Qantas Business Class meals & menus

[PlaneCrazy]

Why doesn't Qantas change their J menus regularly like other airlines? The QF41 menu above has basically the same mains that I had to SIN a few months ago.

Costs too much to get Neil back into the kitchen.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

Yesterday's J meal from SYD to OOL:




Options were pork cutlet (pictured) or chicken salad. Not particularly filling for J service (ended up grabbing Grill'd in OOL), and the wine tasted like cough syrup. On the other hand I was seated in 1A, and the view from the wing wasn't bad:

 

[sudoer]

Why doesn't Qantas change their J menus regularly like other airlines? The QF41 menu above has basically the same mains that I had to SIN a few months ago.

The mains are identical to my flight to SIN 8 months ago..

QF51 BNE-SIN 11APR (Broken IFE so a rather boring 8 hour daytime flight...)

View attachment 274664
Menu

View attachment 274665
Qantas Sky Spritz - white wine spritz with finger lime and davidson plum. Quite tart, probably wouldn't order again (switched to wines after one)

View attachment 274666
Thai fish cakes with pickled cucumber and chilli dressing - had a surprisingly good chilli kick. Three fish cakes were served, this fat cough forgot to take a photo before starting to eat. Would definitely order this again.

View attachment 274668
Jiangxi style barramundi. Had it several times pre-covid and remembered it being a reasonably safe option. Once again it was fine, nothing to write home about, worse presentation than I remember but it tasted okay. I think all of the mains options on the menu have been in circulation since 2019, it's a shame they haven't revamped the menu - at this point it feels like a game of "pick the least unappealing/most difficult to stuff up"

View attachment 274667
Croque monsieur. Straight out of the Qantas Club.

Wines loaded were:
Voyager Chardonnay 2017
Shaw + Smith Sav Blanc 2021
Haselgrove Switch GSM 2017
McWilliam's McW Regional Collection Shiraz 2017

 

[sudoer]

Also identical to QF43 SYD-DPS in Feb 2020, with the exception of the new plant based dining option. Note the fish cakes are a choice of arrival meal rather than a starter..

QF43 SYD-DPS yesterday. All in all a good flight - food fairly good (by QF standards) but meal service felt slow, and now that I'm typing this up and checking timestamps on photos - definitely was. On boarding we had menus at our seats and were offered a PDB.

View attachment 206442

We then had a minor departure delay due to 'inconsistent pax loadings' so meal orders were taken prior to departure, seemingly in status order as the crew went from my partner and I in row 2 to someone in row 4/5, then back to row 1. Poor guy in front of me asks for two mains and gets swiftly shut down. We pushed back 30 minutes late, at 5:15pm.

T+45m: Drinks service

T+1h15m: Starter service

Zucchini and basil soup with parmesan croute - I don't often pick the soup but this sounded good. It was quite hearty and went well with a little dollop of the Pepe Saya butter served with the 'bakery'. Would definitely order again.

View attachment 206443

Salad of herbed lemon chicken with chickpeas, balsamic onions, broccolini and saffron aioli - a large portion for a starter and certainly better than most Neil Perry salads. Chicken wasn't dry thankfully, and the dish tasted quite nice, although the saffron aioli tasted suspiciously similar to hollandaise sauce. Neil could have called this dish 'Chicken Benedict' and I wouldn't have batted an eyelid.

View attachment 206444

T+1h55m: Mains service

Sandwich of slow cooked chipotle lamb with sweet onions, mint salsa and salted chilli - very, very tasty with a decent chilli kick. I would've usually gone for the barramundi main, but I'd just had a serving of barra in the SYD F lounge so decided to switch it up. Didn't regret it, but it was difficult not to drop bits of the lamb (luckily I've honed these skills over many years of sloppy kebabs at 3am .. cue big night eh/double shots comments)

View attachment 206446

Beef fillet with Paris mash, green beans and salsa verde - Steak on a plane. You already know how this ends, and so did I, but my partner just couldn't resist ordering it. The meat was dry and beyond the capabilities of David Caon's picnic cutlery. The saving grace was the rather oily salsa verde (you can see the puddle in the top right corner) which helped rehydrate the steak slightly.

