AY1337

Flew HEL-ICN and ICN-HEL last week on the A350 and failed to realize that there was pre-order food options.. Aaanyway.

The food was *significantly* better flying from Helsinki compared to flying ex-ICN.. The salmon appetizer was great as mentioned, as was the nieriä on the way to Korea - I would've been completely happy with it in an upscale restaurant! The side salad was completely useless but whatever.
On the way back, it was just pretty terrible. The duck breast starter was a non-starter and followed by such a disappointment of chef's special grilled pork that it made me start drinking trough the drink menu just to get over the depression. (The fact that the internet was broken for the whole flight and I couldn't work as I had planned did also help in this.)

I actually rather liked the blueberry saison - I generally *don't* like saisons and a blueberry beer sounds like a pretty bad idea to me, so I was very positively surprised. Completely decent drinking beer.
The star of the wine list is definitely the St. Emilion Grand Cru which is just a great, fulfilling your expectations, beautiful velvety red.
I also surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the Golden Sky signature cocktail. I'm happy that they've done away with the old "cocktails" which were such a humiliating idea.
There was no fever-tree on the plane, apparently, so the Napue G&T was made to some bulk tonic. It was decent anyway.
The only thing I'm wondering, how on earth there's still no Jallu available? Luckily I always carry my own, but sheesh..

kanamurva

Bringing your own jallu to A350 J: respect!

WilcoRoger

+ 1 on these accounts. Same route, same choices, same opinions ^

PS - I hope when you say you carry your own Jallu, you refer to the liquid version vs the printed version.

AY1337

Weeeelll, it's kind of an art project now (Proof: https://jallu.travelmap.net/posts/ja...arkissa-6582km )
I have five 1dl plastic containers in a sealable plastic bag and an empty Jallu bottle to survive the security controls as I'm only traveling with hand luggage.. Working on a small enough travel case to bring a glass bottle with me in the future..

A humblebrag, I'm also pretty sure I'm the first person to drink Jallu in a flying shower on the Emirates A380

SPBanker

Total respect.

ACA321

Question- I'll be taking my first flight on Finnair in April- business class JFK-HEL-FRA. I'm booked through AA as a code share but have an ZY locator. When I look up my reservation on finnair's website, I can't seem to preorder my meal. Is this not possible with a codeshare ticket? Could I make a reservation by calling in? All I can do when I click "manage reservation" is see my seat assignments and add contact info- can't change them or preorder anything.

Also, unrelated to meal, is it feasible to head into Helsinki on an 8-hour layover? Never been before and am excited to give AY/Helsinki a shot.

Thanks for any advice!

ffay005

Codeshares come with a host of problems, seat assignments and meal orders among others. If at all possible, avoid booking a codeshare.

Eight hours is plenty of time to take the train to Helsinki. On arrival from JFK, the airport will be deserted, with no lines at passport control. In the afternoon, you can use the priority security line, which is very fast. Plan to arrive at the airport 60 minutes before FRA departure and you'll be fine.

ACA321

Thanks ffay005. I'll try calling to see about meal orders. At least my seat assignments are showing correctly in Finnair's side of the system.

DALtoAAL

Did quick NYC trip last weekend, so here are pics from the outbound AY 5.

Canape of some pate and crisp bread.

Salmon appetiser, which was fresh and nice.

Main course, beef cheek by chef Myllymäki. Meat was dry and tasteless, disappointment.

Milk ice cream tasted like...milk.

Cheeses.

Pre-arrival meal, open faced salmon sandwich.

Napue Tonic, great as always!

florens

@DALtoAAL I like how you seem to have 2 glasses of champagne available. It's actually a good idea to make sure one is always full while one is being refilled.

Post Scriptum

Removed the image, but just another data point, CS denying possibility to have burger from Y to J. What can be ordered is "childrens" meal which is likely some type of spaghetti/meatballs...very much sounding like a QR Y-kids menu based on CS's description. It would seem that "previously" this has been possible but not anymore, so I assume this is now enhanced away or does anyone have contradictory data points.
What type of magic wording you used Tapio

Tapio

Peregrine415

Individual plating on AY5. I highly recommend the smoked arctic char.

miamiflyer8

I'm glad they caught their senses on the plating as my AY5 a while ago it was all on one tray with the FA praising the system.

Post Scriptum

After 2 emails and one call in total, no luck, so it would seem that something is changed. No more burgers in LH J