eirtraveller - 31/01/2012 00:57 GMT
Recently flew BA and read the new-style menu with anticipation, having seen the Heston Blumenthal TV show and read about what BA were proposing.
It all sounded just great - lots of talk of umami, the eureka moment in the TV show, as I recall.
The results of all this? Mixed. As with many airlines, the starter and dessert were really very nice - not any different to previous BA food I remember from some years back. But the main course was a sad reminder of what we have come used to - I had steak topped with parmesan (which is high in, you guessed it, umami) with some cabbage and a celeriac dauphinoise, both dry and tasteless. The steak definitely showed improvement by the parmesan topping but the beef itself was fatty and chewy and the overall impression was that the food had moved perhaps one notch up - I would hardly have noticed any difference were it not for the fanfare on the menu.
I applaud the effort, it's just a pity the results aren't more impressive. I remember thinking Heston's Shepherd's Pie looked great - maybe there should be some sort of pie on the menu on all flights.
On a side note - the 747 (upstairs) was filthy, with some unmentionable stuff in at the bottom of the dividing screen only visable when closed. Also crayon or lipstick all over the side wall of the seat.
The 2 male cabin crew were rather apothetic, especially an older man who had that stand-back-and-shout at you thing going on, tossing everything down at me and clearly not enjoying his job. What a pity. You just never know what you're going to get on BA, crew-wise. I've not been on any other airline where the service is so inconsistent.
Club World seat, though, is still fabulously comfortable. Makes up for a lot of the rest.