View attachment 206445

T+2h30m: Dessert service

Vanilla creme caramel - Delicious, as a dessert should be. More surprisingly a very large portion - served in a soup entree bowl. Not complaining.

View attachment 206471

T+3h: Dessert plates cleared.

At this point we were almost halfway through the flight. I wasn't intentionally tracking time but through watching a 4 x 1 hour episode docu-series (Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, highly recommended if anyone is vaguely interested in hip hop!) I was conscious of each hour that passed.

T+5h10m: Pre arrival snack served.

Sweet potato roll with tomato relish - fairly good. Sweet potato was mixed with lots of spices, presumably to mask the fact it is sweet potato. If you closed your eyes you could nearly imagine this was a samosa rather than a vegetarian-friendly sausage roll.

View attachment 206447

Thai style fish cakes with pickled cucumber and chilli dressing - Run of the mill reheatable fish cakes. Nothing special but still edible. Between this and the sweet potato roll, I'd probably go the roll.

View attachment 206448

This is the first time I've flown A330 J to DPS and it is so much more enjoyable than on the 737. I'm definitely repositioning for this run again in future.

 

[Port Power]

Qantas really needs to send out a new tender for catering. This mush is just not good enough for the price paid. Nowhere near!

 

[Fergo747]

Why doesn't Qantas change their J menus regularly like other airlines? The QF41 menu above has basically the same mains that I had to SIN a few months ago.

It's more than a few months. I would say the J menu's haven't changed substantially in about 5 years with the exception of some route specific dishes. The meals I've had this year going to various destinations have been extremely similar to those from 2018/19.

I had to laugh when I saw a NP post on Instagram where he was talking about 'creating' 200+ new dishes for QF and thought what rubbish that was.

 

[Berlin]

Why doesn't Qantas change their J menus regularly like other airlines? The QF41 menu above has basically the same mains that I had to SIN a few months ago.

Actually- I swear I've had every single dish (sans the seafood because I can't eat that) pre-Covid in one shape or another, mostly on the trans-Tasman which still got proper international catering back then.

They seem to just rotate "Neil's favourites" back and forth and no, this is not dependent on what fresh seasonal produce Mr. Manbun finds "at the markets" in the mornings

 

[sudoer]

The meals I've had this year going to various destinations have been extremely similar to those from 2018/19.

Yep, the Xiangji style barramundi was launched in 2019:

Qantas Domestic & International Business Class meals/menus

you will be able to have a look at the menu 7 days prior departure and pre select if you wish. Also having a look on a recent post on QF7/8, or looking at any US bound flight would give you some idea. Okay, thanks! This is my first time flying Business class. I'm excited and don't know what to...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Nitro6333]

I just wanted to say how very very poor the Qantas international lounge in Sydney has become. They served us a slip of pork goulash last Sunday in stark contrast this is what’s served in Qatar lounge Singapore. Qantas has fallen so so far

 

[PlaneCrazy]

I just wanted to say how very very poor the Qantas international lounge in Sydney has become. They served us a slip of pork goulash last Sunday in stark contrast this is what’s served in Qatar lounge Singapore. Qantas has fallen so so far

The Qantas business lounge for international at Sydney has been a disgrace for close to a decade. One of the worst home-port lounges of a "premium" airline I can think of.

 

[thrillho]

I get depressed every time I walk into the dungeon in Melbourne. Some natural light, please!

 

[Ade]

QF1523 CBR-MEL 1635 service

No PDB offered. Only item on offer was a chicken panini. I had pre-ordered “strict Indian vegetarian meal”.

Order of service : 1A, 1F, 2A, C and so on. No status related service.

Crew seemed to consist of trainees and relatively new staff members … J cabin was serviced by Max, who was very attentive.

