Food and the Friendly Skies

Marvelous. Thanks, will spread this among my friends!

Marvelous. Thanks, will spread this among my friends!

#15: Definitely agree with you.

#30: I have no idea what you're smoking but I'd stay away from Air India like I do from chikungunya. That airline is so unbelievably awful.

In my experience, the best experience I have had on airlines has been (in no particular order): JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, Emirates, KLM (i've only flown this once between New Delhi and Amsterdam so I'll admit my lack of experience here.), Kingfisher Airlines (in India only but they're planning on flights to New York and Vancouver soon) and Austrian Airlines (also only flew this for one roundtrip sector).

I just chose my meal on an Iberia flight (oddly this madrid-based airline had the lowest fare I found for JFK-VIE-JFK -- 580 rt after all taxes) and they had 21 dinner choices! All the possible combinations of lowfat, low sodium, vegetarian, kosher, meat, seafood, etc. I chose the "Asian Vegatarian" :)

Why are all these reactionary PC white people up in arms over the use of ethnic. You all knew what he meant so stfu and go home.

I flew Continental from NYto Barcelona and back and thought the lasagna was BANGIN! But I was so hungry after 4 hours on the runway, I would have eaten a turd.

I recently flew from JFK to Heathrow on American Airlines and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. It was a breakfest flight which I think in general is a safe bet.

Re: the "ethnic" airlines

Which ethnicity are you referring to? You do realize that everyone has an ethnicity, even white people.

Why are so many people clueless about what the word ethnic actually means?

The best food i've had on a plane is Air France, Japan Air Lines, Singapore Airlines and this Malaysian company whose name I no longer remember. Air Italia food sucks. German airline food sucks. British Airways wasn't bad. Most american-based companies' food sucks.

Another vote here for Air France.

Also, if you are lucky enough to travel in business, the food on AA is also good (well, it better be at those ticket prices!).

"as a general rule, the "ethnic" airlines, meaning non white-people except maybe the italians, will have the best foods."

Hmmm. Not only racist, but confusing as well. Soooo tell us, Herr "S"; are the Italians on your "non-white" list or not?.

Not that it really matters, it's just I wanna hear you sound stupid again.

Japan's ANA has amazing service and as someone mention plenty of legroom and space compare to most airlines.

It's a bit more expensive then say most American Airlines but it's worth it.

midwest makes fresh baked complimentary choc. cookies for every flight. pretty bad ass...

Most definitely Singapore Air. Great food, excellent service, you forget for a moment you're flying economy.

i would agree with others -- thai air, korean air, and air france are quite good for service (the latter really only has trouble getting the damn plane out of CDG on time). KLM is passable. continental and northwest are among the worst, and getting worse. i've flown continental to tokyo for about 5 years now and there has been a noticeable drop in quality (not that it was ever great) and quantity of food.

as for the beverages...i have been drinking them with wild abandon and flagrant disregard for bacterial content, and so far so good. airplanes are kind of germy anyway -- best to stay hydrated.

Having consistently logged over 100,000 miles each year, I've had my share of airplane meals.

I agree that most Asian airlines offer better service and meals but among US airlines, I find United Airlines's meals (when they offer them) are fine. They also serve bottle water and will give you individual bottles sometimes.

Actually was in business class on United JFK-SFO and the food kept on coming, and wasn't bad. Even the steak was medium rare ... and hot.

The booze was neverending. I'm glad that a taxi took me home from JFK - fell right asleep and that helped with jet lag.

Conversely, I've had crappy meals in economy on United cross-country.

Guess I was lucky when I sat up front those two days.

I used to order the vegetarian option when I flew primarily with United for domestic flights. Since the food wasn't produced on such a mass scale, it tended to be fresher and tastier. Other airlines, however, seemed to give special meal options their LEAST effort. I think on one Delta flight I was given a cold pita with bland chickpeas. Awful. Overall the food quality has gotten even worse on domestic airlines if they offer food at all. I don't mind picking up food inside the airport for that reason. Domestically, JetBlue does have the best snack options.

