Update Review, May 2026 Flight
Flight Details:
Departure: 1:30pm (scheduled). 1:20pm pushback, 1:37pm takeoff.
Departure: 1:30pm (scheduled). 1:20pm pushback, 1:37pm takeoff.
Arrival: 4:41pm (scheduled) 4:08pm landing, 4:23pm gate arrival.
Aircraft: 787-9
Seat: 3L
I was quite impressed with timeliness of this flight. Pushback early, relatively short taxi. Crew were asked to stay seated for a while due to possible bumps, but they really were minor.
Service / Amenities
This was a standard Dreamliner Polaris cabin (and yes, it is actually branded Polaris now for premium transcons). Basic amenity kit waiting at the seat. I had seat 3L, which is my favorite row, one of the private odd numbered seats away from aisle, but "wrong" side of the cabin, as the side table is on the left, and I'm right handed, but otherwise, a decent enough seat (although I never find them as comfortable as I'd like for daytime flights). It was quite cold on board, despite several of us asking for it to be warmer. I wrapped up in the decent provided blanket (Saks branded) but was still uncomfortably cold the entire time.
As seems par for the course with United flights these days, the wifi was not very usable. It worked for the first 5 or so minutes, and then never again. Not slow, not spotty, but, just totally not functional. And yes, I paid $8 for that 5 minutes of service.
My head purser was great - friendly, proactive, helpful.
Pre-orders were verified and drink orders taken once underway, but it took quite a while for service to actually start. It began with a hot towel at 2:45pm, 1 hour 15 mins into the flight. It was a very pleasant not too hot, not lukewarm. Drinks and nuts slowly started making their way out after 3pm, a full 1.5 hours into the flight. I was very thirsty at this point! I was in row 3, and didn't get my beverage (and nuts) until 3:08pm. Meals took even longer - I do appreciate getting drinks/nuts before the meal, and they often skip this service flow and do it all at once, but, we were approaching 2 hours in, and still no one had any food. I finally got served my meal after 3:30pm. I don't know why it took so long.
Our trays were cleared relatively quickly after the meal, but no dessert was offered. Everyone was finished. We sat there with our trays out. Waiting. At 4:30pm, finally, "Would you like to join us for dessert?". I'm not sure why everything was so drawn out, particularly as they are supposed to serve a second meal ...
Drinks
PDB of bottle of water only was offered. I ask/begged for a sparkling Aha and a full can was provided. Later on when beverages were served for the meal, everyone was provided full cans, which is always appreciated.
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| Nuts. |
The ramekin of nuts seemed far smaller than usual. I had exactly 4 cashes and 6 almonds. Lightly warm.
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| Wine. |
Since I found the pinot pretty average on my previous flight, I went for the (new to me) cabernet, a varietal I like more usually anyway.
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| Ink Grade Cabernet Sauvignon, 2020. |
I was pretty let down by the wine. It gets good reviews, and is a $55 bottle, but it was really sharp and acidic, fair amount of tannin. Now, I can't be sure I got what was listed on the menu (the FA who served it just said, "red wine"), but yeah. Not a wine I'd get again. If I cared more, I would have asked to switch to something else, but as this was a daytime flight, I didn't mind not actually drinking much of it. 2/5.
I later switched the pinot, as it was a 6 hour flight after all, and liked it a bit more, but still nothing I was excited about. 3/5.
"Main Meal"
The main meal was served around 3:30pm in the timezone of our departure, or 12:30pm where we were headed, so, yeah, I'll just go with "main meal" as I'm not sure what it was really. I was surprised to hear that nearly everyone around me got special meals. Hindu across the aisle, Asian vegetarian in front of him, Asian vegetarian behind him, several others a few rows back. Most likely these are frequent fliers, bored with the regular lineup. I was excited to get to see what their meals looked like and hoped I'd be able to get a peek. I followed their lead on my return trip and ordered a special meal myself (review coming soon!) and I highly recommend this to anyone.
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| Menu. |
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| Meal. |
This was the worst United meal I've had in a long time.
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| Pumpernickel Roll. |
For bread, there were three choices: dinner roll, pumpernickel roll, or focaccia. I went for the pumpernickel, which the FA told me was her favorite.
