You could try to push it to become possibility, I would have similar needs later in spring and burger would be definitely something that would sink down easily :)
It just can not be impossible to arrange a preorder food in J, regardless of the planned class of service as we know now they come from the same place. Naturally it could be that there is some type of internal sales ongoing and food included in the fare is in the different bucket than preorder and units compete against each other on how to get most customers reject the included dishes but go for the extra pre-orders and hence Y-preordered free-of-charge to J would mean loss for the other unit.

Hel-nrt dec18
 

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First, the menu.
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Then, the salmon starter.
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And the main dish, reindeer fillet.

The reindeer fillet was the "Chef's Gourmet" choice, only available as pre-order. Thanks to FT for giving the tip about it. It was absolutely phenomenal. I dare say this was one of the best dishes I have had on any airline, ever. Kudos to Finnair.

Those appetizers were the exact same ones I had on my DXB flights earlier this month. Salmon on the outbound, pastrami on the inbound, just on a smaller plate and a smaller portion.

The main course reindeer is indeed excellent as long as they don't keep it in the oven for too long. I hope they never change it!

Did you ask what the Chef's special was? :cool:

It's strange that you got prepackaged butter. The small round ramekin was introduced as a butter holder when they got rid of those plastic packs in longhaul J.

Is this a recent change? I have been able to order Child meals for my daugheter in LH J several times, and have been quite impressed with what my daughter has received. She quite liked the meatballs with mashed potatoes for example.

I have always had to contact AY as I haven't been able to order the meals online.

Nrt-hel dec18
 

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Japanese guest star chef Maezawa

Today, chef Maezawa is the one who will entertain you with her food. Let's dive in!

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Menu

I still want the Japan feeling so of course I'm going full Japanese.

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Bento box

Here is the first order of things. You get what looks like a bento box. A nice one, certainly. What goes inside?

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Life is like a box of bento

Well this is one for the fans. Authentic Japanese. As much as I love Japanese food, unfortunately the one part of it I don't like is the roots/vegetables part. And the appetizer is mainly roots and vegetables. There was a bit of fish on the upper left and egg on the upper right but that's about it. Don't get me wrong, this was an authentic high quality Japanese bento box. But as a devout carnivore, it did not make me satisfied. This kind of a thing is an acquired taste.

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Kurobuta pork

Now we're talking. The main course. I love the Japanese style pork slices, and this one is easily on par with good quality restaurants in Japan. The pork is soft, tasty, and has just the right amount of sweetness. The rice rolls are slightly dry but that's to be expected of airplane food. The only thing here not great are the kumquat pieces. Strange addition, extremely sweet (too sweet) and just seem out of place with the rest of the plate. The main thing to enjoy here is the pork, which is excellent.


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Kahvikutsut

And of course the Finnish style dessert coffee table with a Japanese twist. The little green tea sweet was just excellent. A satisfying end to a fine meal course.

Oh I don't agree at all. The salmon starter was superb, but the reindeer was inedible.

Was it overcooked? That tends to be the reason the meat is hit and miss.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I was not talking about pre-order.

Finally had a time to push this forward so made a call to AY CS. As mentioned by couple of other above as well it was possible to pre-order a special meals for kids in J. They were offering e.g. burgers or pizzas. All in all, burgers selected for the kids so the meal part is now under control. :D

AY5 17.12.2018. Cabin was empty with only 14 pax total. No one in the DH seats with the exception of 1H and I got 7AC for myself. Upgrades sold to J at gate, didn't catch the price so can't comment on that but there were no takers.

Crew was very attentive, water was offered immediately with the amuse bouche with the offer for additional drinks. Pinot noir stayed full so refills didn't take long as is the norm on AY.

Food quality was good with the exception of the roast beef sandwich that was soggy and tasteless.


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Salmon tartar (appetizer) and cod for main
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Finally tried the raindeer. I really liked it - wasn't overcooked, and tasted like a nice hearty homely meal, especially after current lounge experience in HEL.

Not smart enough to upload a pic though :)

I think I'm gonna be a kid on my next flight...

"Hamburger and champagne for the kid, please!"

ROXETTE’S Per Gessle is composing matching music to the AY J class menu.

Did anyone tried this yet? Taste is better? or marketing at the max?

https://www.finnair.com/fi/gb/tommymyllymaki

Marketing.

I have, from the last occassion, two sets of headphones with pre-recorded audio to "enhance taste". Sure, it alters the food experience to listen to birch wood burn slowly while waterdrops drip and wind blows natural tones. But to say food tastes better is a stretch.

I can send you the mp3 and you can try at home ;)

I'm waiting for the FINNISH Per kele and sausage combo.

I've heard they are launching new menues in april: You'll listen to Lordi and eat Salmiakki with Koff.

(That would be the first time Lordi enhanced anything ;)

All things I like in Finnland as a combination - just great. (Okay Lordi are not really my favourite band)

On AY102 today they handed out printed cards promoting this with the menu. However, they did not serve the foods in question nor did they have the music available. According to the promo card the Roxette soundscapes is available in the IFE system. The purser was blissfully ignorant of the entire initiative. :td:

AY 6 JFK-HEL 1759-0850 (+1) A-330-300

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Standard PDB of water, blueberry juice or champagne. I was happy to get a refill on my champagne too

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Tasty amuse buche of scallops and zucchini

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The chicken confit was really tasty as was the ahi tuna

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Petit Fours, ice cream and some very tasty Port

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The cold breakfast was far more extensive than expected and hit the spot after the few hours of sleep I managed to get

AY 131 HEL-SIN 2355-1715 A-350-900

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I'm quite happy that Finnair has a good scotch (Glenfiddich)

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The Pork Ballotine was good though I'm not sure what that weird Finnish roll I selected was.

