Worst in-flight meal you've received?

[Matt_01]

.....(nothing else to do - no such thing as IFE then).....

Off topic, yes there was - it was just BYO. From memory on a 1970’s flight to SYD-LHR my parents gave my brother and I something similar to this


That was shared and each one was rationed with 1 beano and 1 buster annual that we could swap when finished reading. Cannot remember what my sister had she was to young. 40 years on we seem to be going back to BYO IFE.

All these talk about bad food on MU has me worried...
Have a flight with them this coming Nov from Sydney to Okinawa via Shanghai in J.

Fingers crossed, will have zero expectations after reading this thread.

Back on topic, not all MU meals are bad MU domestic mid afternoon flight, sure did not look the best but tasted ok, I expected worse.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

I don't really fly Y on flights long enough to eat on, so nothing comes to mind.

This one however is easily the worst dish I've ever had onboard in any cabin (QF HKG-SYD in J). It was sent back after one bite.

That QF meal looks truly horrendous. Actually I'm thinking I had something like that recently but I drank the wine to erase the memory.

 

[RooFlyer]

Had to think a lot, but it would have been breakfast on an Air France flight from Accra to Paris. It was actually a ring-in charter, with generic plane and non AF crew. Probably rates for being one of my worst flights rather than worst meals.

Breakfast was a croissant, no butter or accompaniments, in a cellophane bag, and they had all been squashed by having something stacked on top of the tray they were on. I think there was coffer or juice too. Of course the fact that it was the night after 9/11 in the USA didn't help the frame of mind ...

Runner-up would be the foil-wrapped rotten cheese segment served by Ansett ... the replacement one was also rotten.

 

[Renato1]

Worst inflight snack was on a 5.30pm Qantas Flight from Canberra to Melbourne about 10 years ago.
They handed out trays each containing a packet of Gourmet Beetroot chips.
When the stewards came by to pick up the trays, they picked up scores of opened packets of chips - with one or two chips taken out of each packet. I guess some passengers actually ate them - but the vast majority hated them, including me.

Worst meal we've had wasn't actually Qatar's fault.
In a mix up with our travel agent, somehow we wound up having had Bland meals ordered for us.
It saddened us immensely to know that there exist people who need to actually order such meals for their health.
Regards,
Renato

 

[GoldCanyon340]

So can I vote for the bag of pretzels with occasional nuts in QF J?

 

[jase05]

And a special prize for BA with continuously the worst food in J and even F class.

Been a long time since I’ve flown BA long haul but their “meals” in Club Europe J are terrible most of the time I find. We have chosen LX a few times in recent trips over BA and the food and service is like chalk and cheese.

 

[Ewing]

And then there was this breakfast thing which Fiji Airways (back then Air Pacific) were infamous for. It was something of the shape of an Egg McMuffin burger but stone-hard and wrapped in plastic. I think it was actually even meant to be something similar to an Egg McMuffin but the strange smelly greyish substance inside of it was the worst 'Egg' ever. I'm sure not the only one who ever got that one offered as it used to be pretty much the standard food on morning flights in Y (no idea if they still have it, been in J last two times I've flown them).

Oh my. I'd completely forgotten about awful thing!

I only flew FJ in Y once (every other time has been in J) but I had the delight of discarding that strange curiosity they called food.

Been a long time since I’ve flown BA long haul but their “meals” in Club Europe J are terrible most of the time I find. We have chosen LX a few times in recent trips over BA and the food and service is like chalk and cheese.

I've only flown BA a few times (Club Europe and Club World) and feel like I got so lucky! The catering I had in Club World from London to Shanghai was delicious and the service was spot on. Thoroughly enjoyed the scones and about 4 minis of Castelnau from Paris to London too (again with superb service).

Any cabin crew member that says to me when I asked for a G&T "I'm going to leave you with two minis of Gin and the can of tonic so you can mix it how you like it. Just let me know when you run out of one or the other" is an instant friend

 

[tdimdad]

A few years back I had QF to Japan, connecting on JAL to Europe. Their meals in Y could not have been much more different, both in presentation and flavour. On the way back I had to take photos of the comparative meals. The QF breakfast "toast" was quite sad, nearly as sad as a breakfast panini I had on Finnair about 10 years ago.
Just to top it off, QF managed to distribute the special meals with wrong names on them (in fact, happens every now and then). I felt invited to search Miss X and introduce myself, and also find out who's assumed my name on the trip.

 

[clipped_wings]

The word grey should never be used in the same sentence as food. However, the level of Schadenfreude I am feeling right now, is actually in great conflict with the empathy I have for you all.

To each poor soul who has heroically shared their horrific mid-air culinary fiasco - I unreservedly apologise for giggling my way through this thread.

 

[MsTee]

Seems a good thread to break the ice here (first post).

I'm fairly relaxed about meals and refreshments on flights, assuming they'll be somewhere between okay and inedible. Have been very pleasantly surprised sometimes. The water is mostly okay, and sometimes the wine is rather good.

Last year I tweeted Qantas complaining about them trying to poison us by offering charcoal to eat - wrapped in arty cellophane. I think it was (hopefully briefly) a food fad along the lines of eating grass, but with potentially direr consequences. I've not been offered it since, so maybe they took the links I sent them seriously.

