Current Qantas First Lounge Menu (SYD/MEL) and relevant topics

[kermatu]

No sashimi, no cheese plate, and the wines just seem to be getting poorer (or at least younger). I have 3 upcoming lounge visits in SYD and MEL after a bit of a hiatus resulting from not flying OW. Definitely better than zero or just J lounge access so still looking forward to it -- but not as much as I normally do. Good to see some different dishes though and will enjoy trying them no doubt.

 

[serfty]

... crispy fried duck salad - needed more duck but nice flavours. ....

More Duck? I would have (and have done so) asked for seconds ...

 

[defurax]

No sashimi, no cheese plate, and the wines just seem to be getting poorer (or at least younger). I have 3 upcoming lounge visits in SYD and MEL after a bit of a hiatus resulting from not flying OW. Definitely better than zero or just J lounge access so still looking forward to it -- but not as much as I normally do. Good to see some different dishes though and will enjoy trying them no doubt.

The cheese plate is not on the menu, but you can still order one. Unfortunately, QF has decided to reduce the cheese varieties on the plate going from 3 to 2 (this seems to be also true in the J cabin). So I haven't seen blue cheese on the plate during my last 4 F lounge visits and my last 7 J flights with QF this month. On the other hand EK's cheese plate in J and F is enormous and contains 3 cheeses in J and 4 in F.

 

[Princess Fiona]

The cheese plate is not on the menu, but you can still order one. Unfortunately, QF has decided to reduce the cheese varieties on the plate going from 3 to 2 (this seems to be also true in the J cabin). So I haven't seen blue cheese on the plate during my last 4 F lounge visits and my last 7 J flights with QF this month. On the other hand EK's cheese plate in J and F is enormous and contains 3 cheeses in J and 4 in F.

4 on my two EK J flights this week (washed down with a beautiful Bordeaux)

 

[GoldCanyon340]

No sashimi, no cheese plate

You have to ask for the cheese plate now and it's been like this in SYD since at least May. But I did get three cheeses on my last visit, enjoyed with the Noble One. A pity there isn't a Sauternes available as this would be the best accompaniment.

 

[asdf]

A few pages back the topic of service speed was brought up.

I'd like to share some amazing service I received 2 nights ago at the *LAX* F lounge!

I had been delAAyed (there's a shock, right? ) on a connection and as such arrived at QF F Lounge around 2120 for a 2135 boarding call for QF94 to MEL. I was in F so I wasn't so worried about boarding straight away, but I knew time was quick but I did want to get a snack in.

The staff must have seen the indecision on my face as I entered and stood mear the restaurant trying to decide if I should try for food or just go right to the bar a server came to me and simply said "How long do you have?" and I said not too long maybe 10-15min. He said "We can do that" and promptly seated me at a tabled with a "reseved" sign on it. I knew which wine I wanted to try so I ordered that (delightful WA state Riesling) and asked about the Pad Kao Mee - I wasn't entirely sure what was in this despite knowing it was a Thai noodle based dish (eg Pad Thai which I love) he explained it was the veggies stir fried on the noodles,and that was fine so I ordered that, he suggested maybe some S&P squid too and he didn't have to ask me twice. It maybe took 2 mins to get the menu and do all that. He poured wine and provided water another minute or so later.

The lounge was pretty busy as you'd expect with a bunch of QF (and OW) flights all departing around this time.

Then just after this as I was waiting and playing on my phone *another* server stopped by and said "You wondered about the Pad Kao Mee? Here's what it looks like" and she showed me the dish she was delivering to another table. I was SO IMPRESSED by this level of service and co-ordination!!!!

Then I swear 5-6 min later a *chef* himself brings out both the S&P squid (yum!) and the Thai dish (delicious!) to my table and I was eating when boarding was called. I was absolutely blown away at the willingness to help get me seated and fed and the teamwork between the servers and the kitchen to get me a hot fresh meal in about 10 minutes flat. I enjoyed a (fast-ish) eat and finished up as they called final boardin and I departed.

You know, per a thread some months back about tipping in this lounge, I would have left those guys a big tip for that really lovely and well organised level of service. Bravo !

I had a similar experience to this earlier in the year. I was very impressed by the service in that lounge!

