IAH-OIL-TRASH

Any self-respecting Texan would be horrified by a chicken-fried steak put in front of them by an airline. 100% guarantee the coating would be a pale, soggy abomination. There can't be more than 3 minutes from deep-fryer to the table in front of you. IAH Polaris Lounge, maybe - airplane, no.

JetAway

Good point. Agree-IAH Polaris Lounge.

linsj

Post menus online. I'd like to know in advance if I can eat any of the choices.

Bring back fish on Hawaii routes.

AugustW

A choice of starters and soup would be nice. Caesar Salad, Rack of Lamb, More European cuisine (French, Italian, Spanish...) . It has definitely improved in past years.

AW

QS Dreamer

Have the menu include options without mushrooms. Also, include a better way to indicate on your profile that you have certain food allergies and then have different menu options for those passengers.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

UA is just making use of the thriving mushrooms growing in the room that's supposed to house the team charged with improving united.com's functionality (why do I have to call UA to apply an upgrade instrument to only one segment of a two-segment one-way trip?)

tryathlete

StuckinITH

With my luck the mashed potatoes will be sweet potatoes which are disgusting.

Vanilla birthday cake, really? Once on USAirways, I had a flourless chocolate cake coming from Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia (now closed). That was the perfect dessert for Business Class.

uastarflyer

airb330

I'd actually like something like BA's new Club World catering that rolled out in 2017:

1) As most have echoed here, an option to pre-select an entree ala AA.
2) Choice of starters: BA has 3-4 starters including soup, salad and more traditional starters. Being able to choose is fun. BA is already cutting back a bit, so I wouldn't necessarily copy the whole trolley system they're ditching.
3) 3-4 entrees with variety. Obviously a lot of us love Indian food while some of us can't stand the taste and smell, so I'll leave that out. A comfort option perhaps labeled a Bistro selection could be fun. This could rotate more frequently perhaps? Meatloaf, hamburgers, etc. BA did this with First class for awhile. A meat, a fish, a veggie entree, and a 'bistro/comfort' entree could be appealing. I could even live with 3 entrees if there is pre-selection.
4) Dessert is fine and similar to BA, though I think it's nice AA does offer a different full-sized option (sometimes a 'lava cake' though obviously not from le bec fin) besides the sundae.

ExplorerWannabe

As I said, I happen to like good Indian food but even aromas you like reek when the smell permeates paint and carpet permanently. The Indian dishes I've had on airlines (and yes, I have had Indian food on both Lufthansa and United) is drastically toned down to the point that I call it faux-Indian. There are some curries like butter chicken that can be decent even toned down to not have the aroma waft through the cabin for the entire flight but the vast majority of good curries I've had just wouldn't work well in that environment.

halls120

Thorgils

A bit of a disappointment, this thread (IMHO), with so much of it taken up by discussions of the pros and cons of Indian dishes vs, mid-market US comfort food. Neither excite, in the context of an intercontinental aircraft cabin where you've paid three or four times (often more) the price of the base "transportation only" fare.

If I were unfortunate enough to be designated UA's food tsar, here are the general directions and priorities for the front cabins in which I'd want to try to head:

• Build some customer excitement over menus, by (1) changing items more frequently,* preferably at least every two months; (2) publishing menus online (accessed by date and flight number) à la LH and (according to a prior post here) pmCO; (3) providing for (or encouraging?) pre-flight selection.
• Highlight dishes from rotating guest chefs, à la LX's Taste of Switzerland dishes on intercontinental flights ex ZRH, with an emphasis on chefs from destination countries.
• Work very hard (by training emphasis, better passenger communication methods, or whatever) to completely rid the airline of the apparently still used but inexcusable practice (mostly in domestic F/J, I gather) of having no menu and letting FAs, without any apparent personal knowledge of or interest in the dishes on offer, ask such stupid questions as "Meat or fish?," "Omelette or fruit?"

All of this assumes, of course, some strategy other than an overriding emphasis on cost minimization.

* At last count, 43.2% of the comments about F/J food in the FT UA forum appear to be complaints about the monotony of dishes introduced in the previous century.

Continited

DataPlumber

Respectfully, it never was fine dining before 9/11. Airline food has always been, at best, mediocre. There's a reason why it has been a subject of jokes and ire since I can remember.