If you are in F they are more accommodating than you can imagine. In J they have snacks as well as the main plate. Just ask.

I flew back alone in F HKG YYZ and they had catered all the appetizers and mains so the FA said I could have some or all of the many choices available.

In F, the trick is not to think of the menu as a menu. It's an inventory listing of what's been loaded. Order what you want, as often as you want, whenever you want.

i also had flights where stuff ran out.

normally consumed in one hour.

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I think for passengers its 2 hrs max.

That does happen. If you know of something specific that you want, ask a member of the cabin crew and s/he'll try to hold some for you.

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I've had 2-3 mains on flights before

Yes the steak 3/4 in was a bit much...but was sooo good

I think the company policy is 1 hour shelf life for J meals, not sure about other cabin

Hi -

The idea of of F menu as an inventory is absolutely correct.

I took a TPAC F flight and had double caviar, soup, no salad, my own "surf 'n turf" consisting of a full lobster tail and a perfect steak (both as mains), no cheese, and three desserts of cake, ice cream, and fresh berries in heavy clotted cream.

Burp.

And I also told them to keep some caviar for breakfast with my eggs and an extra portion of the berries and cream.

Sometimes you just have to fly CX F to remind yourself how the 1% lives.

I am envious of many of the people here's eating abilities!

I am a pretty big guy, 6'4"/220 and consider myself to have a hearty appetite. However, on my HKG-ORD/LAX/SFO F flights, I have never once had the room to order a second main. Usually by the time I finish my first main, I am 90-99% stuffed and still need spare room to sample the delightful sounding desert, falling into a food baby coma afterwards and usually skipping breakfast the next morning.

(The CX F bed has been so comfortable, I have not woken up in time nor was hungry enough to sample their famed fresh made to order breakfast eggs yet. I'll need to figure out a way to get back in CX F to remedy this deficiency asap!)

I am plenty guilty of having an extra serving (or two) of the caviar, Krug, and desert though!

Guess I need to stop being such a glutton at the F lounge before my flight... next time I'll fast for 24 hours before my CX F flight so I get my money's worth by eating them all out of onboard F food!

I only HOPE that the FA's could eat the 1/2 of the HUGE angus steak that I left for them. I cut it in front of them and told them ("D" and "S") that I wouldn't be eating it all and hoped they would.
I have a big appetite but that steak was too much for me.
CX880 HKG-LAX very recently.

Only when the F cabin is not full. We always seem to have a full flight and never have such luxury.

Happened on our HKG-SFO flight in January. We did not even get our First choice! FA came to inform us the Chinese favorite appetizer only had one left and asked if we could take one of Western options. That was regardless they took the meal orders shortly after take off. We just chose not to eat until 2 hours into the flight. Then at serving time, they came to inform us only one Chinese appetizer was left! Given there were at least 2 passengers did not eat and went straight to sleep, I could only guess either they did not load the choices for every passenger, or worse thing happened.

Bummer. I've had this happen to me a number of times too. I never mind when I've been op-upped (CX FAs IME do a pretty good job of offering F op-ups their meal choices last, at least this is my experience), but it's kinda annoying when I'm on a revenue ticket they run out. Seems to happen with regularity.

I have absolutely no knowledge as to how F meals get loaded, but this is what I suspect: I think CX loads F class # of each meal based on a ratio for the number of revenue tix. Obviously, given the time lag, I'm betting they make this estimate at least a few hours (if not earlier) before flight departure. This could mean that last minute cash or Instant Upgrade awards put more people in F than CX expected, and sufficient catering for each option may not be loaded in time...I'm sure this is somewhat common especially with routes offering multiple frequencies daily. There's also the possibility that the FAs goofed up and offered op-ups choices before you, or forgot and served them your meals, or you just flew on an unlucky day and everyone wanted the same thing.

I do think CX is careful to track F meal inventory loading.

They have cut back and don't always load 6 of everything anymore!

However the Chinese options should have at least 4 as they always anticipate this is the popular option.

When I was the only F pax a few days back they loaded 1 of everything and after boarding I told the FA my order and tell them to enjoy the rest.