Which airline serves the best food in-flight?

Gone are the days when we received some unknown meat topped with a squishy brown liquid and neon green vegetables on board airlines. These days, either we don’t receive anything for free ($2 for water anyone? Think US Airways ), or we receive peanuts (think Southwest) or are over-fed (think Qatar Airways). But which airlines serve the best food?

This article is inspired from a review SimpliFlying has received, which notes that there is hardly any talk about food quality on board airlines on this blog. Indeed, food quality and serivce forms an integral part of the flight experience – especially for long haul flights. In fact, it can sometimes be crucial to winning the customers hearts, as Malaysia Airlines CEO realized. They had been serving mutton biryani on routes to China, and customers didn’t like it. They switched to chicken rice, and won their hearts. At the same time, they started offering mutton biryani on flights to Delhi, which was well received too.

Personally, I’ve been pre-selecting Indian non-veg meals, across Star Alliance and Oneworld carriers. Though I’ve flown Singapore Airlines quite a lot, I wouldn’t rate their food as my favorite. My best culinary experiences at 35,000 feet have been on-board Qantas (SIN-FRA), Cathay Pacific (JFK-HKG) and Air Sahara (now, JetLite. SIN-DEL).

But what constitutes good food on board airlines? Quality? Quantity? Timing? Or cultural appropriateness? Which airlines serve the best food? Let’s hear it in the comments section (remember, you can win a 2GB iPod, just by commenting!).

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