jacky97531

Hi all,

I am now in the KLM lounge and I find the warm food section so terribly bad that I started calling them dog food recently... Most of the time they are just some badly cooked veggies plus some pasta/rice with some tasteless surinamese/teriyaki chicken. (As as asian myself I can tell it has absolutely nothing to do with teriyaki...), other sections are fine. I use the KLM lounge in Schiphol regularly, before covid I was also a star alliance gold member so I also know their new lounge, the food there is reasonable, so I suppose it's not a dutch thing.

I have the choice to take Air France sometimes depending on the schedule, but then I get less XP as I commute to a smaller city in France. On the other hand, the lounge in CDG is fantastic, food is always great, French recipes prepared by star chefs, unlimited Champagne, free massage and facial treatment if you are there early enough.

This is so frustrating considering they are in the same company and I love flying with KLM so much...

Goldorak

There will be a lot of people agreeing with you here, including me. KL greatest value remains their lovely crews, a top safety level but the catering on the ground and on-board is just a complete shame and a constant race down the hill for pure cost-cutting reasons covered by some eco-Greta BS. On the other side, AF is doing a lot of effort on many things, especially for their lounges which are very good IMHO and great crews as well.

feederflight

Well said. KLM ist the Dutch version of Norse Atlantic. One of Europe's most iconic airline brands run into the dust by incompetent management and people in charge of things they have no clue about. The Catering resonsible does not have any gastronomic experience whatsoever for example.

Fabo.sk

I can't say I completely agree.

The lounge slop is terrible, no contest. But it's just as bad in Star lounge. The only place to get a decent grub in Schiphol (well except maybe a restaurant or two) is Privium lounge.

I am afraid the food situation in CDG is also deteriorating. Now don't get me wrong, it's still miles ahead from AMS and also leading LH Group lounges, but I have just been in T2F after a longer absence and the jump downwards was obvious and concerning.
Luckily the lounge is otherwise pretty good except for some detials, and beverage offer was great (except no more sparkling water to take with, annoyingly).

physicsdude

Have to agree with what most people are saying about KL. Though, I will defend KL's English Breakfast spread in Crown Lounge 52 because I think it they cook that well make it taste like a genuine English Breakfast.

Fabo.sk

L52 has a lot better options than L25. But still worse than at opening, or currently in Paris....

stanman1990

I was pretty surprised how bad Schipol had gotten, at least when I was there the queues were all a mile long, waitlist for the lounge etc. I think they had huge staffing problems hope they resolve it. I remember eating some cheese in this lounge that tasted like chemicals, I didn't bother going back in next time I was there.

rwSEA

The KLM lounges have had terrible food for years. Same cheese and bread forever. Was just in the Schengen lounge and they had “chicken teriyaki” which was a huge pot of vegetables with a handful of chicken chunks mixed in. What a joke.

As much as it pains me to say it, the food in the delta sky clubs is much much better than what KLM offers in the crown lounges.

maalloc

Pre-covid (not that long ago), the warm food offering would rotate every 2 (or maybe 4?) weeks.
Not great for frequent flyers when you compare to outstations that manage to rotate every week, but it still brought an element of surprise in an otherwise dull environment. For me that was good enough since I would only pass by AMS for some long-haul travels, so usually a few weeks between each visit.

We have had the Teriyaki Potluck for what.... 3 years now? IIRC it was the first warm dish they brought back after the first covid wave.

Who would have thought we would come to miss the KLM meatballs...

Maestro Ramen

Ahah yeah I miss those meatballs too.

I must confess I was fairly happy with the recent "creamy pesto", although it was clearly not pesto. But nowadays I've only seen the "pasta bolognese" which does not have a single bit of meat in, or any taste.

The only thing that is still decent is the pastries at 52, and the fact that there is still fruit.

One sad thing is that pretty much every single outstation lounge that's not in the UK has better food than L52. The quality of the food in ATH, BLQ, PMI, BSL recently to name just a few was surprisingly decent. You'd think KL realizes this is kinda bad for their image?

maalloc

Pretty sure AFKL is an undisputed leader when it comes to not looking at reality.

A few months ago, I got to chat with an AF exec on a NEV4 777 who asked me why I chose Y instead of J for this flight. When I pointed out how old and obsolete the cabin was, and asked frankly "do you know that you sell this J for the price of your competitors' P on the same route?", she just said, glowingly "Yes! We have XXXXX champagne onboard, and Palais des Thés for tea lovers. Other airlines can't compete with our level of attention to detail".
And she was dead serious.

I would bet a Wandersalaad that they can't even imagine that KL catering image is bad.

BubbaX

Catering in 52 is identical to 25.
The lounge is representative of the national culture, and Dutch HoReCa has a reputation that the Crown Lounges stalwartly uphold. It's a tradition better honored in the breach than the observance.
Mrs. Bubba calls 25 "the prison": overcrowded, dirty, terrible food, and you can't even look outside.

AF does a decent job in their salons. Even if they've got constraints and a budget, there's a sense of pride in providing something culturally relevant. By comparison, the last time I was in Schiphol, the peanuts were rancid.

Artpen100

Though every time I fly United Airlines TATL, I am reminded how much better even KL is and resolve not to complain about AFKL for a year or so.

jacky97531

Here I am in the L25 again. Today’s special is beef teriyaki, a huge pot of nicely cooked veggies with one or maybe two tiny pieces of precious beef inside. How great to be here!

jacky97531

I remember last year they had this creamy truffle sauce with pasta, which was quite nice comparing to the disgusting bolognese this year… I hope they will bring it back soon