It was dry, stale, flavorless. Not good. Pat of generic butter on the side. 1/5. Sad, because sometimes United has some decent breads.
As for the "hot fudge". It *was* warm-ish, but hot fudge it was not. It was chocolate sauce. Just, warm. I'm so, so glad I asked for it on the side. I disliked it instantly.
The menu had just three options: cheese plate (not a meal, but a reasonable thing to offer at this point), salad (yay! But, no, full of things I hate including ones I'm allergic to), or ... chicken stromboli. Given that I wasn't hungry AT ALL, you'd think I would skip this but ... I was curious!
And thus, chicken stromboli it was, for the girl who doesn't like chicken. I did ask to have the fruit left off the tray, as I knew it would have melon in it and I'm allergic.
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| Herb Ricotta Cheese. |
"Herb ricotta cheese with baby beets, toasted pistachios and pineapple citrus vinaigrette."
The starter was a cheese dish (which seems to be their current thing, it rotates between whipped feta, herbed ricotta, burrata).
I also had a ricotta version on my flight two weeks prior, although it was served with totally different toppings. The ricotta was fine, but I didn't like the beet (which, I rarely do anyway), and I appreciated the crunch from pistachios but would have preferred anther nut. If the bread had been tasty, I would have liked to stuff it with this, but without that, it mostly just was a big blob of cheese spread that I couldn't quite figure out what to do with (I added a bit to my salad too, but that already had another cheese in it). 2.5/5.
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| Baby Red Oak Leaf Arugula Salad. |
"Baby red oak leaf arugula salad with shaved parmesan, artichokes and roasted red tomatoes."
The salad was basically the same as a few weeks prior. It again featured artichokes that I don't care for, again lacked arugula despite the description, but it switched in shaved parmesan for the mozzarella balls I had my previous flight (this was better). The greens seemed fresh enough. The roasted red tomatoes were flavorful, and they went well with the ricotta appetizer too. But still, not a compelling salad, and really quite tiny. I wanted more greens, and just better toppings. Low low 3/5.
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| Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass. |
"Pan seared Chilean sea bass with pearl cous cous risotto, sauteed garlic green beans and artichoke tomato salsa."
For my main I had the Chilean sea bass. I could smell it approaching as others were served it. Not in a good way, despite how hungry I was. It smelt SOOO fishy. But still, I've had some good fish on United flights, I tried to have hope.
Alas. This was not good at all. The portion was large, and it was reasonably flaky, but the flavor was just so so fishy. Very off putting. It also lacked the artichoke tomato salad from the description, but I didn't mind that, given my artichoke aversion. So, the fish, the main attraction, and the thing I thought I might possibly like ... 1/5.
The green beans I also was interested in. I love green beans. But these were hospital cafeteria style, soft, mushy, not very vibrant, some shriveled up. 2/5.
The cous cous risotto is the element I planned to not even touch, but, since I was striking out on everything else, I gave the very unappealing blob a try. And ... it actually was the best thing on the plate. It was fairly creamy, nicely mounted with cheese. The cous cous was mushier than I'd like, but, it wasn't awful. 2.5/5.
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| Sundae. |
I was freezing, but, 1) I dislike lemon desserts and the other sweet option was a lemon dessert, 2) the lemon dessert was literally the same as my flight two weeks prior, 3) cheese is not a dessert, so ... yes, ice cream sundae it was. On my flight two weeks prior they said they had no toppings (even though, um, I saw them all in the galley later), and they served me liquid ice cream. They did better this time, but still, not great.
Available toppings were caramel sauce or hot fudge, nuts, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and cherries. I asked a clarifying question if it was hot fudge or chocolate sauce, and was assured it was hot fudge, but I still asked for it on the side, as 1) I loathe chocolate sauce, and usually it is chocolate sauce, and 2) they often apply waaaaaay too much. The FA seemed ok with this request. I also asked for nuts, chocolate chips, and whipped cream.
It came ... without the nuts, but I politely pointed this out, and she brought it back with the nuts.
The ice cream was actually a reasonable temperature - so often it comes hard as a rock and you have to sit there waiting, waiting, waiting, for it to get soft enough to possibly eat. Or, per my last flight, sometimes it comes as frothy liquid rather than anything frozen. But this was actually perfect temperature. The ice cream though isn't particularly high quality. I'm not sure what brand it is, but, I don't actually like the base flavor all that much. So good execution on our service staff part, but 2/5 for ice cream quality.
