Kacee

Two hot items, a breaded chicken cutlet and beef bulgogi. The beef looked good, but was really tough and chewy. The chicken was pretty bland. There was a salad bar that looked like it came from the UC. There were also some pasta salads and a small deconstructed cobb salad served in a highball glass. This was around 5 pm. In the dessert area, they had cannoli out when I arrived, but those were replaced with cookies and several custard based desserts.

It got a little more crowded as time passed, but all the suites were taken upstairs when I arrived at 5 pm and the entire upstairs area was pretty lively. Downstairs stayed about the same. They had the area to the far right upstairs, past customer service, roped off the entire time I was there.

They had a ridiculous process for taking a shower, which involved the attendant basically copying ALL the information from my BP down by hand. They were super nice about it though.

I also had trouble getting in with an LAX-SIN BP. That was annoying. Will be interesting to see how it works with an NRT-SFO BP on Monday.

lol it is exactly like a Marriott lounge breakfast, but I'm a sucker for the institutional breakfast sausages, which probably each take about a week off my life.

fumje

I don't know the reasoning, but it appears the shower attendants are just noting name and destination. I didn't have my BP handy the last time I went to take a shower in the ORD Lounge, but the attendant just asked for those two things. Agree it's a little weird, but my memory is that is also how they managed the showers when they still had them in the Clubs.

And I would imagine the LAX-SIN BP in SFO trouble is just start-up glitches? I had no trouble using SFO-NRT when at ORD, so hopefully it'll be worked out soon.

If those sausages each take a week off of life, I'm sure I've already lost about 50 years.

StuckinITH

I guess they need a little more training. I had no problems entering the ORD Polaris Lounge when connecting to EWR from where the Polaris flight was leaving.

Are you continuing to another destination after arriving in SFO?

Do they have the minty dark chocolates at the entrance to the PL? In ORD, they had them in the entrance but now there's also a big bowl of them near the dining section.

Kacee

Believe so. The agent was really struggling with the system interface and simply couldn't get my mobile BP to work. A supervisor was standing behind him but didn't offer any assistance, despite the line backing up behind me. What I found most annoying was the lack of any welcome or apologies for the delay.

Yes separate ticket.

Didn't see that, but I was pretty focused on getting into the lounge and the line backing up behind me.

Zorak

I'm fond of pointing out that with anything that takes ___ off of your life, that gets taken from the end of your life, so it was probably going to be crap time anyway

fumje

I am pretty sure those are from Chicago-based Vosges, so I would be a little surprised if they stocked them in SFO. Perhaps they'd stock Ghirardelli to give a local feel, although that is a slight step downward in quality.

(Eat the sausages,) "die young, and leave a beautiful corpse."

nomad420

IF I can get going early enough on Monday I am looking forward to stopping in at the new P.L. prior to my SFO-MUC flight. Since the construction started I have gotten used to just arriving in time to board.

tomwhom

Based upon Kacee's report especially on food, I may change my plan before my upcoming mid May BR flight. Go to Centurion lounge for better meal or at least get my stomach half full (LOL) then PL for rest.

StuckinITH

I have to confess that I have been eating them without reading the package. But a friend came for dinner two weeks ago and brought us a box of the exotic truffle collection from that company and I know that from now on I will have to stop at the store in the terminal every time I connect through ORD.

But, yes, the Polaris Lounge in SFO needs dark chocolates if they don't have them already.

Other question: what newspapers do they have?

twkidM3

Obviously you walk into those Chinese restaurants that serve fried rice with soy sauce and fried egg rolls. 😂

The point of my post is... If you don't know what your doing, don't do it. If you want an international section, then do it correctly. Likewise, PF Chang just opened a new restaurant in China. Guess what? They are serving all American, becuase they know if they serve Chinese food in China they would go out of business. Sfo is a major hub for United to the path of Asia. Why do you think they renovated Polaris here and not elsewhere. And since many pax are from Asian countries the choice of Asian food is pretty bad. I prefer the old SKL lounge or even the EVA lounge in terms of food.

And as for my choice of Amex lounge. Yes it's more packed but I never had a problem finding a seat. Also the food there is much much better than this lounge, and UA has a gimmicky dining area. After all most people head to lounge to eat and drink.

Even priority pass lounges can do better.

twkidM3

Yes it's oatmeal. See, they even mess up something that is natively American.

elynchking

My flight to HK is delayed 2 hours so I’ve had more than enough time here. I got here around 10:30 and had a freshly made omelette in the dining area - it was ok but served with nothing (ie toast or biscuit). I had to get up and leave as soon as I ate the omelette as so many people kept coming up and asking if the food was ok or if I needed anything (first world problems). I’ve been moving around to different seating areas and the little work station chair is my favorite. Just tried the sushi - not good. The little Cobb salad thing was ok. And now am enjoying a nice glass of Chardonnay. In the realm of business class lounges, I give this a B/B-.

cricketer

I had no philosophical problem getting in with ICN-SFO on opening day, however, they couldn't get it to handle either my incoming boarding pass, or my separate ticket onward boarding pass. So the agent went in and printed out some sort of dummy boarding pass to let me in. Purely a system limitation. I suspect you'll see the same on your NRT-SFO return.

I have SFO-FRA in early June, and then SFO-LAX-SYD in late June, so we'll see how those ones go. Should be ironed out by then.

I am slightly to concerned to hear about the 5pm crowd - it doesn't really make sense given the flight schedules, but we'll see how it pans out

physioprof

I love those, too! The combo of grease and pepper is awesome!

EWR764

IMO, the physical space is excellent, the bar top-notch, and the staff pleasant and helpful. The food service leaves a bit to be desired, even as compared to the ORD PL, but I am willing to chalk that up to teething troubles. Aside from all that, a fantastic experience and among the best business class lounges in the world, when considering the total package.