During service Max addressed me by my last name (and he pronounced it correctly!!) and asked if I was going to dine today. I said yes and i think he may have forgotten what was on the menu today. He started to look frantically for a piece of paper and another cabin crew pointed the paper to him.

He then told me that we have chicken panini today. I said I had preordered a vego meal. He had a light bulb moment and exclaimed, “so that’s the vego meal”. And served the meal. He then went on to say that the paper he was looking for tells of the pax has any special meal request and he couldn’t find it for some reason. The other crew pointed that paper to him and he was like “oh, there it is” …

The meal itself was good. Can’t complain. The only thing was that the rice was a lot and curry was less .. curry to rice proportion was, well, out of proportion ;-)

I was given an apple and little coconut-chocolate bar type thing. No Lindt for special meals :-(

Wine - heirloom Cab-Sav and Shaw smith Sav Blanc. Went with Shaw Smith.

Max was proactive and offered a lot of top ups. I had to refuse the top ups as I was catching up with mates for drinks and dinner.

I expected ther would be tea or coffee. None offered.


Vego meal was marked with this identifier

 

[Ade]

I get depressed every time I walk into the dungeon in Melbourne. Some natural light, please!

Melbourne J has a open view of the tarmac … so there is sufficient light? However Melbourne club has not natural light … do you mean direct sun light?? Or may be I’m misreading what you sayin …

 

[qfflyer]

Melbourne J has a open view of the tarmac … so there is sufficient light? However Melbourne club has not natural light … do you mean direct sun light?? Or may be I’m misreading what you sayin …

Referring to the International Business Lounge

 

[Daver6]

QF1523 CBR-MEL 1635 service

No PDB offered. Only item on offer was a chicken panini. I had pre-ordered “strict Indian vegetarian meal”.

Order of service : 1A, 1F, 2A, C and so on. No status related service.

Crew seemed to consist of trainees and relatively new staff members … J cabin was serviced by Max, who was very attentive.

During service Max addressed me by my last name (and he pronounced it correctly!!) and asked if I was going to dine today. I said yes and i think he may have forgotten what was on the menu today. He started to look frantically for a piece of paper and another cabin crew pointed the paper to him.

He then told me that we have chicken panini today. I said I had preordered a vego meal. He had a light bulb moment and exclaimed, “so that’s the vego meal”. And served the meal. He then went on to say that the paper he was looking for tells of the pax has any special meal request and he couldn’t find it for some reason. The other crew pointed that paper to him and he was like “oh, there it is” …

The meal itself was good. Can’t complain. The only thing was that the rice was a lot and curry was less .. curry to rice proportion was, well, out of proportion ;-)

I was given an apple and little coconut-chocolate bar type thing. No Lindt for special meals :-(

Wine - heirloom Cab-Sav and Shaw smith Sav Blanc. Went with Shaw Smith.

Max was proactive and offered a lot of top ups. I had to refuse the top ups as I was catching up with mates for drinks and dinner.

I expected ther would be tea or coffee. None offered.
View attachment 311327

Vego meal was marked with this identifier

View attachment 311328

Vistara Y+ 2 hour domestic flight. They seem to get the proportions spot on.

 

[Berlin]

17th Dec., SYD-MEL “lunch time” service, followed by MEL-PER, both 737:

I had booked this rather weird connection via Melbourne because at time of booking, the MEL-PER lag was meant to be on an A330. Needless to say, Qantas once again swapped “equipment” so I was stuck on the ole 737. Meh.

The short hop to Melbourne was massively delayed but the crew was excellent and really made my day. The times when “lunch” was a proper hot meal seem to be over (eyes roll) as I got the way too common “Beef pie” with mushy peas that contains one microscopic piece of beef and more mushy vegetables so the meal is basically veggie mush with a side of veggie mush. The onion relish that was announced with “it’s really yummie” was nowhere to be found but the lovely crew member apologised profoundly for this (I had it before- it’s a sugar filled jar of some cheap supermarket brand so no big loss in my eyes).


