Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[QF WP]

Was offered the chicken pasta or mushroom salad on VA886 from SYD to MEL last Thursday evening.

Decided to give the mushroom salad a go since I had the pasta before and was surprised it was warmed (the CSM did not mention this when she took my order) but tasty especially the pesto drizzle.

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Although I have to say the size of the mushroom in my salad was noticeably small (see Cryptarcadian's post for comparison).

PDB of sparkling and water were offered with meal orders taken from 1A to 1F then 2A to 2F.

Service was ok as the CSM went to the galley and chat after the meal service.

Looks like my mushroom was bigger than both yours and @Cryptarcadian's. But why not slice it and arrange on the top, or dice it and put it through the salad? I'm no chef, but having one large mushroom cup on the top just doesn't do it for me visually.

 

[MarkMelbourne]

Can I ask, are 'special meals' (e.g. VGML) only available on international flights?
Or for longer AU domestic flights is that an option?
Thank-you.

 

[HS-TQE]

Can I ask, are 'special meals' (e.g. VGML) only available on international flights?
Or for longer AU domestic flights is that an option?
Thank-you.

Special Meals used to be available on VAi Long Haul to LAX and (previously) HKG prior to VA 1.0's administration.

Short Haul International (NZ, Bali, Fiji) had almost the same catering as their mainline domestic operations, with no Special Meal requests available, (in both classes) iirc.

VA 2.0 isn't currently operating Long Haul International for the foreseeable future, concentrating mostly on Short Haul International to compliment their mainline Domestic Operations.

 

[TMP]

Can I ask, are 'special meals' (e.g. VGML) only available on international flights?
Or for longer AU domestic flights is that an option?
Thank-you.

Unfortunately VA does not do special meals

 

[RickyT84]

Looks like my mushroom was bigger than both yours and @Cryptarcadian's. But why not slice it and arrange on the top, or dice it and put it through the salad? I'm no chef, but having one large mushroom cup on the top just doesn't do it for me visually.

Agree. You would think there would be more consistency in terms of the size of the main item as both our meals looks odd in terms of presentation.

Maybe VA is taking a leaf out of QF's playbook in terms of consistency...

 

[antycbr]

Agree. You would think there would be more consistency in terms of the size of the main item as both our meals looks odd in terms of presentation.

Maybe VA is taking a leaf out of QF's playbook in terms of consistency...

If they really were then random flights would not have any J catering at all.

 

[Cryptarcadian]

Looks like my mushroom was bigger than both yours and @Cryptarcadian's.

Haha you certainly win this round!

When do we reckon the next menu update will be?

 

[QF WP]

I'll put money on 31 August (end of winter).

 

[RickyT84]

I'll put money on 31 August (end of winter).

I hope they would have changed over by now as we had the same options on a flight back in March.

My understanding (based on discussions with a couple of CSMs) was it was meant to change every three months or so.

 

[kerfuffle]

I hope they would have changed over by now as we had the same options on a flight back in March.

Try more November. Been eating chicken katsu and burrito bowls for the past six months …

 

[xen0n33]

VA1530 SYD-HBA (Saturday morning) - breakfast was Zucchini Frittata with spinach and tomato, along with a danish. Quite nice, if a little on the blander side. The other option available was the ham & cheese croissant.

 

[Jurahn]

Looks like my mushroom was bigger than both yours and @Cryptarcadian's. But why not slice it and arrange on the top, or dice it and put it through the salad? I'm no chef, but having one large mushroom cup on the top just doesn't do it for me visually.

Sorry, I have to say it, can't help myself (I worked on a mushroom farm for 5 years) - judging by the photos, they're not cups, they're flats . The supermarkets used to call them field mushrooms back then - I notice these days they often tend to use pictures of cups but advertising them as flats, which just confuses the issue. We used to get sod all for them at the markets, perhaps $1-$1.50kg because "no one wants them" said the buyers ... didn't stop WW and Coles selling them for $12-$13/kg.

