Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - Catering ex-HKG

Am I the only one to find something wrong with in-flight catering ex-HKG? It is consistently average to dreadful, across the classes, all airlines, and on CX recently I had food-poisoning, not for the first time. I intend to not eat on my next flight ex-HKG.

I disagree, HKG catering is fine and maybe above average. But my sample is limited, only CX F (and one C meal) plus the buffet at the Wing (which is not the same source as airplane catering). No problems with food poisoning out of HKG (while I have had that out of SIN), and I can recall only one poor meal. Most are much better than out of CDG, for example.

I disagree too. HKG catering is one of the best in the industry for all airlines and not necessary just for CX.

You want bad food? Try LAX, DFW and other US points with the sole exception of SFO.

I disagree also - I find the catering ex-HKG to be very good. (I fly CX and KA almost always)

in my experience ex-hkg food is better, perhaps only ex-canada and ex-japan can compare.

perhaps it's a matter of difference in taste?
e.g. whether rice tastes better whn steam-cooked vs simply boiled?

btw. the buffet at the wing is prepared by Penisular Hotel.
and most of the meals are "by some famous HK restaurants". i don;t know "by" means recipe or the actual cooking work. i suppose the cooking is done by CX Catering in HKG

Curious, most people I've discussed this with in Hong Kong tend to concur that there is a catering problem on flights leaving HKG. It could be I've just been unlucky on all the flights I've taken out of HKG.

I've usually found the fare ex-CDG on Air France pretty good, but when I took Delta Air Lines ex-CDG last November it was dreadful. My last flight ex-JFK (Air France) was in Y, and the catering (and service) was excellent.

I have yet to have a bad meal on CX ex HKG, but also always in F - in fact, I think that SQ has better catering ex HKG than ex SIN.

i only flew AF a couple times, in Y, couple years ago.
the ground service was soso,
but the food was the best for non-asian airline. (note i am biased to asian food)

Is this in Y, the only Y meals I've had out of HKG are on CX to TPE (really a snack), nothing great, but NOT bad either.

I concur with the rest of the folks on every carrier I've flown Ex-HKG (UA/VS/CX/AF) I've yet to have come across a bad meal selection in C/J or F

Well, I actually like the food ex-Hong Kong. CX does its own catering in HKG, which may be different from other airlines, which use Lufthansa Catering (not the same as the airline) or the Flying Food Group. Airlines usually are the ones that determine what kind of food to be served and which company to use. Airlines may even use different vendors at different airports, so it is hard to generalize which port has better food. Also, the money that the airlines invest into the food has also something to deal with the quantity and quality.

But for CX, it is pretty good across various ports. My worst experience so far is ex-Seoul, Incheon. The breakfast from ICN to TPE is way too small in terms of quantity. The fruit plate is excellent, but the entree was downright cheap and awful. But CX ex-Hong Kong flights have been really good, especially dim sums and various Chinese/Asian cuisines.

Carfield

Getting off topic but NRT is supposed to have a good reputation re: catering but I'm not too sure if it is 100% deserved. The apples on my cheese plate were frozen on a NW flight last week. What's more, the cheese plate had a block of parmesian which is an interesting but unusual selection.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by terenz:
What's more, the cheese plate had a block of parmesian which is an interesting but unusual selection.</font>

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Still who am I to comment on other nation's food choices....I am British!

I really don't like catering ex-HKG, from several Y and J flights on CX/BA/UA, specially the western main dishes (actually you can extend this to most western restaurants in HKG).

Never had the "best chinese food in the sky", but even asian food is so-so, IMO. But then it might be me, because I'll never change my Dim Sum at the Golden Court for any Peninsula (Wing-Pier) / Maxim's / Zen / whatever.

Catering is one of the few things US does right, specially ex-JFK and SFO.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Toxa:
I really don't like catering ex-HKG, from several Y and J flights on CX/BA/UA, specially the western main dishes (actually you can extend this to most western restaurants in HKG).

Never had the "best chinese food in the sky", but even asian food is so-so, IMO. But then it might be me, because I'll never change my Dim Sum at the Golden Court for any Peninsula (Wing-Pier) / Maxim's / Zen / whatever.

Catering is one of the few things US does right, specially ex-JFK and SFO.</font>

ok..i think u r right.
airline food is bad. they r even worse if u amke chinese food on the airline.
because the best chinese food should be fresh. but airline food is oven-reheated.

most western restaurants in HK are bad? yes, there are a lot of bad western restaurants, and bad chinese restaurants as well.
but there are also good ones http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif try Amigo at happy valley. better than those overpriced restaurants in 5 star hotels.

you are saying that the same oven-reheated food is better on ex-sfo/jfk cx flight? or just the wetern menu set?
maybe u r right. i was comparing ex-hkg in general with the average into-hkg cx flights. i may also have mixed with other airlines. maybe for cx, the difference is fairly small.
(btw, i suppose u did not mean to say ex-US on other airlines provide better food than ex-hkg in general?)


[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 01-14-2003).]

I'm really glad that someone finally has found the catering ex-HKG a bit off-colour, apart from myself. I was beginning to think that there was something wrong with me, or that I was extraordinarily unlucky each time.