Spice bar at Melbourne Qantas Domestic Business Lounge

[ChrisMars]

It's been a few time now I visited the domestic J lounge in Melbourne, and I must say I am quite impressed by the quality of the food that comes out of the spice bar. Really tasty, clearly a level above what's being traditionally served in J lounges. I think it's rare enough to see Qantas doing something good for their frequent flyers, that we should give some good feedback.
That's why I would like to encourage anybody visiting this lounge to come and say hi to the guy serving the food, and to give him a compliment for the food. He was certainly pleased every time I praised him, will be nice if a few of us do that regularly.

Gosh, the laksa was just fantastic. Whoever is preparing this meal in the kitchen, we don't want him to leave the job for something else.

 

[LadyC]

It certainly seems to be popular. I was there in December and there was a mad rush when they opened for lunch service.

 

[RichardMEL]

Last month I really enjoyed skewers.... really lovely.

 

[Deleted member]

Looks better than the Mexican offering in BNE

 

[serfty]

Today was Singapore noodles with chicken or chicken and egg.

 

[kermatu]

They look great. Unfortunately all my visits the options have only been noodle soups. Obviously popular with many but not what I want to eat if in work clothes and/or perched on the last seat available in the lounge.

But yes to giving praise whenever something is good!

 

[Andyc]

Special mention to the selection of accompanying chilli flakes/paste/sauce etc in the back left corner.
Nom nom nom.

 

[ChrisMars]

nom nom nom, Andyc, hope you got the chance to say congrats to the chef. Let's give him lot's of love, it's really the best food of any domestic J lounges in Australia

PS: I hope I make sense, I had too many champagnes, waiting for my QF1 in F lounges

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Looks better than the Mexican offering in BNE

It is!

 

[mviy]

Today was Singapore noodles with chicken or chicken and egg.

They had that the day before as well. I found it a bit spicy.

 

[RichardMEL]

Going to pass through tomorrow arvo... so seems Singapore Noodles it will be (unless Sunday marks a new week/menu). They look good so I may arrive a bit early and chow down and not bother with the flight

 

[TonyDoh]

They look great. Unfortunately all my visits the options have only been noodle soups. Obviously popular with many but not what I want to eat if in work clothes and/or perched on the last seat available in the lounge.

But yes to giving praise whenever something is good!

 

[eddie 73]

Agree with allthepositive comments, I am there weekly. I always thank and compliment the chef.

One annoyance I have found is the system used, where chef says to me, “come back in 5”, and when I do some other guest has taken my bowl, so chef apologises and makes another while i stand and wait. This has happened 3 times, so now I always wait at the window.

Perhaps a name written on a post-it note system can help the ‘come back in 5’ dissapointments.

On another note about lounge food, was at OOL for the first time ever this week. Loved the party pies and sauso rolls, nice alternative for a change to the SYD MEL J lounge, which is rather manotanous.. aside from spice bar of course.

 

[mviy]

Was at MEL this evening and had the spice bar. Would prefer it to be less spicy but the noodles were very nice again. Going to miss this lounge when I drop to SG.

 

[jakeseven7]

Spice bar is a massive win for the QF DOM J MEL lounge, but why can’t we have it in BN??. Not all of us in BNE are xx_X drinking bogans! I know Melbourne is the foodie capital of Australia by a country mile but culture does move north.... eventually!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

So sad to see the long zoo that is the new MEL QFd QP.
Enjoy the MEL QFd J lounge colleagues.
Try not to fall below QF WP, heh.

 

[RichardMEL]

Enjoyed the Singapore Noodles on Sunday arvo. SB was very popular. The first batch I had was near the end of that cook so was a little cool, but very tasty... however I went back for 2nds and got a piping hot fresh serve and it was really very very good. Filled me up perfectly before my flight so I did not bother with onboard catering bar some wine.

I did think it was a tad lazy that both options were Singapore Noodles - the only diff being the chicken and/or egg for the "meat" option and just veg for the vego option. Seems to me they've usually had a very different dish for the veg option but that's just minor.

I much prefer this to the Mexican Cantina in BNE(where, incidently, the lounge was really busy yesterday) but that's just me.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Enjoying the Sang choi bao they are offering this evening in MEL. A welcome addition and could replace the wheat noodle soup.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

 

[sudoer]

I'm a big fan of the Spice Bar at Melbourne - the chicken and pork satay options a few weeks ago were both great.

I actually look forward to seeing what's on the menu when I'm flying through, unlike the Sydney J lounge which on the exact same day was serving some very oily fried chicken, and spinach & fetta pastizzi.