The whipped cream was fine, although wow, so much was applied (and I love whipped cream ... um, I go through a large size can every week ....). The nuts were slivered almonds, added great crunch, and were nicely roasted. The mini chocolate chips were nice dark chocolate. I liked all the toppings well enough, particularly once I added my own fresh strawberries and raspberries. 3.5/5 toppings.
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| "Hot Fudge". |
Arrival Meal
This route is supposed to have a second meal service, which seems to happen <50% of the time given my experiences the past few years. You can now even pre-order your meal choice, but that turns out to be meaningless. My flight 2 weeks prior completely omitted the service, with no mention whatsoever of it. This time, it was actually offered. With just over an hour left, the purser came through asking people, "Did you want to eat again?" or "You pre-ordered the salad, did you still want that?". It had barely been an hour since our desserts were cleared.
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| Menu. |
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| Arrival Meal Tray. |
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| Roll. |
My tray however did have a bread roll. I was given no choice with this meal, and would have asked for none actually, but, it was a generic dinner roll it was with a slight cornmeal crust. Not one of the options in the first meal service. I liked the cornmeal grit, but the roll was very dry, and stale tasting. It almost tasted gluten-free. I did not like this. 1/5.
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| Chicken Stromboli. |
"Chicken stromboli with smooth pomodoro sauce."
This ... was an adventure. The glass plate was crazy hot, like, it nearly burnt me when I touched it for the briefest second. And parts of the exterior were relatively warm. But the center? Dead cold. Not lukewarm, actually still chilled. So execution wise, the oven did not work so well here.
Heating issues aside, how was it? Uh ... the wrapper was ... ok, but not great. It had too much flour on the bottom. About what you'd expect from a cheap grocery store frozen appetizer.
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| Stromboli: Inside. |
Inside was some few small bits of chicken, seemingly white meat, but not much of it (which I didn't mind of course as I planned to eat around it). I did expect there to be a cheese component, but there didn't seem to be. It had a small amount of what seemed like maybe buffalo sauce? That had some promise, but it made no sense to have that sauce inside, and the little ramekin of generic tomato pomodoro sauce on the side, as the flavors didn't match. There also just wasn't much sauce inside at all.
So ... a tiny bit of chicken, barely any sauce, no cheese? Eh. And yes, cold. Can't say I recommend this one. 1/5.
Previous Review, September 2023
Flight Details
Flight: United Airlines Flight 2046Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Departure: 3:30pm (scheduled) 7:48pm (actual)
Arrival: San Francisco SFO 6:34pm (scheduled) ~11pm (actual)
Seat: 11A
This is not a flight that went smoothly. It is a flight that got caught up in a ground stop due to dramatic storms, with new departure delays issued every 30 minutes, for several hours. It is a flight that let people voluntarily deplane to go wander around, and then called folks back after not too long. It is a flight that optimistically pushed back, only to have the ground stop extended for hours. Yes, I boarded this flight around 2:40pm, pushed back from the gate more than 2.5 hours later at 5:20pm, and didn't take off for another 2.5 hours. My transcon flight duration rivaled that of a flight to SYD instead.
United however is not to blame in any way. This truly was weather related, and every airport in the northeast had full ground stops in effect, for both inbound and outbound aircraft. The airline kept us reasonably updated, and did their best to get us out before the crew timed out, so, although a bit of a nightmare, and a lot of stress, I don't have negative things to say about United through it all.
Service
Our crew handled all of the drama remarkably well. Our pilot updated us as often as possible, and was as transparent as he could be. He even used phrases like "to prepare your mindset, here is what we are looking at", as he explained how things needed to progress for us to make actual forward motion.
I learned all about how ground crews weren't allowed outside when there was active lightening in the area, and every time there was a new strike, a 10 minute counter had to reset. I learned that even once the weather cleared around us, the storm had built up a lot of badness that hung over us to the west, and so even though it was safe for the ground crew to be out and about, and ATC was not opening up any "departure lanes". I learned a ton about the pecking order that comes once a window does open for takeoff, and why pushing back from the gate mattered so much (besides the cynical part of "gaming" the stats, the crew getting paid, etc). I learned about how long it takes to spin up the engines, and why sitting parked with them off was a reasonable thing to be doing. I learned my patience for rowdy toddlers throwing hard dinosaur toys around and hitting me in the head with them repeatedly wears thin after a few hours (er, minutes really), and really laud the crew for their patience as they attempted to deliver meal while tripping over said toddler and his plethora of toys all over the aisles.
