KLouis

Eat it and find out!

gpb_croppers63

Here are some pics taken on my sector run from last weekend:

LHR-ATH in Y class:

Water and tomato juice to drink as I'd hit the lounges a bit hard in LHR. :



Meal on LHR-ATH was a very tasty Greek salad, an awful-looking but nice tasting pasta bolognese bake for main and some honey biscuits for dessert:







ATH-SKG-ATH-LHR in J class:

J class breakfasst snack on ATH-SKG:



J class snack on SKG-ATH:



J class menu on ATH-LHR:









Greek salad starter:



Chicken main course (with a second green olive bread roll; they were amazing!):



Trio of desserts (the Baklava was the best!):



Really good catering overall and fantastic flights with excellent cabin crew. I fell in love with Aegean all over again on this trip!

DELLAS

FRA-ATH Y CLASS

As I said in another thread I had to make a quick visit to ATH. Only realistic option was LH DUB-FRA-ATH but lucky the FRA-ATH was by A3 which was great. Lovely crew and a few drinks rounds. All went clockwork. Meal was meatballs with a hint of mint and creamed mash and veg. Was really nice and great for a Y meal.



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eurotexan

Last week I flew TXL-ATH-BHX with a long layover in ATH ... why not?

I choose lacto ovo vegetarian meals and received the same main on both flights--a very delicious pasta. On the ATH-BHX flight, the fruit was fresh rather than a tinned fruit salad. Also, the flight was full economy (no business class at all). The cabin crew did pull out some wine, which I asked if I could have (I was in 2C and saw them serve it to 1A, 1B, and 1C) and they offered it graciously.

The TXL-ATH meal:


The ATH-BHX meal:


The ATH-BHX wine offered to me:

Romanianflyer

Appetizers (Greek mezze selection of fava, eggplant salad, tirokafteri tuna salad, black eyed beans and artichoke hearts, tabouleh) and main dish (chicken brochette with new potatoes, lady's fingers on cream sauce and lemon oil herbs and mustard sauce). Accompanied with a white wine (Feggites 2013 - Oenogenesis - Assyrtiko & Sauvignon Blanc). All delicious, certainly the starters combination was great!


Dessert: selected variety of sweets, feta sundried tomato & oregano cheese and gruyere with dried prune. With a Thema red wine, 2011 - Pavlidis Esstate (Syrah & Agiorgiko). Getting hungry again when thinking back of it!


For digestifs, an espresso and a glass of Mastiha (Enosis) with Leonidas chocolates & pralines. (try it if you never had before! It's a very special - and delicious - drink!)


The very professional and pro-active staff served me another espresso which I badly needed, this time with a chocolate chip cookie (which is also served at times in domestic Y-class as a snack). Very good as well!


I am not exaggerating that the quality, portions and taste beats every other European airline on pan-European flights besides perhaps Turkish for what I have flown myself. And that would even ring true when you see what some airlines serve on intercontinental flights in C...!

Xandrios

VIE-ATH today, 2:15 block time



Sorry I had already started picking at it before I remembered to take a photo. Chicken with lemon sauce, roasted potatoes, bacon-wrapped french beans, fresh salad with chicken strips, pomegranate, mini-mozzerella, peppers and more.



Lovely sweets, real fresh strawberries, and...a real cappuccino. Like, milk that was actually foamed with steam. Absolutely awesome!

I have flown this route a few times in OS business class, regarded by many as the best in Europe with Do&Do catering...but Aegean wins it hands down. Not just on food, but also on service.

DELLAS

A great selection guys thanks for sharing. They look delicious.

Keep them coming its good to see what is being offered on different routes. ^

Xandrios

I'm also happy to see that the dishes are divers and seemingly not repeated often. My flight yesterday had as a second option fillet of beef, which also sounds great but not yet posted.

Personally I know...well, nothing, about wine. Which white and which red would you guys suggest from the Aegean business menu? I feel silly ordering other drinks with seemingly great wines to choose from

Romanianflyer

I have yet to try both reds (hopefully tomorrow so, I'm familiar with one of them, the other not so!) but I can comment on the whites already:

The assyrtiko-sauvignon blanc blend is from Drama in northern Greece. Assyrtiko is mainly a "metallic" wine as Greeks call it, as it originates from Santorini where the soil is volcanic, and it gives the wine a more metallic taste. However, it still gives it a nice acidity as a wine wherever it's cultivated, the same goes to northern Greece to this specific winery. The blend assyrtiko and sauv. blanc is like a new trend in Greece, and is becoming more famous each day (even being planted abroad!). The acidity of the assyrtiko and fruity sauvignon blanc are a perfect blend together. Complex aroma of citrus fruits and more exotic fruits, yet very balanced. Especially good to pair with seafood or fish.

