I mean for the most part airline meals are always going to be middling.

If you get something that resembles an Applebees on board I consider that a win, its all pre-cooked and heated up by Chef Mic & plated with(out) care by the FAs. I think there's a skill to getting in flight appropriate concepts that are easy to get right, but there are definitely a few misses with the EI menu that clearly haven't been tested in a production environment (to borrow a phrase from my consulting day job).