I have only flown with Delta three times before. For international flights, their prices are always considerably higher than others (likely due to the corporate rates I use as my international travel is always for business), and for domestic, they don't serve routes I frequent, besides Boston, but they fly out of the terminal I dislike in Boston, and I generally just go with JetBlue as I like the suite more anyway. So Delta and I have very little history, besides a two flights on the new A321Neo between SF and Boston when JetBlue prices were crazypants high (BOS-SFO, SFO-BOS), and once on the older A321 from SLC to SFO.
My impressions have been largely average. Seats not impressive, food mediocre, cocktails good (but alas, discontinued), service ok enough, etc. I haven't been particularly inspired to fly with Delta again since, but when recently traveling to Atlanta from San Francisco, they were the only real choice (United has a single flight per day, early morning, and no one else flies direct).
Flight Details
Flight Number DL 315
Departure: San Francisco, SFO, 2:33pm (scheduled) 3:49 pm(actual)
Arrival: Atlanta ATL 11:15pm
Length: 4h 42m
Aircraft: Boeing 737-900
Things didn't start off well, as we had a delay hours before I even had to leave for the airport. Inbound aircraft delayed, and clearly lots of switcheroos going on, as the inbound changed out 5 times that morning. We were delayed another 30 minutes once we all got to the gate to board, due to missing crew. And another 15 minutes, because of an issue with tows. Etc, etc. But Delta communicated pretty well throughout, and handled it as well as could be expected.
The crew were asked to stay in their jump seats much longer than normal due to possible turbulence, that never materialized. Better safe than sorry, I know, but we also were not offered a pdb (just little mini water bottles at our seats), and I was looking forward to something to drink. Our FA didn't come to take drink orders until almost an hour into the flight.
Amenities are minimal - no pillows or blankets, very very cheap headphones (earbuds) to use with the seat back entertainment. My side was wide, and I had leg room, but recline was broken. Besides the seat back pocket, and tiny drink tray table, there was no where to put anything. Very tired first class setup. I'm clearly spoiled with never aircraft, and in particular, better designed seats.
Food & Drink
Drinks
Delta's drink lineup is pretty uninteresting for me. I like flavored sparkling water, stiff cocktails, and red wine. Delta has only plain sparkling water (unlike United that has not one, but two flavors of sparkling Aha, JetBlue that has Lime Bubly, or Alaska with Cranberry Lime Seltzer). They have no cocktails, just basic spirits (unlike JetBlue with 2 signature cocktails, Alaska with Straightaway pre-mixed cocktails, including an old fashioned or espresso martini) - although Delta used to have very good canned Tip Top cocktails but discontinued them this past year. Alas.
 |
| Wines. |
 |
| Sparkling Water / Red Wine. |
I went with the red. It was ... table wine. More acid than I'd like. No complexity besides the acid. Meh. **. I wouldn't get it again. The pour was extremely generous.
There were 3 "signature" selections available to order on board, fairly standard generic flight/wedding/etc trifecta of chicken, beef, veggie pasta: Jon & Vinny's Braised Meatballs, roasted chicken breast, or mushroom herb ravioli. I actually had a hard time making my choice, as none were easy to rule out.
Food
The meal was definitely at an awkward time, as frequently happens on flights. With our original departure time of 2:30pm, that would put the meal around 3:30pm, which is 6:30pm and reasonable where we were headed, but, crazy early for San Francisco. The delay made this slightly better I guess; my meal was served at 4:50pm.
 |
| Signature (on board) Options. |
The meatballs are fan favorite of Delta frequent flyers, previously only available for flights out of LAX, a co-branding with a LA restaurant known for these meatballs. Delta recently expanded offering these out of other airports. They really do get great praise, and come with a huge glob of fresh ricotta on top (along with fancy marinara sauce and garlic bread). Definitely not something I'd normally order, but I was tempted, just given how universally loved they seem to be. My neighbor across the aisle seemed to enjoy them.
Next up is the chicken, which isn't interesting to me in general because I dislike chicken, but it does come with sides I enjoy (mashed potatoes, green beans, and white wine cream sauce), so I considered it for a moment.