The crew was definitely following some standard protocols as we hit certain time milestones: 2 hours sitting there? Offer to let people off. 3 hours? Bring them drinks and Biscoff cookies. 4 hours? Issue $20 meal vouchers (not that we could use them ... as we were on board, detached from the gate, and wouldn't get to SFO until after everything closed, and they expired that night). It was all appreciated though, and the crew stayed upbeat throughout, even welcoming people back on in a joyous way when they came back after deplaning, "Glad you came back to join us!" "Nice to see you again!", etc.
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| Seat. |
Before all that though, the flight started with standard service. Waiting at our seats was the nice Polaris Saks Fifth Avenue blankets and pillows. Not entirely necessary for a mid-day (or, supposed to be mid-day) transcon, but really quite nice, particularly once it did get so very delayed.
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| Amenity Kit. |
The amenity kit really didn't offer much of interest: a thin eye mask, low end ear plugs, a bamboo toothbrush, and a few toiletries. But again, not really needed for this flight.
Food & Drink
Even though this is considered a "premium" transcontinental route, from a hub to a hub, United does not offer pre-order for the meal service, and, even more ridiculous, is that there are only two options: chicken or pasta. This has been the case, in both directions, for years. You either get chicken/polenta/broccoli or chicken curry, or cheese ravioli in red sauce or butternut squash ravioli, depending on which direction you are flying. Literally, the same options, for at least the past two years. No changes.
There are no menus provided, but the FA walked through the cabin, taking orders starting with elites, then front to back, offering up chicken or ravioli, with no description of them (e.g. is there a sauce with the chicken? A side?). There was no mention of it, but I knew all meals are served with a salad and bread roll, all at once. The dessert cart has resumed, so there is a dessert option (usually a tart or cheesecake), or custom ice cream sundae, or cheese.
Drinks
Water bottles were waiting at our seats.
Pre-departure choice of water or sparkling wine was offered. I asked for a sparkling water, but was told that could not be honored. Once we were very delayed, another round of water and this time, orange juice, came around. I again asked for sparkling water, and that time, it was honored.
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| Red Wine, Sparkling Aha, Nuts. |
Drink orders were taken prior to pushback along with our meals. There was no drink menu provided, but I knew they had flavored sparkling Aha as a standard offering, which I always enjoy. I asked about wines, and was told "white, red, or sparkling", with no details on the varietal, let alone the wine maker or country. This seems pretty standard on United. I opted for a sparkling Aha (they have two flavors available, I rotated between both throughout), and "the red wine".
Once under way, our drinks were delivered relatively quickly, along with a warm ramekin of cashews and almonds, lightly salted. The wine really wasn't bad, not too boring, not too much acid nor tannin. I'd gladly get it again, and I do adore the Aha. ***+ wine, **** Aha, ***+ nuts.
Main Meal
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| Meal. |
Meals were delivered one by one on a tray with napkin, cutlery, salad, bread and butter, main dish we had ordered on the ground, and salt and pepper shakers.
The service element was a bit lacking. I appreciated that they didn't make us pull out our tray tables way in advance so they could set down a placemat like some airlines, but, they also just suddenly appeared with trays in hand and you could see every person scramble to pull out their tray table. (Also, no placemat is a bit gross on a plane, as I don't think they sanitize the tables between flights?)
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| Salad. |
The salad was very basic: a small handful of mixed greens, two mealy tomatoes, and three slices of cucumbers. At least it didn't feature any odd combos of ingredients, and was greens instead of grains base, but, definitely left something to be desired. The cucumbers were reasonably fresh. The same packaged sesame ginger dressing that came with the old Asian slaw salad was provided, which I didn't use. **+.
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| Light Wheat Roll. |
United serves a number of different breads on their flights (never a choice, no bread basket). The garlic bread has many loyal fans, as does the pretzel bun, but for me, I don't care for either of those (nor the crusty white roll), yet I strangely do enjoy the hearty wheat roll.
