I never really expect food on what are essentially domestic flights to be much good. When it comes to business class, things are usually a little bit better but even then it can be a world of bland small portions.
On the longer European flights on British Airways, a complete meal is served. This comprises of what is essentially four courses - a starter, main course, dessert and a cheese course. What astonishes me is that the good is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.
BA779 – Stockholm Arlanda to London Heathrow (ARN-LHR)
6 May 2018
Airbus A320-200 – G-EUYA
Seat: Club Europe 1F
Departure: 15:50 Arrival: 17:30
After checking in, I headed up to the Menzies Aurora Lounge which I have reviewed previously. I was on the hunt for some of my favourite lounge foods.
Swedish meatballs, smoked salmon, potato salad, a pasta salad and the warm potato made for a delicious pre-flight plate. It was so good I had a second one and washed it all down with Lingonberry drink. Love the food in this lounge!
Eventually it was time to board and I waddled off to the aircraft and ended up being first on. This meant that I was treated to the sight of the baggage containers being loaded about a metre from my face. Once everyone was on board, we had the manual safety demonstration. The crew stated that as we had no delay between taxi and take-off, the usual six minute plus video was too long to play.
Still fairly full from stuffing my face in the lounge, I was happy to have any kind of delay in the food service. On these long European flights, British Airways serve drinks and nuts first. Recently the nuts were changed to almonds which I am quite happy about. Climbing out of Stockholm is quite lovely, especially when passing over the archipelago.
A beetroot carpaccio with goat’s cheese is the starter, which is fresh and light. I quite like beetroot as a general rule, so this is right up my alley. The dessert and cheese course come on the same tray, with the main plates being swapped out.
While the starter is fine, the real star of this show is the main course. I selected the Chicken tikka masala with saffron pilaf and gobi saag. Now I have no idea who Gobi Saag is, but I’m game for anything. Perfection in every way! I love the inclusion of the fresh chilli so you can bite and spice it up a little. Spectacularly cooked chicken in an amazing sauce and even the gobi saag – which appears to be cauliflower hiding in a green coat – was great. Really impressive all round!
Happily the fresh berry pavlova with vanilla cream was quite light for dessert. After a pause, the cheese course also went down pretty well. It is a decent amount of food for a flight just over two hours, isn’t it?
As far as I am concerned, British Airways has it right when it comes to the quality and quantity of the food on longer flights. You receive four courses of food and five if you count tea and coffee after as a course.That coupled with the fact the Champagne is real, the quality of the other drinks is good and you can get Twinings tea really make the soft product very good within Europe. Of course, shorter European flights do get somewhat less food, but no-one else gets nothing.
How does the British Airways food compare to your airline’s first class food domestically in the USA? Perhaps you’re Australian so how does it compare to the business class food down under? What about other airlines offerings within Europe? Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below. Remember, to see all the pictures, please click here.
