ottawa foodies

I recently had the opportunity to travel domestic executive class on an Air Canada flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. First time I've flown anything other than economy (and it was because there were only executive class seats left to buy with Aeroplan points). I've always wondered about the food, so I'm sharing the details with you in case you have too!

It starts as soon as you sit down, when they offer you a plastic cup of room temp water or orange juice. This is more of a gesture of good will than anything else. They also give you a printed menu. I overheard another passenger commenting that it's been the same for a year and a half. The menu on the return trip differed only in the details of the main dishes.

During the final stages of the initial climb, we were served these dishes of chilled and salty cashews and smoked almonds. We were also offered a choice of beverages, including two red wines. I chose the Shiraz, and it was topped up again later.

This was my favourite executive class perk (aside from Maple Leaf Lounge access in the airport of course).

The meal started with a white "table cloth" followed by this tray of salad greens. The mini baguette was served separately (choice of white or whole wheat). The greens came with a little bottle of French-made basil and balsamic vinaigrette. Very nice!

I opted for the chicken breast entree -- mostly because I've had terrible experiences with airplane-based chicken dishes. I was pleasantly surprised with this one because it had a nice roasted flavour. The food quality was only slightly worse than one might find at a suburban Italian restaurant (the kind referenced here: Forum - Italian-ish restaurants). Not great at all, but significantly better than airplane food I've had before.

The most surreal part came after they cleared away our trays. Suddenly, I became aware of the aroma of baking cookies. Five minutes later, they came by and gave us a couple of gooey cookies with vanilla gelato. Not bad at all!

The meal was all finished by the time we flew over Thunder Bay. I relaxed the rest of the flight, but found myself a little peckish by the time we arrived in Vancouver. My brother, who lives in Montreal, was 30 minutes behind me on another flight and seated in economy class. I suggested we visit the Vancouver airport location of Vera's Burger Shack. He loved his burger. I was terribly disappointed with my hot dog. Nasty bun and a really poor quality sausage. It filled me up though!

The return trip a week later was almost identical in service to the first one. However, I chose the salmon dish this time and it was one of the nastiest things I've ever eaten on an airplane. Cooked to a hard brick and cloyingly sweet in the most repulsive way. This photo shows how I left my plate, and I almost never leave food on my plate! Thankfully it was a bit of a red-eye flight so I wasn't starving.

The flight attendant who poured my wine offered a choice of two reds, "I have a Shiraz, and the other one is a [unintelligible sound], which is more of a Syrah." I didn't feel like pointing out to him that they're the same grape.

In summary, I found many of the executive class perks to be not that valuable. However, the following are GOLD:
* Your luggage comes out first on the carousel. This is absolutely wonderful!
* Maple Leaf Lounge. It makes waiting in an airport an enjoyable experience. Self-service bar, nifty coffee machines, and tasty soups and salads to keep you occupied.
* Extra legroom. I was in Row 1 on both directions of the trip and I could actually stretch my legs straight out in front of me. Still, you're sitting for hours and it's only a little more comfortable than economy.

Thanks Fresh Foodie. I have found that the service in executive class varies depending on the aircraft and the crew. Sometimes they will hand blend special cocktails, sometimes it's a shot and a mixer. On the way back from Tokyo once we were served a quite nice Kaiseki meal, which was really a pleasant surprise. And you should know that they offer more choices to those who are at the elite levels. We discovered this once when my partner (super elite) and I (no status)switched seats on a long flight. They came to me first, thinking I was him, and gave me a lengthy menu to choose from. He got a different abbreviated menu, and when he asked for what I was having was told "we're out of that". He did not make me switch however. I think it's a sign of true love that you give up your preferred meal on a 20 hour flight for your "non status" partner LOL.