I'll get off my soapbox now LOL.

 

[ANstar]

VA684 PER-MEL 10.20 seat 1A

Returning the favour. Delayed by about 15 mins. Offered PDD of sparkling or water. I decided I was on Melbourne time so took the sparkling . I can't recall ever not been offered sparkling (or taking it). Told a friend who is a CM for Qantas that this was the norm and she was surprised. She said that Virgin must pay for a special licence to be able to do this.

I'd understand the comment about paying for a special license if it was international ie paying the duty on the liquor... but this is domestic Oz... I think it just comes down to VA paying more $$ to provide a sparkling..QF only have the mini Burge bottles.

 

[Ewing]

VA1530 SYD-HBA (Saturday morning) - breakfast was Zucchini Frittata with spinach and tomato, along with a danish. Quite nice, if a little on the blander side. The other option available was the ham & cheese croissant.

I forgot to take a photo, but I was on VA1530 on Friday morning. Same options but I went with the croissant.

It was quite nice and hit the spot (I didn't want to eat much as I was going to lunch on landing). Not dried out, and it had a rather nice relish inside too.

Washed it down with a glass (well, 3) of sparkling wine

Return on VA1537 (8:20pm) last night was the tortellini or chicken tagine. Both looked decent but I skipped the meal as I'd already eaten in town before heading to the airport - but I did accept the offer of some savoury nibbles (pretzels/almonds, and the cheese+crackers) which went rather well with a few glasses of the rather tasty St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz.

Crew on both flights were perfect.

 

[Must...Fly!]

VA693 MEL-PER last Thursday, usual PDB choices offered. Chicken cacciatore again, or mushroom faro salad, I chose the former. Mediterranean antipasti plate and red velvet cake. Was suitably stuffed after eating well in the lounge before as well.

 

[Andyzx]

Does anyone know what food, lounge access (or if its going to change soon) on VA international Business. esp NZ, Fiji etc.
Thanks
Andy

 

[TMP]

Think we would only be speculating at this point, Andy.

 

[henrus]

Does anyone know what food

Food both in Economy and Business currently mirrors domestic flights.

lounge access

Currently no lounge access for VA international flights (currently NAN and soon to be DPS). Obviously if departing from MEL you could use the domestic lounge.

 

[Astro]

MEL-SYD Wednesday lunch.



Cajun Chicken Toastie with Swiss Cheese. It was pretty good - I actually haven't had this before. A knife and fork job as others have said above. The Turkish Bread doesn't fare too well being twice cooked.

Alternative was the Vegetable Tart thing with relish.

Service was outstanding. Full flight.

Coming home today was same options. On the way to Melbourne we were on that weird Silk Air plane that has the horrible yellow seats and no divider between J and Y.

I think it's VH-IXJ? Still not upgraded to the VA interior.

The airport at both ends was much busier than I expected. It will be a busy long weekend for those working in the industry.

 

[oz_ally]

I had the same as @Astro above on my recent trip BNE - MEL. I hadn't been offered it before but I really enjoyed it. I had some rice thing with chicken on the way back. I did travel to Melbourne with a friend for the Cat Lover's Show (whoda thunk it!! ) but she stayed on to go visit fam in country Vic for a week extra so I flew back by myself, hence having a rando seated next to me - I didn't want to look like a weirdo taking a photo of my tray of food in front of him.

I also hope that there was nobody from here on that flight (MEL-BNE VA323 11:10). I got up to use the facilities and couldn't see for looking where it was! I'm standing there like a gonk looking around for the door and the rest of the J peeps were pointing and saying "it's that door there" but yeah I was still flummoxed and almost thought they were pointing to the coughpit. Jeez I could just see it now "Boomer arrested for entering coughpit because she was too dumb to see the toilet door. Then she takes a photo of her tray of food. Straight-Jacket was waiting on her arrival in Brisbane. More news at 11".