Currently closing at 8pm due to Finland’s covid restrictions imposed on restaurants.

And in Sanna’s vocabulary, any place where she cannot or have time to party is a synonym restaurant, including HEL salad lounge.

If they make more money that way, why change it? But maybe we should change the nickname from Scandic of the Skies to Kaukokiito of the Skies.

Haha, very spot on, didnt they recently convert some machines cabins to cargo? IIRC seeing a photo or what…

Bummer... that's miserable, considering the SIN flight departs close to midnight!

I would be famished if I had boarded the AY flight without knowing that the lounge has shut, and all they served were those tiny dishes on one tray, plus only the nondescript snacks they have on board. No additional glasses of blueberry juice could fill me up substantially, I most likely would be hungry for most of the flight.

So, did some christmas time LAX flights and decided to test the ARN route instead of HEL.
Picture quality is pretty crap, but so was the food...
Catering ex-ARN was way way way worse than ex-LAX

ARN-LAX:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...0352012d78.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...390ff6a1a4.jpg
Appetizer
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b0c1f7389a.jpg
Trout for main, which actually was salmon. Dry like Sahara, overcooked.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2fb42816c5.jpg
Normandy apple tart, best part of the meal.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cf2bc64212.jpg
Avocado pasta before landing. Just inedible. This is Y meal, not J on any other airline.

LAX-ARN:
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...9fd88d5aad.jpg
Forgot the appetizer picture, was ok.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...891764c753.jpg
Chicken for main, was actually tasty and chicken was properly cooked.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cb0590e840.jpg
Tiramisu was ok also.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2807f8257e.jpg
Breakfast at 3pm... Why not light meal like outbound?

It seems that the same menus are here for months and months, no changes/improvements.... not really what Ms Keränen said in Blue Wings in August:The meals on long-haul flights are a great combination of tradition and refreshing new experiences. Before the actual meal passengers can snack on a small amuse bouche. The starter is a combination of three different elements where Scandinavia meet the piquant flavors of Asia.

There are three options for the main course, one of which has the interesting, sustainable Benella rainbow trout as the main ingredient. The other two options are a Japan inspired chicken dish and a plant-based meal that celebrates the tastes of India.

“All the main courses have an emphasis on umami. Your sense of taste is not as heightened when on air, so deeper flavors hold their own better than more delicate ones,” Keränen describes.

After the main course there is a separate cheese course, where at the moment the traditional French Comté meets a Finnish white cheese Heidi from Herkkujuustola cheesery.

Many passengers know to expect a cake to finish the meal with and you can still find a lovely Normandy apple tart on the menu. To fit the trend of all things traditional and as a nod to the Finnish exotic the other option is now a whisked berry mousse. It is usually made with lingonberries but modernized by Finnair and made from blackcurrants.

“My bet is that it is going to be a bit hit,” Keränen mentions.
Only a few longhaul has 3 mains, not to mention some with no choice... and DXB being shorthaul....
Not really looking forward to my longhauls hopefully starting in a few months..... (and in my and all other airlines books DXB is longhaul)

Sad that FinnairPlusRep has not given any comments on anything.

For once, the presentation of these food is at least good here👍

and for a short period you could have a soup and/or an appetizer

That period lastet a couple of years as far as I remember. I never understood why they cut of the soup, since it is cheap but a great extra.

Maybe because of development of inflight concept. They need to ask, then get the cup, then pour soup from thermos. It doesn't fit with the tray concept...

Testing the same in about a month (unless covid messes up all my plans again), and not holding my breath for the dining experience. Really looks like AY has not just gone downhill, but dropped totally off the cliff as far as catering is concerned. Unfortunately at ARN there is no way of substituting the inflight meal by having proper lunch in the lounge, as the Norrsken offerings are mediocre at best, to put it nicely.

And another thing to wonder: mushrooms in most of the dishes, even the breakfast, with no other choice, are they trying to poison us all??? :D

With this route, its not possible in HEL shengen lounge either with customer demanded vegetarian lunch.
I find Norrsken actually better than HEL. They always have that pasta salad.

The Norrsken lounge is really inconvenient for F pier flights also, as there is passport control (there was 3 other long haul leaving same time when i flew, so 10-15min q). And the document check at gate is really long also.

ARN T5 is not designed for flights out of Schengen, as there is practically nothing after passport control and even the passport control is quite small in capacity. I just wonder when AY (also with their long hauls) changes back to T2 at ARN, I hope soon as it would be vast improvement: smaller and more comfortable terminal, (marginally) better lounge, less queues, quicker to get in and out. Another (small) improvement would be AY longhauls moving to gates 17-20 at T5, which have also been used for flights needing passport control, as it would be very close to gate 11 that seems to be dedicated to AY, and being close to the lounge as well.

Regarding those document checks, AY seems to be really struggling with it, as quite a few long hauls tend to be severy late nowadays, and their IT obviously doesn't offer any help with that.

Now that was a fish dish, so my theory won't fit here, but there is a trend saying mushroom is a great meat replacement...