ISTFlyer

Thanks
for sharing your experience with us.

How was the service?

- Was food menus distributed?
- Was there an appetizer trolley like before?
- Were all meals ( starters, main course, fruit, etc... ) served in a single tray, or service was done like pre-COVID?
- Was real cutlery and glassware used or plastic cutlery or glassware?
- How was the pre-arrival meal?

Thank you in advance.
Also please feel free to share any additional information that could be useful.

jphy

I wanted to post photos, but I don't have enough posts to have that privilege yet

Yes, menu cards were distributed prior to take off.

No trolleys, unfortunately. Starters, fruit, and dessert were served on a single tray. The flight attendants then walked around with a basket of individually wrapped bread rolls for people to grab. Once it looked like you were done with the cheese selection (breakfast) and salad (before landing), the attendants swapped out just these plates for a hot meal of your choice.

We were given real cutlery and glassware for hot drinks, but bottled drinks and plastic cups for cold drinks.

The breakfast meal consisted of fruit salad, muesli, kaşar & white cheese with olives, chocolate cake and a choice of kaşar cheese omelette or traditional style baked spinach pastry. The omelette was pretty good, but I didn't enjoy the pastry very much.

The pre-arrival meal consisted of hummus, şakşuka, salad with grilled chicken, chocolate vanilla cake, and a choice of grilled lamb chops, sea bass, or rigatoni. I wanted the rigatoni but those ran out by the time they got to me. My partner got the lamb chops, which were just okay, and I got the sea bass, which I barely touched. IMO, the taste wasn't much of an improvement from the boxed cold food, but here's to hoping that gets better! I was totally getting on my flight expecting the boxed meals, so a very good surprise when the menu cards were handed out

We also received a paper bag of snacks, cheese sandwich, almond cake, and pringles mid-flight.

tayaran

jphy Wow! Thank you very much for sharing all the details. Can't wait to see the photos!

jphy

No problem!

Here are the photos!


Menu

Breakfast

Breakfast - Pastry option

Breakfast - Omelette option

Before Landing

Before Landing - Lamb option

TPJ

So basically modified pre-COVID short-haul C-class catering standards are now offered on long-haul. Definitely a move in a right direction...

DaveS

Excellent photos! Did you notice what was going on back in Y? If they still had the boxes, hopefully that will improve before too long.

starflyergold

That is indeed a good start towards normalisation.

jphy

Sorry, I didn’t have a chance to see what they were serving in Y

michaelmorio

Did you get the famous "fake" candle treatment on your dinning table during the flight? Curious.

michaelmorio

jphy

No, I didn’t get that during my flight.

tayaran

jphy A few more questions if I may..Did they hand out an Amenity kit on the flight? Was the flight full? Did you use the M&S Lounge, was it busy?

jphy

tayaran Yes, we got the Versace amenity kits. Orange for ladies and brown for men. It had the same content but the pouch itself was different from what we received on our JFK - IST flight, which was a pleasant surprise (it was white for ladies and still brown, but different shape for men). The flight was actually quite full. I didn’t notice an empty seat in J, compared to my JFK - IST flight, which only had about 10 passengers. We visited the M&S lounge out of curiosity for a couple minutes, and it was not busy at all. Lots of empty tables and seats. We wanted to see what hot foods were offered because we totally weren’t expecting any on our flight, and only saw tomato & cheese sandwich and scrambled eggs.

uluwatu

jphy -- Thank you for the update

Did you or did you see anyone else bring a normal carry on roller/spinner bag on the plane?
Or only the personal small carry ons?

ISTFlyer

I can't talk about his personal experience but the carry-on restriction is still in place so larger carry-on's are still prohibited inside the cabin

jphy

uluwatu Yes, carry-ons are still limited to smaller personal items, but I did see a roller bag or two that had some special approved tags that were brought on board. Not sure what the process/qualifications are to get that approval.