CruiserCLE

I second that. I am very pleased with how UA has been trying to incorporate these things into the meals along with the arugula salad, etc. It's good to see effort to stay with the times (even if the quality and portions could use a bit of improvement, at least domestically).

1kBill

Because you fly a lot?

Kacee

I'm sure it was ironically served.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Funny, the quinoa I see served is usually not on the retrieved plates. As for kale - I won't go out of my way to look for it, but if it finds me, so be it.

JVPhoto

ORD-SJC (with a LAS diversion) 7:40pm A319

-A nice edamame Asian slaw salad with sesame dressing
-Butternut squash ravioli or chicken with tomatoes sauce and 5 green beans in a pool of mashed potatoes (eck)
-Pretzel roll
-Salted caramel gelato

AugustusM

The FA told me it was organically grown and sourced from a local, sustainable, biodynamic communal farm.

milesmilesmiles

Ended up having 3 good choices. Salmon, flat iron steak, and chicken. Had the chicken followed by the Sundae

username

I have now had an improved breakfast and dinner on my flights last week (both around 2 hours). They definitely look better and it is good UA is improving.

On the outbound, the improved breakfast was terrible. The egg sandwich had a very thin piece of meat and the whole thing was over-cooked. The FAs seemed confused - it took forever for the food to come and no one got the choice of cinnamon bun/biscuit - it seems they just put it on (first half of the cabin got biscuit and 2nd half of the cabin got cinnamon bun). I asked them how long has the change been in effect and they did not know.

On the return, the salmon was pretty good - they had this before. The cake was great - less sweet than the cookie and served with tray so I can just finish it with dinner instead of waiting.

qukslvr619

IAHSNA
Departure: 1430
Lunch
A320


Choice of Tandoori Chicken or Glass Noodle Salad with Beef; perhaps "glass" in light of the ice cream debacle isn't the best description?

Chicken was a little dry, especially with the spice rub, but overall no complaints. Was expecting cookies but was surprised to see a slice of cheesecake which was a nice change.



SFOSTL
Departure: 1925
Dinner
A319


Choice of Pesto Chicken with Orzo or Portobello Mushroom Ravioli with Creamy Tomato Sauce.

The pesto chicken was a new option, one that I've never seen before and couldn't seem to locate on the meal description list provided for FA's. Was definitely a solid meal offering in that it was good flavor, not overdone, and not too heavy. Not exactly sure what the green strips were over the orzo but they appeared like lettuce, but tasted like onions. My guess was that it was something that was used for packing/heating to keep the orzo from drying out and was supposed to be removed by the FA.

I'm sure people will disagree, but I daresay that domestic F on UA these days is pretty solid from the new seats, better catering with actual variety (gone are the days of the ubiquitous Calzone/Bouquet/Wrap), beverage selections, and the use of Polaris dishware definitely at least makes everything appear a bit classier.

JetAway

IAD/SFO-Breakfast
Scrambled eggs and chicken sausage bits over tortilla chips. Basically, breakfast nachos.
I've had much better from a neighborhood taco hut.

JVPhoto

Fennel or leeks?

qukslvr619

Ah....good call on leeks. In the back of my head I was thinking leeks but couldn't place it. Not something I would expect in a domestic F meal, so while the placement was a little odd (maybe the way they were cut), its a good move away from just chicken and sauce....lest we forget how far we've come (post-merger standardization meal on UA---Judi Dench was not impressed):

kmersh

Again, I might be overly picky here, but the entree plate/thing in JVPhoto's (correction: qukslvr619 ) picture of the Pesto Chicken looks terrible, like something I might have used in my high school cafeteria and not First Class in the slightest.

The salad bowl looks fine and having a plate for the bread is good, so no complaints there.

However, the entree itself actually looks pretty good.

qukslvr619

Well it was actually my photo...the angle probably didn't do it justice but it has a similar "globe" pattern that the salad bowl has as well. The "casserole" dish is pretty standard with respect to domestic F catering with even AA and DL having some iteration of it. The only time you'll see an actual plate for a hot entrée is on transcon/premium flights.

pmCO casserole dish/another version was without the design print


AA version


DL version


The reason they use the casserole dishes mainly on domestic flights is for a couple of reasons:
-narrowbodies typically have less galley space and they load the plates with frozen food into the ovens
-easier to double-cater
-less prep time on shorter segments
-some airlines have a special metal tool that clamps to the side the casserole dish when they have to pull it out of the hot oven

On widebodies, or international markets the food is loaded into foil trays, cooked, and then plated.

Obviously exceptions to that but general rule of thumb with respect to UA catering is Polaris markets/transcons/premium markets get the full plating whereas domestic/shorter international markets get the casserole dishes.

JVPhoto

I didn't post a pic but I did have the same dish on SJC-ORD last week. It was all pretty good. Presentation was more or less the same except mine was about 4 pieces of half cut/rolled/stuffed with the pesto chicken. The stuff on top of the orzo was also more mixed in on mine than sitting on top.

You are right though...just slightly different dishware can make all the difference.