travelwithross

I have to admit, I do enjoy the Breakfast but rarely fly so early enough as I usually transit through GLA. The Egg(s) Benedict is delicious. With a wee side of bacon and/or black pudding.

itsmeitisss

scrambled eggs need neither milk OR cream.

bafan

*proper* scrambled eggs need neither...

Mass catering versions, where you try to pad out the egg with other cheaper ingredients, are another matter

Phil the Flyer

Meanwhile, a few hundred metres away in another OW airline lounge (QR LHR T4) their Premium Lounge Dinner Menu - which I have had the pleasure of sampling twice in the past four weeks (excellent on both occasions) - includes the following:

Soup (4 different varieties)
Veal Milanese
Lamb Provencale
Steak Frites
Quinoa Salad
Caesar Salad
Traditional Roast Chicken
Line Caught Sea Bass
Thai Laksa Rice
King Prawn Linguini
Teriyaki Glazed Chicken
Chicken Biryani
Vegetable Biryani

plus a fabulous bar where, if the huge selection of spirits and cocktails doesn't tempt you, there are champagnes (4 no.), white wines (5 no.), red wines (4 no.) and dessert wines (2 no.). Not forgetting the salad and dessert bars.

This lounge is open to both QR's F and J passengers (non-status BA J passengers can't even access the LHR T5 GF lounge). It certainly gives the CCR, never mind GF, a run for its money.

Phil the Flyer

Agreed!! The recipe below uses butter, eggs, creme fraiche and salt. Mrs PtF and I swear by it; especially when served with either kippers or smoked salmon:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...scrambled-eggs

corporate-wage-slave

I've gone through those photos, and I'm struggling a bit to see what is different, at least in a negative sense. GC now offers vegetarian / mushroom paninis as well as bacon mini bagettes; GF's breakfast is now more extensive than in those photos, as is the salad bar. The cakes and desserts are vastly better than 3 years ago, well there wasn't a photo to take then. The new fishcakes fly off the buffet. The amount of food consumed in GF is approx 25% higher per person than 2 years ago, so something isn't computing here. Incidentally there was never a halcyon period when GC offered hot food all day - and arguably with the porridge and soup there is more hot food coverage than before.

layz

Are you sure? When I was silver (I turned gold a few months before BS) I could get hot food from the GC lounge whenever I was there whether it was afternoon or evening.

Perhaps there was a time between breakfast and lunch where food wasn't served but most of the day you'd be fine.

GF has fared better. Ok this update hasn't been the best but it's still better than when they first took over. I do like the fishcakes and the cold pies (although most people would prefer them warm so seems a little odd).

corporate-wage-slave

Contractually there was no change, and food was cleared away after lunch. However the previous operator had a slightly different approach, if there was hot food unused at 15 hrs it would be left, so if you arrived at 16 hrs you may find some things still on the hot plates. Or not, as the case may be. Whereas now BS take away food on the dot of 15 hrs. The new contract specified an afternoon tea component, but both contracts said hot food resumed at 18 hrs. Soup was and is available all day after 12 hrs.

TabTraveller

Agree entirely. The QR lounge at T4 is great and is certainly better than GF. T4 is of course a dump.

The VS clubhouse in T3 is also generally excellent and is better than GF IMHO.

Yet despite there being better alternatives at LHR from airlines covering many of the same destinations as BA, BA continues to operate as one of the most profitable airlines in the world. There is no reason, or incentive, therefore for BA to offer "excellent" food in GF. What is there is good and seems, more importantly, to be "good enough".

And if the OP doesn't like it then you are very welcome to buy a ticket on VS or QR.

Dan72

Which also means QR's LHR lounge is not open to economy status passengers. I'm sure BA could offer much more and still save if it were to exclude this considerable group from the GF lounge too.

I don't think we can have it all, there are few lounges that offer as much as GF for potentially so little (eg a domestic one way ticket). The only one I can think of is CX's First lounge, but see that might be slightly better protected from the volume of low cost tickets BA is exposed to on European and domestic routes.

ComputerCommuter

Mrs CC would to go up to GC and get the curry then join me downstairs for drinks, she refused to eat the food in the FIRST lounge. The food in the FIRST lounge is not a good customer experience first impression. In fact I could say it's cr*p! I could even say the lounge now feels past it's sell buy date. Toilets, food, general space are not what they should be for a FIRST class lounge.

layz

Ah so the food in the afternoon was effectively leftovers in GC when Compass had the contract?

Hubbabridge

I agree with the sentiment and indeed I only ever have a drink and perhaps some cheese and crackers in the GF lounge I eat elsewhere, though I prefer it to the CCR. Chilli con carne is a very unwise food to be giving to pax who are soon to be on a sealed metal pressurised tube......

EuropeanPete

I would disagree with "is very likely to have a CCR card".

Flying in F at say £8K per ticket, you'd get around 3,000 tier points in 6 return flights. When I was flying into Joburg once a month at £4K per ticket, 12 flights would get me 3,360.

It is perhaps easier shorthaul - If you buy 80 CE tickets at £625 each you'd get 6,400 which would actually get you over the limit.

nh1980

I think QR is able to deliver such a fantastic range of products from its London lounge because most of the passengers are paying for it with F or J longhaul tickets whereas GF and GC are catering for not only premium longhaul and shorthaul but loads of status holders on non-premium longhaul, domestics and short European flights, people on RFS flights etc etc

I almost wonder if BA needed to restore the former quality to its Galleries Club and First lounges, would it make sense to have a separate lounge for domestics (and perhaps the very short European flights) with a decent food offering but a much reduced and cheaper cost bar Ie. Beers, couple of reds and white wines, one champagne/sparkling. The savings can then be reinvested in keeping the existing flagship lounges quieter and of the standard they should be for the higher value longhaul customers. I would lose out if this change came about but realistically I don't need the bar offering to be what it is if I'm getting a 35min flight up north.