 

[kermatu]

The cheese plate is not on the menu, but you can still order one. Unfortunately, QF has decided to reduce the cheese varieties on the plate going from 3 to 2 (this seems to be also true in the J cabin). So I haven't seen blue cheese on the plate during my last 4 F lounge visits and my last 7 J flights with QF this month. On the other hand EK's cheese plate in J and F is enormous and contains 3 cheeses in J and 4 in F.

Blue cheese on a trans-Tasman flight in J this weekend. But nowhere near the quality of EK's cheese plates.

 

[defurax]

Blue cheese on a trans-Tasman flight in J this weekend. But nowhere near the quality of EK's cheese plates.

Happy to hear the blue cheese is back...it's not a cheese plate without blue cheese!

 

[kermatu]

Happy to hear the blue cheese is back...it's not a cheese plate without blue cheese!

It was quite mild. Plate was ok, not great. But to be fair I was pretty full so only nibbled. Biscuits were pretty awful.

 

[kermatu]

Was offered (and accepted) a nice cheese plate in the MEL F lounge the other night. 3 very nice cheeses, including a decent blue.

 

[defurax]

Was offered (and accepted) a nice cheese plate in the MEL F lounge the other night. 3 very nice cheeses, including a decent blue.

Happy to hear to blue cheese is back in the lounge. I have a few F lounge visits in the coming weeks, so that's good news. What about the cheese plate onboard? As I mentioned earlier, 7 of my QF J flights to the US and Asia in August only had 2 cheeses. Maybe I was just very unlucky.

 

[kermatu]

Happy to hear to blue cheese is back in the lounge. I have a few F lounge visits in the coming weeks, so that's good news. What about the cheese plate onboard? As I mentioned earlier, 7 of my QF J flights to the US and Asia in August only had 2 cheeses. Maybe I was just very unlucky.

As above did have a Trans-Tasman cheese plate for dessert last week (given the ice cream on offer was just vanilla). Had a blue cheese but I think there were only two cheeses there. Just about OK for after-dinner on this length of flight, but pretty poor offering as a main plate (which my seat-mate and I joked about - even the J attendant acknowledged it is odd to present it as a meal). I could see te cheese plates on the other few T-T flights done this past fortnight and they seemed the same.

Others may have more recent experience on longer international sectors.

 

[kermatu]

I know there has been a bit of criticism of the staff/service in MEL of late but I had nothing but top notch service in two visits in the past 10 days. Mix of regulars and new faces. Hard to catch names (nameplates have 'Sofitel' very prominent with the person's actual name rather hidden). One I did catch was Rebecca who was lovely. Made note of her given she made some pretty good coughtails -- the wines were pretty ordinary as I had suspected (other than the Haselgrove Switch GSM) so took to the coughtails on my second visit before rounding out with a couple of the nice whiskeys.

 

[kermatu]

A tale of two duck salads:

Had the duck salad in the SYD lounge early this month:


Though there were about 5 pieces of duck in the salad I was underwhelmed by the size. But oh boy it was really tasty - fantastic dish.

So I ordered it again in the MEL lounge a few days later:


About double size with probably over a dozen pieces of duck (I wasn't actually counting). But for some reason, the taste was really bland. It was still a decent dish but just lacked any real flavour. Even accounting for the high expectations after SYD, I think there was a real difference in the dish. First time I have experienced that difference between the lounges in terms of quality and taste of product.

 

[kermatu]

Couple of other meals - good but not great: Sichuan pork; sticky beef:

 

[kermatu]

Disappointed with both the bocconcini and capsicum, and the chicken breast (no picture) dishes - knew I would be actually but ordered to try and for a bit of variety:

 

[Cessna 180]

I had lamb shoulder I think with sweet potatoe last week in ML. It was particularly good.

Also, I did not think the wines available were anything special

 

[kermatu]

I enjoyed the beetroot pastry on every visit - light, tasty, fantastic.

 

[Quickstatus]

Was offered (and accepted) a nice cheese plate in the MEL F lounge the other night. 3 very nice cheeses, including a decent blue.

An "off menu" offering?

 

[kermatu]

An "off menu" offering?

Yep. Having had a light meal I went to the more comfortable chairs. One of the terrific attendants (didn't get her name sadly) offered me snacks, nuts, cheese plate etc - while I wasn't intending eating given I planned to eat again just before boarding, I decided to take the cheese plate.