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United offers an elevated service for its transcontinental flights to/from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and both Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Last week, I flew to SFO and got to try the meal service in what United deems Business Class across the country. Two meals were served and I had mixed feelings on them.
The first meal service started with a choice of Pan Seared Mid-Atlantic Rockfish, Seared Beef Filet, Ricotta & Spinach Filled Cannelloni, or Garlic Roasted Chicken. The entree was served with Baby Red Oak Leaf Arugula Salad and Burrata. I selected the Garlic Roasted Chicken and was happy with my choice.
The Garlic Roasted Chicken I was served was missing the Calabrian Chili Butter (or it melted), but it did have the Caramelized Carrots and Thyme Roasted Fingerling Potatoes. The dish was tasty, overall. The tray contained the salad and the Burrata appetizer along with a brown roll and a piece of garlic bread (both were pretty cold). The salad was fine (once the flight attendant remembered to bring the salad dressing). The bread being cold was a miss. The Burrata was fine, but the Pickled Asparagus it was served with was quite gross. It was clear throughout service that the crew wanted to get the meal done as quickly as possible. They stayed in the galley the entire flight and did not offer drink refills until the meal was served before landing.
For dessert, I skipped the cheese plate and ice cream sundae and went with the Cheesecake. It was creamy and quite good.
A short while before landing, another meal was served. A choice of Tuscan Kale Romaine Salad, Maryland-Style Crabcakes (which are excellent and reviewed here), or Cavatelli with Forest Mushroom Cream Sauce was offered. I selected the pasta, but it was not a good choice. The dish was mushy and flavorless. I took a few bites and was done. The raw cherry tomatoes on the side were an odd addition.
The tray came with some fruit salad and a semolina roll (also cold). The crew did not bother heating any bread on this flight as they were more interested in chatting in the galley.
Anthony’s Take: United has improved much of its catering. These meals were passable, but nothing I’d want again. The crew’s poor service definitely weighed down the experience, overall. They were just not into helping passengers, bringing drinks, etc. Even when meals were delivered, the flight attendant simply said “move your laptop for your tray” instead of anything more pleasant.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
Flew ORD-HNL last week similar meal options in first. Chicken was tender, veg fine but served with “Panisse Sticks” which no flight attendants could identify and tasted gross. One FA proactively did a google search to let me know they are made from Polenta and chickpea flour . Finished off with a good sundae to get the taste of the”sticks” out of my mouth. I received a high level of service the entire 8.5 hour flight from PDBs to landing. FA’s were always present, helpful, lots of drink refills, used my name etc…. I felt very valued as Premier cabin customer even though I lost 1K status this year. I ordered the “kale/romaine salad” for my pre-arrival meal. There was no kale or romaine, just the same sad old wilted arugula you had with your pasta dish. However, The cold grilled chicken on the side was fine. Overall the flight attendants and my window Polaris seat made this trip better than average and superior for US domestic travel. Sadly, as bad as the food was. It’s still a big improvement from recent years.