MCruler

awesome TR!

SFO777

continuing...
QF107
SYD-LAX
Lunch

Within 10 minutes after take-off, our excellent cabin crew sprung into action. What followed was nearly 90 minutes of exceptional, absolutely flawless SQ-like service. And one of the best in flight dining experiences since our LHR-SIN SQ flight over a year ago.



A great menu today with numerous attractive options. Not driving home today any time soon, I decided to go with the Neil Perry/Rockpool 8 course tasting menu. And wine pairing with each course!

TASTING MENU
Our Tasting Menu features a selection of eight tasting plates highlighting the finest of Rockpool and Qantas cuisine. A selection of award winning wines will be offered to complement each course. Your Flight Attendant is available to assist you with your selection.

Corn and Manchego Fritters with Capsicum Relish Spanner Crab and Ruby Grapefruit on Betel Leaves

Roasted Tomato Soup with Thyme Croutons

Chinese Style Duck Salad with Pickled Cabbage

Pan Fried Blue Eye with Spiced Eggplant, Gai Lan and Ginger Glaze

Seared Rangers Valley Skirt Steak with Potato and Leek Gratin, Asparagus ad Horseradish

Salad of Baby Cos, Radicchio and Frisée with Palm Sugar Vinaigrette.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Fresh Strawberries and Sorbet

Blue, soft and hard cheese hand selected by Will Studd, Mâitre Fromager Calendar Cheese Company served with accompaniments

A selection of Cacao hand made chocolates

Menu Page 1
Menu Page 2
Menu Page 3

I developed a new appreciation for Australian wines this week, discovering that most of the great Aussie wines are not exported. With an interesting looking wine list, I decided to taste as many as I could with my wine pairings.





After a few more glasses on champagne, it's showtime. Today's meal was so good that I'm going to super size the photos in this section.

Our amuse bouche, the Corn and Manchego Fritters with Capsicum Relish Spanner Crab and Ruby Grapefruit on Betel Leaves were both exceptional.







Followed by item by item table setting, wine glass after wine glass after wine glass...



The Roasted Tomato Soup with Thyme Croutons was excellent, as was the 2008 PHI Yarra Valley Chardonnay...





Chinese Style Duck Salad with Pickled Cabbage was very good, as was the 2005 Tyrrells "VAT 1" Hunters Valley (NSW) Semillon...





The Pan Fried Blue Eye with Spiced Eggplant, Gai Lan and Ginger Glaze was sensational as was the 2010 Wanderer Yarra Valley Pinot Noir...





Salad of Baby Cos, Radicchio and Frisée with Palm Sugar Vinaigrette was very good.



The Seared Rangers Valley Skirt Steak with Potato and Leek Gratin, Asparagus ad Horseradish was melt in your mouth wonderful, perfectly medium rare. Paired beautifully with the wonderful 2006 Moss Wood Margaret Valley (Western Australia) Cabernet Sauvignon...





The Potato and Leek Gratin was to die for...

SFO777

continuing...
QF107
SYD-LAX
Lunch

Next up dessert. But first, great views of New Caledonia...











Vanilla Panna Cotta with Fresh Strawberries and Sorbet was delicious, paired with the lovely 2010 Corton Cut Mount Horrocks (Late Harvest) Reisling from the Clare Valley (South Australia).





OMG, it continues. Blue, soft and hard cheese hand selected by Will Studd, Mâitre Fromager Calendar Cheese Company served with accompaniments. Not quite in the same category as the CX cheese offerings but very good, and paired with port. Tasted great but at this point, I don't think I'm a reliable judge.





And a selection of Cacao hand made chocolates. There were also on a tray in the galley.
Well, you can't go to the loo without having one or two.



In summary, for 90 minutes I forgot I was on this relic 744 and simply enjoyed one of my best and most memorable inflight food and beverage experiences. Bravo QF. Now please hurry and get rid of this crappy cabin.

SFO777

Not sure about CX J (ShF says no), but CX F is so much more comfortable.

I understand that F is being dropped from the 744. OK, I get the financial decision not to refurbish the 744 since they are dropping F, but they better get faster 380 deliveries if they want people to give them business. I would never again willingly fly another QF 744.

The Taittinger was delicious... must have polished off an entire bottle that day.

I appreciate your comments bme21. I debated about this but since it was somewhat "anonymous" I included. Not so much to embarrass this poor soul, but to point out some of the deficiencies of the QF F cabin.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF is correct. There was a doc check just before the gate area.

Hope you share the fruits of that idea.

That was my vote as well.
Indeed, the boys voted this one #1 on the trip. Mrs. SFO did not get a vote.



Thanks MCruler!

aviatorzz

I have to commend you on this report. Absolutely fascinating to witness the differences between the OneWorld products.

Looks like you all have enjoyed yourselves! Can't wait to see the next report

BA5E

Thanks for the photos of the tasting menu, we had exactly the same menu last month SYD-SIN but on the A380, food was amazing, but just cannot make room for the cheeses. The choc's as you say are amazing, and of course with a 744 you have to almost pass by the galley to get to the loo, so you can grab a couple more, A380, loos at the front and galley behind row 5, just have not thought of nipping there after the loo and grabbing a few, will remember next time. Look forward to seeing photos that i hope your son has taken on his SYD-LAX A380.^

123dd

What a truly amazing TR.... The 8 course menu on the Qantas FCL looks delicious.... But if I remember correctly, these flights are daytime departures, it would be much nicer if they departs around dinner time. So you can indulge the spar before boarding, have the 8 course on board, and go straight to sleep...

