Recently flew back from the US on the BA178 in CW, it's been a while since I've done any daylight flight back from the US, and actually the first time I've had the Do&Co JFK route catering - I'd say that the overall quality of the food seemed very good, but I do question the choice of meals that are served.

The current service is the main (hot) meal being breakfast, served around 90 mins after departure, with a very light second meal about an hour before arrival in London.

Given that many people will have either had an early breakfast before leaving for the airport, or got breakfast in the terminal or lounge, and the arrival being sufficiently late enough that by the time you've cleared arrivals formalities and got to where you're going, it's getting quite late for dinner, and you've flown across the New York lunchtime too.

For instance, after landing at LHR I had to continue up to NW England (and helpfully the last LHR-MAN was timetabled 5 mins too early to "legally" meet the 178, which was annoying). I was left ravenous by the time I'd got over to Euston to get the train, and didn't have time to eat there either.

I still can't help feeling the better option would be to serve a light breakfast after departure (fruit, cereal, pastries, cold cuts), with Club Kitchen stocked for snacking, followed by a hot main meal about 2 hours before arrival - roughly around 1230pm NYC time.

Also, there's that thing of breakfast food often not reheating especially well on planes - does serving a hot main meal for second service actually help improve quality?

It's that usual quirk I perceive of BA menu planning - they tend to forget that your journey doesn't begin when you board, and isn't over when you set foot off the plane. The food served on board might actually be the only proper meal you can get that day.

I'd guess if one was making a late evening connecting flight it would be possible to eat in T5 before continuing, but one could still end up having had very little to eat over the course of 12-15 hours.