AAEmpireState

The description of the ravioli for my upcoming flight just changed from "jumbo ravioli" to "four cheese ravioli."

USAIRCHAIRMAN

Flew F on this flight. Seat was great, tons of room and the FA made the entire trip here are some links to food pics. Food was all very very good. Presentation was just as nice as the pictures too. Only negative was your standard beef being overcooked on airplanes

http://gyazo.com/0b838d1d30ce83d33fea1f8d24fba973

bread/drinks. The pretzel bread was beyond amazing. Absolutely incredible

http://gyazo.com/a7bcf3a5c1df62fe06c6602b7e03a4c6

spicy crab cake with sushi rice and avocado. Basically a massive piece of sushi. This was incredible and im certainly not a fish eater usually. Avocado was awesome. Also had a side of wasabi

http://gyazo.com/266e2160405fa906fe8d8ffffa1aab63

field green salad with watermelon radish. I choice the vinaigrette dressing. There was not nearly enough for my liking

http://gyazo.com/fe6e3fdb3689038ef52e2775a31b50bc

The main event, Beef Oscar! Beef with crab on top (i received like a triple helping for some reason). Crab was light on flavor but was good. Steak cooked to death as always (should have asked for rare). Potato was spot on and asparagus was delicious and not over cooked. Very impressed

http://gyazo.com/76d475953bbc7fba3fb93a52b6e81d72

This beauty here was delicious! Also interesting wasnt on the menu lol. Espresso mousse cake. I decided to get it because im tired of ice cream (although my friend with me had it ((ben & jerry's)) and said it was incredible). The mousse was extremely light, great flavor and nice crust. Great way to end the meal!

Shortly before landing they brought ''warmed on board" cookies. These definitely arent as good as the baked on board were but it was still very tasty. Nice and hot, not burned at all. Overall I rated this meal as an A-/B+. I have flown on US/AA/DL/UA and had many meals domestic,tcon, intl and this ranked VERY favorably. Overall better than DL transcon food. Service as mentioned was incredible. Awesome FA really enhances the experience!

cmd320

Yep, same thing happened now for me. It's really a toss-up for me on that menu. I don't like tomatoes and both dishes have them. I don't really like ravioli but I guess it's better than the olive soup that will accompany the chicken.

camachinist

8/3/2015

RDU-DFW AA1052 First Dinner

PDB offered, including 'or other drink'.

FA took orders from front to rear at the time of taking drink orders. I was not able to pre-order since I was accommodated as a disserviced passenger on this flight. She offered 'beef fillet' or 'spinach manicotti' (I think!). I selected the beef fillet. See below for thumbnails of the meal.



My impressions:

Hot towel service came before drinks and nuts. The dark blue tray cloths were used and were a bit unwieldy and slippery for the FA and diners. The flatware napkin was relatively thin and had no buttonhole. The nuts had a lot of cashews and were warm. The FA served everything from the galley and service was pretty speedy. Minimal contact after dessert.

For myself, the portions were excellent. For a person with a heartier appetite, probably small. The salad was fresh and portion adequate. It had some sort of dressing I'd call 'Italian', like oil and vinegar. The package read 'balsamic vinaigrette'

The beef was medium well to well and I braced for it to be a hockey puck but it wasn't. There was just enough butter and moisture to make cutting easy and the pieces tender. As pictured, it was small but that was fine with me.

The lobster/mac was perhaps poorly presented but it was tasty and with good balance of cheese flavor to the lobster, which was pretty sparse but it was there.

If I had a complaint about the main, it would be a lack of vegetable (hot) but it is what it is. The tray seemed pretty sparse, even when I added a warm white bread roll, again small but OK for me.

The cookie (this flight was a bit over 1K miles) was thin, warm and unremarkable in flavor. OK but nothing to write home about.

Overall, I'd say that any fears I had about a beef meal were allayed by this experience.

8/3/2015

AA 1309 DFW-FAT First Dinner

No PDB offered. I was still working off my gin and tonics and waters from the previous flight so it didn't matter to me.

FA never took meal orders until after serving drinks and nuts and did it 1 1/2 rows at a time, then served those rows from the galley. Again, they went from front to rear on service. Thumbnails of meal below:




My impressions:

Service seemed pretty slow, for lack of a better word. The FA was attentive and appeared to know her stuff and things moved at a relaxed pace, taking the better part of 30-45 minutes to serve the dinner trays. Since I was in row 5 and she started from the front of the cabin, I could observe.

Hot towel service was after drinks and nuts were served, prior to dinner. Nuts were warm and, again, cashews dominated. Same tray cloths and napkins as prior flight.

When the FA got to my row, she simply brought me the dinner I had pre-ordered, then asked my seatmate what he wanted. He chose the pasta dish. I can't recall which one it was. My pre-order was the chicken with olive tapenade and polenta which has been either loved or hated here or FT.

In my case, I found the salad to be similar to the one on the prior flight, though this one had some strips of parmesan cheese which added some bite. It had a similar dressing to the prior flight.

What set this meal apart was the cold appetizer (this was a 1300+ mile flight); it appeared to be a sliced grilled cucumber with a filling. Perhaps other FT'ers know what that is. I wanted the filling to be more flavorful but it seemed kind of bland. The cucumber, however, was a nice addition. It tasted like cucumber and was tender. Edit - Another FT'er downthread identified this as zucchini involtini

On to the chicken - OK, not much chicken there but, unlike some prior reports, it wasn't swimming in the olive juice and the polenta wasn't soaked and had good texture. Overall, I'd give this choice a provisional thumb's up, with the provision being, again, the lack of hot vegetable to compliment the dish. I don't consider the bits on top of the chicken to be vegetables. That said, it was filling and I left only a little polenta (not because of taste, rather being full) and I didn't find the olive flavor to be overpowering.

