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If you’re wondering what a typical British Airways First Class menu has on it ….

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I am in Canada all week, helping my Mum realise an ambition to see Niagara Falls and chaperoning her to a family wedding next weekend.

We flew out to Toronto yesterday afternoon in British Airways First Class.  One thing about weddings is that you tend to know the date well in advance, so I had no trouble using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher to get the seats as soon as they opened up 11 months ago.

British Airways First Class seat

I’m not going to write about the flight or The Concorde Room because I did a BA First Class review late last year and I don’t like repeating myself so quickly.  However, if you were wondering what the food is like in British Airways First Class, here is the menu we had:

Starters

Sesame seared tuna with a citrus salad and black olive tapenade (had this, it was OK but nothing more)

Wild mushroom and truffle mousse and cauliflower puree with a shimeji mushroom salad

A light cream soup of sweetcorn, red pepper and chives

Fresh seasonal salad with your choice of blue cheese dressing or classic vinaigrette

Main Courses

Seared filled of Aberdeen Angus beef with summer vegetables, fondant potatoes with horseradish and chive sauce

Sustainably sourced North Atlantic baked cod with orange and tarragon butter sauce and chervil creamed potatoes (had this, liked it, found the portion size small)

Spicy Szechuan-style chicken with fried beans and steamed rice

Warm seared tiger prawns on a sesame and fresh shredded vegetable salad with basil and ginger dressing

Bistro Selection

Penne pasta with red pepper, wild mushroom, fine beans and a creamy pesto sauce

British beef burger with Monterey Jack cheese, gherkin, tomato and chunky chips

A selection of biscuits

A selection of cheese and fruit

Desserts

Raspberry delice and cannelloni with kumquat

Warm blueberry and nectarine crumble (had this, liked it, even the custard was decent!)

Madagascan vanilla ice cream

There is a cheese plate and fresh fruit option

There was also an amuse bouche at the start which was not explained to me!  I have absolutely no idea what it was, but it was very small ….

Toronto is not an A380 route so we did not get the option of the tasting menu which I experienced on my Los Angeles flight last year.

Overall, the food was acceptable but not great – especially in terms of portion size.  I rate the business class food I had on Qatar Airways and Etihad over the last year ahead of it, although BA does have a better drink selection.  For balance, I should say that Mum found it excellent.

Where it really went wrong was the ‘second meal’ snack.  These are the sandwiches you get – note that you get ALL of them:

Smoked salmon with horseradish and rocket

Ham with Pommery mustard

Hummus with piquillo pepper

Pickled cucumber with cream cheese

This is, I think, possibly the most random selection of sandwiches ever offered.  If Pret A Manger put that lot on the shelves they would be bust within a month.  I turned the sandwich selection down and went for the cake selection:

Chocolate and walnut brownie

Raspberry and orange Battenberg

Key lime cake

…. which was fine, except that each portion was the size of a 10p coin.  Is this a bizarre cost saving scheme or does BA really believe that micro portions are the way forward for First Class food?

No photos, before anyone asks.

Anyway, it is 2.55am in the UK and I am off to bed.  I will try to drop in some hotel reviews during the week as well as some coverage of Air Canada’s business class product which I will be flying twice.

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Comments (42)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Dominic says:
    10 Aug10 August 05:23

    I’m broadly in agreement with all Rob has said… but I’m much less fussed about the second, light, meal offering. I’ve crossed the Atlantic really rather a lot in the last six months, and I’m utterly uninterested in the ‘tea’ offering about 90 minutes out. I’m a believer in staying up as late as one can on the first night in, to deal with jet lag, so I’m always game to meet someone on arrival (if I can), and have a meal out. And if I’ve done a lounge breakfast/elevenses, had lunch (at least in some time zone) on board (with amuse bouche – albeit tiny – starter, main, pudding and/or cheese), I so do not need the silly sandwich/cake thing. It’s just more than my system can handle….!

  • Dominic says:
    10 Aug10 August 05:24

    Oh – and Rob – what were your choices? Very helpful to know what’s worth avoiding or looking out for…

  • James67 says:
    10 Aug10 August 06:07

    Probably best the portions are small as I find airline food is generally very heavily seasoned and high in fat. Combined with changes in cabin pressure the wrong choices can leave you feeling bloated and uncomfortable. To reduce the risks, before and during flights I always tend to favour lighter meals comprising fish and/or rice, and drink lots of water. As such, when flying I’m more concerned about the availability of these lighter meals than whether the airline can deliver a high class di ning experience. Although widely criticised, I like the lighter fare Finnair typically provides. Always found breakfasts on flights to be particularly bad, to date the only decent breakfast I have had was on LH first.

