After a few beverage refills, dinner was served. Unlike late night flights, a full dinner service was offered, and each course was served individually. No tray was used. There were a few Hello Kitty elements, but not too overwhelming.
Here is the menu transcript:
Royal Laurel Dining
Hors D’Oeuvre
Goose Liver Terrine
Grape Champagne Jelly
Red Wine Baby Pear
Hello Kitty Foie Gras Terrine – my personal first
Hello Kitty napkin ring
New salt and pepper shakers – too similar to CX
Assorted Bread and Echire Butter
I really enjoyed EVA Air’s bread selection! These mini French baguettes were delicious. Other bread selection includes garlic bread, soft twist rolls, and whole wheat rolls.
Creamy Apple and White Turnip Soup
I always love soup at 31,000feet.
Fine Meslun with Vegetable Salad
Main Course
Prime Beef Fillet Steak with Balsamic Brown Sauce
Mixed Vegetables Gratin Red Skin Potato
Or
Pan Fried Cod Fillet with Superior Crab roe Egg White Sauce
Mixed Vegetables Egg Yolk Noodle
Or
Braised Pork Spare Ribs Wu Shi Style
Mixed Vegetables Egg Fried Rice
The spicy chili sauce is available on request for serving with meal.
For entrée, I had one of the special Internet pre-booked selections, which was a Shrimp and Scallop with cream sauce, along with Charcoal noodles. It was delicious.
Cheese Fruit
There was a full cheese board – Brie, Blue, Adam, and Cheddar with dried fruit, carrot, celery, and nuts.
The fruit basket was filled with local delicacies – grapes, papaya, dragon fruit, guava, apple, plums and bananas.
Sweet
Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream
Or
Pearl Chocolate Yogurt Mousse on Glazed Pineapple Tart
Coffee Tea
Seat in preset recline position
Seat in full flat position with new bedding
Feature of the Royal Laurel seats
Entertainment console/headset/usb Drive/power outlet/Personal Light
Seat Control Panel
Side Storage bin – bottled waters and small items
Footrest
After dinner, there was a snack bar setup in the back with extra bottled waters, and a basket of snacks including Buckwheat laver, cheddar cheese crackers, otsumami, fresh dried pineapple, Lay’s Chips, Milano cookies, Walker’s shortbread cookies, and Nature Valley’s Granola bars. As I mentioned in the introduction, there was no proper mid-flight snack service like noodles, sandwiches, burger, and instant noodles. I found it strange, but for all Taipei to West Coast flights, EVA Air does not offer a real mid-flight snack. Only on the return flights or flights beyond fourteen hours, a proper mid-flight snack is offered.
Duty free was offered twice and just a warning, many Hello Kitty products were not available without pre-ordering. There are discounts if you purchase more than one product.
Entertainment – the system was fine with full touchscreen functions, but the problem is the lack of contents. The movie selection is fine, but the television selection is just plain sad. I expect a Taiwanese carrier will have a nice array of Taiwanese variety shows like “Kung Xi is Coming.” The television section is just plain sad. Compared to Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, this selection is just plain sad, and even CX and SQ have more Taiwanese television shows on its system.
I slept pretty well throughout the flight, despite intermittent turbulence. The F/As were fairly attentive and they all offered me beverages when they saw me leaving the bathroom. There was an elderly lady that required assistant throughout the night, and the F/As were not bothered by her frequent use of call buttons.
Breakfast service began around 5:22am Taipei time/2:22pm LA time. Juices and refreshing towels were first offered.
Breakfast
Wake Up Drink
Vigor Dong Shih 100% Nature Carrot Juice
Orange Juice
Apple Juice
Tomato Juice
Coffee Tea
Taiwanese Plain Porridge
Traditional Delicatessens
Wok Fried Shredded Chicken with Green Sprout
Braised Shiitake Mushroom with Egg Tofu
Fruit
Or
Western Breakfast
Fruit
Assorted Bread and Echire Butter
Museli Yogurt
Main Course
Asparagus Omelette with Pan Fried Chicken Patty
Or
Royal Laurel Special
Traditional Delicatessens
Noodle Soup with Stewed Pork Cutlet
Fruit
Breakfast service was completed within an hour, and sometimes I wondered why Asian airlines were in such a rush to start the breakfast service so early. They could easily wait for another 15 or even 30 minutes. Descent soon began at 4:02pm local time.
View of California coast
We landed on R/W24R at 4:33pm, and parked at gate 148 at 4:42pm.
We got one of the good gates at TBIT and the walk to immigration was minimal.
Global entry was a breeze and the agent was friendly and in a good mood.
Priority tagged bags first came out at 4:59pm, and mine were among the first batch.
In conclusion, EVA Air has definitely stepped up its game with Royal Laurel Class/Business Class, with a new suite style seat, accompanied by excellent amenity kit, nice champagne, pajama, and improved catering. I think there are still areas that they need to work on, such as the entertainment system. Anyway, it is definitely a competitive product, and no wonder China Airlines has to step up its game with the new Boeing 777-300ERs. This is possibly not an overly interesting trip report, but I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless!
Carfield