| Virgin
Atlantic www.virginatlantic.com
|
027-028-029
Photo taken by: Howard Long
Flying from: London (LHR) to Tokyo (NRT), 21 Aug 2003
Ticket price: $70 taxes + 100,000 frequent flyer points (return)
Flight duration: 12 hours
Aircraft type & class: A340, Upper Class
Meal type: Breakfast - Sultana Bran flakes & milk; Plain
omelette,
Lincolnshire sausage, back bacon, grilled tomato and button mushrooms.
Drink: Tea.
Comments: Virgin shows the way how to do an English breakfast
at 35,000'.
Only negative was that omellete was rather tasteless and pre-fabricated looking.
Everything else was top notch.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 10
020-021-022-023-024-025-026
Photo taken by: Howard Long
Flying from: London Heathrow (LHR) to Tokyo Narita (NRT), 21
August 2003
Ticket price: $70 taxes + 100,000 frequent flyer points
Flight duration: 12 hours
Aircraft type & class: A340, Upper Class
Meal type: Lunch
Starter: Japanese appetiser of grilled fillet beef with red bean miso paste,
almond coated fried prawn, ground cherry cup with squid, crabmeat and fish roe,
sesame curd with walnut.
Main: Shoka do style bentoh box... Japanese delicacies - fried crab claw, mushroom
in lime cup and fried potato dusted wheat gluten;
Marinated dish - braised beef slice with sesame nut sauce, cucumber slice and
sword bean flower;
Grilled item - grilled butterfish sea urchin flavour, pickled ginger stick,
braised mountain vegetable, leather leaf and silver paper;
Main dish - chicken roll with vegetable sukiyaki style, bean curd, spring onion,
shiitake mushroom, burdock julienne, carrot sash, ginko nut sukiyaki sauce;
Braised dish - fried & braised bean curd, braised taro, lotus root, wheat
gluten, snow peas and kobachi sauce; Served with miso soup, steamed rice, Japanese
pickles and seasonal sweet.
Cheese: Swalendale Blue, Camembert and Fountain Gold cheeses with fennel crackers,
oat cakes and brown onion marmalade.
Dessert: Double dairy toffee ice-cream topped with toasted almond flakes.
Drink: Champagne Jacquart Brut Mosaique NV, Bombay Sapphire
Gin & Tonic, Pouilly Fume Domaine La Loge 2001 (White), Chateau Cadillac
Branda 2000 Bordeaux (Red), Baileys
Comments: Food and service top class, although wine selection
a little disappointing. No sweet white dessert wine. Upper Class cabin was only
20% full. One of those rare occasions in airline dining that the menu lived
up to reality.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 10
019
Photo taken by: Amy Guskin
Flying from: Newark (EWR) to London Heathrow (LHR), 18 July
2003
Ticket price: $635
Flight duration: 8.5 hours
Aircraft type & class: 747, Economy
Meal type: Dinner - diabetic meal requested - Tossed salad
with fat-free (NOT sugar free, as a diabetic would require!) lemon vinaigrette
dressing; roll and butter; baked salmon with a light sauce; broccoli; roasted
potatoes; dried fruit; grapes; small square of Ghirardelli milk chocolate.
Drink: Spring water, and coffee.
Comments: As always on Virgin Atlantic, the cuisine is astonishingly
edible -- very tasty! However, this was the first time I'd flown since being
diagnosed as a diabetic, and although I specifically asked for a diabetic meal
far in advance of the flight, I clearly did not get one.
The small chocolate bar aside, this meal was so loaded with carbohydrates that
if I had eaten it all, I would have used up pretty much two days' worth of my
carbohydrate allowance! Breakfast as we neared Heathrow was no better; it was
some bread, some more bread, and lots of fruit -- again, all carbs! The airlines
really ought to learn about how to cater to diabetics, since (in the US at least)
one out of twelve adults are diabetic.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 10 for tastiness and presentation;
3 for apropriateness of meal based on my provided-in-advance dietary requirements
018
Photo taken by: Marcelo Rozengurt
Flying from: London LHR to Los Angeles LAX, 14 July 2002
Comments: "The cabin on virgin atlantic and flight attendent
Jerry serving drinks from the bar
017
Photo taken by: Marcelo Rozengurt
Flying from: London LHR to Los Angeles, 14 July 2002
Aircraft type and class: 747 premium economy class
Flight duration: 9h 40min
Ticket price: $540
Meal type: Childs meal - Main course, see other picture for
more details - The rest was chocolate fudge cake for pudding white bread roll
and a packet of sweets
Comments: too little food the main course was just like my
school dinners.
