madfish

Thanks BHDATC and dacaix was hoping to send her off to choose her own. Also, don't think that was me who you saw as I was allowing her to go up to choose food by herself! Is that not what you are supposed to do in the lounge?

If you are still around, feel free to say hello.

madfish

I think that is what the menu was showing although CWS' photo was showing a few more flavours.

xenole

Not a wide selection of food today. Tried the cod and it was fine and the potatoes were the same as usual.
Ordered a burger and washing it down with Heriot champagne as that's all they seem to have out.
Got 6 chips with it!

Those feta cheese etc. filo pastry parcels don't look bad except someone took them away before I could grab one.

Added: OK, the feta and chick pea parcels are fine. Can definitely taste the feta on occasion.
The burger with its 6 chips was fine. A lot smaller than last time I had one and the pretzel type bun certainly overwhelms it. Not bad though.
Almond? topped cake was nice enough and the scones look browner than usual which is a good thing in my opinion.

Getting quieter in here and one of the female staff members was proactive in asking if you wanted another drink such as champagne.

hugolover

Quite shocked to see that as I write this, 6:45PM there is still afternoon tea and more being brought out. There is just NO escape from this. It just so happens sandwiches are nice and cheap and take up plenty of space. The same space that was once taken by a salad bar with salmon and other options. The tapas bar...ah yes, stocked with premium basics...

I recommend a pleasing selection of canned drinks should occupy one of these spaces .

Not one piece of protein that isn't in carbs or in a sloppy sauce on the buffet. A sea of brown.

Every time I visit it gets worse. A few years ago I enjoyed the GF food, now I rank LOT's buffet as better than this.

Aus_Mal

Careful, I said similar and was shot down....

hugolover

If true, its most peculiar, as its completely right.

After filling out the survey, the BA manager (not BS) was sent to see me, I explained my concerns, that the food is unrecognisable to five years ago when I first started with BA which was a big step up to the competition and very good. I said the unmistakable penchant for cost cutting really shows, a sea of carbs (even the salmon flakes are gone...bring on the tuna mayo ) , no menus in the rest of the lounge. I was most shocked that afternoon tea is seemingly non-stop, taking up the space of the salad bad. The "tapas" is an abomination of cheap ingredients.

He agreed with me. Complaints are up, what a surprise? (I thought it was all hunky dory on FT?) and they are seeking to address it. Of course, that is only going to happen one way, to spend more and this is not on the cards. WW is on a cost-drive I was told. So, no improvements at all likely then, unless BS is feeling generous!

Please remember, the reason why the food is crap across all three LHR lounges is that when BS bid for the contract it was at a very significantly reduced cost to the previous company and they have struggled to provide a decent product on this amount. In my perception, the catering levels all moved down one, CCR became like GF. Any expanded options, like the CCR lounge menu, has actually reduced cost because its mostly carbs and the same crap they serve in GF.

On my flight I was seated along from a SCH. Firstly, she reminded me that people actually pay real money to fly BA (I really felt sorry for her... £15k for three to HKG in CW should give her a CIV of 200 by FT standards). But she wasn't happy at all. She was sick and tired of the cost cutting, cremated CW meals, legacy cabin configs vs competitors. The lack of hot meals in GC outside meals times. She was shocked she would have to pay for her white wine on domestic. We both agreed that relying on new pax who think the likes of GF is absolutely amazing because it has free-flow champagne is a fools game. A transactional model only works if the product can stand on its own. On a decent airline, you don't need status to get the meal choice you desire... Based on her flying patterns, she must be a very profitable SCH that BA are about to lose. But heck, who cares as they can squeeze in some more cheap seats to make up for her .

There is one positive for this lady. I explained that in recent sales she could fly on the new AF Premiere for cheaper than her tickets to HKG in CW. "You and your husband would occupy half the F cabin" I said. She didn't believe it only had four seats. Hopefully she will get to experience what a real quality carrier is like.

jackr27

I agree the food selection could be a lot better - the gnocci at the buffet, for example, is absolutely revolting. I also don't understand why afternoon tea appears to last for the entirety of the evening.

That said, from the menu I do quite like the Halloumi salad (even though the portion size is miserly) and I did quite enjoy the curry as well.

My objection is just how unhealthy a lot of it is - carbs upon carbs.

Anything sweet is either cake, scones, biscuits or ice cream. A decent selection of fresh fruit (beyond apples and bananas) would be nice - won't happen because it would cost money

dakaix

They do have Strawberry as well, I had some a couple of months back.

I vaguely remember reading the menu in the last few weeks and seeing that Jude's was now being listed as the supplier... shall endeavour to find out at the weekend.

FallOfTheWall

The two choices on the lounge menu last week were "Jude's truly chocolate ice cream" and Jude's very vanilla ice cream".

Aus_Mal

Haven't been here lunch time for a while, and am really surprised how dire the choices are. I can't really recognise meat in the meat dishes, the tapas bar is sad, deserts are out early to hide the reduction in food.

Sad.

Yes shoot me down, call me a liar, whatever.

Castle25

Does the Allergen information appear on the menu? Mrs Castle is Gluten Free and I can see much here that she will be able to eat apart from vegetables!! We are arriving at about 12.30pm

FrenchMerican

It's just so sad. My wife and I have had so many special experiences with BA over the years, but all the cuts combined with better options elsewhere have seen me go from around 3500 natural TPs a year and mileage running to CCR status down to GGL only, and this year I fully switched paid flying to AF on most routes after hitting 2100 TPs and have decided just to retain Gold going forward. I wouldn't even bother with that except for the fact that I rack up a ton of CC miles and still find CE RFS to be an exceptional value.

So, basically, I've gone from spending between £30-£50K year on mostly paid F and some CW to now finding the cheapest way I can to get to 1500 TP, (likely two return west-coast F sale fares with transcons in F on AA.) £30-£50K to maybe £4K and flying lots of essentially free shorthaul J for the effort. That's no way to run a business.

travelwithross

Well, as 2016 draws to close...

... How fitting, that there are no beef burgers left. Yes, BA has ran out of burgers.

rossmacd

That has probably saved you - they are truly poor burgers. And also the cold chips are nothing to write home about

sgm

Very true, but it is sad to say that the burger is fast becoming the best [hot] food in the F lounge. Chips are indeed terrible.