superbobbay

I flew from Las Vegas to Incheon via Prestige (Business) class.
This was the first meal (dinner):



There's no effort in this meal at all. It could be the same economy meal in just fancy China plating.
The morning meal was just as bad, porridge that could have been microwaved.
Just really shocked at the lack of effort by Korean Air.

racerxpa2000

looks like their regular bibimbap served in business class...

mikesaidyes

Both dishes you ate are traditional Korean dishes. That is bibimbap. It is a "regular" dish. They ALWAYS serve it on flights departing the US. The porridge is also a traditional Korean dish called juk (jook). Koreans love it for its simplicity and kind of comfort feeling (and it's not supposed to be super spicy or salty or anything like that).

Edit: And you're supposed to mix the rice and veggies. Not eat it seperately. They should give you an instruction card.

dankim78

Well, when you order bibimbap or the porridge, then that's what you get.
I never order Korean dishes when flying prestige class.

CDKing

Same on pretty much every KE route. Mine seemed to have slightly more food JFK > ICN

Tottoru

I am glad to admit that KE J food is not too attractive -- especially, they seem not to change menus for years, and what they have is rather solid (i.e. heavy) food, not to speak about limited wine choice and quality, and lack of familiarity of crew with serving it. However, what OP is posting is the very classic Korean menu. I think bibimbap's quality (rather good, IMHO) has already been discussed on FT.

Questions for OP: was OP asked to choose between Korean and non-Korean menu? Was OP asked whether s/he is familiar with Korean food and how to prepare it? In my experience, the answer is yes to both (unless passenger is Korean-speaking, in which case the second question is skipped).

Then, if OP answered yes to both questions, and actually was unaware of how to prepare bibimbap... well, I agree a burger is much easier to eat, as it requires basic hunger instinct only, but not all dishes are that simple.

Regarding juk, that's the standard congee eaten all over East Asia. Personally I can't stand it, though I like oatmeal (go find out), but again, it's standard and I doubt it was forced instead of the western breakfast.

superbobbay

Yes I'm quite familiar with bibimbap and know how to eat it. Just Google images for bibimbap and you'll see extremely appetizing pictures. Then compare that to the picture in my original post. Night and day! It's comparable to what college kids make in their dorms. I just expected a bit more effort in business class. Honestly the ingredients they used is probably the exact same as economy, only difference is silverware. Maybe my expectations are too high. I did fly on Turkish Airlines business class and boy do they put in the effort into their food!

Also regarding porridge. There are fancy porridge with diverse ingredients. But the meal I got looked like it was from a plain ready-to-eat packet from Family Mart that just got microwaved. Next time I'm going to definitely opt for the Western meals! I think Korean Air's attitude is that they can skimp out feeding natives with homely meals, but need impress Westerners with nicer meals.




Fresh veggies, mushrooms, ground beef. Seems doable to prep in business class, no? Maybe the egg would be difficult though.


This wouldn't take much effort to cook either

GagaPilot

Last fall I flew on both DL and KE on a trip. I had bibimbap on both. DL was by far the winner. No, I'm not Asian. But love Asian food. KE's was just unimpressive. Very bland tasting. Looking forward to hopefully having DL's version again this September.

mikem004

I flew four legs of KE Prestige class on a journey to AKL via ICN.
The menu was the same on each of them!

benji2227