Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[UpInTheAir:)]

VA567 SYD-PER yesterday.

The fish main will not upload for some reason.

Will be giving QF J a go next flight. A high target to meet....

Hope you get the suite.. you will be very sad if you get the old 2-3-2 config...

 

[HeavyElectricity]

VA567 SYD-PER yesterday.

The fish main will not upload for some reason. Reasonable quality pies were available in the SYD lounge beforehand.

I have to say the VA service in J has been getting more consistent (for the better) over the past few flights. Things like being offered an amenity kit, items from the pantry, being addressed by name (like QF) etc have been far more evident this year.

I was on the same flight . Small delay with the aerobridges?

Ocean Trout:



Last night's flight was one of the best I've had. Great service! Pre-dinner drink and nuts/olives, pro-active offering of snacks (laid out in a display basket) after dinner. So much more ahead in terms of product compared of what I had in J AYQ-SYD on the 737 just beforehand.

 

[Pleb Status]

I was on the same flight . Small delay with the aerobridges?

Ocean Trout:
View attachment 68691


Last night's flight was one of the best I've had. Great service! Pre-dinner drink and nuts/olives, pro-active offering of snacks (laid out in a display basket) after dinner. So much more ahead in terms of product compared of what I had in J AYQ-SYD on the 737 just beforehand.

Your story checks out Sludge.... At least our baggage was immediately available at baggage reclaim after the aerobridge delay.

Two of the female FA in J were ex-EK, so that may of helped in terms of service. Overall, a very good flight by VA and staff.

Both VA and QF now have a large gap between the A330 and B737 J product and service. I try to avoid the 737 in general if possible.

 

[Milboo]

MEL - SYD tonight and I was a little underwhelmed given I've always had good experiences.

I swapped last minute so had catering not assured. Cabin was full (6).

FA did the rounds asking about meal choices - lamb shank or minestrone and 5/6 opted to eat. I was last to order. Part way through service, she returns and tells me out of lamb shank. Surely they should have checked meal quantities before even offering?

Soup it was along with the weird carrot dish. They managed to have that on board but no rolls available and no sweet offered.

Serve of soup was not overly generous. So much so I asked for cheese and crackers after (when FA finally paid me attention) but they never arrived.

In lieu of soup I asked for pantry items and was offered chips or popcorn...

trays also sat uncleared ages.

 

[scottz95]

Got a few to catch up on this week, may have to split this out a couple of times due to the number of photos.

VA469
PER-BNE
737-800 - VH-YFJ
Sunday, 1st May

Before I start this, I did want to call out something off-topic. The service on this flight was awful. There were 2 J pax on this flight, one older gentleman and myself (I'm in my early 20s, you'll see why I mentioned this shortly). After the main was served, it took about 15 minutes for the crew to clear the tray even though I counted no less than 5 times were a crew did the round trip through the business cabin (I also checked to make sure it wasn't staff working on the economy meal service cart, they weren't). They also took an hour to bring out my dessert, whilst I wasn't starving either, for something that I'm pretty sure was bought at Woolies clearance aisle with a yesterday best before date (tasted like it at least) it really shouldn't have taken that long. They also didn't proactively offer refills on drinks or water, in fact, they actively tried not to make eye contact with me the whole hour so I wouldn't ask them for it. This strikes me as a little rotten as they proactively served the other older gentleman in the cabin every 5 or 10 minutes with refills or offers from the pantry menu. Am I being a bit of a princess about this or do you think it was a touch off?

Starter: King Prawns, snow peas, Vietnamese mint and macadamias with tamarind dressing

A main stay of the VA J trans-con menu. There is always king prawns with corn and "insert X sauce here". I have had this on pretty much every transcon with VA for the last two years with the exception of the one morning transcon I did as they were still serving up breakfast. But its still a good dish, it would be nice if it was cycled out a bit though and not just a change of sauce.

Main: Paprika and tomato braised lamb shank on potato gnocchi with capsicum and olives

It was amazing, not a single bad thing to say about this dish. The parika and tomato flavour was both aromatic and tasty. The gnocchi was served al dente and the olives gave it a nice balance to the flavour. The lamb was super tender. I was very impressed.

Dessert: Vanilla Slice

This was pretty meh. The sauce was sweet but the vanilla slice tasted stale and the "vanilla" tasted a little too much like plastic for my liking. Pretty sure somebody went to Woolies and picked up the first thing they saw to serve to business class.

 

[scottz95]

2nd one:

VA958
BNE-SYD
1500-1645
737-800 - VH-VUC

Main: Beef Pastie with a tomato "relish"
Salad: Thinly sliced pickles?? (I'm guessing, it tasted like pickles and I can't stand pickles)
Dessert: Salted toffee almonds covered in milk chocolate (pre-packaged)

I really liked the pastie, it was a soft and flakey texture on the outside, the filling was piping hot when I received it and had a great flavour to it. I hate pickles so I won't pass judgement on the salad as it would be very bias. The prepackaged dessert was great, two hulk sized almonds covered in chocolate and toffee, yes please, I'll have those again.

Maybe 30minutes before landing the CSM also went around to offer items from the snack basket which I took the chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn and got an additional set of the almonds served with the meal:

 

[scottz95]

All caught up for me now:

VA567
Friday, 6th May
1815-2125
A330-200 - VH-XFG

Starter: King Prawns with chipotle, corn salsa and corriander - unfortunately the photo is too dark upon review of it so you cant really see anything. But to illustrate it, see my post 2 up from this and spray chipotle sauce on it. Its really wasn't different from that.

