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United added “Signature Dishes” from its hubs in 2024 and I’m continuing to taste many of them this year. I’ve shared my reviews of other recent choices including Los Angeles (here), Washington DC (here), Houston (here), Newark (here), and Chicago (here and here). When flying today from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Tampa International Airport (TPA), the dish that was the Newark choice (seared beef tenderloin) popped up as a pre-order option even though this flight was not to or from the NJ airport. I wanted to see if it was different than what I was previously served, so I ordered it to review.
The meal I had today consisted of seared beef tenderloin with creamy spinach, scallop potato squares, and bordelaise sauce. This is one of many options that are only available when passengers select it in advance. The main course was served along with a green salad, a semolina roll, and Magnolia Bakery’s Banana Pudding. Everything was well seasoned and tasty. The spinach was much more flavorful than the last time I tried it. The roll was warmed. United continues to step up its game and this meal was another fine example. In talking with the flight attendant, there are lots of other choices on the way.
I like my meat cooked rare. This was way more medium well than I would have chosen, but it was still fine. One thing I noted: the cut was much smaller than the last time.
I am still a huge fan of the Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding. I’m happy that United signed this partnership and continues to offer it. I hope they mix it up a bit in the future as Magnolia makes many variations that could be rotated in seasonally.
Anthony’s Take: While I would have preferred this steak to have been cooked less, it was still a nice meal and much better than what United has been serving over the past few years. I’m hoping United continues to improve catering and looking forward to seeing what’s next.
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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.
3 comments
“way more medium well,” lol. This is well beyond medium well. Looks like a well-cooked loafer to me. I’ve never been served anything but a well-cooked loafer when ordering steak from united (or delta or american). This should be embarrassing.
All the us carriers are joke with catering if you value quality over quantity. Can’t shake a stick a catering on 3-4 hr flights from sq, af, nh. Big part of a reason I rarely pay for F on them unless it’s for good lie flat to sleep, whereas I do without a second thought on the latters.
Why pay even a $100 usd buy-up when that buys a truly wonderful meal most places on the ground?
And uscarriers are all certianly “the poors” compared with long-haul catering on the aforementioned carriers.
@SAM KIM, I’ve also had terrible filets on NH and EK…typically the beef short rib that I get on UA is flavorful and more than acceptable at 36k ft.