Someone at Qantas must have been in a truly festive mood (or got a great sponsorship deal) though as besides my the usual Lindt ball, there was also a massive “Christmas pudding” flavoured chocolate bar. I did keep it for my better half as I’m generally not a big chocolate fan and never got used to those Anglo-saxon fruity things for Christmas to begin with (gingerbread is Christmas for me, not fruit mince pies which are just plain odd to me). We had also been given Christmas ice cream sandwiches in the lounge earlier (THEY were yumm!) so I was a bit over-sugared at that point.



What I wasn’t was overly drunk yet so I was pleasantly surprised when I was offered a only recently opened bottle of the excellent Cab Sav to take with me. It must surely be some new rule by Qantas as this had never happened to me pre-Covid but now seems to happen all the time. Such a shame when they pour the good stuff away so I love this new leniency.

Next flight to Perth, which was also slightly delayed, was not only subbed to a 737 but it turned out to also be the oldest 737 still in active service by Qantas- lovely. The pilot was a true oddball who’s announcements sounded like he’s moderating The Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. He told us that we had a “Cranky old airplane with a cranky old pilot which will make for a great flight” and more similar antiques. Crew was not quite as good as on the first flight but still did an excellent job given the plane was full to the last seat (that’s what happens if you down grade the aircraft type during the holiday season). Meal service on the long leg to Perth was exactly the same as is now on the trans Tasman, sans the champagne: Choice of two hot and one cold meal, two reds and two whites and a little cake alongside the chocolate and, once again, the extra Christmas bar- this one was Pavlova flavoured white chocolate which was much more my thing.

Meal options were some braise pork in Asia style sauce with way too much rice and annoying Asian greens, chicken in mushroom sauce with rather odd mushed carrots or some horrible sounding cold lamb salad. Not surprisingly, almost no one had the salad and as much as I love pork, due to the sides I went for the chicken and it was rather yummie. About an hour before landing we were also given a small tub of vanilla ice cream. Way way way too much sweet stuff all day!





On arrival into Perth, I received a rather annoying text message about my luggage not having made it (they had a whole hour for this in Melbourne!) but the entire thing went rather smoothly: Straight to the luggage desk thanks to the text message and my suitcase was already on the next flight from Melbourne and arrived about 3 hours later at my hotel. Inconvenient, yes, but Qantas did the best they could and I had a nice bottle of red with me while waiting for the luggage to arrive.

All in all a rather pleasant experience as most of the times I fly Qantas. With all the whinging about how bad Qantas is these days, I must once again say that I was satisfied. Yes, aircraft change, delayed luggage, all that jazz. But it was handheld well, the crews were an absolute delight and the food was yummie. And the little Christmas treats added to the feeling that despite all that goes wrong, some people at Qantas still care (and the flight crews themselves almost all do I must say).

 

[kangarooflyer88]

17th Dec., SYD-MEL “lunch time” service, followed by MEL-PER, both 737:

I had booked this rather weird connection via Melbourne because at time of booking, the MEL-PER lag was meant to be on an A330. Needless to say, Qantas once again swapped “equipment” so I was stuck on the ole 737. Meh.

The short hop to Melbourne was massively delayed but the crew was excellent and really made my day. The times when “lunch” was a proper hot meal seem to be over (eyes roll) as I got the way too common “Beef pie” with mushy peas that contains one microscopic piece of beef and more mushy vegetables so the meal is basically veggie mush with a side of veggie mush. The onion relish that was announced with “it’s really yummie” was nowhere to be found but the lovely crew member apologised profoundly for this (I had it before- it’s a sugar filled jar of some cheap supermarket brand so no big loss in my eyes).

