While airplane food will rarely be of the same quality as what’s available on the ground, I think there’s a basic standard that most of us expect, especially in business class. Along those lines, this is pretty bad…
Continue reading: Finnair Business Class Catering Fail
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It’s a Japanese thing. JL F from JFK to HND was equally tragic for a vegan meal.
This is not exclusive to Finnair. Vegetarian/vegan meals has always been very poorly served in most European carriers, especially the Nordic ones. It is an easy way for them to cut down cost.
They should consider themselves lucky. I flew Osaka to Helsinki in business class two weeks ago and despite pre-ordering and having it confirmed in writing, there was no vegetarian meal on board. 13.5h with no meal. In business class. Have been busy but will write to Finnair soon.
It may be a thing about ex-JPN flights? I don't think amazing Japanese cuisine extends to vegetarian options, and their 'western' options also tend to be lackluster.
I disagree with Eve in that I've had great veggie meals out of most European hubs, including HEL. I like how many carriers now offer at least one vegetarian option in the main menu.
I agree - unfortunately vegan food in Japan does not receive so much love as other food and you have difficulties find good vegan meal in Japanese restaurant unless you could find a few specialty restaurants for vegan food.
I think it has something to do with ex-Japan flights. Wasn't there passenger who received a single banana as the "vegetarian meal" pre-request on an intra-Asia flight ?
ANA served a banana as gluten-free meal for red-eye flight from HND to SYD in the past. But it was served as breakfast around 5-6AM local time and substantial gluten free dinner was served around midnight at local time.
It’s bit challenging to get vegetarian food in Japan, looks like it extends to airline food.
Funny. It looks exactly like the food which was served to me in First Class on Global Airlines inaugural flight from Montreal to Glasgow back in May. The accompanying Laurent Perrier was quite good.
I have flown LH multiple times TATL economy and I was always presented with a quite acceptable VGML.
I love to bash LH but the VGML meals are not their biggest fault.
That’s actually not even close to true. Putting aside what you can get on the ground, some airlines get it right. Qatar serves fantastic vegan meals, for instance. This is just a no effort non-attempt at a meal.
I was served a similar meal on SQ ultra long haul. Dessert was - I kid you not - raisins. They the served THE EXACT SAME MEAL pre-landing. My scathing feedback was met with a shrug by SQ.
Flew them again more recently, and it wasn’t any better. Four small tofu squares as a starter…. Four small tofu squares and rice as a main! Three slices of fruit for dessert. “Enjoy!”
At least on that flight the purser completely got it and did her best to compensate. It’s rough to have to bring your own food on a 17 hour flight in J.
"This is the business class dinner you can expect on a 13.5 hour"
He didn't specify this was the vegetarian business class dinner, so he clearly wanted this to go as viral as possible.
What route was this? Was this in business class? The regular meal or the veggie meal?
They could have served vegetarian curry or a vegetarian noodle dish of some sort.
Serving curry to anyone in the cabin annoys some of us who absolutely hate the smell.
Ordering a vegetarian option on an airline will only work when there is an "Indian Vegetarian" option. The rest of the world has no clue how diverse and tasty a vegetarian meal can be. There's a lot more than pasta and grilled vegetables.
Picking the vegetarian option on a Nordic airline is asking for disappointment. They probably just lump vegetarian/vegan/gluten free etc into the same dish.
Airline meals are inconsistent at best and when you throw a vegetarian meal to the mix you're just asking for disappointment.
Outside of rice with soy sauce, there is really no dish in Japan that does not include some type of fish sauce, oil etc. Even something seemingly vegan like miso soup has elements of dried fish in making the broth.
I'm sure they can make modifications on board airlines, but the fact is that anything tasty in Asia will have fish/meat in some form.
People should really lower their expectations when it comes to vegetarian meals. To think that airlines would put to munch thoughts or effort when it comes to designing their menus.
Reminds me of a joke told on Australian TV:
"A vegan and a vegetarian are both jumping off a tall cliff to see who will hit the ground first. Who wins?"
Answer: "Society."
There are so many great vegetarian dishes which are easy to prepare, even from an airline catering perspective.
Lucky,
I read through the comments here and am surprised that nobody has said this so far: Special order meals, including vegetarian meals, are not actually a part of the luxury amenities an airline offers as a part of a premium experience. For example, if you order a VLML, VGML or AVML, or really any other special meal, the airline will have the same offerings in First, Business and Economy, and they will not be of the same standard as the regular menu. They don't specially cater vegetarian meals for First class or Business class.
I'm a strict vegetarian and I don't ask for vegetarian meals any longer simply because they're 99% of the time completely inedible or simply not worth eating. The other 1% is on Air India, which does cater absolutely delicious vegetarian food. I just order off the regular menu and if there's something I can't eat, I don't. At least the quality of the surrounding stuff is great (e.g., cheese; fruits; salad). I encourage everyone to do this if you wish to avoid this kind of disappointment.
All the best,
Aroon
So what do you on routes and airlines that feature curry on the menu then, Albert?
Agreed 100%! BA, Lufthansa & KLM have some of the worst. Qatar & Emirates know how to do it!
Honestly.....why do you guys order these meals anyway, or order the fish of a menu. You know 9 times out of 10 it's gonna be crap. Just order the steak and eat everything else and leave the steak! What babies.