Rating:5
016
Photo taken by: Marcelo Rozengurt
Flying from: London LHR to Los Angeles, 14 July 2002
Aircraft type and class: 747 premium economy class
Flight duration: 9h 40min
Ticket price: $540
Meal type: special meal childs meal this picture shows the
main course which consisted of baked beans,fish stars and saute potatoes
Drinks: virgin coke
Comments: much tastier than their other meals
Ratings: 7
013 (see image 009 for description)
Photo taken by: Andy Smulders Travelquality.com
Flying from: London to San Francisco, 25 November 2002
012 (see image 009 for description)
Photo taken by: Andy Smulders Travelquality.com
Flying from: London to San Francisco, 25 November 2002
011 (see image 009 for description)
Photo taken by: Andy Smulders Travelquality.com
Flying from: London to San Francisco, 25 November 2002
010 (see image 009 for description)
Photo taken by: Andy Smulders Travelquality.com
Flying from: London to San Francisco, 25 November 2002
009
Photo taken by: Andy Smulders Travelquality.com
Flying from: London to San Francisco, 25 November 2002
Flight duration: > 10 hours
Aircraft type & class: Boeing 747-400 (Cosmic Girl) Upper
Class (Business)
Meal type: Dinner - Picture 009 A very nice
crème soup with bread, butter and a glass Mineral Water * Picture
010 Rich steak and Ale Casserole, topped with puff pastry served with
crushed carrots and broccoli florets. * Picture 011 Bittersweet
chocolate ice-cream * Picture 012 Chicken tikka kebab
Picture 013 Sandwich selection with potato chips
Drink: I drink mostly water but they have enough choice
Comments: the serve you when you want, dinner on demand. I
have travelled a lot and I have to say, Virgin Atlantic is one of the airline
companies with the best food onboard
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 10 +
008
Photo taken by: Howard Long
Flying from: London LHR to Los Angeles LAX, 28 May 2001
Aircraft type & class: 747-400, Upper Class
Meal type: Drinkies - Can't remember: I was too busy propping
up the bar.
Drink: Looks like it was probably a large Baileys. This would
probably have been after several glasses of South African Cabernet Sauvignon
which Virgin Upper Class introduced me to about four years back. The sit down
bar isn't on all Virgin flights. In my experience, some have no bar (out of
Gatwick), and some have stand up bars (A340's) with no stools. I prefer the
sit down bars where you can thoroughly experience the inner nuances of imbibing
with folks you've never met - and luckily will probably never meet again! The
stand up bars you have to, well, stand up, which may be difficult for some after
an eleven hour drinking session. As you can see, booze is on free flow, and
you can serve yourself if you can find what you want and there's no flight attendants
about.
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 10
007
Photo taken by: David White
Flying from: London LHR to Washington IAD, 21 October 2002
Class: Economy
Meal type: Dinner - Chicken Tikki Masala, salad, bread, chocolate
cake
Drink: Cola, water, free wine (if you wanted it), and as much
tea as you could drink.
Comments: "A very nice, spicy chicken dish served hot.
A piece of pita bread added to the taste nicely. The salad was decent, and the
cake was quite nice. But the most important thing on this flight wasn't the
dinner - it was the in-flight entertainment system! Super Mario World (seen
in the picture) made the 7.5 hour trip seem like about 2 hours. Way to go, Virgin!"
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 8
006
Photo taken by: David White
Flying from: Washington IAD to London LHR, 7 October 2002
Class: Economy
Meal type: Dinner - Chicken and pasta, salad, bread, gouda
cheese, cheesecake and a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate.
Drink: Cola, water, and as much tea as you could drink.
Comments: "A very nice chicken dish served hot. Bread
was nice and soft, salad seemed fresh, cheese was tasty, cheesecake was OK,
and the chocolate was a nice finish. An excellent meal for a simple Economy-class
tourist."
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 8
005
Photo taken by: Ray Krause
Flying from: London LHR to Newark EWK, 16 Oct 2002
Class: Premium Economy
Meal type: Dinner - We were offered three choices. A salmon
dish (I do not like salmon), a vegetarian pasta dish (boring), and something
called Chicken Tikka Masala (what did they step in?)! Well I was not sure what
the chicken dish was but I was told that it was a curry type dish. I usually
do not like curry, but I must say that this was a little bit spicy and really
wonderful! What a nice surprise! It was served with rice and a small pita bread,
a salad with herbed dressing and croutons, cheese and crackers, a dinner roll
with butter, a dessert that I was told was a "chocolate pudding" that
was sort of like a mousse and was also very good. A silver wrapped piece of
chocolate finished the meal with coffee or tea. Still water and a soft drink
were also served. Later in the flight they served an ice cream (vanilla ice
cream dipped in chocolate) on a stick. Much later they served tea with sandwiches
(egg with mayo and chicken Caesar sandwiches). They also served water and OJ
all during the flight.