Main: Red curry of duck with jasmine rice, lychee and Thai herbs

Great dish, tasted fantastic. The duck was soft and well cooked, the lychee through the curry made for a nice sweet and savoury balance and there was plenty of curry to go through the rice as well.

Dessert: Chocolate brownie with creme fraiche

A little dry but still nice and "chocolate-y" if that is a word. The creme fraiche wasn't really up my alley as I found it a touch too savory to balance the flavours out but I'm sure others thought it was great.

 

[Milboo]

Funny you mentioned the refill point as that was something I omitted from my experience.

I was not offered a refill at any stage - of my lowly diet coke. Yet the 2 business men in row 1 managed to get several refills of their wine. To me it seemed she was focused on row 1 only.

 

[Princess Fiona]

NTL-BNE Lunch
Choice of chicken or soup


BNE-NTL Snack
Choice of quiche or egg sandwiches


It's pleasing that choices appear to have been restored to the meal service.

 

[kevrosmith]

I had the same chicken meal for dinner on Friday night, PF. The presentation of my meal was much more pleasing than yours....

 

[bubblyguy]

I had the same chicken meal for dinner on Friday night, PF. The presentation of my meal was much more pleasing than yours....

Depending on the flight time some meals are pre-plated and cooked meanwhile others are plated.

These two comparisons show one meal that is pre-plated and cooked in the bowl meanwhile yours was cooked all seperate and plated by the crew onboard.

I hope that explains the difference you can see

 

[UpInTheAir:)]

I had the same chicken meal for dinner on Friday night, PF. The presentation of my meal was much more pleasing than yours....

Wow... looks like a different dish...

 

[Bolthead]

Choice of snack today on VA527 SYD-OOL...
Zucchini Quiche or Chicken dish. Service was excellent with 8/8 load in J. Considering the service lost 20 minutes due to turbulence leaving SYD the CSM did a great job. The peas were a nice touch. Interesting enough as far as I could tell only 3/8 pax ordered food with the balance only asking for drinks or nothing...

 

[UpInTheAir:)]

Love your avatar and signature bolthead lol

 

[juliusg]

Had a nice 737 flight from Perth to Sydney last night, despite losing circulation in my cough from those hideous J seats. The Asian dude (wish I could remember his name) was lovely, the starter Chicken Salad was great and the Quiche with zucchini and fennel on smashed pumpkin was good too. Interestingly I had the same dish in the A330 flight over, and my pictures show the difference in presentation and cooking.

First picture: The A330 version with perfectly cooked zucchini placed under.

Last night's version with the (overdone) zuc on top. (I smashed the Quiche on the right side, so don't blame the FA for that one!)

Here is the chicken salad from the 737 flight.

Interestingly, this menu has three choices - pork belly with asian sauce on rice; trout with kiffler potatoes and stuff, and the quiche. The trout is not available on the 737. Fortunately they had a least 2 bottles of Chardonnay loaded as myself and a lady behind me polished them off.

 

[scottz95]

Funny you mentioned the refill point as that was something I omitted from my experience.

I was not offered a refill at any stage - of my lowly diet coke. Yet the 2 business men in row 1 managed to get several refills of their wine. To me it seemed she was focused on row 1 only.

Indeed, sitting in row 2 (in particular A and F) are far more private seats on the 737 but maybe that privacy is so much better that even the FAs forget you are there. I mean after all, it's not hard to take an extra step or flick your head around to check if a refill would be required.

Out of curiousity, were you similarly dressed in business attire or a bit more casual? I feel like that may also be a difference maker sometimes

 

[Milboo]

Indeed, sitting in row 2 (in particular A and F) are far more private seats on the 737 but maybe that privacy is so much better that even the FAs forget you are there. I mean after all, it's not hard to take an extra step or flick your head around to check if a refill would be required.

Out of curiousity, were you similarly dressed in business attire or a bit more casual? I feel like that may also be a difference maker sometimes

Not suited - in a semi dressy black dress and a scarf. Boarded with the uniform black laptop bag.

 

[Bagpuss]

Interestingly, this menu has three choices - pork belly with asian sauce on rice; trout with kiffler potatoes and stuff, and the quiche. The trout is not available on the 737. Fortunately they had a least 2 bottles of Chardonnay loaded as myself and a lady behind me polished them off.

I had the pork belly on the a330 on the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it, so did the other half.

Though what's weird is you have been served your meal on a tray and you shouldn't receive food on a tray.
Even economy doesn't get tray's anymore and there is a paper mat (which apparently changed Wednesday last week as part of cost-cutting).

 

[anat0l]

Though what's weird is you have been served your meal on a tray and you shouldn't receive food on a tray.
Even economy doesn't get tray's anymore and there is a paper mat (which apparently changed Wednesday last week as part of cost-cutting).

The latter picture with food on a tray is from a 737. I believe 737 J, even if coast to coast, is still served on a tray (which, for most part, are warped! )

 

[bubblyguy]

Though what's weird is you have been served your meal on a tray and you shouldn't receive food on a tray.

737 Transcon services still use the business class tray but do also have the linen tablecloth. The entree and main are served on the tray.

Once the main is finished the crew take the tray away and your choice of dessert/cheese is placed straight on to the tablecloth.