NJTravelers

I have been reading your TR's for sometime and I wanted to tell you how great and entertaining they are. Today I read about your trip to Hong Kong, a city and country I am traveling to for the first time in 12 days, I am very excited. We will be seeing those very same sites and now I know what to look forward to. Thank You!

Seat 2A

Finally! Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I tend to wait until an entire report is written before I actually read it, and this report was well worth the wait. As ever, you've graced us with yet another sterling example of the fine art of trip reporting. Your report will do an excellent job of serving those who are curious as to the First Class product of the various airlines detailed, not to mention perhaps inspiring a few readers to shell out the money or miles for a chance to enjoy those culinary delights for themselves. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable read. Well done, Sir, well done! ^^

Having just recently completed two 12+ hour flights in Cathay Pacific's First Class, I can reiterate that they're nothing if not consistent, i.e. consistently excellent. It's practically impossible to imagine that Cathay would ever send out one of its 747s in the same condition as that Qantas airplane you flew upon which looks as if it's ready to be relegated to Hadj charters. It's amazing how a airplane can look so shiny and new on the outside and then you step inside and... I was on a 30 year old MD-80 yesterday that looked like that - but then it had flown for over a dozen airlines before its present owner.

Anyway, thanks for this stellar trip report - a FlyerTalk Classic!

MucEKPer

That food has just convinced me to save up all my money and the day I'm 18 I will be on a Qantas plane

Awesome Trip Report SFO777

zookeeper

Wow, what a meal! The next time I fly F on QF, I will have to fast the day before to make room for all those delectable courses. I don't think I could bear to miss a single one of them.

I truly cannot say enough good things about this TR! The photos are absolutely spectacular!

MTHTravel

I second that.

I really like your trip reports, there are great and I enjoy every installment of it. But are these pictures really necessary? And the pictures of the girls? Did you ask them for a permission? Well, I suppose it's just normal today that we can get photographed every time when we are outside.

The funny thing is that you blur out the face of your wife

Anyway, I don't want destroy this great tip report. I am looking forward to the QF F A380 segment.

Dr. HFH

I flew one a couple of weeks ago, the evening departure BKK-HKG. I mentioned it to one of the cabin crew in F; and she explained to me that 1) CX had never bought any 744s from SQ, 2) all CX 744s were originally P&W, and 3) CX was re-engining all the 744s to RR engines. Wasn't worth trying to explain reality to her, she was quite certain. OTOH, the service was excellent!!

SFO777

continuing...
QF107
SYD-LAX

Those blissful 90 minutes for lunch were the highlight of the flight however. Unfortunately, there were still nearly 10 hours to go to LAX. I worked on uploading and editing photos but the Empower system couldn't handle my MacBook Pro's 170 watts. Even AA's old MadDog DC power system will charge my MacBook when turned off. But not this old relic. IFE was not functioning properly today. No movies on demand available with a whole lot of this...





I did watch Money Ball for the 4th time on this trip and Real Steel. And although I slept on the HKG-MEL flight, I could never really get comfortable and didn't sleep much tonight. Although I did stop for more delicious chocolates on the way to and from the loo...



At about T-2 hours, I got up, changed back to my clothes and watched Money Ball for the 5th time on this trip, and had breakfast.





The scrambled eggs were way too runny, as in undercooked runny, so I only picked at them. On the other hand, the sausages were pretty good.



Some nice view on descent and approach to LAX. Any ideas about this fully illuminated plot of land in either Santa Barbara or Ventura county?



















Although we touched down about 20 minutes early, gate follies consumed all of that and then some as the Captain announced that we needed to be towed the last 10 feet to the gate, even though we were at the end of the terminal without any noticeable encumbrances. And then the jet bridge operator apparently had other priorities this morning.

And then there is the pit that is TBT arrivals. Yikes, talk about third world. Mercifully, we had a wonderful wheel chair "driver" that escorted us all the way from our plane to the AC in T-4. ^

My take on QF? Loved the service, QF staff and food. And the SYD FCL is fabulous. But the 744 hard product is absolutely horrid. I would never willingly set foot on another QF 744. In retrospect, I probably short changed QF on that earlier 3.5 rating. I think I'd give it a 5.0 or 5.5. As you'll see from SFOjr's photos, if we'd flown the 380, obviously higher. But any airline that still flies this disgraceful hard product, gets an automatic 2.0 deduction.

Next up:
SFOjr's great 380 experience, aka "sir, please refrain from taking photos of the cabin. Our guests here don't like it."

SFO777

Thank you aviatorzz! All in all, we had a great time.

Thanks BA5E. I think that the tasting menu and wine pairing is a great idea, if the food is as good as it was on our flight.

Thank you 123dd. It was indeed a daytime departure, but I usually don't have any trouble eating at any time. Mrs. SFO would agree with you. Since we had breakfast about two and a half hours earlier, she really wasn't hungry. Unlike SQ or CX, QF will not serve the main meal "when you want it". So she passed on most of the food, and just had a light snack a few hours later.

Thanks so much, NJTravelers. I'm glad I could give you a sneak preview. Hong Kong is second only to Paris on our list of favorite cities in the world.

Thanks so very much Seat 2A. I appreciate your kind comments, especially considering the wonderful content of your always amazing reports. Had to laugh at your Hadj charter reference, but that is pretty darn accurate. Is there a CX TR in your future?

Thanks MucEKPer. Miles work too, and are a lot cheaper.

Thank you zookeeper. I do try to avoid eating too much before boarding a long haul flight like this, just so I can sample as much as I want.