eightblack

Most definitely agree with you. And my 14 year old son would concur. We went to Japan last summer and are off again this summer holidays, on our way to Australia. Best food by a long shot. Love the place. Looking forward to reading the TR.

avneeshj

Subscribed and eagerly awaiting the rest of the report.

Digital01

Definitely looking forward to the rest. My wife and I often plan our destinations around certain culinary experiences, so definitely excited to see what is to come!

sfoactuary

Our travel day started with a 10AM hop from San Jose to Los Angeles, and despite no line at security, clear blue skies, and on-schedule departures all around, I was sweating bullets. See, I'm a paranoid, nervous wreck when it comes to flight connections and if you gave me the choice between 1-hour or 3-hour layovers, I'd take the longer one every time. Throw in the fact that our SJC to LAX flight was on a separate ticket from the onward flight to Tokyo, and any minor issue or delay that arose would have given me a heart attack.

My wife had vetoed an overnight connection, so I had planned ahead for any number of doomsday scenarios. I researched all of the flights from SJC that would get us to LAX in time should our original flight be delayed or cancelled, and had even plotted out all of the flights from SFO and OAK that could get us there should SJC all of a sudden be closed down due to a bomb threat. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to LAX in time to finally try that damn Singapore Suites double bed.

We settled in at The Club Lounge at SJC about an hour before departure, and as usual were literally the only people in the entire lounge. My wife sensed my nerves and calmed me down the best way she knew how, by feeding me. And thanks to a reader, we now knew about the secret stash of instant noodles in the lounge. Is it just me, or does "beef" and "chicken" flavor basically taste the same?

The Club Lounge SJC


Secret stash of Cup of Noodles


Of course, everything ran smooth as silk, and I breathed a huge sigh of relied as we arrived at LAX 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Also, a shout-out to Delta for yet another extremely pleasant flight where the seats had great legroom, and even in economy, we were served a snack (chips, hummus, and carrots) during the 1-hour flight.

The only hiccup was at boarding when a women accidentally left her cup of Starbucks tea in her purse (who does that?!), then put the purse in the overhead bin where it of course spilled everywhere. As you can imagine, the tea began to shower down on everyone through the ventilation holes. But like Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, a flight attendant ran over and created a human umbrella to shield us from the Earl Grey rain. Looking back I'm still amazed by her cat-like reflexes and we escaped with just a few drops spilled on us.

Delta SJC to LAX


We exited Terminal 6 at LAX and made our way over to Tom Bradley International Terminal where I was surprised to see that the Singapore Airlines counter was already open. I assumed that with just once-a-day service, check-in wouldn't be available until 3 hours prior to departure, and here we were closer to 4 hours prior. I wasn't complaining, since that just meant more time to hang out in the lounge.



We jumped into the dedicated First/Business Class passenger security line which was much shorter than the standard one. For some reason, I found the departure board fascinating and really enjoyed watching it flicker with updates.



This was our 2nd trip through LAX in recent months, and had previously spent time in the underwhelming Korean Air lounge at LAX while en route to Barcelona. I was really looking forward to this layover since we'd get to try the Star Alliance First Class Lounge. After all, when you're a First Class passenger, the last thing you want is to have to co-mingle with the Business Class masses.

This lounge was connected to the Star Alliance Business Class Lounge and accessible both through a separate front entrance, as well as an internal door connecting the two.



At the entrance an eager attendant was stationed and checked us in. There was an Eames chair at the front which seemed odd. Based on its placement it was clearly not meant to be used and rather just for display, but that didn't stop me from giving it a try later on.



We headed inside and found the place completely deserted, sweet! It's always a great feeling to get the entire lounge to yourself.

We dropped our bags and ran over to check-out the spread - there was a selection of appetizers and a pretty healthy liquor cabinet as well. We were told of a couple additional food options which included the buffet in the neighboring Business Class lounge, as well as an a la carte menu. Not wasting any time, we ordered from the menu and then went over to check out the buffet while our food was being cooked.













We settled down for lunch at the dining tables at the back of the lounge. It was explained to us that each item on the menu was just appetizer-sized, so we ordered 3 items between the 2 of us. The menu was broken into Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner sections, but apparently everything was available.





Overall, even by my generous standards, the food was pretty mediocre with the turkey slider coming out bone dry and the flatbread served lukewarm.

Turkey burger


Four cheese and chicken flatbread


Kiwi and berry tart


We actually found the Business Class lounge preferable over the First Class lounge as it was so much more open. We grazed sparingly at the buffet and noodle bar, not wanting to stuff ourselves before eating again a couple hours later aboard our flight.

There's a keypad at the internal walkway between the lounges, which makes you feel like a secret agent when punching in the code. It would actually be pretty easy to sneak into the First Class lounge from the Business Class lounge if you knew the code, which I'm assuming doesn't change very often. But the First Class Lounge is so small and each passenger is personally checked in, that you'd likely be found out within minutes.













When we first arrived the First Class Lounge was completely empty, but filled up with another 8-10 people over the next couple hours. Given the relatively small size of the room, it actually got to the point where it felt claustrophobic and the acoustics seemed to amplify everyone's conversations. We eventually moved over to the Business Class side just to have more space and less noise.

