Turkish Airlines, which already had among the best inflight catering of any airline, has overhauled its menus.
In this post:
Details of Turkish Airlines’ new inflight catering
Turkish Airlines has announced that it has “renewed all of its inflight dining menus.” Turkish Airlines is vague about what exactly is changing, though emphasizes that the airline has “renewed menus featuring new and delicious flavors.” These changes apply on all flights — this includes domestic and international flights in both business class and economy class.
Turkish Airlines’ new menu is intended to promote Türkiye, and includes flavors from both traditional Turkish cuisine and international cuisine. 80% of the products used in menus are from local producers. The airline also claims that the new menus are “designed following healthy nutrition trends.”
The airline highlights the following menu changes:
- In the new economy class menus, egg dishes, homemade muesli, and cheese varieties, are included for breakfast, while regional appetizers and freshly prepared pasta and grilled options are included for lunch and dinner
- In the new business class menus, homemade pasta, dumplings, and spaghetti options are added, along with main courses with as Adana kebab cooked over charcoal after being hand-minced, grilled fish, and many different regional appetizers; furthermore, for breakfast there are three main courses offered, rather than two main courses
- In business class, the airline has added homemade mocktails and detox juice
Below you can find a video about the new dining concept (I’m hungry now!).
Here’s how Turkish Airlines Chairman Ahmed Bolat describes the new dining, which also seems to hint at paper menus being replaced with digital ones (which probably isn’t good news):
“As the flag carrier that offers the world’s finest flavors to its guests through privileged concepts, we have prepared a menu that features traces of both traditional Turkish cuisine and world cuisines in our renewed menus. With this new concept, we have also initiated practices aimed at reducing plastic use and packaging waste within the scope of Turkish Airlines’ Sustainability principle. While presenting Turkish flavors to our guests, we have also aiming to upload our paper menu cards to digital platforms for the sake of sustainability, allowing future generations to experience these tastes as well. We hope that our new menus will be appreciated by our guests, and we believe that we will continue our award-winning leadership in the field of inflight dining.”
So, what exactly is Turkish Airlines changing?
When I first read this, I was worried — I love Turkish Airlines’ inflight catering, and don’t want anything about it to change, so I wondered if these changes might be bad news.
My read on the situation is that the dining concept on Turkish Airlines isn’t changing, but rather the airline is just introducing more variety. That’s because historically Turkish hasn’t actually rotated its menu items very often, so you would sometimes see the same (excellent) dishes on menus for years on end.
It sounds like many of the current dishes will be replaced by new ones, so I guess the variety is a positive development for any Turkish Airlines frequent flyer.
The only specific updates I otherwise see are in business class, where we now have three breakfast options instead of two, in addition to detox juice and mocktails. Furthermore, it sounds like paper menus will be scaled back, though my guess is that this will be in economy, and not in business class (though who knows).
Bottom line
Turkish Airlines is updating its inflight catering. The good news is that nothing substantial should be changing about the quality of the food or the format of the service, but rather the airline is just significantly overhauling its menu options to provide some variety.
Turkish Airlines had excellent catering before these changes, and I trust it will be excellent after these changes.
What do you make of Turkish Airlines’ dining updates?
I have been flying with Turkish Airlines regularly for the last five years (economy/business)...their foods have ALWAYS been very good with a nice presentation and helpful staff (when ask for a second red.....of course the Turkish one!).
Looking forward to the changes...they can't go wrong..it's simply an excellent airline.
From when though? Already in effect?
I have flown them long haul biz class twice recently. Not impressed at all with their onboard sercice. I rank them the same level as UA or AA food wise, maybe a notch lower. Hopefully these menu changes will bring improvement.
I don't choose an airline based on their in flight menu or food
Good! Sick of the same Fish all the time.
I would very happily fly Turkish again, with new menus or old! Nice to fly an airline where the food is not a complete afterthought. (I'm looking at you, United.) The service off the trolleys was fun.
I wish I had gotten to try the manti on my connecting flight from Istanbul to Cairo, but they ran out before they got to my row. Maybe next time!
There are few foods in the world as good as Turkish Manti (dumplings)
Don't get all the praise for Turkish Airlines. The food's fine but nothing spectacular. The seats are also fine if you get their newer 787, but otherwise old and tired, and the frequent equipment swaps make that all the more terrible. The service is... wildly inconsistent.
Much better compared to NA airlines, but certainly nothing to write home about.
Does this mean that "Potpourri of Seafood," that is about as overplayed as the little plate of pickled vegetables a waiter slides onto your table as you sit at some Italian restaurants, will be put to rest? And the rigatoni in marinara that seems to be the default non-meat dish on every flight? I agree TK has good food but I find it very repetitive.
Makes sense that Turkish will no longer offer paper menus in Economy Class. I haven't seen them on Emirates or Qatar in recent years either (before the pandemic), but rather they have been replaced by online menus. The problem is that while they can be viewed before the flight, they cannot be viewed during the flight unless they are on the IFE, which I know QR does not do. So in Qatar's Economy Class, the...
Makes sense that Turkish will no longer offer paper menus in Economy Class. I haven't seen them on Emirates or Qatar in recent years either (before the pandemic), but rather they have been replaced by online menus. The problem is that while they can be viewed before the flight, they cannot be viewed during the flight unless they are on the IFE, which I know QR does not do. So in Qatar's Economy Class, the FAs will ask you whether you want Pasta, Chicken, or Lamb.
When Turkish rolls this out, I hope it will be available for viewing in-flight on the IFE. It's a really helpful tool.