What's the Best Non-First Class Airline Meal You've Been Served?

[dairyfloss]

I was flying with a mate to LHR quite a few years ago on BA. We had quite a bit to drink (it was a day flight from BOM). The pre-landing meal was a doner kebab. It was awesome! Only Y+ too.

Nice! I'd probably choose that in F!

 

[stm1sydney]

Not sure about J (have had many decent meals), but in Y the clear winner for me was the spicy octopus with rice for dinner on Asiana SYD/ICN in 2019. Very tender and flavoursome. You'd think it would be a bit rubbery as an airplane meal, but not at all!!! The Asiana Y meals were all excellent.
(Typo corrected SYD/ICN, not SYD/SIN.)

 

[AIRwin]

Asiana SYD/SIN

SYD-ICN or ICN-SIN?

 

[stm1sydney]

SYD-ICN or ICN-SIN?

Sorry, SYD/ICN. Which means it was a remarkable effort if it was catered in ICN.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Fun thread, and some good trips down memory lane.

Best Y meal: a beef short-rib from SYD-JNB on QF. Also from the days of pre-order and the first time I saw Antarctica.

Best PY meal: a cod (or perhaps something local of identical texture) on Air New Zealand, AKL-SFO.

Best J meal: JAL / ANA, the Japanese meals. Bar those, an Indonesian rijsttafel set-up on KLM from AMS-SIN. Plates were licked.

Best dessert: KLM used to do (maybe still does do) cream profiteroles with a chocolate sauce in Y. So simple, no doubt cheap, and still something I'd choose over even most J desserts I've had.

Best bread: SQ garlic bread is obviously a staple. in Y, once again, KLM managed a soft, chewy roll that didn't dry out even after being warmed.

Annnnd.... time for dinner.

 

[Forg]

I’m feeling jealous of you bods … my two F meals were only about what you’d expect from a pretty average suburban “modern Australian” restaurant, no J meal has been even as good as that, and my PY meals which were advertised as “same as J but one less choice” were just slightly larger Y-spec meals in microwave tubs with the same names as J meals on the same plane on the same day …

 

[stm1sydney]

Best J meal: China Airlines (Taiwan) SYD/TPE or vv (not sure) a few years ago, a wonderful multi-course asian meal topped off with really nice Taiwanese whiskey (Kavalan).

 

[Forg]

Best J meal: China Airlines (Taiwan) SYD/TPE or vv (not sure) a few years ago, a wonderful multi-course asian meal topped off with really nice Taiwanese whiskey (Kavalan).

Interesting … flew with them to UK in 2018 because combo of good fares ($3k return) and brand-spankers A350’s both legs … rated the hard-product & service, I’d have been disappointed with the meals if I’d paid $15 in a food-court. They were advertising a quality local whiskey heavily in the IFE & magazine (can’t recall the brand), but the best they had onboard was Johnny Walker Blue & no single-malts.

Was yours before this, or did they improve after?

 

[stm1sydney]

Was yours before this, or did they improve after?

This was in April 2018.

 

[Forg]

This was in April 2018.

Mine was June 2018, and as there weren't many tickets for sale around the ~$3k mark I definitely bought them before you flew so I doubt there were service-level changes.
Mebbe I'm just fussy, and the catering department had run out of the good whiskey for all of June.

 

[Peanutbladder]

Back in the mid 90's (I know in the dark ages !! ) A fantastic lasagne on KLM in Y travelling to some far-flung Asian destination. In fact, so good I asked for seconds and was duly given an extra portion.

 

[stm1sydney]

Mine was June 2018, and as there weren't many tickets for sale around the ~$3k mark I definitely bought them before you flew so I doubt there were service-level changes.
Mebbe I'm just fussy, and the catering department had run out of the good whiskey for all of June.

Did you go the chinese meal or the western meal? If the western, that might explain it.

I also remember the breakfast (chinese choice again) which was congee with ALL the trimmings. There were about six little pots of goodies arranged around the bowl of congee, like a degustation for breakfast. Nice.