When in doubt, and if available. request the Hindu meal in advance. You'll get served first so it will be warmer, and probably have something like lamb on saffron rice.

The only good part of the meal I had on Continental between Newark and Frankfurt was the dessert.

All I need to say is this: on my last flight from Manchester (UK) to New York on Lufthansa, I was given a free glass of brandy--without my needing to ask!

how does a website get on a plane?

"Enough is enough! I have had it with the mother******* wifi on this mother******* plane!".

Gothamist recently flew from New York to Paris and back.

how does a website get on a plane?

as a vegetarian, i have NEVER received a veggie meal on a flight that was good. we always pack our own food (did recently for a trip to CA after the liquids ban was in effect.) it's the best option. a previous commenter was right. ice is made elsewhere so it's safe. if you want something that's safe to drink, soda or juice will do.. even water actually. most flights serve bottled water nowadays (ask the flight attendant if you're concerned.)

Other than the very flimsy premise that your flight took off from JFK, what does this have to do with NYC????

I guess you've exhausted the world's supply of Panda pictures and had to fill space with something.

as a general rule, the "ethnic" airlines, meaning non white-people except maybe the italians, will have the best foods. my favorites are Royal Air Maroc and Air India. British Airways is bland but not noxious, Air France a little better, the worst by far will be any american airline.

EMS.com has many portable water bottles with built-in filters. The key is to bring the empty bottle with filter on board and then use their water at your disposal

My favorite airline for food is Air India, and my favorite for service is Jet Blue. I always order the vegetarian option. It was great coming back from England a year or so ago, with fresh fruit, a croissant, juice, tea, a small cereal packet with milk, cottage cheese and yogurt for breakfast. Regular-meal passengers got a stonehard sausage biscuit.

United's not that bad. I always order the vegetarian meal and it usually is a rice and veggies dish with a salad and a biscotti or something.

I agree Virgin has great food and even better entertainment options then most airlines, but their seats are CRAMPED!

I've been on Japanese Airlines that give more recline and legroom then on Virgin Atlantic.

"We also don't drink coffee or tea on board, or get ice in our beverages, as we've read that bacteria levels in airplane water are exceedingly high."

Can you really say with certaintly that every single writer at the Gothamist is this much of a germaphobe? I've been drinking water on planes for 26 years and have yet to feel the effects. I think it's time to curtail your use of the royal we.

I'd say more, but I just got off a flight and I have really bad diarrhea....

I only fly Virgin Atlantic and the food and the service have been great every single time.

the pizza on delta from shannon to jfk was amazing. warm and doughy, just the way i like airplane pizza.

I have to say that KLM has the best food and snack choices I've ever had. I mean, I got FRESH, WARM ROLLS...with butter!

Finnair has horrible, horrible food. It has gotten slightly better over the years. Now, it only borders on inedible.

My cousin lives in London and she swears Air India has the best airplane food ever.

asian airlines have much better food service. i recommend thai and singapore airlines. in terms of US carriers they are all rather poor. i have heard great things about emirates as well. in addition in terms of tips, my sister, who is a vegetarian and also south asian, always requests the hindu vegetarian meals on airlines and she is never disappointed.

Ordering special meals usually insures that the quality will be better: visit the airline's website or call a few days before your flight to determine what choices the airline offers. Vegetarian is always a safe bet, but I have also ordered Hindi, Kosher and Dairy.

On more than one occasion, however, my special meal was inadvertantly given to another passenger, leaving me with squat. I always carry on some nutritious food. I have seen web sites that detail the food choices in every airport.

JFK and LGA have really improved through the years, offering more than just bulk-packaged fast food. Seattle and LAX have some great choices, as does Chicago.

Song (Delta's former cheap-fare carrier) had the BEST food since it was healthy and extremely good-tasting. Now that Song's out of business, however, I don't know where to turn. I was recently on an international Delta flight and I must concur with #1 that the service was excellent. I would even say that the food was pretty good (a choice of spinach ravioli or chicken with pesto) and I even got seconds!

