Flight: United Airlines Flight 242
Aircraft: Boeing 737-900 (twin-jet) (B739)
Departure: San Francisco SFO 2:43pm (local time)
Arrival: Houston IAH 8:24pm (local time)
Date: Saturday, November 12
I was actually quite pleased with some elements of this flight - great crew, and the pre-order falafel really wasn't bad!
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Overall service: I was not greeted nor welcomed in any way when I boarded, nor when I settled into my seat. A PDB was offered after the boarding process completed, but just plain water or "sparkling wine". I did ask for sparkling water, and my FA obliged. I really appreciated it. No little water bottles waiting for us at our seats. We boarded exactly on time, pushed back 2 minutes before departure time, and had a reasonably short taxi before takeoff. The flight was smooth. We even landed early. But alas, once we landed, no gate was available, we spent 30 minutes waiting for a gate to be free, etc. My flight crew was actually wonderful. I was beyond shocked, but they were totally on top of things, amazingly kind and thoughtful, and generally just made the experience actually pretty nice.
Food: Pre-order choices of chili & polenta, falafel bowl, or burger, plus the standard Impossible meatballs or chicken on board. I pre-ordered the falafel given the decent reviews here.
Tray. Meals were delivered row by row on a tray, with everything at once (bread, starter, main, dessert), along with an empty glass (which was never offered to be filled), salt and pepper, butter, and an extra hand wipe. Everything was piping hot. The dessert and roll shared a plate.
Warm Wheat Roll. The rolls on United flights always surprise me. They are served warm, and seem, well, fresh? Most airlines have awful bread, even ones with good catering, and yet United, with generally poor catering, has decent bread. No choice given, and I think it is always the same, a hearty wheat roll. Nice chew to it, slight crust, soft inside, bits of texture from the grains. Considerably better than most airline bread. Served with a pat of butter, but I think it would go better with a little quality olive oil. I should remember to bring that next time ... ***+.
Mozzarella Salad. The starter, or side dish, finally changed in November on United flights, after months of being a fruit salad that at least had decent grapes and blueberries before. Sadly, it didn't change to being an actual salad, no fresh greens, but rather, mozzarella. The FA had to explain it to everyone. The mozzarella side likely goes well with the Impossible meatballs and red sauce, and the standard chicken orzo, but seems a bit odd to have with my main dish choice, the falafel bowl. Really not a pairing that makes any sense at all. I think it would be likewise a bit odd with the chili, although I do always want cheese with my chili, just not generally mozzarella.
Anyway, the mozzarella was ... ok? It was pretty average, certainly nothing like the quality burrata I've had on Delta or JetBlue. But it wasn't trying to be burrata, it was just mozzarella. It came with sundried tomatoes on top, which paired well, but it screamed out for a drizzle of oil and balsamic. If you are flying with United in the next, oh, 6 months or so, chances are high you'll have this starter, and so protip, bring some oil and balsamic along ...
I still would have preferred a green salad, or vegetables of some kind, but this wasn't bad. ***.
Main: Falafel.
“Hearty grain bowl with Mediterranean vegetables and falafel.”
Now, I can't say I was excited for this dish. I'm not really into grains, nor falafel. But, I was curious about the veggies, and whatever sauce it may have, and like I said, people seemed to say this was decent. I had my own hot sauces (from
Oren's Hummus), my own garlic potato dip (from
Sajj Mediterranean), and my own pita (also from Oren's), along with extra veggies, all of which I thought would go well with the meal. I was (over) prepared!
This dish was an adventure, really. First, it looked, well, awful. Really, awful. But it wasn't. For me, it was a mixed success, with some components that I actually enjoyed (!) and the rest mostly mediocre, but just not things I tend to like anyway.
The base was mixed grains. Some had a nice chew to them, other sections were kinda mushy. But they were hearty, flavorful grains, with some bits of herbs and veggies mixed in. Not my thing, but, the portion was generous, and they were mostly decent. **+.
