between us, we were able to invite Bert (a.k.a. admin) and Josh, who handles some of our customer support, to join us in the First Lounge as well.
Just to be clear, Australian Frequent Flyer covered the cost of our flights and we did not tell Qantas that we were coming.
We had a few hours to spare, and we were all a bit peckish. So between us, we decided to order one of everything from the all-day dining menu!
For those playing along at home, this is the current spring menu at the Qantas First Lounge in Sydney:
With so many alcoholic beverages available, we thought it probably wouldn’t be wise to also try one of every drink on the menu. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the Champagne. The single option on the day of our visit was Lallier Reflexion R.019, which, for what it’s worth, retails on the Qantas Wine store for $95 per bottle. We also tried and enjoyed a couple of the different cocktails.
Every starter & main course on the all-day dining menu
So, which are the best things on the Qantas First Class Lounge menu?
I’ll preface this by saying that opinions are subjective, none of us are professional food critics and we didn’t conduct a proper scientific study. We simply gave everything we ate a rating and then compared notes. But based on this, here are all of the entrees and mains from the all-day dining menu ranked from best to worst…
Beef brisket
We agreed that our favourite dish on Qantas’ spring menu was the beef brisket with polenta and salsa. The beef was incredibly tender and juicy, and this was overall a very tasty plate.
Slow-cooked pork and veal ragu
A close second place goes to the pork and veal ragu. A delicious Italian-inspired dish with fresh pasta, slow-cooked meat and the right amount of cheese.
Smashed zucchini
This one didn’t stand out on the menu, but Bert really enjoyed the smashed zucchini with mint, pine nuts, garlic, chilli and parmesan oil.
Salt and pepper squid
The salt and pepper squid is an iconic fixture of the Qantas First Lounge menu. It’s always on the menu, and you can get it in Sydney, Melbourne, Los Angeles or Singapore.
We all agreed that it was good, but at the end of the day it’s really just deep fried squid with a nice batter and some condiments. Good pub food and a tasty comfort food, but not quite special enough to take our top spot.
Kung pao mushrooms
I’m a huge fan of kung pao chicken, and this vegetarian version lived up to expectations. A flavoursome Asian-style dish with a side of rice.
Club sandwich
It may seem like a shame to visit a fancy airport lounge and “just” order a club sandwich. But the Qantas First Lounge makes a pretty good one!
Bao bun
You can’t really go wrong with Qantas’ gua bao, filled with delicious pork belly. It’s a fairly small serve, so why not order one or two to accompany another plate(s)?
Fennel soup
I generally find that Qantas makes pretty good soups, and this was no exception. The fennel soup was delicious, and the ham & cheese toastie soldiers on the side were a great touch. Rather than just dipping plain bread into your soup, you get to enjoy some classic comfort food with it.
Malay-style tamarind chicken
My favourite type of cuisine is Malaysian, so I had high hopes for this dish. It was nice, but the chicken was a little bit dry for my liking.
Duck salad
This was a great little entree.
Beetroot and buffalo mozzarella salad
If you’re looking for a light salad, this is a lovely dish – albeit nothing particularly special.
Snapper
This dish looked visually very appealing, and to be honest, probably deserves to be higher on the list. The sauce was nice, but unfortunately the fish that we received was overcooked.
Cheeseburger
There’s a lot of fancy-sounding food on the Qantas First Class Lounge menu, but sometimes you just want a good old-fashioned cheeseburger. The Qantas lounge version is a good cheeseburger with the perfect amount of melting cheese – nothing more, nothing less.
What about the sides?
We also tried each of the five sides on the menu. (Although the marinated olives is the first thing on the menu, this is really a side dish.) In order from best to worst…
Bowl of chips
This was exactly as described. Nothing fancy, just nicely cooked, lightly salted fries in a bowl. Exactly what you would expect from an Aussie pub bistro. Grab one to share with the table!
The salads
These were the three green salad/vegetable options:
Of these three, we liked the steamed seasonal greens the most. They were cooked just right and lightly seasoned.
Of the two salads, we ranked the wild rocket and parmesan salad just above the mixed leaves with Neil’s vinaigrette, although neither were particularly inspiring. The latter reminded us of the boring salads Qantas has been serving in Business Class for the better part of two decades.
Marinated olives
I like olives, but these had a very strong flavour and mostly consisted of pips. This was the only thing we received that some people in our group would not order again.
Every dessert on the Qantas First Lounge spring menu
Of course, no Qantas First Lounge dining experience would be complete without dessert! So, for those of you with a sweeter than sweet tooth, what are the best options on the dessert menu?
These are our picks, once again ranked from best to worst…
Banoffee
For the uninitiated, banoffee is a mix of banana and toffee. This isn’t something I would personally order, as I don’t like bananas – but the other members of our group thoroughly enjoyed it!
Pavlova and ice cream
The signature pavlova is another staple of the Qantas First Lounge menu. It’s reliably good, and best paired with a scoop (or two, three or four) of the delicious, creamy ice cream.
Fruit plate
The seasonal fruit plate was a popular choice. The fruit was fresh and perfectly ripe. We got a cheese plate to go with it, which isn’t actually on the menu but is often available in Qantas’ premium lounges on request.
Lemonopita with yoghurt sorbet
This one was fine, but perhaps a tad dry. Overall, we preferred the other dessert options over this Greek-style lemon cake.
Join the Qantas First Lounge menu discussion on AFF
Once we’d finished tasting all of those dishes, we were all feeling pretty full as we rolled walked onto our flight!
What are your favourite dishes on the Qantas First Lounge menu? You can discuss this topic, and share your own thoughts and photos, on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum:
