I did not think I would come to say this but I am find the food on BA and QF better than that on CX. I fly F long haul on all three of these airlines. CX serves up a dollop of caviar but other than that I have been surprised by the lack of variety of late.

On BA and QF I almost always see a selection of three or four mains. One of these will include a fish dish. On CX I recently flew SFO-HKG, HKG-MEL, MEL-HKG, and HKG-LHR and there was not a single fish course offered on any of these sectors. On all of these flights there was a choice of three mains one of which was Asian, another was always beef and the final choice was pasta.

All of these airlines usually offer a selection of "snacks" between the main meal and a pre-landing service. BA and QF offer a much better selection than CX. On the recent HKG-LHR sector the snacks were a choice of noodles.

Finally, a non-food item. BA and QF both provide a "mattress" for their seats. Maybe I am losing it but this is not true for CX. Certainly not on my recent sectors.

There is absolutely a mattress pad in F, in the new configuration.

Not in A330 or A340 in F.

The food on CX hasn't been great for quite a while now. The food on QF has recently improved.

Hi, AOTR. This is a topic which particularly interests me, as 1) sleep and food are the two most important things to me on a long haul F flight, and 2) I fly long haul F on routes mostly serviced by these three carriers. Having said that, I disagree with your perspective.

First, take a look at the menu I just posted on the CX F Menus thread. (I don't know how to insert the link.) Of the two non-Asian main courses for lunch (CX 252, LHR-HKG on August 25), one was vegetarian (stuffed mushrooms with risotto) and the other was fish (pan fried, herb marinated cod). Chinese mains included beef and chicken. (I had the chicken, and it was excellent.) Snacks were also varied, including sandwich assortment, noodle soup and ice cream. This is plenty of variety for me.

That said, QF does have excellent food. The only reason I don't take QF is that I don't care for the hard product, -- no privacy at all to the F seats, as with BA and even more so with new CX suites.

Mattresses? BA has the mattress pad, which, IMO, is just fine. Additionally, of course, BA F will be updated starting at the end of this year, apparently both hard and soft products. Old CX does not, though I use an extra duvet for some additional padding over the seat. I have no particular recollection of QF on this point, although the ISM on my last flight assured me that the 744 hard F product would be updated once all the A380s were online. The new CX suites, of course, have a great bed setup, including a mattress pad.

All told, then, I'm using CX suites for first choice at this point. Any way you look at it, though, all three are pretty good products, and personal preference has much to do with one's perspective.

I absolutely agree with the OP. I have flown CX in first many times... Even though the suites are great... the choices for entrees has gone downhill.. Its nice that KRUG is once again the champagne of choice... but boy oh boy has the food become bad on CX IMHO....

My latest (and probably last!) CX J flight only had two main course options, a fish (seabass) in pasta sauce (puttanesca) without the pasta, and a beef stirfry with rice, which I chose and which, despite stinking of garlic and (presumably) spices, was incredibly bland. Not a short flight, either- 12 looong hours to AMS. I've had better food in intra-Europe Y!

Surprisingly as it really is the only area where they shine, MALEV has excellent food, at least in Business. The food in Economy is also exceptionally good and plentiful.

Having recently flown CX (HKG-JFK) and BA in F I would have to agree that BA's food is far superior, at least as far as the non-Chinese selections are concerned. I think this is just one aspect of CX's quite bizarre attempt to downgrade themselves from being one of the very few truly international airlines to being just another Chinese airline. Another aspect of this - the decision to recruit only local HK cabin crew - has recently been reversed, so perhaps they have finally come to their senses and the non-Chinese food options will get back to their previous standard soon.

Having said that, BA did make us laugh with their attempt at congee. It was all beautifully presented and so on, but the FA on the "midnight shift" had obviously no idea what congee is, so he added nowhere near enough liquid. It was actually presented on a plate to be eaten with a knife & fork, being essentially a chicken risotto rather than congee!

I quite like the v creative and fusion-esque food on QF.

But I am hesitant to declare that they serve up the best food in OW as I've only ridden QF, CX, BA, JL and AA.

So have only tried half of OW... But the food and wines on QF are certainly my favourite in both JCL and FCL, and also v nice red wines at times in whY (at one point they had Wirra Wirra Shiraz ^). Some gems on the BA wine list from time to time, though I find BA food a hit/miss. JL is outstanding with the Japanese cuisine, though now that I can't eat shellfish I tried their Western menu in JCL which was rather mediocre. Top marks to Cathay for serving Billecart-Salmon NV in (short haul) J, but not so enamoured with the rest of the list (apart from an AKL flight where they carried one of my fave pinot noirs) - food a hit/miss and presentation could be better. A lot of the times I found the food to be overly 'seasoned', not in a nice way - they're invariably too peppery or have some kind of spicy taste. AA is quite ok in JCL and FCL, vile in whY - terrible wine list though, and only cheap Pommery or PH NV in FCL!

In whY I find CX/QF/BA all to be similar food-wise, with BA having a bit of an edge over the others. QF better with booze of course as mentioned above - ^.

If we are going to include wine into this debate, we should probably add AY to the list as being up there. On the few AY services I have caught over the years, I have always found their wines to be excellent. The food also was very decent.

My rankings for food/wine would be as follows:

QF > AY > CX > IB > BA > AA

Can't comment on JL, RJ, MA & LA.

For longhaul J

QF>AY>JL>BA>CX>AA>IB

which says more about how poor CX have become (and AA/IB have always been) than about how good BA's actually quite average offerings are.

I wouldn't rate AA for wine at all, but for food I find them not at all bad - I particularly like their salads.

The whole point of the food is to soak up all that alcohol anyway.

Here's my ranking:
QF> JL (Japanese)> BA> CX> AA >JL (Western)

What about LA's food? It is quite tasty, IMHO.