New Shorthaul catering
 

SAS has launched new shorthaul catering concept - The Cube.

Has any one had this yet?

https://scandinaviantraveler.com/en/...nce#newkitchen

The PR stuff mentions warm side dishes. Anyone know what this will be?

Will be interesting to see the new food. I've had enough of the SAS Plus box.

From what I saw in pictures from the press event, it looked like a new cube box with very similar content to today. Smoked/gravad lax, roast beef, potatoes, salad, horseraddish cream etc. I hope the contents will be new and changed, let´s see.

The box will apparently still be a cold meal, so not sure what hot sides actually mean.

Sorry for being sceptical, but shorthaul food has been a continous disaster since business class was abolished.

First thought:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...-small-box.jpg

First serving will be on the 28th.

Looking at the size of the cube in those pictures, it could seem that they are making the serving even smaller than it already is.

I can't actually recall a short haul food annoucement to be good news... It never got better in connection with a big announcement. Butu let's not abandon all hope.... :D

I participated at the launch and made this little simple unboxing video of 4 of the meals.

See it here on .

The taste was good and as you can build it up with extras then you will be able to get your stomach full. I did taste all 5 of the first versions.

Some key observations from the "first tracks":

- Prepared so you do not need a knife
- You can eat with one hand
- The "Cube" is having dressing/sauce in small bags so the product itself do not getting "wet"
- Quality is good and great taste
- The new chocolates are really good (hand made)
- There should be over 70 variants in the planning - season based

[QUOTE=citiflyerUK;28353771

The PR stuff mentions warm side dishes. Anyone know what this will be?

[/QUOTE]
One example of the warm side dish are the warm bread. Variations like with spices or tomato bread.

[QUOTE=citiflyerUK;28353771

Will be interesting to see the new food. I've had enough of the SAS Plus box.[/QUOTE]

Look at the video above for the unboxing of the meals. They are quite similar as those today but there will be more variations and season based. So do not expect a total change of the meals.

Thanks for this, very interesting.

It does kind of look like the first 3 are the replacement of the intra Nordic fresh bites, and the last one a bit bigger. The first three would seem very small to serve as a meal, even with bread. maybe a "meal" :D

I stopped reading after that line. It shows that SAS has for the third time revamped their short-haul meal concept without listening to their passengers and 'again' tried to re-invent something that doesn't need re-inventing but copy-ing from successful competitors.

I don't need another reiteration of cold salmon, chewy white fish and black bread.

Less effort on the marketing slides and more on the edibility and quality of the food. I'm sure some 'marketing consultant' with oversized glasses that probably makes less than 5 flights a year whipped this up, but it is really not productive and has no positive tangible results for the company.

Spending 95% of my time on BA at the moment doesn't make me look forward to return to SAS food. :mad:

Apart from being served on porcelain and the longer flights (not CPH nor TXL length), the Club Europe catering on BA is not a step up from the current Plus offering. Quality wise no difference,the plating does maybe look better. BA would not be my benchmark for European catering, and SK should preferably not copy anything from them.

Out of curiosity, what would be your benchmark? LH meals are disappointing, for example. The food on longer CE sectors is one of the very few things in BA's favour on short haul, at the moment.

I know that flights like Istanbul and Athens gets nice catering. But Copenhagen and Berlin gets pretty abysmal CE catering. But comparing BA to Istanbul to TK London to Istanbul is also not in BA's favour.

But like for like, so scheduled for around 2 hours in business class, I would favour Austrian, Swiss (though it has been a while so I may not have the newest info), and I would put Lufthansa ahead of BA.

Turkish wins clearly, but their general cost structure and most stage lengths makes it a not direct comparison when we discuss what SK can/should copy.

Like I said in the other thread TAP has been great the last few weeks. I do not fly TK if it can be avoided ;)

TAP has had great catering the few times I have flown with them, but it is too far back for me to use as an example. But good to hear they kept it up.

BA catering to ARN hasn't let me disappointed, I won't claim its great cuisine but it is considerably more satisfactory than SK. There is a difference between being better than something and being the best.

In Europe, I find IB and OS to have the best food which can be copy pasted and provide instant satisfaction with more travellers than the legacy box concept.

My point was though that SK has yet again taken the same concept and only updated the marketing slides and the packaging instead of the contents. I don't like getting my hopes up with a newly advertised catering concept which is just as terrible as the previous.

My absolute food-favorite as well, though my intra-Europe businessclass-experience is limited. Have had good to great food over the last years, last time a couple of months ago.

Where else in aviation can you have octopus?

I just had a salad with raw octopus for breakfast on JAL this morning. And that was actually the western option. :)

I was just checking, ARN is in the long band, whereas CPH is in the medium band. So that makes quite a difference on what is offered on BA, and probably in our perception of BA food.

Yes, for a short flight CPH-IST you get a hot meal. TK is definitely great compared to other airlines, especially when you fly Y.