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I like that Finnair allows you to enjoy cheese plate AND dessert. A lot of airlines make you select just one

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Halfway decent omelet. I do wish that a flight with a 5:15 PM arrival had a lunch/dinner type meal instead of breakfast.

AY 132 SIN-HEL 2345-0535 (+1) A-350-900

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I like that on each flight I had a different snack with my drink. These wasabi peas were excellent

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Really good beef, in fact I didn't have a bad entree on AY

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I went with the cold option this time and quite enjoyed it. Good job to AY on catering, these were my first flights with them and I was very impressed with the food.

Great pics!

It's called karjalanpiirakka or Karelian pasty. A thin rye crust and a rice porridge filling. Speciality from eastern Finland. Typically, you'd put some eggbutter (combo of butter and hard-boiled eggs) on it, but you can enjoy it with butter only, or add a slice of ham, too. Quite good.

Me, too. I completely fail to understand AY's logic here, and it has bothered me many times.

Leave NYC in the late afternoon, have dinner, arrive Finland in the morning and have breakfast. OK.

But leave Finland at midnight, have late dinner, arrive Singapore 12 hours later in the afternoon and have – what, breakfast? They serve the meal roughly 90-120 minutes prior to landing. If they go by Singapore time, it's late lunch time and if by Finnish time, it's early lunch time. That breakfast is screaming jetlag all over the place.

AY6 Jan 4 2019 JFK-HEL
By 19:00 we were ready to go until just after the jetbridge was pulled it was put back on again as they removed a family from Y with a heavily vomiting child and of course they had several checked bags so that took an hour to be taken care of. Didn't see much from 4A but I assume no paramedics were present.

Crew used the time to take meal orders on the ground which was much appreciated and something I wish would be a consistent thing in J. No refill on the PDB but chocolates were offered.

Once in the air we hit quite a chop for 30 or so minutes and that caused the crew to skip the amuse bouche and first drink which was another smart move so people could maximize sleep.

Appetizer was tasty and the main was edible but lackluster as is the usual when departing JFK in any cabin on any carrier.
Haagen Dazs ice cream was not rock hard this time so there was no need to wait for it to melt.

Breakfast had the main made from the same stale croissant that AA uses in Y as well as the generic yoghurt.

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I experienced a weird lunch service on AY5 (Helsinki to JFK). First they served the amuse bouche as usual, but then the rest (appetizer, salad and warm dish) on one go on the tray. The tray was so full that there was no place left for the bread (also served simultaneously). Then desert again separately, as usual. It was an extremely quick service, I was done with the whole lunch while still above Norway. I wish they would do it like this on the late evening departures, but why on AY5? Is this something new?

As an additional note, I tried the "Hear the taste" concept and as suggested, had the suggested soundscape with my Pork Ballotine. However, as expected, I failed to understand how the umami of the pork was intensified by the low sounds of the soundscape. What a load of crap.

Otherwise, the service was the "New Finnair" style, super nice and attentive. They also had a new concept, pre-landing champagne round. Good end to a great flight, despite of the strange lunch service.

I like the idea of pre-landing champagne round. Last year, coming back from Asia, a flight attendant did this and he seemed proud of his invention, which he said he aims to do on every flight. He said it had started from a situation where he didn't want to waste an open bottle of champagne, which had lead into him having to open several new ones. :)

See my post above

I also had it like this that the appetizer and main was on one tray with cheese and dessert served as separate courses. I asked "my" FA about this and commented that to ORD everything was served separately and she replied with "Oh isn't it great! We don't need to rush this meal on such a short flight!, we have significantly more time to Chicago" which is absurd to me as AY5 is a daytime flight where customers normally are after a more elaborate meal...

Oh no it works.
But, just like the seat block perk, mostly in your imagination ;)



^^^

I have my doubts regarding the speed of one-tray service. I had this poor service from BKK, during which even amuse bouche (same food as appetizer!) was placed on the tray. Compared to other flights it meant I had to wait over 1 hour for the first drink order instead of traditional 30-40 minutes. The full tray - incl. the drink - arrived around 1:15 into the flight, which I think is about the same timing as appetizer usually reaches my table. Even if I'm very optimistic, time savings from one-tray service are no more than 15 minutes. Let alone it makes you waiting longer for actually receiving at least a drink and amuse bouche.
Is it worth it? No. Does it support the whole experience? No. Is it easier for the crew? Yes. Here you go...

:D Oh no, I've been laughing this all morning.

WhattalottaBS! But now they have 8:55 since they just stretched the schedule by 10 min, so maybe they can afford a proper meal service after the schedule change comes into effect ;)

Could't agree more. The meal before landing should also be something more substantial since the sandwich was incredibly lackluster... Are they really that time strapped?

Last year I was approached twice by FA shortly before HEL, offering me one more glass of champagne.
"It would be shame to pour it away."
"I agree 100%, and I am willing to do my civic duty."
"Just a second."

How did they know to target me?

We're on the same flight. How was your breakfast? Mine was good.