Once up, the seat belt sign was off very shortly, and service began right away. The wine/drink list was presented first, and is reproduced in lesser detail below.
Apertif – Cocktail
Tio Pepe Dry Sherry
Martini Rosso Sweet Vermouth
Martini Extra Dry Vermouth
Campari
Lejay Crème de Cassis
Plum Wine
Martini
Mimosa
Kir Royal
Kir
Bloody Mary
Whisky
Chivas Regal Royal Salute 21 Years
Suntory Hibiki 17 Years Old (but not the 21 year from the lounge!)
L&G Woodford Reserve
Spirits
Bombay Sapphire Gin (Which – side note - I had seen 2 days before at Costco Yokohama for 2700 yen a handle – what is this about Japan being an expensive country??!)
Absolut Vodka
Beer (no further description; none needed I suppose)
Brandy – Liqueur
Remy Martin X.O. Premier Cru
Cointreau
Bailey’s
Port Wine
Graham’s Tawny Port 30 years
Champagne
Salon 2002
Dom Perignon 2004
White Wine
Bourgogne – Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru La Gran Montagne 2011
California – Clard-Claudon “Wild Iris” Sauvignon Blanc 2012
Austria – Schloss Gobelsburg Reisling Gaisberg 2012
Japan – Arvga Branca Vinhal Isse’hara 2013
Red Wine
Bordeaux – Chateau Rauzan Gassies 2004
Bourgogne – Nuits Saint Georges Les Vieilles Vignes 2008
California – Kenzo Estate “rindo” 2008.
New Zealand – Kusuda Martinborough Pinot Noir 2011
Sake
Isojiman
Bijofu “Sekai no Tsubasa”
Shochu
Gokujo Mori Izo
Kanehachi
Premium Japanese Tea
Royal Blue Tea “Queen of Blue”
And then a selection of other soft drinks, including a specially-featured coffee from a small producer located on the slopes of Volcan Baru in Panama, which struck a chord with me because I had the good fortune to be able to visit that absolutely beautiful region just about a year previous to this trip.
Drink orders were taken (I chose the Salon over the Dom), and then a set of three amuse bouches (“amusees bouche”? I never took French) were brought out. Well, it turned out, it was a pre-amuse-bouche, because there was another, more formal, one later. Anyhow, the set consisted of prosciutto, some sort of raw shellfish in olive oil, and beef in a plum or apricot jelly. Then came some dried natto and rice cracker snack mix.
After this, dinner menus were brought out by the FAs, who worked through our orders step by step. After that, the menus were left for in-flight ordering.
The menu read as follows, with some detail removed:
Japanese Menu
Zatsuki – Clam and bamboo shoots with Japanese pepper miso sauce
Japanese Appetizer –
Kobachi – Simmered conger eel and eggplant, steamed chicken and yam julienne with vinegar jelly, steamed abalone with liver and simmered spring vegetables
Choko – Broad bean and udo vegetable dressed with sesame cream
Shiizakana – Simmered prawn; smoked mullet roe; grilled chicken cake topped with sea urchin; skewered braised duck
Mukouzuke – Sea-bream and squid, sashimi style
Dainomono – Grilled Wagyu beef fillet with green miso steamed rockfish with sakura leaf
Soup – Japanese clear soup with prawn mousse ball
Hanmono – Steamed rice with bamboo shoots, or steamed rice (freshly steamed Koshihikari rice)
Japanese pickles
Sweets – Japanese wafers (these turned out to be awesomely stamped into three-dimensional fish shapes) with soybean flour cake, green tea ice cream, and sesame sable
Western Menu
Amuse Bouche – Rich onion gratin soup flan topped with fresh uni sea urchin; spring bamboo shoots and bigfin reef squid coated with spicy Japanese pepper sprout sauce; foie gras mousse tarte with framboise sauce.
Hors-d’ouvre – Caviar (tarte of favorite caviar condiments topped with crystal chips, and cauliflower bavarois with consumme gelee); warm tarte kaleidoscope of spring shellfish and littleneck clams, scallops, aroma of dried sakura shrimp; medley of fresh spring vegetables, fava bean cream, ginger and orange gelee, with flower petals.
Main Dish – Kuroge-wagyu fillet consommé style served with nagaimo potato poelee; beef cheeks stewed until tender in red wine, accompanied by apple puree; poelee of salmon, lightly smoked with fresh seasonal vegetables and pine nuts.
Artisanal breads – Lemongrass and mint; cherry blossom; ginger; rice powder.
Dessert – Warm, fizzy strawberry tart with pistachio ice cream.
A la Carte
Otoriyose – Soy-marinated sea bream carpaccio on steamed rice in Iki Island style soup
Snacks – Seared Japanese Amberjack from Hokkaido; Chinese appetizers (Chinese pancake with beef and sweet bean sauce, fried shrimp with mayonnaise, jellyfish with sesame sauce)
Light meals – Chinese hot and sour soup; roasted Wagyu beef sandwich; deep-fried pork cutlet sandwich; Tokyo curry; boiled spring vegetables and Iberico raw ham salad
Noodles – Chines ramen in soy sauce flavored soup; Japanese hot udon with edible wild plants
Japanese cheese selection – goat cheese (Fermier); Bloomy rind (Sakura); Firm (Moritaka farm 24-month); washed-rind (Mattone Rosso); blue (Kobayashi Farm)
Refreshment – Seasonal fruits; petit dessert tray; chocolate (Jean-Paul Hevin “Fleure”)
Fumiko’s Japanese Set Plate
Dainomono – Sea bream dressed with sesame sauce; egg roll with Japanese pepper leaf and cherry blossom flavored lotus root
Soup – Japanese clear soup with Nonohana vegetable
Kobachi – Japanese pickles; steamed rice
Fumiko’s Western Set Plate
Main dish – Pistachio curry with prawn and zucchini; orange and carrot mousseline
Dessert – blanc-manger of fromage blanc and fresh herbs with acacia honey syrup
Special bread (Maison Kayser)
Then the table was set and a very nice bread selection offered (about 5 selections in total; two shown).
Through some combination of luck, charm, and translational difficulties, I managed to order all three appetizers, alongside the Wagyu beef entrée. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but all three appetizers and the second amuse bouche were excellent. In particular the foie gras mousse with berry compote was phenomenal, and I preferred this caviar to that offered on CX (the actual caviar tasted much better, with a less bitter aftertaste, not even to speak for the accoutrements). And the filet was very nicely done, not afraid to even be a bit on the rare side.
After completion of the entrée, the FA said, “We are about to serve dessert. But first, would you like some cheese?” Of course! I would have to say that this was one of the better put together cheese plates, with five cheeses, each with a dedicated accompaniment, and an instruction to work from left to right.
After that came dessert, which did have a pop-rock effect as noted by some previous reporters. The Japanese dessert is also shown.
And then it was time for coffee and chocolate.
Overall, throughout dinner and beyond, the service was excellent: punctual, formal, and yet friendly. It was, in fact – prepare the tar and feathers – as good as or better than what we encountered on either Cathay Pacific flight. Everything was instantaneous, often pre-emptive, with a smile and a bow and attention to every little detail. In the past I had read of purported preferential treatment of Japanese passengers, but I can in no way whatsoever say that I encountered this. What I encountered instead was some of the best service I’ve ever seen in my life in any context. The degree of English communication proficiency seemed slightly lower than what we had experienced on CX, but it was nothing that pointing to a menu, smiling, and a head bow couldn’t fix.