This wasn't the hearty, seeded wheat roll that I really like, but it was a mild white-wheat, which I hadn't had before. It wasn't warm, but I think that is just our service being a bit slow, as my main meal wasn't particularly warm either, and my nuts were cold even though the ramekin was still a bit warm. It was soft, didn't taste stale, didn't taste too processed, was lightly hearty. I wouldn't go out of my way for this roll, but, I don't know of any other airline bread/roll that I like more (besides the aforementioned more hearty wheat one). ***.
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| "The Chicken". |
For my main dish, I went for the chicken. Yes, amusing as I don't eat chicken, but I've had the ravioli before, and didn't care for it, so I went for the chicken, even though I don't like chicken at all. I got this for the polenta basically, and, hopefully, for the sauce. I had my own meal with me, as I knew my choices were going to be those two items.
The food was lightly lukewarm, definitely not hot. The broccolini turned out to be broccoli, which I like more in general, but this was the type of broccoli that makes kids turn up their nose and not want to eat their vegetables. Kinda mushy, waterlogged, flavorless. *+.
I didn't try the chicken, it had extremely fake looking grill marks on it. Portion seemed reasonable.
I did try the sauce, which I was looking forward to, both for my polenta and for dunking the bread. The FA described it as a "mushroom sauce" when I asked about it, but it didn't contain any mushrooms, nor taste like mushrooms to me. It did taste a bit like a marsala sauce, but, one that didn't have mushrooms, and didn't the alcohol properly cooked out. It was quite harsh, and also sorta tasted like beef, which was odd to pair with chicken. It seemed like it would go better with Sunday roast, mash, and carrots than this. It also lacked any seasoning. I added salt, but, I still didn't care for the base taste. Shame. *.
And finally, the polenta, the part I was most interested in. It was a round cake, I think likely the same as they use for the vegetarian chili and polenta meal, which I've had on several other flights (IAH-SFO, where I thought it was decent, and SFO-SYD where I didn't care for it at all). It was fine. Soft, fairly creamy inside, lightly cheesy. But also essentially zero seasoning, and, not very warm. I had my own sauces with me, and frustratingly shook that tiny shaker over and over to get some salt and pepper out, and enjoyed it well enough. ***.
Dessert
The dessert is definitely the part of this flight (besides the private seat) that I was most looking forward to, since the return of the sundae cart. I know the ice cream isn't amazing quality or anything, but, I do genuinely usually enjoy some of the toppings (and of course, came prepared with my own additional toppings too).
Dessert service is done via the trolley, which comes through after the main meal is done and cleared for everyone. They use one trolley for both cabins, so it starts in the front business cabin, and then slowly makes its way to the back cabin where I was. The delay between my entree and dessert was a full hour, which seemed a bit long.
Finally, it came my way. The lineup included United's signature made to order ice cream sundaes, standard simple cheese plate, and an additional dessert of the day, which for us was an apple tart. The ice cream is always just generic vanilla, but the toppings are where the glory is. On today's flight, the toppings available were hot fudge or warm caramel, sliced almonds, tiny chocolate chips, whipped cream, and cherries. Nearly everyone, young and old alike, was opting for the sundae. The FA told me that sometimes she gets to see the true joy and glee in the eyes of very formal looking business people, or old men, as they craft their sundae, and it brings her actual joy too. It turns out, ice cream in the sky really does delight many people.
I was kinda curious about the other dessert too, so I did ask if I could have both, and the FA looked up, saw how many were left and how few seats were remaining to serve (benefit of being in the back cabin I guess), and said sure. She had at least a dozen left, and only two rows behind me.
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| Apple Tart. |
Starting with the apple tart, which, honestly, I got mostly out of boredom / very confused state of hunger due to the delays and very odd eating schedule. That said, I know that for the "pie in the sky", or "pie cookies" as I dubbed them long ago, that United serves on non-premium domestic routes, or the cheesecake, if you are lucky enough to get that, is always Eli's, which really does make both tasty cheesecake, and tasty other desserts (many of which I've reviewed before), so I had reasonable hope that this would be good too, if it came from Eli's. It did look quite a bit like Eli's Apple Bavarian Torte, which I've had before, just with extra caramel drizzled over the top?
