Virgin Lounge Food

[blackcat20]

Just in BNE lounge now, first time for breakfast in a while, so may be old news. But I was amazed to see scrambled eggs AND bacon! Add to that raspberry and white chic muffins, yogurt/granola glasses plus all the usual fare for cereal, toast, toasties and pancakes. best lounge selection I have seen in a while in any lounge!

Scrambled eggs! I keep emailing them with that suggestion, maybe they finally listened...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Just in BNE lounge now, first time for breakfast in a while, so may be old news. But I was amazed to see scrambled eggs AND bacon! Add to that raspberry and white chic muffins, yogurt/granola glasses plus all the usual fare for cereal, toast, toasties and pancakes. best lounge selection I have seen in a while in any lounge!

I have to eat my words. I noticed this as well. The lounge was extremely crowded with the renos and valet parking sucks at moment as well. (hey, I have to whinge about something).

But begrudgingly......congratulations VA for a genuinely bloody good breakfast spread. Please keep it up!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Currently in the VA lounge in MKY where they have just put out a pumpkin dip with carrot and celery. Surprisingly very nice.

 

[Moopere]

All these tasty sounding morsels don't seem able to spread west for some reason. Despite making the lounge very large and relatively comfortable in PER, the food area is still shoved in a corner, tiny, and totally lacking for anyone who isn't up for a ham and cheese toasted sandwich.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Ham and cheese toasted sw is the cheapest thing they can do to make it financially viable, apart from having the opaque window covering, and not very good signage, if you didn't have your wits around you, you would have gone up the life/escalators and missed the VA lounge at PER.
Ham and cheese are a must staple diet, and its not only PER.
You talk about tiny morsels, what morsels, ??? I didnt see any, passing MEL lounge one late afternoon evening, no cooked food, no chef on hand, just, yes, the ham and cheese.
Grumbler, I am.

 

[Moopere]

Ham and cheese toasted sw is the cheapest thing they can do to make it financially viable

This seems like the obvious answer ... but I'm really unsure. I've never worked in catering so I don't know what I'm talking about - nevertheless, it appears to me that offering virtually unlimited access to premium beers, wine and other drinkies has got to be a long long way from cheap. The alcohol equivalent of the food offering might be Vic Bitter on tap ... but thats it, nothing else, yet they (and QF) don't do that, they put in at least a decent effort/spend on the drinks side.

You talk about tiny morsels, what morsels, ??? I didnt see any, passing MEL lounge one late afternoon evening, no cooked food, no chef on hand, just, yes, the ham and cheese.
Grumbler, I am.

Scrambled eggs, hot sliced beef with rolls, party pies, hot dogs, chilli, curry ... there is current or relatively recent experience reported for all these and more ... but not in good old PER. Never once hit anything other then sandwiches in PER. They used to have bircher muesli once upon a time in the mornings, but that seems long gone now as well.

I spent a year in the QP before moving over to VA and life wasn't any rosier over there either - occasionally in MEL or SYD they'd bring out a bare pizza and you'd have to fight through the scrum to get a slice

 

[Dan_]

The Moroccan lamb soup is a winner.

 

[TomVexille]

Will be at MEL lunchtime Friday. Wonder if there will be anything other than sandwiches.

 

[blackcat20]

Will be at MEL lunchtime Friday. Wonder if there will be anything other than sandwiches.

Hopefully. There's only so many toasties one can eat...

 

[OATEK]

The Moroccan lamb soup is a winner.

Yes, I had that in MEL on Sunday, and it was very good with some nice buttery toast to dip.

 

[Foreigner]

It appears to me that non-vegetarians favour well in VA lounge.

 

[elbarto]

It appears to me that non-vegetarians favour well in VA lounge.

I don't know about that. I was in the BNE and SYD lounges last weekend and there was no meat in sight, beyond a bit of ham. I found the offerings to be pretty mediocre. Given this was my first VA lounge experience, I was a but unimpressed. But I'm noticing a trend that during the week both VA and QF seem to have better offerings in the lounge than they do on the weekend. Which is frustrating as I usually only fly on weekends.

 

[Foreigner]

I don't know about that. I was in the BNE and SYD lounges last weekend and there was no meat in sight, beyond a bit of ham. I found the offerings to be pretty mediocre. Given this was my first VA lounge experience, I was a but unimpressed. But I'm noticing a trend that during the week both VA and QF seem to have better offerings in the lounge than they do on the weekend. Which is frustrating as I usually only fly on weekends.

