its an airplane, what do you expect?

CO does one of the best jobs in serving food on board for the primary meal. But as most experienced flyers will say, its still airplane food. LH's StarChefs menus actually show the chef who designed the dish for them. VS food is awful.

The pre-arrival meal (breakfast) is generally bad on both CO and UA. Some airlines (SQ, BA, CX) do things like actually cook eggs on board for the secondary.. and serve what is considered "premium" wine and champagne.

But ultimately, you're paying for transportation, the seat and the space. In fact, unless the flight is >9 hours, I'd rather just drug myself to sleep and skip the main meal, and certainly everything pre-arrival except some rehydration.