Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

[Gladstone Tim]

VA952 BNE-SYD 27Dec J class
Choice of Reuben sandwich or caramelised onion tart. Chose the tart. Was a small but suitable sized offering with some taste to it, along with mashed potato and relish. Came with the obligatory heart chocolate and cheese & cracker pack. My gluten-free wife was offered anything from the BOB menu. Generous pour of the wine with a refill offered. I’m sure I could have asked for more if desired. Tea and coffee offered as was PDB of juice, water and maybe wine. Rope was installed to keep the Y pax in their element.

 

[dk4]

Close up with the Mediterranean Salad.

 

[twinaisle]

Close up with the Mediterranean Salad.
View attachment 313821

What did you think of it?

 

[dk4]

What did you think of it?

Like the vast majority of the VA vego dish options, I think it is very clever.

Initial presentation is typical Virgin; colourful, playful and enticing... and then when you start dissecting it, there is real substance underneath - with quite a bit more eggplant and tomato than just what is visible (I dislike it when salad makers just put a few of the key things on top of a mound, and then you dig in only to find basic filler underneath). I think the bread idea is inspired, and used it to mop up everything left on the plate when I finished. The flavours were good, and overall fesh. I assume that y'all sprinkle the garnish in the galley before bring the plate out, as that hadn't wilted into the moistness of the various pre-plated elements.

All up a solid performance. And always worth pointing out - that IMO the "vegetarian option" is never second best at Virgin, unlike many other airlines... Hilarious when the CMs have to guard the vego allocation from us meat eaters, in case there are actual vegetarians onboard, haha.

 

[Zanzaid]

All flights to and from Perth are single catered.

The meals from Perth are different from the east coast meals as they are a separate caterer!

You will not find the meals ex PER on any other routes!

Speaking of. VA469 PER-BNE today.
Options were Miso baked Chicken with Noodles, Bok Choy and Shiitake mushrooms, or Vegetable Thai Green Curry with rice. Both came with some sort of antipasto plate too.

Partner and I both went the Curry I'm afraid so no picture of the chicken, but looked like it was presented well at least! Didn't mind the curry though.

Orders taken 1A/1C - 2A/C - 1D/F - 2D/F.

 

[twinaisle]

Like the vast majority of the VA vego dish options, I think it is very clever.

Initial presentation is typical Virgin; colourful, playful and enticing... and then when you start dissecting it, there is real substance underneath - with quite a bit more eggplant and tomato than just what is visible (I dislike it when salad makers just put a few of the key things on top of a mound, and then you dig in only to find basic filler underneath). I think the bread idea is inspired, and used it to mop up everything left on the plate when I finished. The flavours were good, and overall fesh. I assume that y'all sprinkle the garnish in the galley before bring the plate out, as that hadn't wilted into the moistness of the various pre-plated elements.

All up a solid performance. And always worth pointing out - that IMO the "vegetarian option" is never second best at Virgin, unlike many other airlines... Hilarious when the CMs have to guard the vego allocation from us meat eaters, in case there are actual vegetarians onboard, haha.

It's a really fresh dish! All the meals VA serve in J are actu made fresh. I know personally that the other airlines are snap frozen.

Loadings means we actually only have 3 veg option and 5 protein so we try out best to save it for actual vegos but YMMV with meal choices.

You're definitely right, the vego options on VA are actually delicious!

 

[Sprucegoose]

Again VA excels itself, leaving QF in the blocks.

VA 284 CBR MEL 8 JAN 23

Light cold meal - fresh, tasty Middle Eastern Dish (the alternative was a cold chicken and couscous salad)

Order of Service 1A 2A/C/D

Wine is young but comes from a good home and has body at altitude.

CSM was present, attentive and enthusiastic regarding customer service (that's the job, really). I also appreciated a thoughtful gift. The crew were young but did their job.

Well done, Virgin; I appreciated the experience.

 

[zig]

Again VA excels itself, leaving QF in the blocks.

VA 284 CBR MEL 8 JAN 23

Light cold meal - fresh, tasty Middle Eastern Dish (the alternative was a cold chicken and couscous salad)

Order of Service 1A 2A/C/D

Wine is young but comes from a good home and has body at altitude.

CSM was present, attentive and enthusiastic regarding customer service (that's the job, really). I also appreciated a thoughtful gift. The crew were young but did their job.

Well done, Virgin; I appreciated the experience.



View attachment 314060View attachment 314064View attachment 314058


View attachment 314059

Looks very appetising. I hope it is on the menu when I fly next.

