Jeez, pretty poor service and food for F. Though I've often found that from o/s ports (LHR, SIN, DFW) my F experiences are never as good as ex-SYD.I’ll try (but probably fail) to be brief and focus on the menu. But my experience:
- Started well with escort by the lovely Ting Ting from the F lounge to (and through a very crowded) gate, then straight onboard.
- After seating in 1K waited 15 minutes before FA Ebony came round.
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Champagne nice but canapés even more pathetic than before last year’s so-called revamp.
- No orders for meal or post-takeoff drink taken on the ground. A sign of delays to come.
- After takeoff requested a drink from Ebony which was promptly provided. Food order taken a few minutes later.
- Visited by Matt the CSM. Promised a quick service. Had no idea where I was headed then made a smart*rse comment effectively that I wasn’t stopping or indeed living in Sydney. Clearly his magic place. Thankfully (I guess) never saw him again.
- 1 hour after meal order taken, glass of wine provided. It was nice but not as good as my previous EK reds.
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- 20 minutes later table was set. 15 minutes later soup provided:
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It was fine but again couldn’t match my recent EK tomato consommé which came with lobster medallions..,
- Now I’m a slow eater, yet the bread came 15 minutes after I had finished the soup. I waved it away saying “it’s too late thanks”. The next time I saw Ebony I apologised for the dismissive comment. She was very gracious and said it was justified as there were “problems” with the service.
- One of the (very good) J attendants came back down at this point saying to Ebony she was finished upstairs. I didn’t even have my starter!
So the main point is the service was ridiculously slow, with long gaps between courses.
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Prawn starter. Had some interesting flavours. Not really to my liking but I’m not critical of it because of that.
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I probably chose a J meal but with no advice from the FAs nor ability to see menus beforehand I couldn’t know. It is what I felt like. And while the piece of fish was actually excellent and well prepared, this was a very bland and poor looking F dish.
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Cheese plate was better presented but very average quality. Tasted like $5 supermarket cheeses.
Meal finished approx 3 hours 15 minutes into a 7 hour overnight flight. I don’t mind slower service as I don’t sleep much, but this really frustrated even me!
Your glacial pace reminds me of my F trip to LHR last November where the only F elements were on the ground in SYD and SIN. On board, a lot was left to be desired!