I had a pretzel roll which was served warm and was very tasty and I used it to soak up the leftover juices from the chicken dish.

For dessert, we were served strawberry ice cream in a drink glass. I found the texture to be a bit 'processed' but that's normal I guess. There was good strawberry notes and it wasn't frozen (solid) but rather cold and slightly creamy. I didn't eat all of it because I was full and dairy and I don't get along. IMO, it was a generous portion size.

I tried the coffee after dessert and, even brewing a fresh pot (the FA said), I'll join other members in their mostly negative opinions about the coffee. I'm no coffee-nut, rather just a working stiff who gets going on it in the morning and I wouldn't have this stuff every morning.

All in all a pleasant dining experience. The FA was attentive and friendly and, like the one on the prior flight, passed through the cabin and cleared and refilled often. In fact, my gin and tonic would be replaced without comment while I was dozing; I'd wake up and find a new one in its place.

I hadn't flown AA during the post 9/1/2014 period so didn't have any practical experience with what's gone on in the interim. My sole chance to sample that on 7/30 was eliminated by a broken engine on our MD-80 which cancelled my itinerary and I had to fly United instead, but in economy. Overall, save for the smaller portion sizes, my current experience on AA reflects favorably on past experiences flying in First from 2012 through August 2014. If this current experience is any indicator, AA's dining service wouldn't put me off from flying them. However, broken engines on both my outbound flight and this trip didn't give me a warm and fuzzy about things overall. However, that's fodder for another thread.

cmd320

I really hope that tasted better than it looks. Why do all these dishes have the odd pool of standing water in the bottom of them?

MrAndy1369

Maybe the design of the plate is slanted enough on the bottom, allowing for liquid to slosh around on the bottom?


Also... *sighs* still no pre-set linens?

cmd320

Indeed. Though to be fair, it appears as though both flights did have linens, they were just placed between the tray and the table which is a bit odd. I wonder if they aren't coming pre-set or if the FAs are for some reason removing them and then placing them on the tables.

AANYC1981

Here's my upcoming MIA-JFK dinner flight options. Guess I'll give the beef a try but I really don't like these beef dishes automatically coming with seafood that one cannot avoid easily (like with the lunch salads, if you're a vegetarian you can just ignore the chicken which is provided on a separate plate)....what's up with that?


Spinach and Kale Manicotti
With chunky tomato sauce

Beef Filet
With herbed butter and lobster mac and cheese

My breakfast flight to MIA is same old same old as we know so not worth reporting much about that.

Kurt

So, I'm back from my trip - I guess I am a meal AAuthority now! Overall I enjoyed my meals and thought they pretty much lived up what was advertised.

DEN-ORD (737-800)

• Steel Cut Oatmeal
  With brown sugar and gourmet dried fruit
  
• Cheddar Cheese Omelette
  With turkey bacon and roasted red pepper served with herbed potatoes and chicken apple sausage

The coffee was terrible - worse than UA's and that is saying something. Alaska serves Starbucks, why can't AA serve something good?



Nice breakfast; the bread is sort of a raisin scone; the other selection was a croissant. Sorry for the dark cabin - nobody wanted to raise their shades. No linens under the trays.



The sausage was more like a summer sausage, not chicken apple.



Fruit was decently ripe.

Kurt

ORD-MIA (767-300)

This was probably the worst flight of the bunch. We were on a creeping delay and the crew was cavalier and pretty sloppy. The 767 had seen better days with a rather beat-up cabin. Not a single announcement came from the flight deck.

• Roasted Vegetable Ravioli
  With roasted vegetables and tomatoes in a light cream sauce
  
• Grilled Chicken
  Served chilled with cobb salad and creamy cilantro dressing

Warm nuts and a G&T to start.



Cobb salad was OK, but it needed BACON! The chicken looked dry but wasn't terrible when mixed in with the other ingredients.



The tortellini (not ravioli) with red sauce looked OK.



Warm cookies were served after the meal.

Kurt

MIA-PTY (737-800)

We arrived at A22 at 6:38 p.m. and my flight to Panama departed from A42 at 6:45 p.m., but I managed to get a cart halfway and run the rest (spilling the contents of my bag halfway down the concourse) and made it. The door shut 90 seconds later!

This was a great flight - empty seat next to me, pretty views (full moon) outside and an excellent crew.

• Spinach and Kale Manicotti
  With chunky tomato sauce
  
• Beef Filet
  With herbed butter and lobster mac and cheese

Warm nuts again, with some red wine.



Not bad; the size of the steak was tiny, though, maybe three ounces. I cut it open to show how done it was. No linens under the trays.



Decent wedge salad, with no weird red stuff on it!



The crew apparently didn't know if the lobster was seafood and warned me that it might be. I told them the dish was described as lobster. I enjoyed this a lot; it wasn't too salty and the lobster was tender.



Another cookie with a very generous double Bailey's.

AANYC1981

I'm perfectly fine with these new entree salads at lunch....thank god they're back!

Kurt

PTY-MIA (737-800)

Early departure; service was good. I think the flight attendant is featured in the safety video!

• French Toast
  With walnuts and raisins
  
• Cheese Omelette
  Served with chorizo sausage

As advertised. The chorizo was in small pieces in the salsa, though. The bready thing was sort of a soft empanada.



The fruit, however, was outstanding.

qukslvr619

Are they significantly smaller though than what was previously offered? In all honesty I've had international F/J salads that were larger.

orbitmic

By the way, what's the logic for not making MIA-SFO similar too? I don't mind (though would obviously prefer! ) but just find it a bit confusing!