Shame about the whiskey/whisky - not having any single malts is a big fail.

 

[Forg]

No my first two attempts were the Chinese options because I thought they’d do that better … and I thought it must have been bad congee because it was just nothing, I only ate the stuff surrounding it which I thought was fairly uneventful like kimchi is. Now you’re making me think I just don’t like congee (and there isn’t much of any food I don’t like … except rotting-flavour seafood like the eel you get on inexpensive ‘sushi train’ in Straya or those pickled rotting herrings the Scandinavians eat - hmm except in hindsight my uncle brought a good Swedish brand to Christmas and they were actually pretty good … ).

Even though their home-airport J lounges didn’t get great write-ups, I thought the one with stone walls & no windows which felt like it was underground had a really good selection of dumplings & noodles; and THEY had a couple of nice single malts, although I now remember thinking it was a bit odd that they didn’t have the Taiwanese one they were advertising but had Scottish ones that cost more (at least in Australia, can’t recall what they were except that one was an upper-spec fairly limited-production Glenmorangie which I’ve only memory-pegged due to Highlander). Which, after what you’ve said, makes me think it’s even more likely they were awaiting a big Kavalan delivery after running out!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

those pickled rotting herrings the Scandinavians eat - hmm except in hindsight my uncle brought a good Swedish brand to Christmas and they were actually pretty good … ).

Now, now, let's not bring innocent sill into this.

 

[Snowant]

Qantas (some years back), from Adelaide back to Canberra after a fraught week of meetings and a big event I'd organised (yes I was beat). Dinner was unlimited cans of james squire, and a giant rissole sitting on a generous bed of mashed potato, with gravy. OMG, it was perfect.
When we landed at CBR and were sitting waiting for them to connect the tube, the back door opened and in clumped some ground staff.
The still-seated hosties indicated a cupboard in the galley and said "they're in there" (I was in the back row, always fly back there). Flight crew opened cupboard which was some kind of oven, got out the dinners, and started eating! Clearly, that meal had fans.

Of course, the wonderful JAL food will be mentioned.
I used to fly JAL Syd-Narita and Narita-YVR quite a bit, and always looked forward to the soba noodles where you mixed your own sauce. One time the main was a perfect round fillet steak.

The Japanese next to me had observed me using Japanese chopsticks to eat the soba, and then observed me use the knife and fork to eat the steak. Then they speared the steak with forks and proceeded to gnaw at them, suspended in mid air.

I think that was 2-0 to the gaijin.

 

[Major]

I loved the Mezze platters served in J on Etihad. Great for nibbling with a glass of Champagne

 

[MollyJones]

Was talking about this with my now 18yo who still has the memory of an Emirates economy flight MEL-SIN when he was all of 5 years old.
The kids "mea"l was a box of chocolate, chips and lollies, and I had requested those kids meals for all 3 of mine.
I vaguely remember that there might have been a sandwich or something too, but to this little 5 year old it seemed all his Christmases had come at once. I definitely remember looking at it and deciding to ration it so we didn't end up with a sugar hyped trio for the overnight flight.
Not quite up there with the meals you all have mentioned, but it was surely his best meal in his little life at the time.

 

[Brissy1]

Beautiful steak with bearnaise on Aircalin a few months ago.

 

[Scarlett]

Well the title doesn’t actually specify that the meal had to be on a plane, so I’m going to cheat a bit:
Best ‘airline-related’ meal was three, yes three, servings of the green beans in the LAX oneworld (QF) Flounge - that might also disqualify my entry as it was realistically an ‘F meal’, or accompaniment - anyhoo, after having been in the US for three weeks (and even having been shopping at Whole Foods) the taste of these simple steamed veges was amazing. No cheeeessseeee, no fat, no high fructose corn syrup, no ‘ya wan fries with that’, just plain simple green beans.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Had to think about this for a while. Back in the days when QF J mid to long haul served very good food, an era that closed around 2016, I had wonderful French lamb cutlets with a white bean puree on SYD-HKG. A few curries on MH J also certainly beat some of the current bland EK F meat and veg options.