I'm sorry that your experience was sub par and I agree with you completely - the service should be of a higher standard.

My only experience of pre flight dining is at ORD - twice it's been ropey and once it might be deemed acceptable. Catering to larger numbers (as in the case at JFK) does not go hand in hand with quality food as logistically it's much more difficult.

However the service has been very bad - there is no excuse whatsoever for leaving dishes around and my only advice would be to complain. The lounge experience is all part of the service as we would complain if our seat didn't work so why not about poor / lacking service on the ground?