View attachment 311754
Someone at Qantas must have been in a truly festive mood (or got a great sponsorship deal) though as besides my the usual Lindt ball, there was also a massive “Christmas pudding” flavoured chocolate bar. I did keep it for my better half as I’m generally not a big chocolate fan and never got used to those Anglo-saxon fruity things for Christmas to begin with (gingerbread is Christmas for me, not fruit mince pies which are just plain odd to me). We had also been given Christmas ice cream sandwiches in the lounge earlier (THEY were yumm!) so I was a bit over sugared at that point.

View attachment 311755

What I wasn’t was overly drunk yet so I was pleasantly surprised when I was offered a only recently opened bottle of the excellent Cab Sav to take with me. It must surely be some new rule by Qantas as this had never happened to me pre-Covid but now seems to happen all the time. Such a shame when they pour the good stuff away so I love this new leniency.

Next flight to Perth which was also slightly delayed not only was subbed to a 737 but it turned out to also be the oldest 737 still in active service by Qantas- lovely. The pilot was a true oddball who’s announcements sounded like he’s moderating The Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. He told us that we had a “Cranky old airplane with a cranky old pilot which will make for a great flight” and more similar antiques. Crew was not quite as good as on the first flight but still did an excellent job given the plane was full to the last seat (that’s what happens if you down grade the aircraft type during the holiday season). Meal service on the long leg to Perth was exactly the same as is now on the trans Tasman, sans the champagne: Choice of two hot and one cold meal, two reds and two whites and a little cake alongside the chocolate and, once again, the extra Christmas bar- this one was Pavlova flavoured white chocolate which was much more my thing.

Meal options were some braise pork in Asia style sauce with way too much rice and annoying Asian greens, chicken in mushroom sauce with rather odd mushed carrots or some horrible sounding cold lamb salad. Not surprisingly, almost no one had the salad and as much as I love pork, due to the sides I went for the chicken and it was rather yummie. About an hour before landing we were also given a small tub of vanilla ice cream. Way way way too much sweet stuff all day!

View attachment 311756

View attachment 311757

On arrival into Perth, I received a rather annoying text message about my luggage not having made it (they had a whole hour for this in Melbourne!) but the whole thing went rather smoothly. Straight to the luggage desk thanks to the text and my suitcase was already on the next flight from Melbourne and arrived about 3 hours later at my hotel. Inconvenient, yes, but Qantas did the best they could and I had a nice bottle of red with me while waiting for the luggage to arrive.

All in all a rather pleasant experience as most of the times I fly Qantas. With all the whinging about how bad Qantas is these days, I must once again say that I was satisfied. Yes, aircraft change, delayed luggage, all that jazz. But it was handheld well, the crews were an absolute delight and the food was yummie. And the little Christmas treats added to the feeling that despite all that goes wrong, some people at Qantas still care (and the flight crews themselves almost all do I must say).

Good to see Qantas pull some quality food out of Uncle Alan's stockings this holiday season. I wonder if this "upgrade" in catering only applies this week or if it will be more permanent?

-RooFlyer88

 

[Berlin]

Good to see Qantas pull some quality food out of Uncle Alan's stockings this holiday season. I wonder if this "upgrade" in catering only applies this week or if it will be more permanent?

-RooFlyer88

Haha, “Uncle Alan’s stockings”- love that! The chocolate bars are surely for Christmas only but the ice cream and choice of means on the longer haul seemed to be standard.

Food was generally tasty and the wine selection nice. But this was the case on my trans-Tasman a few weeks back too so I have no complaints about the onboard service. Having to call Qantas is a different story but there’s a different never-ending tread for that.

 

[SJF211]

Good to see Qantas pull some quality food out of Uncle Alan's stockings this holiday season. I wonder if this "upgrade" in catering only applies this week or if it will be more permanent?

-RooFlyer88

I actually know the answer for once. Through Sunday 25th December the 80g blocks are being served then from 26th December through 31 march (irrc) it will drop to 40g bars. Similar to what you use to get after they stopped proper deserts on short flights.

