I've spent a fair bit of time on JL, as it's one of the preferred carriers on my work travel contract (others being Air China or Delta, usually). I've also spent a lot of time on other carriers including CA (J), CZ (J), NZ (J), CX (J only), SQ (F and J), EK (F and J), Qantas (J), LA (J), BA (F and J), AF (J), KE (F and J), TG (F and J), UA (F and J) and many others.
I can say this: for my tastes, JL has the
best catering of any carrier I've seen. It's consistently great, if not outstanding. I also believe they have some of the most disappointing lounge catering in terms of variety (so much curry for someone like me who doesn't eat beef), but in truth once on board they really have an excellent product. And it's only gotten better with the new suites.
Their lounges are generally not up to the standards of CX, EK or SQ. But everything else is ^
I fully agree. The JL lounges - F lounges included - have mediocre food at best and I always find them disappointing.
The JL F meals would be "rather average" if compared to what you can have in good restaurants on the ground in Japan, and nowhere near the best kaiseki, and notably the best Kyoto ones. However, by airline catering standards, you have to go for superlatives. Ex-Tokyo, they tend to be outstanding, best in the industry, best in class, whatever you want to call it. Even the Western meals are excellent, and the quality of the ingredients is second to none (as is the Salon).
5DMarkIIguy says that this is the only airline meal that he would accept to pay for on the ground, and I'd generally agree with that feeling.