Thai Air has the BEST food!

they offer you options for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Cathay Pacfic is the best, hands down. The service and food are wonderful and on long flights to Asia, they have a snack bar in the galley so you can get noodles or something else if you're hungry or thirsty between meal service times. Other good carriers are SAS, Malaysian and Air France.

the best is british airways!!! the meals are huge and offer a wide variety, air france is just okkkkkaaaaay but whenever i fly to paris i always choose british airways with a connecting flight to paris at heathrow, plus you cant beat the customer service! oh yeah, just a sampling of what i had: they offer wine and beer (air france made us pay), plus i had mashed potatoes and vegetables with fish, there was a side salad that was actually crisp, as well as a tabouli salad with lox. There was a dinner roll on the side with quality butter and for dessert, an actual brownie plus a kit kat and biscuits. I was stuffed!

I once flew Korean Airlines and was blown away by the food. I selected the korean food options and was delighted at how fresh everything was. I do a lot of business traveling and rarely have come across coach food that was on the same level.

Also, people are making too much of the whole airline ban. You can take food and other items on board as long as it's not liquid or gel. So no ionized water but all the raw vegan food you want.

Singapore and Cathay Pacific flights are the best food/service flights that I have ever taken. They also have the best looking flight attendants. American airlines are generally the worst in terms of food, if they even offer any.

nyc324 - just don't fly or give up being a "raw food vegan" The vegan benefits are overrated anyway.

Midwest! Delicious just-out-of-the-oven warm chocolate chip cookies. It makes going back to Milwaukee semi-bareable.

I enjoyed the food on a recent United PS flight to LAX, and had great margaritas and food on AeroMexico, in January,2006.

In the past couple of years I have flown internationally on Delta, Northwest, Continental and Air France.

Air France has the best food of them all, the service is excellent, and the booze is free.

singapore air is amazing. first you get orange juice and a warm cloth before the plane takes off, dinner was delicious, but what i remember most were the baskets full of snickers ice cream bars that they were handing out. came around twice if you wanted seconds. calories don't count when you fly.

close second: air france. they give you a choice, which is nice and have decent wine. their bread was actually warm and crusty. although their utensils were more dangerous than the souvenoir child's set that i was told to check at security.

I always buy a bottle of water at a store while I'm waiting at the gate but after security and just smuggle it in. Seems to work well enough.

Can't you still bring your own food on board? Only liquids are banned.

nyc324,

You have plenty of options. Water bottles with filters are available from many sources, including Brita. For less bulk, you can buy straws with built-in filters. Portable UV purifiers are also available, like the Steripen. Pricey, though. And finally, the old camping standby is available -- iodine tablets. Before dismissing any of these methods as artificial or wasteful, think about how much fuel it takes to evaporate water for distillation (unless you're using a solar still).

What's that? Airline food is bad? Incredible! Way to go, Gothamist! Push the envelope!

My best food experience was with several airlines, non except JetBlue are American. In order of the best:

1. El Al (Kosher), Kosher is always better.

2. Luftansa

3. Emirates

4. JetBlue

singapore air is absolutely amazing. their service and food are unparalleled. tip: by ordering a special meal, you get served first. in my experience, all the american airlines serve the worst food.

Have been agonizing about this also as a pending trip to Paris nears. Being a raw-food vegan, who distils and ozonates his own water, traveling with bottles of water was a given. Now how?

Not having hot beverages may be a good idea since they don't boil the water and at that altitude, water boils at a lower temperature anyway. But avoiding the ice doesn't make sense. They don't make ice onboard. Ice is loaded along with the food.

One of my best food exprience on air was on Air France. We had several meals and they were all excellent (Paris-NYC flight). The worst was definitly on Lufthansa (Fankfurt-Atlanta flight). I heard the food was good on Emirate too.

Air France and Virgin offer pretty decent food and good service. On a recent international flight with Delta, the service was great (I was constantly being offered something), but the offerings were not so great.