CIAO LAX

Re: post #365 above, after seeing some other lunch posts, wondering why sorbet was not offered for dessert on my flight? Only a cookie was offered after the lunch service and flight time was blocked as 5 hr 15 min (actual flying time was 4 hr 45 min). Seems like a sorbet immediately following meal and maybe a pre-arrival cookie or snack would have been more appropriate.

physioprof

The fat-free lemon vinaigrette served in domestic F is an absolute disgrace: it's high-fructose corn syrup plus citric acid.

JVPhoto

Is the cinnamon roll in a spread apart water cooler cup?!

MatthewLAX

That's what they come in (presumably because they are so sticky/messy). Usually FAs will put them on a plate or at least take them out of "cup" and use tongs.

JVPhoto

I've always passed on them but usually when I say "no thanks" it looked like they were on some sort of tray or had a wax paper or something that they may have been stuck on and not a cup.

crosscountry58S

Here's my recap from this past week:

LAX-MSP dinner
Cilantro Chicken Sandwich or San Antonio Chicken Salad
I had the sandwich. Can't recall specifics of the salad. I too thought the bread-to-sandwich ratio was not great, but was overall satisfied. Also served with grapes, which were good and fresh. FA took orders by status, I think. Service was excellent throughout the flight. PDBs and ample refill opportunities and nuts before the meal.


MSP-LAX lunch
Chicken wrap or Asian Beef Salad
FA went by row, and almost everyone ordered the wrap, so I didn't have a choice. Salad was about what I recall from last time I had it in January -- pretty decent quality and flavor -- though I don't quite agree with dressing choice of acai vinaigrette. Thought it should be more of an Asian style dressing, but it still worked ok. Nuts were handed out after the meal.

Prepackaged chocolate chip cookies with both meals, which were pretty decent. On the return trip FA offered a second cookie after the meal and also distributed stroopwafels before landing.

jasonp622

DEN-SFO 6/5, only two choices, fish stew, which the FA seemed embarrassed about and enchilada with cheese and rice, both sounded pretty awful. I tried the fish stew just because I haven't heard of it before, it wasn't very good but was better than the salad of i think arugula, qunion and raisins with lemon poppy dressing . No butter with my roll. I felt bad to the FA having to offer those two options for a dinner service. I think 1/4 of the cabin refused both options

SFO 1K

The Cioppino (fish stew) gets generally positive reviews. It previously was only served on international flights and was added to the domestic rotation a few months ago. The Enchilada has been around a long time.

I don't know why having two options on a flight of less than 1000 miles is a bad thing. Those are both perfectly acceptable dinnertime options.

Your FA might have needed to be asked for the butter, he/she may simply have forgotten. There are a number of new FAs in the system and they have a lot to remember to prepare and plate the meals.

DAS02135

BOS-SFO
Lunch
737-900

Last week lunch options were salmon, chicken, or 'Asian' noodles with vegetable dumplings.
Sorbet was served as dessert
Chocolate cookie (more like a blonde brownie) served before landing

TravelTheWorld66

6/13 EWR-MCO. The FA took the orders according to status. She took my order first which was nice for a change (and surprising). Two choices: chicken pot pie or chicken salad. The chicken pot pie wasn't half bad. Odd that it came with peas as a side...shouldn't they be inside? Also, didn't need the roll of I'm essentially eating bread as my meal.

findark

UA 712: IAD to SFO
June 9, 2016
Boeing 737-900, Snack

I'm frequently on the ~8pm westbound as it allows a full day of work and gets me home by midnight. This month, I got "snack trapped" as they pushed departure out to 8:05pm. The actual flight left at 9, but that's another story. Figured I'd report back on what passes for snacks these days.

After being stuck on the plane for 20 minutes watching pax board with the APU off (so no air conditioning), things were getting kind of stuffy and my nose was full of smell from the guy behind me with a pizza (no trust in the snack service, I guess). A cold (surprisingly and delightfully so) PDB of prosecco helped to ease me into the flight.

As an aside, has sparkling wine always been catered domestically? I had a seatmate order it a couple months ago who gave me a "look" when I was surprised about it. Since then I've been a regular consumer, but so far transcons only.



