Delta First Class, SFO-ATL

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.

For wine, I had the choice of a single red, white, or sparkling.  Again, just much less selection than other airlines flying domestically.  $20 price point for the red.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Two additional "exclusive" options "curated for this market" are available if you preorder (7 days to 24 ours in advance).  For my flight, this was margherita pizza or shrimp and grits.  I have to laugh as these options exist for many city pairs, so not really sure what specific curation for "this" market is going on here.  Also, uh, the pizza is the fancy exclusive item?  Regardless, only available if you order in advance.

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.  **.

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Radish Kosher Catering

I don't keep kosher.  And yet, I somehow do end up eating a fair number of kosher meals, like those from Catering by Andrew in the Boston area, or Fresko throughout New England (they seem to dominate the market, found on most flights catered out of east coast airports, in all hospitals, in retail stores, etc).  

Radish is another kosher caterer that provides meals to hospitals, cafes, schools, etc.  They are based in NY and have all the certifications that matter to those who do keep kosher.  All meals are individually wrapped and double sealed. They offer fresh meals for grab-n-go such as salads, sandwiches, wraps, cut fruit, yogurt cups, and pastries, along with fresh or frozen TV dinner style meals.  They also offer kids and senior meals.  

I've tried a few of their different offerings, and found them mostly lower end of average.  Perhaps an ok option if you are traveling and need a kosher meal, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend.

Entrees

The entrees I tried all reminded me of frozen "tv dinners", although they were delivered refrigerated (I'm not sure if previously frozen). I think the packaging is what gave those strong vibes, with the individual sections of the plastic trays.  I picked up a trio of dishes, two to share with my mom, and one for my dad, but I tried most components.

Almond Encrusted Trout
w/ Orzo & Baby Carrots.

First up, a dish I'd order from a restaurant with no problem, almond crusted trout.  I was drawn to it for the trout, not the sides though.

It was ... ok.  The portion was fine, there were two thin pieces of fish, skin-on.  Fairly average trout, a bit fishy, as trout is.  It was very mildly seasoned.  The "encrusted" description let me down, as what that seemed to mean is that there were slivered almonds in the container to put on top, but it wasn't really crusted.  I had expected more of a breading/crust and perhaps smaller bits of nuts.  The almonds were fine, but a bit over-toasted and dark.  There were tons of them, below the trout was basically just all nuts.  The dish really seemed like it was missing a critical sauce to really liven it up and tie things together.  A lemon beurre blanc, a cream sauce, anything really.  Very low *** as there was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't very enjoyable or interesting.

I didn't try the roast baby carrots, but my father had them, and said they were undercooked, but otherwise fine.  I took a bite of the orzo and handed that off to my mom, who said it was very bland and entirely plain.  It had a few tiny bits of veggies, and no seasoning nor sauce.  Again, the dish just seemed like it was missing sauce (my mom quickly added a sage lemon butter sauce to everything and greatly enjoyed it that way).

Would not get again.

Blackened Tilapia
w/ rice & zucchini.

Next up, blackened tilapia.  I was drawn to it because back when I was in grad school, and living on very limited funds, when I got taken out to dinner a few times I went to Ruby Tuesday (which would have been a huge splurge and way outside my means), and I got the blackened tilapia.  It is literally the only other time in my life I've had tilapia (besides once during the pandemic when my parents and I ordered frozen meals from Top Chef Meals), and it felt nostalgic to me.  Again I wasn't interested in the sides.

The tilapia was really well coated in blackening spices.  The seasoning was very flavorful, and really made it quite flavorful and enjoyable as-is (even though I had a cajun remoulade on standby, I didn't really need it).  The fish was moist, and very mild otherwise, just not a flavorful fish in any way, but not offensive either.  Pretty ho-hum average tilapia, but great seasoning.  ***+.

I didn't try the zucchini nor the rice with a few bits of veggies in it, but my mother said the rice was fine but bland.  She threw out the zucchini after a single bite.  Their sides really seem to be a weakness.

The fish was a fairly small portion given how thin it was.  Overall, it seemed like a very small meal, just give the thin nature of the fish, the single piece of fish, and the fairly small non substantial sides.  More of a lunch than dinner portion, unless you added perhaps a side salad and bread.  I'd consider getting it again if I was craving blackened fish.

Vegetable Rollatini (parve).

And finally, a non-seafood option.  This one I picked out for my dad, but of course I tried it first.

What was this exactly?  It looked a lot like lasagna roll ups, and did indeed have lasagna noodles and marinara sauce.  And it was vegetarian.  But it was also parve (and thus vegan) and didn't have any cheesy component, which is pretty essential in my mind for lasagna-adjacent dishes.  Instead the filling was a mix of egg and matzo ball mix, with bits of vegetables: onions, squash, carrots, bell pepper.

It was ... awful?  The pasta was basic.  The sauce was ... overly herby, acidic, and just not very good.  The filling was however what took it from "not good" to "awful".  Inside was just mush.  I certainly couldn't distinguish any vegetables.  The matzo ball mix is what it seemed to mostly be made from, but, in mush form.

Even cheese wouldn't have helped this in my mind.  None of us wanted this.  *.

Sides

I also got some extra sides to round out our meal.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes.

I'm not exactly sure what "dirty" mashed potatoes are, and the label did not included any ingredients, it just said "dirty mashed potatoes".

I'm still not entirely sure what the dirty part was, but they were good mashed potatoes.  Clearly made with real potatoes, not instant.  Good texture, no lumps, not gloopy.  Quite flavorful, I think there was garlic along with good seasoning (salt and pepper) and herbs.  Far better than I expected.  ***+.  

Pasta Salad.

My parents love pasta salad, so this was for them (I like it too, but, the mayo heavy kind, which this was not).

This was the sort of pasta salad that you find at a potluck, brought by someone who absolutely does not cook, and signed up too late to grab the coveted easy chips & dip, cheese & crackers, or fresh fruit slot.  Was it bad?  Well, no, but if I purchased it at a deli, cafe, or even grocery store as a pre-made item, I'd be pretty disappointed.  

It was a zero skill dish.  Think: cook pasta moderately well (not super mushy, but not al dente), add some Italian vinaigrette from a bottle, and chop of a few bits of red bell pepper to "make it pop".  And that's what we had here.  As I said, zero skill dish.  It tasted as generic as can be.  It honestly could have been one of those Suddenly Salad mixs.

As I don't care for Italian vinaigrette, this was a big miss for me (when I ordered, I was hoping "pasta salad" would be more like macaroni salad, or at least mayo based).  *+.

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