The other white cannot be more different. Malagousia is a famous variety of nothern Greece, which was virtually extinct until a winery in the late 20th century started to cultivate it again. On the palate, it has a big hint of lemon peel, and is overall a very smooth, soft wine - yet with a very flowery, complex enough nose. Best paired with Mediterranean dishes, or chicken (fish would do as well!).

Anyway for those wanting to taste, why not ask the kind ladies of the A3 cabin crew if you perhaps can have a little wine tasting while on board, before your meal? I never really asked them, but I wouldn't know why it shouldn't be possible! (had a nice little tasting myself recently when I encountered some unknown wines flying LX, with the cabin crew very gladly assisting!)

HNF01

Any. Honestly, any. I tried 3 out of 4 wines offered on my ATH-PRG flight on 30APR15, both reds (Kotsifali and Khelona/Turtle) already in the lounge and one white (Rous) inflight, all excellent, then I finally settled on the Turtle which is simply awesome. All the wine was from Crete - I was told that they select a different region, every month maybe.

Rous went good with Khoriatiki (Greek) salad which was the starter, very fruity. And seeing bifteki on the menu I forgot about having salmon with boring pasta and bearnaise, and The Turtle started to pour.


I do not take tasting notes, so let me just tell you it has unusual varieties, Mourvedre and Grenache Rouge, and you can really smell whatever is good on the smell of the barrigue barrel (must be the spice and vanilla they talk about), it is rather full than medium on the palate. It also accompanied the cheeses as well as the chocolatey/nutty dessert well.

Three glasses of wine made me think about a nap so I asked the attendant for a glass of Mastiha which comes with Greek pralines and then I happily passed out for the rest of the flight.

Romanianflyer

Ah Cretan wines, great! Being from the Chania area, I can also vouch for the Karavitakis red! (didn't taste the turtle yet). There are anyway some hidden gems in between Cretan wines, with some truly unknown and special varieties like Daphni, the very rare Moschato Spinas, or the more common red ones like the peppery Kotsifali (often also blended with Mandalari). Certainly for those who are not Greek/living/visiting often, I would highly suggest to indeed try as many as you can! (but that's also still a pleasure even for those who know the wines..!)

Ah well, let's not dwell too much off topic here ;-)

Xandrios

Thanks so much both for sharing your experiences!

I think the two most important lessons here are that the wines differ per menu, and, that the best way to find out is to simply try.

What is the etiquette regarding asking to try these wines on board? Because I noticed that they open new bottles, which seems like a waste for just a single glass. Is it acceptable to ask them to open a new bottle just for one person?

HNF01

Hey Xandrios, it is absolutely acceptable. I don't know the airline rules but such wines will get even better after some contact with air so the wine will stay OK if open at least for the rest of the day. If they discard it before landing, it's a sad waste but not your fault, you are the customer.
There were 3 pax in 8-seat C on my flight yesterday, myself and a couple who had been drinking just orange juice. I had white and then red and in both cases the FAs had to open the bottle for me. I did not hesistate a single second.

Romanianflyer

Sure it is acceptable - in any circumstances! You paid for the flight, thus for the perks and all they have to offer!

But have you had A3 FA's pouring in the wine from the bottle in full view Xandrios? (or HNF01 or any other person?) On my flights in C, they just got back to the galley, coming back later with the glass of wine...

Because of this - and your question - I was actually quite curious how this is done. With my experiences, I was thinking that an opened bottle will just remain stored for the return flight, as of course if you do pour in a glass of wine in front of the passengers, you want to use an unopened bottle at the start of the flight for the sake of presentation, not one with just 1-2 glasses in it remaining.. But this is just an assumption, perhaps people with more in-depth experience how such things are run know more. It would actually be quite nice to have them actually pour in wine from the bottle in full view, but I guess that is much more of a common practice on longer intercontinental flights, where the risks of throwing away big quantities are less - or with airlines with too much money/who care about style, like QR or SQ).

But not that this would matter much at all for the wine being drinkable or not - it's perfectly fine to store an opened bottle of wine for a later flight that day. In an airport lounge bottles also remain there after being opened and the first glass taken from it, perhaps for a few hours of even a full day! So if the case is that they re-use the bottle, I wouldn't worry about it.

HNF01

For my drinks the FA was returning to the galley too but given how long it took her to come back with the first serving I think that she, quite a fragile lady, was fighting with the corkscrew. I think the uncorking was the reason, and then when I had another helping, they had to unstow the bottle.
Maybe we are getting OT, but I think A3 wines deserve a discussion