SMF Rider

My daughter is a vegetarian who eats fish. She normally doesn't request a special meal and just picks at what is available. Considering how long the flight is, I am concerned that she may not find enough suitable things to eat on the standard Business Class menu. She has only had domestic vegetarian meals and is concerned that if she requests vegetarian food she will only be offered inedible, tasteless food for the duration of the trip.

For those of you who have flown to SYD in Business, is there normally an edible entree that is not beef or chicken?

Does anyone have experience ordering Vegetarian meals on that route? Are they just sustenance or are they actually good?


My daughter is cranky when she is hungry so I want her to eat on the flight.

Thank you.

IceTrojan

Easy solution.... order the veggie meal but bring a salad just in case?

Mr. Roboto

Rather than risk the unavailability of non-meat items on a long flight, she should just request a Seafood Meal (SFML).

FlyinHawaiian

Try a search on "Hindu"; you'll find threads such as this one:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=698738

BlueHenFlyer

As the father of a vegetarian as well, if she orders just vegetarian food out of the US, she should do OK, but it may be tasteless. If she likes spicy, she should make sure she gets the Hindu Vegetarian meal, which is almost universally good.

That said, I have had a LFML in my profile for ever and have only been served it ONCE in four years in business class to Asia.

North.by.Northwest

Take this route quite often; they usually have something along the lines of fish or pasta. Also later into the flight they have a little self serve area with some candy bars, fruit, and little sandwiches, they are usually chicken/turkey, or a veggie option. When breakfast comes around there is usually some sort of omelet, or a fruit plate offered with yogurt and granola/cereal.

SMF Rider

Thanks to everyone that responded. I did search on "Vegetarian" before posting, but nothing was exactly on topic and people expressed mixed comments on the Hindu meal and said the the quality of the special meals varied by route. Also most of the threads were not specific to Biz class. Thus, I thank you for taking the time to read and respond to the thread.

camachinist

Having had mixed luck getting special meals boarded on SYD long-haul, I would suggest going ahead and ordering a AVML, VGML or VLML and ask the FA's about it immediately upon boarding. If they know your situation and catering didn't come through, they often will put together something out of extra and crew meals. I had this done on a recent trip in May. Top notch crew. On a previous trip (LAX-SYD in January), I had the HNML in F and I was underwhelmed, but will try it again to see if it was a catering glitch.

If you order a special meal at ticketing, be sure to confirm 48 hours prior to flight time. I've found that can help. FWIW, I've never not received special meals in economy, but am batting about 50% in long-haul C/F (8 segments so far in the last year).

Good luck and hope your daughter has a great time in SYD. I'm heading back there in a week...

Pat

jvoight34

I'm "flexitarian" (vegetarian, fish and dairy OK sometimes) and flew SFO-SYD recently. I ordered the VLML (ovo-lacto veggie) in business and it was *beyond disgusting*. I essentially was given cubed salty dessicated oily vegetables which were heated through, potatoes, stale eggplant, peppers, etc. No protein, no flavor, yargh!

It was so bad, I canceled the request for a special meal on the return and they had a nice salmon dish for the return, I even had the sauce on the side. *Way* better.

(The agent that I spoke to in the Oz call center, when I told her I wanted to cancel my special meal because it was "nasty", she chuckled a bit. We actually laughed about it a bit--maybe it's a running joke, I don't know.)

Also, I'd bring a snack anyway: if you do get hungry in the middle of the flight, the mid-flight snacks they provide are also not veggie friendly and, well, not so good.

YMMV, but seriously, I'll never order a special VLML meal again (for my BMI flight ORD-MAN in Y this Sunday I'm going to give the Hindu meal a go, we'll see...)

JV

wimpypipsqueak

IME there is usually pasta ex USA and a fish dish ex SYD unless they have changed the menu recently.

JNelson113

The Hindu meal is always delicious if she likes Indian food.