Delta First Class, SLC - MCO

I've only flown with Delta once before, in July 2022, when I cheated on my usual Jet Blue, and tried out Delta on board their brand new A321 Neo for my San Francisco to Boston journey to visit my family.  I wasn't particularly impressed with the seat, the experience, the food, but, just a few months later, I had the choice of basically United or Delta, and opted to give Delta another try, for a shorter, less premium route: Salt Lake City to Orlando.

Flight Details

Flight Number DL 1016

Departure: Salt Lake City SLC 5:35pm

Arrival: Orlando MCO 11:53pm

Length: 3 hours 45 min

Aircraft: A321

My flight was on an older A321.  Fairly standard domestic older style First Class, wide recliners, 2-2 layout, 5 rows.  The seat wasn't particularly comfortable, the padding clearly had seen better days.  But otherwise, the flight experience was quite smooth - we boarded quickly, pushed back a bit early, and had a smooth flight, with a friendly flight attendant.

Food & Drink

There were no pre-departure beverages offered, besides mini bottles of water at our seats.  Once underway, the FA passed through confirming our pre-orders (and taking orders for those who hadn't), and taking drink orders.  A snack basket came through right after "Snackies! Pre-dinner snackies!", the eager FA called out.  It made me giggle, really.  The snack basket had the standard lineup: plain Miss Vickie's chips, pistachios, granola bars, and wafer cookies.

Sparkling Water, Red Wine.

To go with my meal, I opted for the red wine (Imagery® Cabernet Sauvignon) and sparkling water, remembering that I did kinda like the cab on my only other Delta flight.

The wine came in a can, but was poured for us by the FA.  This seems far more practical than opening big bottles on smaller flights like this.  It was decent enough, better than average airline wine really.  A bit of complexity, a bit of tannin, slightly grapey, not much acid.  I was happy to drink it, but wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to purchase it.

***+ for an airline wine, probably *** in general.

Dinner Menu.

The meal served was dinner, a choice of two hot or one cold option.  Since this was just a mid-length flight, they didn't have the fuller 5 dish lineup that my San Francisco to Boston flight did, but at least we did have pre-order available so I reserved in advance.

The menu was a bit of a mixed bag for me.  Well, the side dish was a no-brainer - zomg, burrata!  But the main I was pretty torn on.  I didn't want chicken breast, but, the Asian salad actually sounded fine, and likely to be decently on the flight, but it came with a side of pineapple, not the burrata, so, that was out.  The vegetarian selection was surprisingly not a token pasta, but rather, an Indian dish, a full line up with sides including mini naan (and the same burrata salad that came with the short ribs, which, is a bit of an odd pairing), although ... chana masala isn't my top pick of Indian food.  I thought it too might be fine on a plane, an easy dish to reheat.  And then the short ribs, with risotto, which didn't call out at first as I don't really care for risotto or short ribs actually, but, the Swiss chard and figs sounded pretty good.  Figs and burrata ... now that I could get behind.

Meal Tray.

The meal was served all at once, on a tray.  The dessert, a cookie, the same for everyone, really does look a bit tacky and out of place in its wrapper.  Salt and pepper are provided, and, randomly, what looked like a lime wedge?  We all got that wedge.

There is no bread service on the non-premium routes (not that the bread on my transcon was good, but I liked the butter!).

Starter: Burrata Salad.

"Served with a side salad of burrata, candied sweet potatoes, harissa, cashews, and microgreens."

My dish, and the Indian one, both came with a burrata starter.

The burrata was actually really quite good.  It was served perfectly ripe, and at the right temperature.  It burst with gooey deliciousness when punctured.  I rather think I likely lucked out, but, hey, I was happy nonetheless.  The portion was a very reasonable size.  While JetBlue serves a *much* bigger bulb, this one seemed far more appropriate.  The only qualm I have is that I think it needed a drizzle of oil, and it didn't have that, nor did we have any provided (so, JetBlue wins on that front, as they provide little individual bottles of decent quality olive oil with meals).

So, the burrata itself, shockingly good.  The rest of the dish was fine too - the cubes of sweet potato didn't necessarily taste candied as described, and I wasn't really sure how they went with the burrata, but it was nice to have some kind of carb with it, and they did add a slight natural sweetness (although the figs from my main dish went much better).  The cashews were slightly soft, which wasn't a problem, but again, they felt like a bit of an odd pairing.  Nuts and cheese is normal, but cashews and burrata?  Candied pecans would make more sense, at least in my head.  And harissa?  Eh?  I think this accompaniments likely made more sense when eaten together with the Indian entree, which also had this side dish.

I made some perfect bites with crackers I had brought, the perfectly gooey burrata, and figs from my main, and was very, very satisfied.  It paired beautifully with my wine.  So, the burrata itself, ****.  The overall dish, ***.  My perfect bites?  ****.

Main: Braised Beef Short Rib.

"with butternut squash and sage risotto, wilted rainbow Swiss chard, and roasted figs."

I was glad I pre-ordered, as by the time the FA got to my row (4), she had run out of this, actually, she ran out at the first row.  Um ... really?  Anyway.  My neighbor had pre-ordered the Indian dish, so I got to see that too, and it looked decent.  Same with the Asian salad the woman across the aisle had - yeah, just a salad, but it had a nice mix of ingredients.  All looked decent enough, which surprised me a bit.

My dish was warm, but not piping hot.

The short rib itself was nicely cooked, tender, not dried out, flaked easily.  I did quite like the bit of jus/gravy/sauce that came with it.  I enjoyed a few bites, but, that kind of beef isn't really what I crave, but if you like stew meat/short ribs, I think this was very nicely done. ***.

The risotto was really just moist plump rice.  Certainly not a real risotto.  It had very few cubes of butternut squash.  And it tasted, well, funny?  Sure, there was sage, but there was another taste to it that I truly did not like.  *.

The Swiss chard, likewise, tasted, for lack of better term, funny.  It was bitter, and it was greasy somehow.  The mouthfeel was all wrong.  It also seriously lacked seasoning, although the provided salt and pepper helped.  The greasy nature of it though I couldn't get past. *.

And the final element, the best part of the dish, the figs!  They were soft and stewed, and had some of the yummy sauce, and went well with both the beef, and in particular, the burrata.  The figs and burrata, with some of the jus, was just fantastic. ****.

So overall, definitely a mixed experience.  I had a salad and some cooked veggies with me that I had instead of the swiss chard, crackers that I added as a carb, and really did enjoy my burrata/figs, but, the meal as a whole wasn't particularly great. **+.

Dessert: Bell's Chocolate Chunk Cookie.

Dessert is definitely the weakest point of the Delta menus, while the transcons at least have some fairly mediocre cakes, mid-length flights like this just have a packaged cookie.  Cookies are good snacks, or good as part of a dessert, but I don't really consider a dessert of their own, particularly at dinner time.  No worries, I had amazing goodies from Fillings & Emulsions in the SLC airport with me (review coming soon!).

I did have the cookie the next day at lunch, and I'll admit, it was a decent cookie.  Nice distribution of chocolate chips, soft, and it didn't taste overly processed or stale.  Not particularly buttery nor decadent nor remarkable, but, really not bad.  Better than most packaged cookies actually.  ***+.