I also recall many years ago traveling with a poultry industry expert and asking him what animal he thought the "mystery meat" (love that term) we were served came from originally. He didn't know either. (We both agreed it was probably either chicken, pork or beef, though it could have been lamb or buffalo or crocodile or something altogether different.)

 

[Ausbt]

Hard to pick worst of recent times, I guess pretty much you fly domestic VA. Ok so its a 'snack' - pretty useless snacks. Anyway recently on a VA J LAX-SYD, I just had a gut feeling the particular cabin crew assigned was going to do a rubbish job. Incorrect entree (realised about halfway through, but didn't make a fuss). Incorrect main (ordered pork belly, got steak sandwich). Look Mangan's steak sanga is not bad, so I went at it anyway. Then failed to bring me any coffee at breakfast, even though specified. 3/3 stuff-ups. Oh well, whatever.

 

[Pliny]

I flew Air New Zealand leaving Mel at 8.15 to Auck arriving at 2.30 NZ time. I half expected to be served up lunch but to my surprised the only meals available were to be purchased. I ordered an Ale and beef pie at $10 expecting some sort of gourmet feast. It turned out to be a luke warm dried up, mostly pastry square brick in a cellophane wrapper. The worst pie ever. The return flight with Qantas, I took the option to choose a special dietary meal. You're served first and the meal was generally okay.

 

[spudseamus]

No photos but my worst meal was EY in J . 2017 on the last A380 into Melbourne. The vegetables were shriveled and the meat ,I forget what it was supposed to be, was so tough I could have resoled my boots with it . I asked for it to be taken away and something else be offered ? “ sorry sir there’s nothing left”. Wow! I replied not even an economy meal? Nope ! . Was not impressed . All relaied to head office of Etihad. I got a “ sorry about that “ hhhmmmm so sad to see this airline become just another LCC.

 

[OZDUCK]

My wife has asked me to add a Air New Zealand salad to this list. On a flight in Y, in the uncomfortable B787 economy section, she received a salad that made a Neil Perry salad actually appear tasty. It consisted entirely of just chopped red onion and capsicum with not even a sign of a lettuce leaf.

Not the worst meals I have received but more amusing was flying British Caledonian Charter Singapore to Gatwick, via Karachi, in 1976. After takeoff,in the early morning, breakfast was bacon and mystery sausage, lunch was a ham salad and the hot meal served over Europe was ---- Ham Steaks. Obviously Scottish farmers had an excess of pork available. Any Jewish or Muslim passengers would have been hungry by the end of the trip. And I can certainly assure you that no-one thought of buying food at the filthy and shambolic Karachi airport.

 

[Himeno]

I guess it depends what you mean by "worst".

A few years ago, I had a J flight on BA to Asia. I ordered the pasta meal, then they came back and said they were out and offered the F pasta meal, which I accepted.
Came back, looked and was plated like an F meal, tasted like a Y meal.

 

[bazza25]

Worst meal experience wasn't my own, but when we flew VA to LAX, with 3x kids, for some reason the FA's mixed up the kids meals, and they got the breakfast dish first after leaving BNE, and then the main meal before arriving in LAX.

 

[flyer001]

Worst was a meal on QF Melbourne -Auckland, for some reason i got a roll which had not been defrosted, when i bit into it i broke a tooth of.

best was on Air Nuigini, had a friend who was the chef for ANG. when he heard i was traveling [economy] he said give me your seat number for something special, arrived Lobster Thermidor with all trimmings, when the passenger next to me said how did you get that said 'Oh its the vegetarian special', Last i heard from him was 'i think i will sign up to be a vegetarian.

 

[Cossie]

Worst was a meal on QF Melbourne -Auckland, for some reason i got a roll which had not been defrosted, when i bit into it i broke a tooth of.

best was on Air Nuigini, had a friend who was the chef for ANG. when he heard i was traveling [economy] he said give me your seat number for something special, arrived Lobster Thermidor with all trimmings, when the passenger next to me said how did you get that said 'Oh its the vegetarian special', Last i heard from him was 'i think i will sign up to be a vegetarian.

I 'liked' the part about the Lobster, not about the broken tooth part! I hope you got some sort of compensation.

 

[bmam]

The bad meal I remember most was on EK in J from Sydney to Auckland. Lunch was described as a lamb dish but it must have been prepared by Jack Spratt's wife as the ratio of meat to fat was about 25/75. It was also swimming in some sort of oily gravy with a couple of small potatoes and carrot included. At least the wine was lovely as was desert. LATAM on the return leg was much better.

One of my best experiences was Aer Lingus from Dublin to Boston in J. The food was delicious, and the service impeccable.

Re Qantas and Neil Perry. He must be laughing all the way to the bank. The only time I ever ate at Rockpool (I was a guest as I could never afford his pretentious prices) I was singularly underwhelmed after all the hype. Neil Perry inspired? Inspired by what, I wonder.

 

[Melburnian1]

I know they are only snacks but regional economy on non-city flights on both Virgin & Qantaslink are pretty ordinary

The sliced apple I had on VA recently was probably a 4.5 by the Federal Government's 'health star' ratings but as I was fairly hungry with me it rated a -0.5 stars.