In place of the usual nuts, we were served the Zesty Ranch Mix which I assume is what you have to endure if you're stuck in Y. I'm not predisposed to packaged snacks, but it was.. awful. I forced myself to open the package and confirm my suspicions, but I only managed about three pieces before drinking deeply to rid my mouth of the taste. Needless to say, the rest was cleared away uneaten.



Based on earlier reports, I was expecting a calzone, but tonight's snack was this hamburger. Pretzel bun (mmm) and burger, with arugula and red onion on the side. No cheese, but I sort of assumed the rest were meant as toppings. Ketchup and mustard also provided, and a Godiva truffle was plated with the burger for dessert. The burger was pretty decent, although I must say it was quite a lot of food for a "snack"! I tried to eat some dinner before my flight, so I was pretty stuffed afterwards - it felt like almost as much as a full meal.

Already forgotten, but pretty sure there was no arrival cookie, either.

findark

UA 2046: SFO to DCA
June 13, 2016
Boeing 757-300, Lunch

New month, new menu. I definitely feel for the international pax, as while I think they are just cycling things around mostly the domestic lineup manages to change as soon as I can remember all three options. It's always a good day I can ride in the best domestic F seat, though, 1A on the 753 (UA2046 is going 738 soon, so R.I.P. 1A and reasonable inventory.)

I didn't catch much of what the whole menu was. The crew seemed very annoyed by the 0h45 ground hold (wind) which made us late out of SFO, and I used up my one "what?" when the question was actually "do you want dinner?". (In fairness, my seatmate slept through orders but the crew was very kind about getting him a meal when he woke up.)

Apologies for pretty blurry photos:



Standard ramekin of nuts. Served nice and warm, and none of the tasteless green nuts which I'm worried are taking over ^



Main course plated with a salad. The salad was arugula (really fresh!), watermelons, cheese, and a pomegranate vinaigrette. The dressing is the same vendor as the corn syrup lemon one from last month - while still a little sweet I thought it was better. On the whole, I thought the salad was very good. The main was chicken with a glaze of some sort - it tasted almost reminiscent of what a Jamaican jerk would be if they toned it down for general audiences. It was tasty if a bit dry, served with rice and some questionably purposed vegetables.

A second choice (given to my seatmate) was a vegetarian paneer dish, which seemed to be pretty heavy on the peas in addition to the buttery curry. No idea what the third choice was.



Multi-grain breadstick. At this point, most things that aren't the pretzel roll are a mild disappointment



And a lemon sorbet for dessert.


Pre-arrival cookie was served as usual. If they've adopted the new vendor I saw on SkyWest earlier this year, I'm a fan - otherwise I'm getting a placebo effect from thinking they switched [perhaps unsurprisingly, searching "United Airlines cookie vendor" yields no stories..]

cogitate

6/12 EWR-LAS
Lunch
UA 1794 737-800

I had shrimp with polenta, which was absolutely delicious; just loved it. The other choice was beef stew, which of course I can't comment on. Sorbet later.

6/15 LAS-EWR
Lunch
UA 1537 737-800

I had beef tips. I had thought that this dish normally consists of a bunch of small, bite-sized pieces; hence the word "tips". But no, my serving was a single piece of beef, maybe 2" x 2" x 1", probably a bit smaller in all three dimensions. It was accompanied by rice and beans with a sauce. (The other choice was salmon). The beef was only so-so in taste, but at least it was tender and very easy to cut. Some morsels I cut were fatty, and I even removed them from my mouth. My seatmate had the same meal, and he ate only about one-third of the beef. Sorbet later.

cerealmarketer

Same choices for EWR-ORD last week on a 3pm departure where I was expecting a snack. Nice to have a lunch.

No more bread plate - instead bread on a paper circle.

What was the bread plate had a bunch of grapes on it to snack on, so I guess call it an improvement.

Salad had nice quality greens. Pot pie was dry.

Cookie before landing.

maggersmagoo

Anyone flown west coast to HNL recently in first? I flew SAN>IAD last month in first and while the meal was quite tasty, I was slightly sad to learn that what I thought was going to be ice cream was actually lemon sorbet.

Next week I fly LAX>HNL, and I'm so hoping for a proper ice cream sundae. There's something about being on an airplane that makes vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup one of the most delicious things on (or above) earth.