Drink: Water, OJ, and Champagne when we first boarded and then
pretty much anything you wanted for the duration of the flight. I had the "lemonade"
several times. In the US, we consider lemonade to be a fruit juice drink similar
to OJ but the British version of lemonade is a fizzy soda like mixer for cocktails
(sort of like 7-Up) but much fresher tasting. It was very good!
Comments: "Overall I liked the meal(s) they served and
was not unhappy. They gave us little bags with flight related items such as
aroma therapy balm, eye cover, socks, toothbrush, pad, pen, etc. and that was
very nice. I understand that the meal I was served is the same as the economy
seats and you needed to be in 1st class for the truly nice meal service. My
seat was a little bit bigger than economy seats but not much! This upgrade cost
$278 and was worth it for me for the 7 hr 40 min flight. I even got to sit up
in the bubble of this 747-400 plane!"
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 8
004
Photo taken by: Frederik Pedersen
Flying from: London LHR to New York JFK, 25 August 2002
Class: Economy
Meal type: Dinner - An Italian roll with chicken ceasar &
carrot /
cinnamon cake.
Drink: Tea or coffe assorted drinks from the bar
Comments: "This is the best pre-packed roll or sandwich
I have ever tasted. The chicken was very succulent, the dressing was perfect
balanced with regards to mayonaise vs seasoning. Too bad it was so small. The
carrot cinnamon cake was a bit dry and boring, but it went down. The sad part
is that there's too much chicken these days (see other verdict from the same
flight) on medium,- and long-haul flights."
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): The chicken roll is a 10, the cake
a 4. The overall rating must therefor be 7 (not based on maths, but that chicken
roll.....).
003
Photo taken by: Frederik Pedersen
Flying from: London LHR to New York JFK, 25 August 2002
Class: Economy
Meal type: Dinner - Tandoori chicken, garden salad with Caesar's
dressing, Chocolate fudge cake, cheese and roll.
Drink: Virgin coke, Orange Juice, Water and Virgin Wine
Comments: "This was not really bad. There was a choice
of chicken, vegetarian or fish. For some reason, beef is no longer available
on many transatlantic
flights. The chicken was very moist, the rice firm but the Indian bread that
had been placed on top was a bit too damp. There were no second servings of
rolls which was too bad. Don't believe this is due to a time limit... The salad
was very fresh and the little pouch of salad dressing was quite good. The fudge
cake was excellent (and I don't often eat cakes) and went down without any problems.
The cheese was a mild yellow type (can't remember name). The roll was a bit
hard but ok."
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): (Food) This is was a perfect 8 (Drinks)
Come on Virgin, we're getting quite tired of only being offered Virgin stuff
so here's a 2 for that.
002
Photo taken by: Julian Lorkin
Flying from: London LHR to New York JFK, 20 July 2002
Class: Economy
Meal type: Dinner - A chicken ceasar "sandwich" with
letuice and chicken in a quadrant of a round loaf type thing. A sticky crumbly
cake. And thats it.
Drink: One 330ml can of Stella Artois, and one cup of rather
good coffee.
Comments: "This is one of the worst transatlantic meals
I've ever had. What do Virgin think they are doing? I knew the flight had problems
when it started, at 6pm on a Saturday evening, with an appology over the PA
before we'd even taken off - the 747-400 was 5 cabin crew short, so the food
and drink service would be a bit "delayed". Too right... it was over
3 hours into the flight before I got this, and while tasty, it was little more
than a snack, and is equivalent to what BA would have for their "All Day
Deli" on internal flights. Even worse - once the combined drinks and food
trolley came round once, that was it... no refils."
Rating 1-10 (worst-best): 5 (for food quality) 1 (for food
and drink quantity).
Source: www.lorkin.com
001
Photo taken by: Renee Gangale
Flying from: New York to London, May 2001
Class: Economy
Comments: "The food was INCREDIBLE. I've never had airline
food of that quality, even having sat in 1st class on other airlines.
Also, I told one of the flight attendants that I'm lactose intolerant
and couldn't have a sandwich with cheese (what everyone was
getting) so he immediately went and got me a first class chicken
meal! It was great, they were so nice and accomodating.
The best part was the REAL glasses, which were tiny but a nice
touch. Sorry the pic doesn't show more of the food."
Source:
email / members.tripod.com/reg206/