gambda

Lovely Vegetarian meal on AKL-NAN yesterday. Pinot gris was Brick Bay 2020

Menu wasn’t provided since I opted for special meal so no photo of what was on offer

jewree

I had the same menus NZ7, SFO-AKL yesterday. The smoked salmon starter was somehow fairly flavorless - great that it wasn't fishy, texture was good, but the salmon just didn't taste like anything!

Great toppings on the ice cream!

My ice cream sundae had more toppings, including slivered almonds.

Perfect runny yolks

For breakfast, I opted for the poached eggs, which nearly everyone did, and they were shockingly good - perfect runny yolks.

codyc1515

CHC-BNE
15-Aug-2022

Vegan meal

Main: Potato, spinach and tomato chickpeas
Sides: Vegan muffin and fruit salad
Sauce: unknown (very watery and flavourless)

While the chickpeas weren’t too bad, the rest of the meal was completely flavourless (even the potato had zero seasoning). A bit of a disappointment, unfortunately.

Thai-Kiwi

Economy meal NZ20 AKL-YVR today 18 Sep

Dinner
Lamb Casserole, peas and fried potatoes, or Chicken Malasa on rice

Breakfast
Scrambled eggs, baked beans and chicken sausages, or Hot Cakes



Lamb Casserole with peas and cubed potatoes, accompanied with potato salad and hokey poky ice cream





Scrambled eggs, baked beans and chicken sausages

Thai-Kiwi

Economy meal NZ21 YVR-AKL today 30 Sep (posted in-flight)



Chicken and Mash

Spanish Omelette




Dinner
Chicken and mashed potatoes/mixed veges, or Beef Madras curry on rice

Breakfast
Spanish omelette and sausage, or Cold Continental

codyc1515

CHC-BNE
03-Oct-2022

Vegan meal

Main: Potato, spinach and tomato chickpeas, but with mushrooms this time
Sides: Vegan muffin and fruit salad
Sauce: unknown (very watery and flavourless)

Do they ever change the meals on TT? It's pretty disappointing what you get for close to $1,000.

nzkarit

What class?

Thai-Kiwi

Well it is CHC-BNE, so can only be economy class (Works or Works Deluxe - but same catering).

codyc1515

Correct. These meals are severely overdue for a refresh. Getting a bit old getting the same meal every flight, year in, year out.

mad_atta

Not only a refresh, an upgrade would be welcome too. The only thing that has changed over the years is the quality and quantity steadily slipping (though to be fair I haven't sampled one in the last 12 months). Given you are specifically paying more for a meal and a drink, they really have no excuse not to try a bit harder.

CHCflyer

I really think that the breakfast slop is due a change. Paying for The Works and getting a $2 meal out of it feels like we are being gouged. I have never had a Seat-only passenger look enviously at the meal dished out.
The portions in The Works actually looks more than the doll's house portions they serve up the front. Such small chinaware and most of it not hidden by food.

riteshshah

Isn't Air NZ refreshing all their meal offerings, starting with long-haul flights? I was on the inaugural JFK-AKL flight and menu on that flight did seem to reflect the new offerings (which were IMHO) better, at least in Premium Economy. Not sure what the fare was in the back of the bus. Will be interesting to see menus and photos from long haul flights and to assess if these changes are in fact starting to take place.

NZ is supposed to also be rolling out new options on trans-Tasman and Pacific flights from what I understand as well...when, who knows?

mad_atta

To give credit where credit's due, my last couple of flights on NZ - in mid-September, so before the official launch of the new style food - did seem to have a higher standard of catering than I recall from my previous few flights on NZ in J.

This was the menu on NZ3 LAX-AKL:



From the supper menu, I had the beetroot cured salmon (delicious) and the slow-cooked beef (lots of flavour and didn't seem to be the usual Uber-cheap cut). The dessert was the usual tasty Kapiti ice cream. More importantly, the onboard service was like the NZ of 10 years ago - really upbeat, genuine and proactive (our FA knew exactly what all the wines were, which is rare these days). Breakfast was fine but unmemorable.

For our connection on to Sydney on NZ103, this was the menu on offer:



We both went with the smoked ahia maki and leek omelette, and it was the most delicious inflight breakfast in recent memory. Really exceptionally tasty. I was even moved to take a photo of it:



The crew on this flight were friendly too, though seemed a bit more chaotic. Overall a more than satisfactory pair of flights, and a much stronger showing than QF J SYD-LAX on the outbound - the only advantage QF had was the hard product, both the suite design and the spaciousness of the A380. Oh and perhaps the calibre of movies on offer.

I'm intrigued to hear a few more reviews of the new long-haul meal service, as it seems NZ is genuinely lifting its game. However I will be very surprised if NZ does in fact make any meaningful change to the slop served in Y to Works passengers on the Tasman and Pacific Island routes.

codyc1515

Flew CHC-BNE-CHC again with Air NZ. Meals more or less the same both ways and the same as in months previous. Sadly getting a bit disillusioned with this. I was looking to book another flight this morning and noticed that the Qantas option CHC-BNE r/t had an optional stop-over available (at a cheaper price than the direct) in MEL which will give me some time to catch-up with some people in the regional office in MEL. All up was around half the price of comparable Air NZ flights. The meals on Qantas - at least as advertised - look much nicer.

sbiddle

I personally don't even understand why people still pay extra for meals on a TT flight.