And finally, the pasta, the "safe" option on flights in some ways. Airplane pasta is rarely actually all that good, but, it also is rarely all that bad. It is the sort of dish that works well in frozen dinner zapped in microwave form, which, kinda is what plane food is. And in this case, it featured mushrooms both inside and out, and a decent sounding (tomato-mascarpone) sauce. Originally, this is what I selected when I pre-ordered 7 days in advance. My seat mate got this, and it looked pretty good. He said it was fine. He was vegetarian, so his only choice. He said edible, but not rave worthy. I think I made the right choice.
 |
| Limited (pre-order only) Options. |
The pizza is the opposite of the meatballs. Pretty much universally mocked. Delta has run a few different versions of it, but none are well received. I would be skeptical too, if I hadn't just had a very tasty slice on my JetBlue flight from Boston just two weeks prior.
And finally, shrimp & grits, not something I'd ever normally order on a flight. I do really enjoy grits, and I like shrimp, and I really do like shrimp & grits but none of this seemed promising on a flight. I've had too many dried out polenta/grits sort of bases (including a mediocre version on Delta a few years ago), too many chewy rubbery shrimp (even when they look decent like the GIANT ones United had for a while that were either crazy chewy, or the ones that were properly cooked but entirely flavorless), and doubted Delta catering's ability to pull off the important element of the flavorful gravy/sauce. But at last minute (er, 24 hours + last minute), I decided to switch my pre-order do this exclusive dish, based on strong online reviews and many mentions of the shrimp being really well cooked, even if the overall dish was a bit bland and needed seasoning.
 |
| Dinner. |
For domestic flights, lunch or dinner, Delta meals include a simple salad, and a plated dessert, which all come on the tray with your entree choice. No appetizers, not even any bread. Serving the dessert all at once feels like a downgrade in service compared to separate course as most other airlines do on routes of this length (or longer).
Simple packet of salt and pepper and salad dressing rounded out the tray.
 |
| Salad. |
The salad was really quite good. Mixed greens base, fresh, crisp. The cherry tomatoes were juicy, not mealy, and although not the most flavorful out there, it was January, and they were better than expected, and definitely didn't taste refrigerated. I loved the big juicy crisp crunchy celery. I avoided the cubes of cucumber.
Overall, this was a great simple salad, freshness was key. That said, it was bigger than it looked, which was great, I wanted that much, but it was really, really hard to eat in the small bowl. I ended up pushing half my entree to the side and dumping on to that plate instead, which my neighbor did as well. So, great salad, tiny bowl.
Served with balsamic vinaigrette that I didn't use (I brought my own dressing as I don't care for vinaigrettes).
***+.
 |
| Shrimp & Grits. |
"Spicy creole sauce, scallions."
This dish was a mixed bag. Overall it was perfectly fine. But some parts were better than others.
I'll start with the shockingly good: the shrimp! Wow, everyone was right. The shrimp somehow were really, really well cooked. Juicy, bouncy, succulent. Flavorful. I was blown away by how good the shrimp were. The serving was 4, which seems perhaps a bit small for big eaters, but was fine for me. Shrimp, far above average. ****.
The "spicy creole sauce" . Um, ha. There was not a teeny, tiny amount of spice in here. None. It was just tomato sauce. More Italian style than anything else. Creamy tomato sauce. Not spicy, and not really southern gravy like you'd want with shrimp & grits. No Cajun seasoning. No bacon, no andouille sausage. Just, tomato sauce. Very low *** as it wasn't bad, but certainly isn't what I wanted from my shrimp & grits.
And finally, the grits. They were really creamy. Served properly hot. Not dried out. But ... so bland! Just as others had said. Woefully under-seasoned. I was prepared with 1) red pepper flakes, 2) large flakes of Maldon sea salt, and 3) garlic powder, which really did save the day, but, wow, so bland. **+, for creaminess.
So overall ... definitely lacked the creole element, and grits were pretty blah, but wow, those shrimp. *** overall, and I"d get it again if craving shrimp, but otherwise would move on to something else.
 |
| Tiramisu. |
I was sad that the dessert was tiramisu. Not sad because I dislike tiramisu, as I actually quite like it, but sad because it had caffeine, and I avoid caffeine after noon. Particularly when I was headed to jetlag, I didn't want to make it worse. So I saved it, on ice, and enjoyed the next day after lunch, and ate my own dessert I came prepared with on the flight.
The tiramisu was extremely boring. The mascarpone layer didn't taste like mascarpone, just, white thick mousse, I'm just assuming it was actually mascarpone. The ladyfingers were drenched in coffee, which was good, but they were quite soggy of course as a result (which is ok in tiramisu). Besides the coffee flavor in the ladyfingers though, this didn't taste like anything really. Meh. **.
0 comments:
Post a Comment