Interesting! My understanding is that International executive class is a superior experience to Domestic executive. One day... ;-)

great writeup FF!

have you ever flown with Porter? i fly YOW-YTZ frequently and LOVE it. gate-to-gate the trip is so much quicker than an AC flight to Pearson. in addition to nice lounges in both YOW and YTZ, they offer free drinks (inc beer/wine) and a tasty little boxed lunch (usually a sandwich, salad, cheese, and some chocolate). it's great value.

if you want to read up on airline meals checkout the forums at www.FlyerTalk.com - it's a pretty expansive website for frequent flyers.

Ha, ha, before I got to the part about the cookies I was going to say that my favorite exec class food was fresh chocolate chip cookies. Back in the days when I was flying around the world doing demos and trade shows for Nortel, and their policy was that any flight leg longer than X had to be exec.

In 2010 my daughter qualified for the world championships of Taekwondo in South Korea, which took us to the other side of the world. Luckilly, our airline from San Francisco to Seoul was Singapore Airlines. This 13 hours flight was as good as it could possibly get. The food was beyond anything I had ever dreamed of on anything WestJet or AIr Canada and the service was amazing. You actually got a menu with a few choices for each course AND they were tasty and not run-of-the-mill crap. I wish I had taken pics of the meal...it was pretty impressive and we weren;t in business class...I can only imagine what they were feasting on!

we were bumped to business class on air france when flying out of italy a few years ago. we got to our flight late, so our seats were given away. we were forced into business class ;)

we had 3 course meals, cheese plates, a long wine list, pairs of fresh socks, individual movie selections, warm towels, tooth brush, tooth paste, complimentary alcohol, giant roomy seats, blankets. it was a great flight back to ottawa. it has ruined all flights i've taken since then.

Sounds better than the executive/business class ..whatever from Via Rail.
I took that once -expensive just to get to Montreal.
Food was not good and like TV dinner stuff,ok maybe a bit better.

My experience w the Air Canada lounge at Pearson was not that great.
Was told that because my ticket was upgraded I could not use the lounge??
really odd,but since my flight was so late that day-did not have more than 10 minutes at the lounge (or would have) anyways.

I think I have a flight w Air Canada this week (well hopefully not Air Canada) I forget and will have to check my ticket.
last time they messed up my booking and gave away my seat when I was 2 hours early..they did this to 5 people there too who had a business trip.

There is an old Seinfeld episode about first class vs. coach that is pretty much accurate. Once you fly up front, you will always miss it when you're in coach, because you know how much better it is. The evil thing about the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies is that you can smell them in the first few rows of coach, and you can also hear the clink of china and drystal as the meals are served. The sleep masks/slippers and toiletry kits are all wonderful, and the food, even in first can sometimes be disappointing, but the service is always top drawer. Typically you get extra baggage allowance, extra carry on space, and they hang your jacket in a real closet! My favorite example of the enhanced service was when I asked whether there was any unsweetened iced tea available, and the flight attendant smiled and said "I'm sorry we don't have any. Would you like me to brew you some?" Try that in coach! But once you get used to first, wait until you fly on a private jet and the food and drink are whatever your little heart desires LOL...

I may get hammered for writing this but I wish they didn't serve meals on flights - I'll bring my own treats - I just want more SPACE.
All the trays + dishes + garbage = weight added for serving up there. Mind-boggling.
Oh, indeed, I love to eat but I can last a flight without service. Liquids and that's it. (And, no, I don't work for AC :))

That said, my sister flew Swiss International Air Lines (not Swiss Air) and went on and on about the food. She sent me this site and I also went WOW...but more so for the leg room in First class. Nice.
p.s. Cathay Pacific usually wins top rating for airline food.

www.airlinemeals.net

Sometimes the real challenge in airline meals is in meeting special dietary requirements. I once got a "diabetic" meal on an American Airlines flight (6 hours) that consisted of a bowl of lentils and a jello with aspartame. not fun. There used to be a website that rated the various "special" airline meals, and it was very helpful. I can't remember what it was. Can anyone help? The link above doesn't provide for searching by special dietary needs.

I recently did an 8-hour flight in economy class with Royal Brunei and the food, service and legroom simply blew North American airlines right out of the water. I can also say the same for flights I've enjoyed with JAL and Royal Thai Airways. There is just no comparison, Asian airlines are head and shoulders above their North American counterparts in every respect.