Anyway, it was reasonable enough. The crust was like a soft, buttery shortbread cookie. Not too crumbly, not too dry, not card-board like. Better than most commercial products of its kind. The layer above that was sorta like cheesecake, just a touch more mild. And then, the apples of course, lightly spiced, no aggressive nutmeg or anything. I liked that they were a bit al dente. It had a fairly generous drizzle of caramel all over the top, which I think was the same caramel from the sundaes, which I do truly enjoy.
Overall, not bad, better than average airline dessert, and if you really don't want ice cream, a quite reasonable option. Bonus points if you ask for whipped cream from the sundae cart, or, do as I did, and pair with ice cream too! ***+.
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| Ice Cream Sundae: caramel, slivered almonds, whipped cream. |
For the sundae, I went with caramel (the hot fudge is great too, but, I was avoiding caffeine at night), slivered almonds for some crunch (and a touch of protein), and of course, whipped cream. I learned long ago that I don't care for their cherries, and the mini chocolate chips I'd happily get, but, again, caffeine. I had my own fresh strawberries, blueberries, and sprinkles to add to it. The FA added a considerable amount of caramel, three big spoonfuls, then she paused to hand something to the other FA who interrupted her, and she added two more. I almost think she forgot how many she had already added? It was a bit excessive, but, I do like the caramel.
I took my first bite eagerly and was, frankly confused. Sure, I'm used to airline ice cream being served at totally wrong consistencies, often rock solid and requiring an excruciating wait before you can eat it, or fairy soupy, but this was ... well, calling it "melted" is an understatement. Melted ice cream is generally still at least ... cold? This was not even lightly chilled. It was warm. Warmer perhaps than even my main meal.
Once I got over the surprise of not having actual ice cream, I was somewhat fascinated by it. It was remarkably fluffy and frothy. Sorta like a sabayon or zabaione, just, clearly it had some dairy in there. The caramel mixed in to make the flavor sweet and actually quite enjoyable. It truly wasn't *bad*, but it certainly wasn't ice cream, not even soupy, too melted ice cream. It was warm frothy light sweet custard. The slivered almonds added a nice crunch. The whipped cream wasn't necessary up against the frothy base, and it was actually colder and more solid than the "ice cream". It floated nicely on top. I added my own fresh strawberries and blueberries, and truly enjoyed this creation, but, definitely not what they intended to serve, and I'm a bit shocked that they served it without any seeming concern. Surely, the FA must have noticed as she spooned on the toppings?
As "ice cream", this needs to get 0 stars, but, given my enjoyment of the overall thing (which my own berries definitely were essential to), I give it ****.
Pre-arrival Snack
I was a bit surprised when at the 1 hour mark before landing, a FA came through offering either hummus or cheese plates. I couldn't see them, as cabin lights were off, so didn't quite know what I was opting for, but blurted out "hummus", which is totally odd on my part, as I don't actually like hummus. I think I hoped for yummy crackers or veggie dippers for it? Really, I was not expecting a "snack" like that, as most of the competition on this route simply offers a pass of a snack basket (which, to be fair, I'd actually prefer, I'd love a bag of salty popcorn, something chocolate, etc).
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| Hummus Platter. |
The hummus platter perplexed me slightly. Yes, it had hummus, as expected, but it had nothing to dip in it. Not crackers, not pita, not veggies. Instead, it came with tabbouli, a wedge of lemon, and three grapes. Sure, hummus and tabbouli go together well, and a little acid from lemon elevates most things, but ... it was an odd snack with nothing to spread the hummus on, nor dip into it.
The tabbouli had an abundance of very harsh raw red onion. It blew my palette out nearly immediately. The lemon was nice to have, would have been nice with the main meal too. Grapes were fine, not too mushy. And the hummus? Yeah, it was generic hummus. Overall, very meh, and hard to eat in a cohesive way. ***.
I later saw the "cheese plate", which actually turned out to be a cheese and charcuterie plate (surprise, vegetarians!), with what looked to be a wedge of very bright orange cheddar, a hunk of swiss, two slices of salami, and a slice of turkey, served with a packet of water crackers. If I were to fly this route again, I'd opt for that for sure, as I do kinda like those crackers, cheese is usually fairly reliably ok, and, well, I do like salami from time to time.