    Will be curious to hear of you AC experience. It is years since I last flew them but they were by far the worst airline I ever flew.

  • mkcol says:
    10 Aug10 August 07:08

    I’d be interested to know if that’s the same quantity I can expect when flying to/from KUL in First at the end of this month. Just so I know if I need to take a tube of Pringles with me or not.

    • CV3V says:
      10 Aug10 August 08:30

      Just to advise that for the return flight you can use the F class section of the MAS Golden Lounge, as we are on the subject of food then I’d point out the F lounge has a separate dining room from the main seating area (it’s on the right just after you walk in from the reception desk, usually with some staff at the door). Although the main seating area seems sparse in terms of food and drink the approach is more of a waiter service, and you do really need to ask them what they have. Also no fast track security passes, but you get to use the Priority lanes at immigration going in and out (orange carpets).

      • Polly says:
        10 Aug10 August 08:48

        Good to hear about the F lounge. Looking forward to using it next year if we get to use our 241 to KUL. Agree about being full, after a nice meal in the lounge, mainly want to sleep. Hoping the BA F lounge is SEA is nice, any opinions on that one?

        • CV3V says:
          10 Aug10 August 13:07

          At KLIA there are 3 separate MAS lounges, the international one in the Satellite building (which is ok, alcohol is served at the bar at the front) the lounge contains separate business and first sections, the domestic lounge (never tried it), and the Regional Lounge which is in the domestic section of the terminal and in some ways is better than the international lounge. KLIA 2 is the new LCC terminal and is pretty good, has a Plaza Premium lounge which is ok.

          For Phuket, landside there is a Thai Airways restaurant upstairs which looks like it’s a lounge (!), but its not, serves good Thai food and you can get a table next to window with runway view. Airside its very cramped, there are a couple of small lounges but I haven’t tried them.

          In SIN the Qantas lounge is worth the walk, its excellent, the MAS lounge in comparison is really poor – but it does serve satay.

      • DAZ says:
        10 Aug10 August 12:21

        I was in the MAS lounge at KLIA main terminal the other day (located at H2 gate). It’s not bad, has a noodle bar and some other buffet style treats. They don’t have a great selection of the devils drink, but it was adequate for a flight in to SIN.

        Be aware when travelling in KLIA (both terminals) the signs or any form of decent directions is “PAP”!! It can seriously take ages to find things! I used Malindo Air business class a few weeks back out of KLIA 2 and used the Plaza Premium lounge; it is before immigration in a shopping mall.

        Daz

        • James67 says:
          10 Aug10 August 12:40

          Thanks, useful snippet on plaza premium as I will be connecting BA to Air Asia for first time and have a 4hr layover. Can I connect KLIA TO KLIA2 without passing immigration? Obviously I would need to if I’m going to use that lounge.

          • CV3V says:
            10 Aug10 August 13:14

            James, I don’t think there is a way of transferring without going through the usual immigration channels. Immigration is always pretty quick. The connection is on the KLIA express trains (much better than the previous bus).

            There is some talk on FT about using the MAS lounge as an arrivals lounge (even without a connecting flight).

          • James67 says:
            10 Aug10 August 13:50

            Thanks, that’s what I figured. I think you even have to pay for train so I’ll hold onto some ringit from my first trip. I didn’t know about that Thai restaurant in HKT despite being through there quite a few times. Airside there is a lounge down in bottom right corner that was used by MAS. It was ok but crowded as quite small. Common sense suggests it’s a Thai lounge but something in back of my mind says it’s an independent third party place. IIRC there is also a Bangkok Airways lounge but have never been in it. Generally, lounges in Thai airports are nicely done, solid but not spectacular.

          • CV3V says:
            10 Aug10 August 14:20

            Yeah I have always skipped the HKT lounges in preference for the Thai Airways restaurant (landside, above check in desks), its pretty big, food is ok, and they serve it all using Thai Airways china and cutlery!

          • DAZ says:
            10 Aug10 August 15:41

            You’ll need to use the KL express train, it costs a few RM. KLIA 2 can be chaotic so business class is good for getting checked in quickly; as I said the usual yellow airport signs are missing with the few directional grey signs really lacking in moral fibre to say the least. I think the Plaza Premium is on floor 2M in KLIA 2 in between floor 2 and 3 of the shopping mall.

