zombietooth

Like the bear-I bought my seatmate's from him. He was Japanese and totally confused by what was going on with Polaris, and didn't understand the purpose of the bear.

New pillows are fantastic, as was the comforter. Didn't ask for PJs or mattress pad. Didn't open the amenity kit.

I like the new spiked drink tray for the PDB.

Don't drink, so I know nothing about the upgraded sake/wine/liquor/beer.

Missed the new? nuts because I was dozing.

Appetizer/salad tray was abysmal. A weird salad with giant slices of grilled sweet potato? with shredded daikon and tomatoes, served with balsamic vinegar and oil dressing. The two shrimp with saffron beurre blanc were as bland as Cream of Wheat. Tray came pre-loaded with one roll and garlic bread.

Entrees were the same-ole thing as far as over-sauced, Japanese-catered entrees go. Ginger chicken was my choice and was no different in quality from previous catering out of NRT. My neighbor's Japanese selection looked worse than what I have seen previously, and he left a bunch of it uneaten.

The new cheese tray is a serious step down, allowing no cheese selection and only one type of cracker (I assume this to be the case, because I asked for more crackers and they couldn't find any, other than the plastic-wrapped multi-grain crackers that came on the tray-and only one package mind you).

On the dessert side, I feel like the chocolate on the sundae is no longer fudge and the ice cream was not as tasty as I remember, so maybe they changed vendors, but they could've done that a while ago because I remember on my late OCT NRT flight it was the same ice cream. The little lava cakes are nothing special.

Mid-flight snack tray was far better than normal for NRT catering and the grilled cheese and tomato soup snack was good, with the soup being far better than the small finger sandwich-very fresh tomato flavor with excellent seasoning.

I didn't try the "breakfast".

Crew were making an extra effort to tout their new product and were friendly and proactive.