 

[Port Power]

17th Dec., SYD-MEL “lunch time” service, followed by MEL-PER, both 737:

I had booked this rather weird connection via Melbourne because at time of booking, the MEL-PER lag was meant to be on an A330. Needless to say, Qantas once again swapped “equipment” so I was stuck on the ole 737. Meh.

The short hop to Melbourne was massively delayed but the crew was excellent and really made my day. The times when “lunch” was a proper hot meal seem to be over (eyes roll) as I got the way too common “Beef pie” with mushy peas that contains one microscopic piece of beef and more mushy vegetables so the meal is basically veggie mush with a side of veggie mush. The onion relish that was announced with “it’s really yummie” was nowhere to be found but the lovely crew member apologised profoundly for this (I had it before- it’s a sugar filled jar of some cheap supermarket brand so no big loss in my eyes).

View attachment 311754
Someone at Qantas must have been in a truly festive mood (or got a great sponsorship deal) though as besides my the usual Lindt ball, there was also a massive “Christmas pudding” flavoured chocolate bar. I did keep it for my better half as I’m generally not a big chocolate fan and never got used to those Anglo-saxon fruity things for Christmas to begin with (gingerbread is Christmas for me, not fruit mince pies which are just plain odd to me). We had also been given Christmas ice cream sandwiches in the lounge earlier (THEY were yumm!) so I was a bit over-sugared at that point.

View attachment 311755

What I wasn’t was overly drunk yet so I was pleasantly surprised when I was offered a only recently opened bottle of the excellent Cab Sav to take with me. It must surely be some new rule by Qantas as this had never happened to me pre-Covid but now seems to happen all the time. Such a shame when they pour the good stuff away so I love this new leniency.

Next flight to Perth, which was also slightly delayed, was not only subbed to a 737 but it turned out to also be the oldest 737 still in active service by Qantas- lovely. The pilot was a true oddball who’s announcements sounded like he’s moderating The Price is Right or Wheel of Fortune. He told us that we had a “Cranky old airplane with a cranky old pilot which will make for a great flight” and more similar antiques. Crew was not quite as good as on the first flight but still did an excellent job given the plane was full to the last seat (that’s what happens if you down grade the aircraft type during the holiday season). Meal service on the long leg to Perth was exactly the same as is now on the trans Tasman, sans the champagne: Choice of two hot and one cold meal, two reds and two whites and a little cake alongside the chocolate and, once again, the extra Christmas bar- this one was Pavlova flavoured white chocolate which was much more my thing.

Meal options were some braise pork in Asia style sauce with way too much rice and annoying Asian greens, chicken in mushroom sauce with rather odd mushed carrots or some horrible sounding cold lamb salad. Not surprisingly, almost no one had the salad and as much as I love pork, due to the sides I went for the chicken and it was rather yummie. About an hour before landing we were also given a small tub of vanilla ice cream. Way way way too much sweet stuff all day!

View attachment 311756

View attachment 311757

On arrival into Perth, I received a rather annoying text message about my luggage not having made it (they had a whole hour for this in Melbourne!) but the entire thing went rather smoothly: Straight to the luggage desk thanks to the text message and my suitcase was already on the next flight from Melbourne and arrived about 3 hours later at my hotel. Inconvenient, yes, but Qantas did the best they could and I had a nice bottle of red with me while waiting for the luggage to arrive.

All in all a rather pleasant experience as most of the times I fly Qantas. With all the whinging about how bad Qantas is these days, I must once again say that I was satisfied. Yes, aircraft change, delayed luggage, all that jazz. But it was handheld well, the crews were an absolute delight and the food was yummie. And the little Christmas treats added to the feeling that despite all that goes wrong, some people at Qantas still care (and the flight crews themselves almost all do I must say).

I am beyond annoyed when the 787 I booked on (or 330/320 for that matter) is changed to a B737. Definitely NOT what I paid for! Completely different level of comfort and amenitie. Read: lack of comfort and amenitie!