Greenpen

I was in GF T5A yesterday at about 3.00pm and got chatting to two women sitting next to me. The topic turned to the catering in the lounge and both thought it was wonderful with an excellent range of food and drink. They we not on a trip of a life-time flight and made comparison with other lounges that they had had experience of. One was American and the other Spanish but living abroad. They had both had a long layover in the lounge and were very pleased with the variety of food that was on offer during their stay.

The conversation did make me wonder about the criticism that GF gets here. While regular users may tire of the Thai curry that isn't, the range of sandwiches and the cream tea others, used to the dire lounges in many European airports and across the Americas, may revel in its luxury. I am current in the Oslo Lounge and the food and drink range is limited, and the same as it was last time I was here, although pleasant enough. The AA lounge in Mexico City is the worse international lounge I have ever been into (very poor food and filthy). Verona and Genoa lounges have a very limited range of pre-packed long life food and also feature exploding coffee machines. The OW lounge (think it was an AA one) at EZE was grubby and featured a limited food range. I could go on....

Both women enjoyed afternoon tea, as did I, and we discussed the cream tea. (Don't worry fellow FTers, I did make sure they applied the various toppings in the right order.)

johnaalex

And according to you that is?

itsmeitisss

Jam on bottom cream on top. Had to put my mother in law in her place on this (and am now cowering in the corner)

Calloway

I absolutely agree! As someone who is used to the lounges in North America the GF lounge is amazing. Even though I'm not especially find of it I can't believe that they have self pour JW Blue Label, never mind Woodford Reserve bourbon, Grey Goose vodka, etc. I've been to the QF first class lounge at LAX, various Centurion lounges, various Flagship lounges and for food and drink, GF wins hands-down in my book.

rossmacd

It all depends on your yardstick. GF is great if you compare it to a Priority Pass lounge in Italy. Not so good when you compare it to other lounges accessible by OWE passengers (CX F HKG lounges, QF F LAX, CX F LHR T3, QR Al Safwa.....).

And the burger......that is just vile.

icegirl

Any comments made about the lack of parmesan cheese?

bisonrav

Can confirm I made specific mention of parmesan in the feedback form for my last TATL leg. Not that I've ever tried the pasta in GF, but one for all etc.

On the lounges, BA suffers more from what it was than what it is. That's the problem when you pare down a premium offer, what is lost is much more visible than what may be gained.

Nicoolio

I think the GF lounge is very nice. The food did go down a rung when they switched catering companies several years. I think GF is on par with some of the better LH SEN lounges and ahead of anything from AF except its true F lounge. However, there are also nicer "F" lounges where you don't have to be flying F for access - QF in MEL and SYD, TG at BKK, MH in KUL, QR in DOH and LHR, LX Terminal E in ZRH come to mind, plus the *A and OW lounges at LAX. On the flip side, GF is marginally better than the JL and NH lounges at NRT.

I do like that BA like LH with the SEN lounges have found a way to offer a quality lounge option for those of when we don't travel in F, better than the normal J lounges. My only criticisms are when dishes and glasses pile up, but I've seen that in many lounges.

Lefly

What's wrong with it? I tried it once and was good... Also my kids and husband liked it.

I consider GF a very nice lounge for the food offering, btw

itsmeitisss

I thought the Al Safwa was only available to QR F ticket holders only? I've been denied access twice despite pointing out OWE on my J boarding pass. As we all know, QR never sets a foot wrong, so this must be an inappropriate comparison with GF.

ringingup

rossmacd

You are indeed correct - my mistake. I was just listing off good lounges that I liked

rossmacd

The quality of the meat for one thing - it resembles some sort of grey matter. And then the chips have been cold every time I've tried it (not for some time now, granted).

If I had kids, I could not feed them the BA burger, sorry.

Jed

LHR Galleries F absolutely beat the socks off Al Mourjan last week. On the way out to BKK, around midnight, nowhere to sit in Al Mourjan so I ate my lamb biryani at the back of the bar whilst they were washing and drying empty glasses next to me. On the return flight (breakfast time), again nowhere to sit and worse still, breakfast had more or less run out so I was left eating a single hash brown.

Lately the breakfast at GF has been a little luke warm for my liking, but other than that, it's always a fairly nice place to sit and relax, especially on the terrace. I agree the afternoon tea cakes are superb.

Tobias-UK