My comments follow the numerous posts lately which refer to non-veg items on offer. I'll see for myself on Sunday but going by your comments about weekend offerings, i don't have big expectation.

 

[i_hate_the_tulla_freeway]

I find the interest in lounge and ob-board food kind of fascinating in an irrelevant sort of way.

I don't fly QF or VA or whoever for a feed, I fly them to go somewhere. That's their function. They are not a catering service. Virgin's job is to go up, stay up, and come down in a timely and appropriate manner.

If the planes are clean and on time and I can snatch a row 3 aisle seat, I'm happy. Everything else is just a frippery.

I appreciate the lounges as a better alternative to sitting at gate 9, and at 5.30pm I'm known to enjoy a couple of Peronis in a lounge, but I don't sit in the taxi on the way to the airport thinking about what's to eat in the lounge. There's always food when you get home or a club sandwich at the hotel.

 

[kevrosmith]

I find the interest in lounge and ob-board food kind of fascinating in an irrelevant sort of way.

I don't fly QF or VA or whoever for a feed, I fly them to go somewhere. That's their function. They are not a catering service. Virgin's job is to go up, stay up, and come down in a timely and appropriate manner.

If the planes are clean and on time and I can snatch a row 3 aisle seat, I'm happy. Everything else is just a frippery.

I appreciate the lounges as a better alternative to sitting at gate 9, and at 5.30pm I'm known to enjoy a couple of Peronis in a lounge, but I don't sit in the taxi on the way to the airport thinking about what's to eat in the lounge. There's always food when you get home or a club sandwich at the hotel.

Hmm... I think I disagree. The food offering (in particular on-board) is part of the product offered for sale. Perhaps the comparison is like going to the Movies and buying a ticket and popcorn deal, and then being given soggy popcorn. Is that what was expected when the package was bought?

Perhaps it could be said that if someone's not interested in the food offered, fly JQ or TT.

Besides, this is a FF forum, and we like to discuss these things back and forth ad infinitum. They also provide a perspective for people who may not travel as much as some, but may still have a hobby-ist interest in the discussion.

Cheers,

 

[quick_dry]

interesting that there was a tweet from the official VirginAustralia account asking about lounge food.

 

[Foreigner]

Two veg soups and usual salads, sandwich stations in operation.


Sent from AFF Mobile Edition

 

[Moopere]

I don't fly QF or VA or whoever for a feed, I fly them to go somewhere. That's their function. They are not a catering service. Virgin's job is to go up, stay up, and come down in a timely and appropriate manner.

If the planes are clean and on time and I can snatch a row 3 aisle seat, I'm happy. Everything else is just a frippery.

I think for mine the above is the minimum I expect of any airline I might fly with (well... not the row 3 thing perhaps ). So, assuming that all airlines I might choose to use provide the above, which one will I actually give money to on the day? Likely the one that treats me the best (in my biased view of course). Lounge food, along with a myriad other smaller and non life threatening things become part of my value judgement and is the opportunity for the provider to differentiate themselves from their competition.

Competition should drive standards upwards, not downwards as we so often see. When standards drop, even amongst otherwise competitive marketplaces, then the opportunity for new players is opened up. I used to fly QF exclusively (for example) and even had QP membership for a year. For me, they were the best player in the market at the time for my needs (this was back in the DJ era). Then DJ became VA as their own strategists must have determined that a viable market space had opened up due to QF complacence or other factors. Now VA gets close to 100% of my business. It wouldn't have cost QF a lot of money to retain my business by simply putting in a bit of effort - now they get almost none of my revenue - I see business making this apparent mistake all the time.

However, VA nowadays seem to be willingly participating in the shoulder to shoulder march to the bottom as far as standards go. They are not, today, maintaining the standard that they set a couple of years ago during the switch from DJ to VA. Given that both airlines are happy to drive to the bottom there isn't much incentive for me to switch camps at this time, but both airlines are creating a space for other potential players whether they realise it or not. Its a debate for another thread whether our particular market place can nourish 3 majors, but a similar process has happened over many years with international airlines.

 

[qf737838]

In the MEL lounge this afternoon (Wednesday) they had Bahn Mi (Vietnamese Pork Rolls) being freshly made to order with all the toppings by a chef ...

 

[Virgin Bart]

In the MEL lounge this afternoon (Wednesday) they had Bahn Mi (Vietnamese Pork Rolls) being freshly made to order with all the toppings by a chef ...

Wow! That's actually fantastic news.