While I certainly appreciate a dedicated "First Class" area in the lounge, at the end of the day this just isn't a true First Class Lounge. What I want most in a First Class Lounge is better food/drink than the standard lounge (which this lounge didn't really have), and more privacy.

But privacy is all relative, right? Just because you are in a small room away from the main lounge doesn't automatically equate to privacy, especially when you're completely surrounded by other people. And just because those people happen to be fellow First Class passengers doesn't necessarily make things better either. In fact, I'd actually rather not be around some of the First Class passengers I've encountered during my travels.

But at the end of the day, you don't buy a plane ticket just for lounge access. Well, unless you're this guy. So on to the champagne and caviar!

sfoactuary

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by - glad to see how many fellow FT'ers are also food lovers!

Haha and this makes me even happier to see the fellow Fast and Furious fans coming out of the woodwork. Another one of my favorites, "HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES!"

Glad to help! I'd recommend making a reservation prior to arrival, and you can even have it shipped to your hotel rather than pickup at the airport.

Challenge accepted!



Don't hurt me! In my defense, it was a hot day in Tokyo and this looked too good to pass up. I have no regrets.

It definitely took some getting used to, especially since we like to ask for recommendations. That seemed like a foreign concept to most people, they would just respond with "eat anywhere".

Thanks, eightblack! Hoping to see another TR from you soon, I'm in desperate need of a good laugh and it's cheaper than going to a comedy show.

chongl

Love the food pictures...keep them coming!

diningdecadence

enjoying this one, looking forward to the rest

AKCuisine

Laughing again ... you win.

I'll let you have this one because it doesn't seem to be the same as if you'd given up a great meal in Japan only to dine on a transplanted McDonald's quarter pounder.

I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your journey. Provided there are no more American fast food dishes featured ...

farbster

I think your wife has demonstrated why people like those suites. Or maybe it is just credit card bloggers trying to sell a dream. In any event, I'm looking forward to reading your report. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

sfoactuary

Singapore Suites have been around for quite some time and definitely aren't "new" in the same sense that the Etihad Apartments are, for example. But for some reason they remain as one of the most coveted First Class products out there. Perhaps it's the novelty of the double-bed, the mystique of the Singapore Girl, or a mixture of both. Either way, I was about to find out for myself.

I wrote about the process of booking my Singapore Suite Class tickets which was pretty easy at the time to find availability and transfer the miles. Since then, it appears that Singapore has cramped down on award availability and forced more bookings to be wait-listed. So if you want to fly Suites Class, I'd highly recommend booking extremely early on, even if just speculatively. Singapore's award ticket change fees are very reasonable, and range from $0 for simple date changes, $12-$20 for bigger changes, and $30 for complete cancellations.



We were literally the first people to board in an effort to maximize our time on-board and sprinted over to our seats. Our original seats 3C and 3D ended up being inoperable, and we were moved to 2C and 2D at check-in. For couples it definitely makes sense to book the middle seats, since odds are that the cabin won't be full and you'll be able to borrow a window seat for lounging and for catching the views during take-off and landing.

Before we could even sit down, a swarm of flight attendants came by to welcome us and more importantly, showered us with champagne and swag.

I have fond memories of Singapore Airlines, since it was actually the first international First Class flight I ever took. Talk about setting the bar pretty high. From what I could remember, the Givenchy pajamas seemed to have been upgraded from the prior version, and were similar in feel to the high-quality PYE pajamas that Cathay Pacific uses. The amenity kits were Ferragamo-branded and featured full-size perfume and cologne bottles. Lastly, Bose noise canceling headphones were placed at the seat as well.







I wasted no time and ran over to the bathroom to change into my pajamas. Of course, I had to snap the requisite blogger airplane bathroom pajama selfie.



Back to the suite - my impressions? To be honest I'm not sure if I'm crazy about the design. People talk about the ANA First Class cabin as having an industrial feel, and Singapore's largely felt the same to me. The cabin is a bit like slices of Swiss cheese lined up vertically, which was probably done to keep an "open" feel. In lieu of walls, Singapore uses drapes which must be opened for take-off and landing, and as you can imagine these don't provide as much privacy as a wall.



The seat itself is extremely comfortable and as wide enough as you'll find out there, unlike the Emirates seat which was just too narrow for my liking. Singapore is currently in the process of re-upholstering its suites, but unfortunately ours were the old version.









The seat and IFE buttons were simple enough to figure out, and interestingly when the seat is flipped into bed mode, I believe that there are was a duplicate set of each button when the suite is re-configured. Or maybe it just seemed that way, and after too much champagne my mind was playing tricks on me.





About an hour after take-off it was time to eat! From the moment I left the house I was determined to eat as much Japanese food as humanly possible over the next couple weeks. So as much as I enjoy Lobster Thermidor and filet mignon, I purposely didn't Book The Cook in order to try the Japanese Kaiseki option. As I was perusing trip reports in anticipation of my flight, I had noticed that the vast majority of trip reporters had opted for the Western cuisine.

