Flew two legs, DOH-HKG-KUL, and I was very dissapointed......
Food was not edible, and service was below expectations.....

I am tempted to start leaving a comment card every flight re the food.

Get real. If you are looking for a great steak, go to a restaurant or board a private jet with kitchen and chef, not a commercial flight with pre-cooked food reheated at 35,000 feet. This method of 'cooking' is fundamentally a solution for inflight F&B, not a gourmet recipe. Not saying it is absolutely impossible to have steak nicely 'made' on planes but it is tricky. People need to manage their expectation.

If you are lucky enough to be in Etihad's The Residence, you may have a higher chance of being fed nicer food, potentially somewhat closer to your Michelin expectation since they have dedicated FA looking after you; one to one instead of one to 40+ in J.

Going back to the point, CX sacrifices food presentation and any form of inflight F&B sophistication to achieve maximum efficiency on planes. But passengers in J simply wouldn't care less. Myself included, passengers in J pay attention to everything in much greater detail than S/Q/N. In my humble opinion CX is under utilising physical capacity and manpower in J. They need to wake up.

Take it to Twitter. Your voice won't get heard unless it's loud and viral these days. And there is always this classic complaint letter for your reference.

Re steak, I have no problem with the F steak, but the knife they gave me was just too small to cut that big and thick steak. AND they told me that's the biggest knife they've got. After two attempts, I gave up. No steak in F anymore!

Just took DOH-HKG CX640. The breakfast main dish was.... ONE DANISH PASTRY (cold and hard), yoghurt/muesli mix (more like vomit) and a small bowl of fruits.

There seem to be a disproportionately large number of negative reviews about the food on DOH-HKG, is it just that CX have problems sourcing good catering there? Is especially strange when you think what QR is able to offer on the codeshare! I'm guessing perhaps CX just don't care as they seem to be preventing QR operating a 787 on this route so they therefore think passengers will prefer the CX flight where they have a choice.

That's where CX got it wrong. Other than the physical J seat, the general in-flight experience on QR (J and Y) would be miles ahead of CX. The on-ground experience of both airlines has room for improvement.

This is the ex-DOH "breakfast" I got after 8 hours of flying:
The "main dish" is a ice cold Danish pastry, an extra croissant from the bread basket, and a puddle of vomit (yoghurt muesli). I guess it is cheaper than water-diluted rice (Congee)???
Also the menu is very deceiving. It states the dishes are "Followed by" which only makes sense when individually plated.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...d40845e57e0368

For comparison, this is the QR breakfast ex-DOH:

https://scontent-hkg3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...f3&oe=56531E95

Therefore the DOH kitchen is definitely capable at producing something nice, except for the cheapos at CX who likes to serve crap.

its not the DOH bit, it's CX's crapp
DXB-HKG is exactly the same spunk that was served.

Seriously, what's going on with CX? They cut costs to a point FAs are making less and less on annual basis. They cut back in lounge food and now it's pretty much plates of cheap Chinese take-outs. Now they seems to significantly cut back on J food. Do they really think people will continue to pay premium J prices and tolerate these foods?

Yes, cos it's about timing, timing, timing.

I laughed out loud at those guys on Oriental Daily saying "Mr. X has been a loyal customer of CX for 20 years". It's like saying I've been a loyal customer of HKE for 30 years.

Flight time is an important factor indeed. I wouldn't mind flying HK Express, HK Airline, Vanilla, the lot if flight time is good. Depends where you going and what for of course. There are also factors like flexibility, luggage allowance, lounges etc.

I laughed out loud at those guys who read Oriental Daily

That's exactly what I said. DOH kitchen can come out with the best meals, when it is paid to do so, and CX is not paying. I think the Danish pastry costs USD$2 at the most. The size is very small, like the ones you get at a buffet breakfast.