            Enjoy Lah!

    • James67 says:
      10 Aug10 August 09:14

      Also, to add to the above, the schedules too and from KUL are very decent. Ex LHR it’s a good time to have dinner, watch a movie and then hopefully sleep for eight hours before what I guess is lunch prearrival. Ex KUL my plan will be to eat predeparture, skip meal service on board and get to sleep as soon as we reach cruising altitude. Hopefully eill not wake up until breakfast just before arrival. Have two KUL trips this autumn on BA but wish it were MAS a380, however, at just over £900 WTP from GLA UUA to CW before devaluation I cannot complain as it meets my target for sub£1k J return to se Asia exUK.

      • Polly says:
        11 Aug11 August 18:23

        James, Agree about the timings,very decent, and we sometimes use KUL as a jump off point, using air Asia also onwards, or OW if we can to an island. Yes it’s still a hike to KLIA2 but really handy to have that cheaper flight option. I always feel I am on a Ryan air flight when I board, but then relax as the service is so good. Highly recommend air Asia around the region.

        You did v well to get such a good UUA. We have never managed to do so before deval. So stuck with using a 241 every time, or now on the hunt for ex EU J sales.

    • Steve says:
      11 Aug11 August 09:34

      Nah, just raid the Club kitchen if you’re after that sort of stuff. Otherwise there’s the bistro menu in F.

  • Phillip says:
    10 Aug10 August 07:43

    Rob, regarding the use of your 2-for-1 as soon as availability is released, what was your strategy? Did you just use it for the one way flight as soon as seats were released on the outbound or did you take a gamble and wait until the return flight was available, at the risk of availability disappearing on the outbound and then book them both?

    • Jason says:
      10 Aug10 August 08:40

      When I booked flights before the devaluation, I had intended to book outbound and expected to book inbound 12 days later, when they became available, to make sure I’d got the seats.
      As I was booking Qatar I had to call( website wasn’t working for Qatar bookings at the time), I was surprised to learn that she could book the outbound seats and when the inbound became available they could add it on, which is what they did, for no extra charge 🙂
      So you can book as soon as they are available and the person dealing with the booking makes a note about your return.

    • Rob says:
      10 Aug10 August 11:31

      Was only a one way as I am coming straight back after the wedding and Mum is staying with family for a bit.

  • Max says:
    10 Aug10 August 07:56

    The problem with airline food reviews is that we all have different tastes, expectations etc. One mans meat is another mans poison.

    For instance I like the sound of all those sandwich fillings, yet the sound of the thought of tuna and olives leaves me feeling quite nauseous. My review of the same food offereings would likely be quite different. The same goes for restaurant critics reviews.

    Hope your mother enjoys seeing the falls.

  • Robin skailes says:
    10 Aug10 August 07:59

    Morning, enjoyed the article on the BA first menu. We supply BA and other airlines with cheese; Stilton, Shropshire blue and sometimes Beauvale which is a new soft blue cheese I make (BA 1st only). Our cheese is generally supplied through various wholesalers who will also supply the other cheeses to make up the whole offering. It would be useful to know which cheeses are served on the flights and the quality of those cheese. You will find a big difference in quality of cheese from BA to EK for example.
    Many thanks indeed
    Best,
    Robin

    • AmandaB says:
      10 Aug10 August 09:09

      Our recent flight to Abu Dhabi in F had the following cheeses:

      Simon Weaver Cotswold Organic Blue
      Ogleshield
      Thomas Hole Red Leicester
      Bleu D’Auvergne

      The return flight had

      Brie
      Chedder
      Fourme D’Ambert

      Only ate the cheese outbound, all very good, slept on the way home!

      Hope this helps

    • Zoe says:
      10 Aug10 August 14:55

      I’ve just arrived in KUL travelling in Club World. Had the cheese, I wasn’t really paying attention but I enjoyed the soft cheese (could have been riper) I didn’t eat the cheddar type as I’d finished the biscuits.
      Moving away from the cheese, staying overnight in the Sama Sama hotel, which is joined to the airport. All good, large room, easy check in decent outdoor pool and gym. Dinner was fine and we don’t have to get up too early for our 9.45 light tomorrow. Will try a priority pass lounge tomorrow as only got economy flights to Hanoi.

  • Keith says:
    10 Aug10 August 08:00

    For my sins I get to travel in all classes. When I’m in Economy on BA I want the food in Business. When I’m in Business I want the food in First. The odd occasion I’m in First I want the food on another airline.

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