Does anyone know if the Cube is only for Plus pax or it's for Y as well? I don't have any hope for getting anything in Y (I think SK even cut toys for children for both long and short hauls).

:)

Had salmon sashimi on OS flight from VIE to CPH (7am flight) as SFML in Y back in 2001. Good old days.

Indeed, but with OS you could still get the far best intra-Europe breafast in Y if you add a little 15 euros to your ticket (drinks included allready). As with SK 140 Kr bob from the Y-menu means nothing else than misery...

With the exeption of the new nice design on the Cube-box (that beats the current +box) this will mean nothing else than the end of being served "a real meal" in SAS former C and current + class in Europe.

If you look at the size on the press-photos of the Cube it would hold 1/3 less amount of food and will only fit a snack at it's best. I assume the have some plan to collect and re-use most of these "Cubes" as well. So this is nothing else than a new cost cutting action that makes people fly less with SK.

I don't think the cubes are heading for anything but incineration once they have served their purpose on board.

Sounds similar to Steve Jobs' cube; nice to look at, but no content.

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Flew LHR-CPH yesterday in Plus and was pleasantly surprised by the new catering option.

The cube contained salmon on top of root vegetable salad. The bread on the side was a warm 'tomato muffin'. I found it much fresh, light and scandinavian than the previous tinfoil boxes. Only thing off was that the main and the side of bread didn't seem to match tastewise, but separately I liked both.

No desert contained in the box, but FA's handed out delicious petit four style boxes of chocolate when they came around offering coffee 20 minutes after the food service. A nice touch that you're first offered food and coffee deserts seperately.

Had my first box yesterday: Looks very pretty, but extremely hard to eat out of. I had oil, crumbs, grease, food pieces all over my hands and table. The cutlery is too small, and you generate loads of waste (cardboard, plastic...) and have little space for anything else on your tray table. Food was tasty, but you don't get to see what you eat from the dark abyss of the box. Neither dessert, nor chocolates were offered.
I'm not impressed.:rolleyes:

Looking at the marketing shots it seemed like layers to be lifted out of the main box; but that is not the case?

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Hmmm does not sound practical. Will look forward to testing on my next Intra Europe SK flight. Though I don't have my next European sojourn in the schedule yet.

Are there any photos of the new catering?

Chocolate, almonds/nuts and muffins (not sure if the latter is still onboard under the new food concept) is available in the great brand called Ad Libitum. But often you need to ask.

I flew LHR-ARN last night. I thought the food was better than before. The Cube was served with another small package containing a warm savory muffin. Initially it didn't look that filling but there was actually a decent amount of food in there. Similar themes to before but quality was much better.

When I finished the main a box of chocolates was brought over. I will try to upload pictures.

I know:).... but I was looking forward to the promised box of chocolates.

Interesting... given I'm often stuck on the 2-2 CRJ, this may help with the whole lack of space issue when trying to eat. It's currently near impossible to have anything but food on the tray given the dimensions of the box regardless of the flight, but with the CRJ there is no middle seat for additional space. I'm lucky to not have a seatmate most times. Cube shape potentially may satisfy my personal preferences.

It's still a month out before my next trip (passport renewal from abroad sucks) so I look forward to everyone else's experiences in the meantime ^.^

Got the cube for the first time today.

Cutlery is toy size and quite difficult to eat with.

Salad was ok, but breadish thing horrible.

Had my first non-breakfast cube today. Cube not good, food really an improvement.

The cube sounds like a good idea, but is overrated (at least by Mr. Roald & co.). Looks nice – like an Apple-box – but doesn’t make much sense. I can’t have my laptop on the table on the same time either way.

The food improves by being separated, but it takes time to assemble. Cutlery is much too small, and you get greased fingers, because they have to dig deep to get the bottom things. And the napkin is more of a joke than ever before. And it is more complicated to put all the rubbish back into the box.

Food was really fine. Chickenbreast – Swedish, and it was NOT totally overcooked. Side dishes fine. Spanish kind of omelet (lukewarm) was OK. There were more food than I could eat. Nice Swedish chocolate.

My favorite red wine (Italian Zinfandel) has disappeared. Has been substituted by rosé.

Rosé is an interesting choice to have on board... No red, or just different red as well.
Danish people do have a thing with rosé and summer. Though I don't know if that carries to Norway and Sweden as well....

Still red... Now french syrah. It's ok. The zinfandel was the 'premium'-offer.

Tasted the rosé at home. Pay d'Oc. Dosn' harm anybody. I am no fan of rosé - a bad compromise between red and white IMHO.

But yes, Danes and rosé and summer is popular mixture.

Also has become very popular summer drink for ladies in Germany... Rosé with ice cubes...

will rather take a beer than rosé (assuming there is no decent red or white) any day ;)

On my last flight in Monday, they had red wine on board. Didn't look which one as it was to early for me (11am) but that didn't bother the guy next two me and he got served red.