Then, the "Mediterranean vegetables". Ok, well, this is where things got interesting. And looked a bit scary. What *were* those vegetables? I could tell there was cauliflower, that was pretty mushy, a bit gray in color, and had a rather sour taste to it, in a way that sorta seemed like it had gone bad, but I think was actually just some odd marinade or something they used? Cauliflower, yeah, not good. *. There was some pieces that I first thought were cauliflower, but I then realized might be potato cubes? More mushy than other pieces, and cube shaped. I didn't explore the cauliflower further, after a few bites, all of which were not good. There was also pieces of bell pepper, that I didn't try, as I don't care for bell pepper. And that seemed to be it for Mediterranean vegetables. I certainly would have liked a more generous veggie component, but if the cauliflower had been palatable, it would have been fine. The sundried tomatoes from the starter were good mixed in too.
Next up, the mystery components. While the cauliflower looked (and tasted) a bit off, the rest of the dish really truly looked mysterious, and really truly looked bad. There was what seemed to be a pink-ish soft crumble, tiny bits of pink ... something. It was like a sauce that had curdled, or, something. I had no idea what to make of it. I tentatively took a bite, and it wasn't bad. A bit, uh, bouncy? Even better was the other crumbly substance, that one was white, and I thought it would be feta, but it didn't have the sharp taste of feta. But it had a nice bouncey bite, and I enjoyed it. There was also a tiny smear of something softer, which I think was supposed to be hummus. Or it might have just been super mushy grains, but I think it was a distinct component. There was literally less than a spoonful though. So, although these elements were not identifiable, um, I did like them, and wished for more of both the bouncy ones. ***.
And finally, the falafel. Now, as I don't really care for chickpeas, I never really like falafel all that much. But the falafel in particular is what people had said was surprisingly good. And ... they were right. I expected mush, chickpea flavored mush, but this was actually good. The outside was lightly crisp, the inside soft but not mushy, with clear texture from the bits. Sure, it wasn't freshly fried falafel, but it was far better than I imagined it could be. Huh. ***+.
Overall, this dish was so much better than I expected. If you actually like Mediterranean food, and grains, I suspect this would be a real winner. The portion was good, the elements all went well together. Even though I do like the United wheat rolls, I did use a little of my own pita with it because it went so well with it, and I did use my own hot sauces as it didn't have anything like that, but, if you aren't a ridiculously over-prepared person, I think this would eat just fine as served. Flyertalk folks were right on this one, and I'm glad I listened to their advice, and was willing to eat even the scary, unidentifiable elements.
Pie in the Sky: Chocolate Chip.
"Is there anything better than a warm chocolate chip cookie? Turns out, there is. Our incredible pastry chefs have whipped up the ultimate twist on an old classic, tucking decadent chocolate ganache inside a brown sugar chocolate chip cookie crust."
The dessert was the infamous "Pie in the Sky", which I've never had on a United flight before, but I know the product well - they are made by Eli's Cheesecake, and I used to order them for my work group all the time. I dubbed them "cookie pies" back then, and
really did enjoy all the varieties I tried. I was eager to see what variety we had, and how they fared on board.
Our pie of the day was chocolate chip, not a flavor I've had before, as Eli's doesn't have these on their normal foodservice menu (although you can buy them direct. I'd only had apple, cherry, and pumpkin previously, all of which used a regular sugar cookie crust, this one had a chocolate chip crust, and chocolate filling). The pie was served warm.
I've had a lot of these Eli's pies in other flavors before, and this was by far my least favorite. It was much more like just a cookie, rather than a pie. Basically, the crust was studded with tiny chocolate chips, making it like a chocolate chip cookie, but with less chocolate, and a very hard style rather than soft and gooey. Eh. It was filled with chocolate, so I did get my hit of chocolate, but again, it was basically just like a chocolate chip cookie. ***.
As always, I was prepared with my own whipped cream, which definitely added to the experience. My FA was so amused by me, that she offered me an additional pie. I did not say no. She later brought me a Christie Cookie Company cookie from her own meal, because she saw I had a sweet tooth, and she said she'd had so many she was sick of them. It was so thoughtful, and so, sweet (literally). I know United generally isn't known for the service, but, this crew was fantastic.