Raymond Lu

i am just curious about nowadays when do CX serve ice-cream in the economy class for short haul flights? It seems to be very unpredictable.

G-CIVC

Only on SIN route but will be progressively added back to all I have heard because it's their 'time to win'.

Superorb

CX J meals are pretty crappy, so if you'll be in the J lounges in HKG I'd fill up there first. With all that time you could hop around to the many lounges they have, just remember that the train only goes to the far gates and you'll have to make the long walk back toward security if you need to go back that way.

Explorer789

Yeah, I was looking over at the other J meals thread, there's no comparison to some of the good food posted from the Pier/Wing lounges and should have more than enough time to visit both. Depending on where my flight will depart, go to the farther one first, then come to the closer one. I guess skipping it wouldn't really be missing much if I were to opt for a light snack and go straight to bed.

iluvdoco

Is Cathay still serving its Hyatt menu in F and is it only on the BOS/JFK-HKG routes? What about ORD?

Flyingfox

I have 4 flights coming up from NA to south Asia and dread having that food. In particular their dreary cold starter. Why is there no choice at all? They offer eel and veal sometimes - things that not everyone really fancies. They should offer at least some choice. They don't even have a choice in F - it's caviar or nothing.

Flyingfox

Their F class offerings have taken a nose dive over the last 5-6 years. I remember when their "snacks" menu was fantastic.

FlyPointyEnd

I always take the 5am flight out of Manila, so I always get the fruit plate for that flight. Then breakfast at The Pier before boarding my connecting flight.

exHKG depending on the flight I normally buy food to eat on board, sometimes from Tasty Congee at the Food Court or from Yung Kee near The Bridge.

maortega15

Their hot pot rice was something I really wanted to try; I heard it was pretty good!

The egg tarts are okay. I can get egg tarts in any chinese pastry shop and I don't taste any difference.

Now, the snack menu is like J. The burger doesn't really appeal to me and the soup is pretty much the same. On certain flights from NA, they serve quesadillas.

maortega15

Don't you usually eat in the lounge at MNL?! I thought you mentioned the bangus was pretty good!

The fruit seems to be always good. Nice and cold and fresh.

It's pretty sad when airport food court food is way better than what you get on a 5-star carrier.

On my flights to and from MNL, I would just eat fruit and the bread if breakfast along with a milk tea. On the return, eat at the food court and lounge and just take a nap.

Unless you're a first time flyer or haven't flown with CX in years, the food has been pretty much the same and in decline.

FlyPointyEnd

it's not always offered, sometimes tapa, tocino or longanissa

MNL Catering is good when they serve Filipino food, but apart from that you're better off just sticking with fruit platter.

maortega15

A lot of times, the quality of food is port dependent.

I remember years ago, I had a gorgeous Thai chicken curry out of BKK.

ex-Japan is good too.

christep

I remember years ago that I had various really nice meals in F. But for me one thing that's changed is the people preparing them...

10+ years ago the cabin crew in F were highly educated people (women mainly) from around Asia who had a cosmopolitan outlook and an understanding and experience of the different global cuisines. Nowadays, due to CX's very short-sighted recruitment policy, we most often get served food by Hongkongers (some people have said just one step up from Mongkok shop girls) who have never in their lives eaten that sort of food in a decent restaurant and therefore have no clue what they are doing (and who, down route, just sit in their hotel eating instant noodles rather than going out and sampling the local cuisine).

For me the Japan exception is because CX still employs Japanese crew on those routes and obviously they know what they are doing with Japanese food. But the Mongkok girls serving, say, something as simple as a salad in this recent post have no clue what the chef is aiming for, and assume that it should be like the starter in a local dai pai dong, drowning in dressing (thousand island in the case they understand).

You really can't train this sort of stuff - no amount of photos will persuade someone what food should be like as effectively as actually being someone who eats those types of food regularly.

For me the best thing CX could do is to revert to their previous hiring policy and be Asia's world airline, recruiting the best cabin crew from around the region. The marginal cost is small; the improvement in service quality, particularly in the premium cabins would be immense.

swingaling

Flew LAX-HKG-AKL in PE in the last couple days. On the LAX flight, they ran out of my first choices for both meals. On the AKL flight, they ran out of my first and second choice for dinner, so I ended up with the pasta entree from Y (which was actually very good). However, I got a good FA on the AKL trip who remembered and gave me first choice for breakfast, which was much appreciated (and something the LAX crew should have done).

Anyway, what's the SOP in situations where they run out of your choice in PE? Offer the Y meal? Any data points of people getting a J entree (or snack like the J burger) in these cases? Or is it always the Y meal?

That said, I did notice that the food ex-HKG was significantly better than the ex-LAX food.

ExpatExp

Would someone be so kind as to post a recent F menu for JFK-YVR and YVR-JFK? Or if there's somewhere I could see an example… Flying both legs later this month.