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I have long criticized United’s international catering (and rightfully so). I have compared it to what is served in prisons (I think the inmates might revolt) and tried time and again to see if it would get better. It has not. While I have lauded United for recent improvements to its domestic First Class meals (some are quite tasty), what it serves in Polaris® (Business Class) on its premium routes has no place in the sky or on plates that are being presented to humans. The meals seem to just keep getting worse in terms of selection, taste, and quality. It’s not hard to do it right. European and Asian carriers serve delicious meals on one-hour flights. But, United just cannot get this right and what it tries to feed passengers is complete garbage.
I flew Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) on November 28th and from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) today. Both flights had terrible catering and crews that did as little as possible to make the meal appealing (like not warming nuts, bread, etc.). The meal above is a perfect example. It’s described as a “Frenched Chicken Breast,” which is a fancy way of saying the more common “Airline Chicken Breast” and means the first joint of the wing bone is attached with the bone scraped clean of meat and skin for an elegant presentation. What I was served was a rubbery, low-quality, piece of chicken with zero flavor along with gnocchi with no sauce or seasoning. This was accompanied by some rancid tuna salad and a selection of sheer crap that looked like United cleared out the bottom of an old refrigerator and stuck it into some ramekins.
Before arriving, I had the scrambled eggs. You can’t mess that up, right? Wrong. United found a way. The eggs tasted like they were powdered. They were bone dry and did not taste right. The hash brown was minuscule and looked like it was fried for a few days. The croissant was not warmed. The fruit salad was good, so kudos there.
Today, I pre-orderd the Linguini Pasta with Chili Tomato Sauce Pan Roasted Prawns, and Parmesan. This was also served with a selection of garbage that included Poached Jumbo Prawns (was there a sale on them) in a disgusting fennel puree along with a bunch of other unidentifiable refuse in ramekins. Why is this a Business Class meal? This belongs in a dumpster and not in a premium cabin. The Parmesan tastes like it came from a can. The meal was cold.
Fancy some dessert? You won’t for long. United’s ice cream sundaes were served with rancid (literally foul tasting) whipped cream, caramel sauce that was so grainy you could use it to sand something, and rock hard ice cream. Why bother? Save the calories. I took a bite and was done. I had a horrible aftertaste in my mouth and my stomach felt off.
Anthony’s Take: On future United Polaris® flights, I’ll go back to doing what I used to do and bring my own food. It’s such a shame because United has a great app, fantastic route network, lovely bedding, and food that wouldn’t be fit for an animal shelter. I don’t understand why this is not a priority for the airline. I will continue to fly United for convenience, but it will most definitely not be for the cuisine (that is being so generous to call it that). I get that this is a true 1% problem, but you should get it if you’re paying for luxury (or at least something edible).
(Featured Image Credit: AndreyPopov via iStock.)
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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.
2 comments
Related, United uses 9 FAs on route where best in class competitor using a different aircraft with very similar J/PE/Yseats runs 13 FAs. Sfo-sin. This is about money pure and simple. Same is true for American competitors of United. That’s why I don’t choose to fly them ever except in schedule alone.
Before the pandemic, food in United Polaris was really good. I still remember how delicious it was in 2018 and 2019. Then from 2022 to first half of 2025, it was barely edible. United claimed it switched the caterer shortly after that and I was hoping it would be back to the glory days. My goodness, was I wrong. My round trip to Zurich from SFO in Sep, the food was inedible. For my 2026 international trips to Japan and Germany (separately), I am going with ANA, and Swiss/Lufthansa. I still need the UA miles for my domestic travel status but I am not flying Polaris anymore.