Singaporeans sure are blessed with ways to enjoy aviation experiences without flying anywhere. From Singapore Airlines’ DIY at-home first class dining, to Singapore Airlines’ A380 restaurant, to a restaurant staffed by former Singapore Airlines cabin crew, to glamping at Changi Airport, there’s a lot to be enjoyed.
Now there’s yet another cool experience coming to Singapore…
In this post:
Japan Rail Cafe selling Japan Airlines meals
Japan Rail Cafe is a travel-themed restaurant in Singapore. As you might guess based on the name, it has a particular focus on Japan and trains. The restaurant serves everything from Japanese food, to sake, to matcha lattes.
As reported by Mothership, the restaurant will have something for avgeeks come January. From January 2-31, 2021, Japan Rail Cafe and Japan Airlines will be collaborating to serve inflight meals on the ground.
The meals will be prepared by SATS, which is Japan Airlines’ inflight catering company in Singapore. Apparently only 600 meals will be available the entire month, so that comes out to an average of about 20 meals per day.
I could see demand for this being high, and it’s not yet known how exactly meals will be prioritized. Hopefully they come up with a better system than we have in the US for vaccine distribution.
What Japan Airlines meals will be on sale?
Meals will cost 23 SGD (~17 USD), and there will be a couple of options, including salmon miso yaki and chicken takiawase tamago. As you can see, they’ll come with sides, a dessert, and coffee or tea.
But wait, there’s more!
There won’t just be Japan Airlines inflight meals, but you’ll also be able to purchase some Japan Airlines souvenirs, including Japan Airlines chopstick holders, which I oh-so-desperately want.
On weekends there will even be Singapore-based Japan Airlines flight attendants demonstrating furoshiki gift wrapping and the art of origami.
Bottom line
In January Japan Airlines will be collaborating with Singapore’s Japan Rail Cafe to serve inflight meals, sell airline memorabilia, and have flight attendants on hand to interact with guests.
As a geek I feel like these concepts are totally underrated, and like we don’t really get enough of them in the US. Then again, I’m not sure what this concept would look like in the US — cubed cheese and snack mix, and flight attendants teaching the art of kicking people off planes? 😉
(Tip of the hat to SINJim)
I’d love to eat JAL food on ground, even Y, tbh.
For US version, just buy pretzels or Biscoff
The chopstick holder is sgd $17!
At least the USA has a Vaccine distribution system.
In Australia/Koalastan, the government has no rollout plan and the states are just interested in closing borders to each other.
@David. Eating airline food is of interest to people in Asia ,because many of them do not travel much on aircraft , some never . Especially people in Philipinnes, Malaysia ,Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and China In Singapore it is probably different and is chichi to go to such a new cafe and eat airline food and then tell your friends about it . It is how Singaporeans and Hong Kongers are .
Ben, the meal and Japanese culture concept looks fun. Perhaps a little bit pricey, but nevertheless a good advert for an airline and the restaurant.
Nice to see a happy article.
You mentioned something about vaccinations in the USA using a sentence that looks like you might be back there again from Germany. If that's the case, it would be great to hear your thoughts about travel
JAL does have excellent food for an airlines, especially in F.
But wouldn't it be cool if there was a restaurant that offered only airline food from around the world...any airline I that city could participate and offer it's best.
Now to be honest I'm sure I would visit it, but I do see the appeal for lots of people...
Unlike the crappy meals served on US3, JAL’s meals are edible and quite tasty.
@derek We are the US of A, the greatest mf nation on planet earth, we should be superior to just about any other country. Drawing comparisons with our less illustrious neighbors doesn't make America Great Again.
@Drew is an old man who likes to criticize others. Chill out bro!
You ain't gonna have the lills while showing you pants ma bro
Chill out Bruh!
As much as I love to read this blog Ben, I find it somewhat infuriating / baffling you think you have this god given right to just travel through the “pandemic” but still just absolutely shit on everyone and everything that is not to your “bend over backwards for me I’m a blogger” standard ...great blog Ben but with all due respect I think you need a reality check
To be fair, JAL meal is probably one of few airline meals that I would be willing to eat even when not flying.
Hi Ben u can buzz and I pop in and help I on the chopstick holder. Keen on getting it myself
The US vaccine distribution system has been criticized and rightfully so. However, in comparison, Canada's distribution system is even worse. Canada only promised 249,000 vaccinations in December compared to 20M in the US.
National figures for Canada are not yet in, but British Columbia is vaccinating only 11,930 people compared to the U.S.' 2.2 million. Worse yet, British Columbia is inflating its numbers because it is giving all it's vaccine now and informs people...
The US vaccine distribution system has been criticized and rightfully so. However, in comparison, Canada's distribution system is even worse. Canada only promised 249,000 vaccinations in December compared to 20M in the US.
National figures for Canada are not yet in, but British Columbia is vaccinating only 11,930 people compared to the U.S.' 2.2 million. Worse yet, British Columbia is inflating its numbers because it is giving all it's vaccine now and informs people THAT THEY WILL NOT BE GETTING A SECOND DOSE.
Eventually, they in Britsh Columbia, Canada will but it will be late and in violation of the approved time period. If that happened in America, expect hundreds of thousands of lawsuits asking for billions of dollars in compensation (of which the class action lawyers would earn most of it and people would get a check of 2 cents.)
Ben, while great, should not rag on America especially when it can be misleading.
USA: Art of *dragging* people off planes....
Eating in an airplane-themed/styled restaurant is one thing, but I will never understand the desire to eat airplane food, no matter how "good" it might be, outside of a flight. Strictly talking about "normal" airplane food.