Would be more cost effective to offer a reduced fare ($5-10)for anyone who requires special meals, put the onus back on the passenger to sort themselves out.
Expecting good vegetarian food (on an airplane no less) in Japan is like expecting a good steak in India. It's just not a big part of the culinary tradition there.
If one has dietary restrictions that are not common in a particular culture, you can't expect excellent food. Being an omnivore definitely makes eating while traveling easier and more enjoyable.
Agreed. Being flexible in EVERYTHING you do while travelling is a good choice. If you are going to be fussy about your food , don’t fuss when what they serve doesn’t suit your diet.
The entitlement of some of the comments here...*of course* the world should revolve around you and your diet. God forbid you might actually pack food that you CAN eat, when it's so much easier to complain about it ad nauseum.
More enjoyable?
For who?
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian - Sir Paul McCartney
The meal should come with news clippings from around the world highlighting the deaths, destruction and poverty many are facing. We have a lot to do to make the world a better place for all. According to the poster, it appears improving business class veg meals is a top priority. Everyone suffering in the world would certainly agree the business class meals are below what is expected.
Has anyone tried the new JAL first class vegetarian offering they are bragging about?
Not so Daigo (Tokyo, Japan)
Daigo has had two Michelin stars for over a decade
Perhaps the best shojin ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine) on the planet.
I will never get on a long haul JAL flight, in 'J', without my own food. I recently flew HNL to NGO, and had pre-ordered veg. What I got was a blob of sticky white rice, and an utterly tasteless tri color pea,bean,carrot mix, that usually sells for 99c in the 'frozen food' section of your local supermarket. No taste, dressing or sauce. If I tell a 10 year old to fix me a quick veg meal, he will come up with something wat more sophisticated. Thank goodness I had loaded up on chicken curry and cinnamon rolls in the AA/JAL lounge in HNL beforehand.
So should your participation in air travel come with photos of landing in utterly polluted cities, where you can start seeing the ground only when you get below 1,000 feet, i.e. Jakarta
JFK-SIN in J - special meal. Return catering from SIN has been slightly better. Slightly.
Harder to do if you are a vegan - you need to know that the vegetables were not cooked in meat broth, have no butter, etc.
What absolute rubbish. There is a fantastic vegetarian food tradition in Japan that goes hand in hand with its Buddhist heritage. Shojin ryori is one expression of this.
I’m not a vegetarian but some of the best Japanese meals I’ve had have been vegetarian and some of these have been some of the best meals I have eaten anywhere.
Lettuce costs a fortune I suggest they half the portion so the shareholders don't get upset
This. Also, to make matters worse, either for simplicity or as a cost-saving measure, airline catering will usually combine different special meals. VLML, VGML, AVML, LSML, LFML, LCML, BLML would all describe that pathetic assemblage, so I doubt it was a conscious effort to make the veggie meal terrible.
In the days of the internet and online connectivity, there is no really good reason for AY not to have sufficient control and oversight at outstations.
The culture of the outstation should be irrelevant; it's down to tge airline ro set and meet appropriate standards.
Finlanders are doing a good job of putting a brave face on things, but many aspects of life there are being severely impacted by Russian sanctions, not least tourism.
Unlike America and a lot of other over consumption countries, in Japan, they often consume food both seasonally and also not in excess.
Meat and seafood is often part of a larger meal instead of a challenge to see how much they can consume, so the idea of being "vegetarian" is a lot different.
It doesn't mean that Japan hasn't adapted somewhat but it is also reflective of the fact that "allergens" are also quite a foreign concept when you go deep local in Asia, the reason being that most people grew up eating a wide range of spices, nuts, etc.
People complain when people don't speak English or whatever language when people visit their country already, but then also complain when they visit a completely different culture and they don't bow down to their requirements.
Lucky, those veg you got close to Osaka, I hope you actually appreciated them because the restaurant probably gave you something nice and at times more expensive to source than meat.
I flew DFW-HEL in business class on Finnair last summer and ordered a vegetarian special meal. The special meal delivered to me was ... a piece of chicken. Obviously, mistakes happen. For me, it was the reaction of the crew that was odd. The serving flight attendant called the purser over and they both just looked at me, not offering an alternative. I think they either just expected me to eat the chicken or eat around it. When finally I noted that there was a vegetarian option on the menu and asked if one was available, they jumped into action and brought me the meal. I am just too demanding, I guess, but the experience was a strange one.
"Finlanders."
But sure, yes, tell us more about the situation in Finland. Credible source detected.
Kathleen K did it everyone. She solved the world's problems on an aviation blog. Get over yourself.
I understand that the person was disappointed in what they received especially for a business class meal, but in some way I think this was a set up so they could just post some negative feedback and get attention. First, there are many details of the story not included in the article or in the posts. Second, he orders a special meal that the airline can do but does not normally do or is not known for. Experienced fliers know that if you want a special meal, there are other types of meals that would be better for the same reason/outcome/result.
People with dietary restrictions should always bring your own food. Please slap yourself for wanting airlines to have delicious special off the menu meals. Fly Air India. It will really humble your business a**.
And also like just enjoy the J-class lounge and find whatever fits them and their dietary restrictions cause whether it’s vegan or vegetarian or kosher or halal or “normal”, like plane food is 99% supposed to be bad