My eyes lit up when I got to the snack section of the menu - normally there's just a handful of options, but this was an impressive selection to say the least. Given the timing of the flight (3:20pm departure) and the duration (~10 hours), I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to sleep, and that my stomach would eventually take be back here and made a mental note to try the Randy's Donuts.

Here's the full menu below:













First, some Dom and warm nuts to kick things off.



In addition to the Kaiseki menu, I also added an order of caviar. Caviar is one of those things that I know is expensive and am going to eat every time it's offered, but can't say that I particularly enjoy.





Now it was time to really get started - a mixture of appetizers which included squid, claims, sweet shrimp tartare, and salmon. At this point I was only half paying attention to the meal while watching the HBO show The Jinx and mistook the big green blob of wasabi for sea urchin. One huge bite later, I realized that I had made a BIG MISTAKE.





Next up, chilled green tea noodles with baby octopus. This one was a throwaway for me, since I prefer my noodles how I like my coffee - with cream and sugar.



And then braised beef with potato puree. YES, absolutely delicious. I'll eat anything that has "braised" in front of it.



And the last savory course - miso-marinated halibut and grilled chicken. After my wasabi incident, I made sure to hit pause just as Robert Durst was chopping up another dead body, and double-checked the menu to see what the yellow ball was at the bottom of the plate. Turned out to be mashed egg yolk, which I in turn re-mashed into my bowl of rice.



Only disappointing part of the meal was dessert, which was a ginger-flavored red bean cake. Not because it wasn't tasty, but I've just been conditioned to finish off an airplane meal with some combination of buttery baked cake and ice cream. I made a mental note to make-up the lost calories later on.



Starting with a cheese plate to finish things off.



After dinner we both asked to have our beds made, and wandered around the front of the plane while that was being done. We stood by the velvet rope and pretended to be bouncers at some fancy underground club.



Unlike most of the First Class seats out there where you simply recline the seat and slap some bedding on, the Singapore Airlines suite literally gets transformed. First of all, the partition between the two passengers is removed. Then, a murphy bed of sorts is flipped down from the wall behind the seat. What you're left with is one of the best looking and most comfortable beds you can find on a plane.



In "bed" mode, the AV panel is now along the wall at the back of the suite, and a nightstand is formed at bed-level which is pretty cool.



We closed the drapes and shut the doors to maximize privacy.



But not before having some fun taking pictures. Hey, how often do you get to sleep in a double-bed at 40,000 feet? But just to clarify, this isn't truly a double-bed, it's still just two parallel beds that aren't actually connected. In fact, you can't really sleep in the middle since the hard partition can be felt and would immediately send you to the chiropractor if you tried it.



Because of the relatively short flight time I opted not to take a Benadryl, and without it, I simply can't sleep on the plane. I rolled around for 30 minutes just to give it a shot, but snoozing wasn't going to happen today. One of the draw-backs of the Singapore "bed" mode is that it's not very comfortable for lounging, and you can't just sit up by increasing the incline of the seat. Luckily the cabin load was just 6/12 and I made my way over to seat 2F.

First order of business, ordering those donuts. Thumbs up for the Randy's Donuts over the Krispy Kreme ones.



While I fully admit that I've watched more movies and TV shows than the average person, the IFE selection was pretty mediocre. The only interesting movie I found was Wild with Reese Witherspoon, but luckily had self-catered my own entertainment and jumped back into The Jinx. Before I knew it, we were about an hour and half out from Tokyo and it was time to eat again.

I opted for the Japanese choice once more, which started with a mixture of clam, Japanese omelet, and gluten with miso. For someone that used to be gluten-free and had friends that would jokingly threaten to poison my food with gluten, this gave me a good chuckle that I was now ingesting pure gluten voluntarily.



And then grilled beef in sesame sauce along with grilled sea bream, which were both on the dry side. My wife just ended up ordering from the snack menu, and her bowl of noodles and Cuban sandwich looked much more appealing.


And the final descent into Tokyo - I jumped back in Seat 2F to catch the night time views.





Narita was completely empty when we arrived, and I took one last look at the gorgeous Singapore whale jet before starting the long walk to immigration.





I'd say that overall we had a really, really good flight aboard Singapore Suites. But perhaps my expectations were just too high or the hype had gotten into my head, because to be perfectly honest nothing about this flight really stood out above all other First Class products. That may not be the description that helps my review go viral, but that's the truth and I'm sticking to it.

sfoactuary

Thanks, and will do!

Thanks for reading, diningdecadence!

That's a promise I can keep - all Japanese food from this point onward.

Can't deny that the novelty of the double bed is pretty darn cool, but agree that the hype around SQ Suites is more dream than reality at least in my mind.

LeisureClassy

Amazing food pictures! The most crucial aspect of any trip!

Annalisa12

You've one the award for Title of the Year.... Fat and Furious! lol

sfoactuary

Couldn't agree more

Thanks, Annalisa12!

Gripevo

Lol love the title. But you missed the best f&f quote:

"Your lucky that double shot of NOS didn't blow the welds on the intake. Now me and the mad scientist gotta rip apart the block and replaced the piston rings your fried..."

As a car guy, that one always makes me shake my head.

Great report, keep up the good work.