My normal routine is to eat before a flight and bring a sandwich/snacks with me, I'm that leery of airline food. But Royal Brunei served me the most incredible beef coconut curry with steamed vegetables and rice... seriously, my mouth still waters at the memory.

As for flying in and out of Vancouver Airport, I stopped an employee there a couple of years ago and asked for a recommendation. Without hesitation he said Hanami was the place that all the airline crew go to. It is very much out of the way just before the security gate for International Departures but the sushi is fantastically fresh, not to mention some of the best that I've enjoyed, easily on par with Genji or Kiko locally. The grilled squid is also great. They also offer bento boxes to go so can be an option if you haven't time to sit before catching a flight. I love going through VYR now thanks to Hanami, and find that having a solid pre-flight dining option makes all the difference.

My favourite economy class meal ever was this one, flying SWISS from Zürich to Montreal in early 2007.

The gnocchi were of good texture and the beef was tasty! Even the roll was pretty decent. I have no idea how they manage to do that. Camembert *and* butter for my roll.

All in all, superior in quality (but not quantity) to the food I saw in Air Canada's domestic executive class!

Ahh yes , I too remember flying Air Canada back in the high tech boom days. My buddies would give me upgrade coupons. Sometimes just for the access to the Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto and not a seat upgarde.

It was when the airline cranked the price to 5 Bucks for a drink that I descided I would fill my hip flask with some decent stuff from the self serve bar. Then all i would order was mix with ice on the plane to San Fran.

I liked seeing the response from those sitting next to me.

From personal experience, the food served in Exec Class with Air Canada is by no means tastier than what they serve in coach -- this applies mostly to international flights but even the domestic one wasn't anything to right home about. If anything they tossed us a cheese plate as opposed to pre-packaged nuts.

On the international flights, there may be more of a selection and you can snack on a variety of items throughout the flight but apart from the real cutlery and glasses, I say 'meh' to that food experience.

If you fly YYZ-YVR (toronto to vancouver) try to get on the 777 that goes onward to sydney and you would have real flat bed used on international executive class :D..

I had been superELITE as well as ELITE and once deliberately selected that flight to yvr despite the fact another time would be preferable and do not regret the choice since I upgraded with a certificate...

I find the executive class a little hit and miss on AC.. Sometimes great sometimes mediocre, occassional get serve something pretty nasty..

Just had experience with Business class in Australia/NZ:

Air New Zealand: Fabulous! Great lie-flat seats/beds, gracious service (including an in-flight concierge providing travel advice/assistance), wonderful wines (about 8 or 10--all premium), and excellent food (on a par with, say, a place like Social in terms of creativity, execution, and presentation--not outstanding, but quite competent). I had the duck leg confit in red curry sauce, and it was good enough that I will replicate it--the salty confit paired very well with the sweet/spicy coconut curry. Also took economy across the Tasman Sea--very respectable butter chicken.

Qantas: Very good--excellent wine selection, very nice food. The standout was the bread selection--they must have a good source for artisan bread both for the lounge and business class.

United: Grossly disappointing. Their new lie-flat seats are...uncomfortably narrow, and the headrest piece puts your neck at a bad angle. On the main deck they are already a bit too short, and on the upper deck (747-400) they are shorter still--glad I changed my seat to the main deck. No sheet provided to sleep on, so you wake up feeling dirty. Food was little better than economy. Wine selection was appalling--only three choices out of the advertised 8, though at least all were decent. Flight attendant had all of the charm of a bus driver. In fact, I have had more charming bus drivers!

Verdict: Don't take United! Even Air Canada's Australia service is better in every way.

Mark,

I flew Air New Zealand in business when they were still using the seats and I ended up in the middle seat of 3 :( But I remembered the food and service were excellent... And some really nice NZ wines. If you ever get a change to use the Air NZ lounge in LAX, beats the Maple Leaf Lounge hands down