 

[serfty]

Light cold meal - fresh, tasty Middle Eastern Dish (the alternative was a cold chicken and couscous salad)

Seems an interesting dish, @dk4 had a detailed review Friday. According to @Denali , the chickpea dip is amazing.

Virgin Australia Business Class - Meals, Menus & Service

I almost feel like booking a flight to check it out.

 

[Sprucegoose]

According to @Denali , the chickpea dip is amazing.

Yes, seriously, a good restaurant standard. Contrast this to the prison food I received on QF1907.

I'll take you to dinner.... we'll fly to Sydney!

 

[twinaisle]

Like the vast majority of the VA vego dish options, I think it is very clever.

Initial presentation is typical Virgin; colourful, playful and enticing... and then when you start dissecting it, there is real substance underneath - with quite a bit more eggplant and tomato than just what is visible (I dislike it when salad makers just put a few of the key things on top of a mound, and then you dig in only to find basic filler underneath). I think the bread idea is inspired, and used it to mop up everything left on the plate when I finished. The flavours were good, and overall fesh. I assume that y'all sprinkle the garnish in the galley before bring the plate out, as that hadn't wilted into the moistness of the various pre-plated elements.

All up a solid performance. And always worth pointing out - that IMO the "vegetarian option" is never second best at Virgin, unlike many other airlines... Hilarious when the CMs have to guard the vego allocation from us meat eaters, in case there are actual vegetarians onboard, haha.

There are some dishes that require garnish like the basil leaves we dress up the Thai chicken curry!

The middle eastern hummus salad requires no plating or garnishing at all! It comes as is from gate gourmet so you can see how fresh it is!

Pre covid we used to plate and garnish a lot of the dishes but feedback (from other lazy cm) said that it was too time consuming to garnish

 

[Sprucegoose]

Pre covid we used to plate and garnish a lot of the dishes but feedback (from other lazy cm) said that it was too time consuming to garnish

Indeed, post covid I now self-garnish.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Looks very appetising. I hope it is on the menu when I fly next.

VA is slow to rotate so when you get something good, that's great - the flip, not much so. I hope you do get to experience this one, are you close to retirement?

 

[bam71]

Is that boiled eggs?

 

[Denali]

Yes, seriously, a good restaurant standard. Contrast this to the prison food I received on QF1907.

I'll take you to dinner.... we'll fly to Sydney!

Hubby said the chicken parmi he had Tassie to Sydney was better than the restaurant chicken parmi he had the night before.

If only Virgin could fix their lack of bread roll and sweet/dessert issue out. The love heart choc doesnt cut it.

 

[JJS]

VA845 MEL-SYD 8th Jan 23.

Choices were middle eastern plate with sourdough or Thai green chicken curry.

Went with the curry which I thought was great but looking at the reviews above should have picked the middle eastern plate!

Order of service 1A/C, 2A/C, 1D/F, 2D/F

Flight manager was great! Great service and attentive.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

VA973 SYD-BNE Sat 7/1
J full with 8/8, cabin manager was busy but friendly.
PDB options were still water or OJ, asked for Sparkling water but got told "after takeoff" (first time for everything I guess).
Meal options were Chicken parmigiana w/sweet potato mash & broccolini or the three Cheese tortellini. I took the chicken and it was good. Broccolini sat under the chicken and had a bit of char to it, which is how I like it. Orders taken 1AC, 2AC, 2DF then 1DF.
Asked for pinot noir and had the CM come back shortly thereafter to apologise that VA had changed the wine list on him and that the options were Cab Sav or Shiraz - I took the Shiraz.
Agreed with previous poster that lack of dinner roll and dessert is a shame, and whilst the heart shaped chocolate was nice, it left me wanting a bit more.

 

[Ade]

Is that boiled eggs?

The middle eastern hummus salad

I thought it was some sort of cheese (mozzarella, or such). If it is indeed eggs, there goes another dish that I can't have Unless, the egg can be avoided while plating, which I think may not work because from what I understand this dish is loaded plated?

 

[kerfuffle]

PDB options were still water or OJ, asked for Sparkling water but got told "after takeoff" (first time for everything I guess).

This also happened on my flight last week; 1D wanted sparkling water but was told the same thing. (I opted for sparkling wine)

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

This also happened on my flight last week; 1D wanted sparkling water but was told the same thing. (I opted for sparkling wine)

Wonder if there's been a directive to staff to come back to exactly the offering and not an inch more??