Each week, my Meal of the Week feature examines an airline meal from my travels over the years. This may be a meal from earlier in the week or it may be a meal served over a decade ago.
I found myself on a late night flight on Austrian Airlines last night from Vienna to Yerevan, Armenia and indulged in what turned out to be quite a carb fest. Still, I always appreciate the Do & Co catering on Austrian flights.
Austrian is still very much a full-service, “old-school” airline in economy class. Free drinks are available on all flights and most flights over two hours offer complimentary meal service.
My flight to Yerevan left Vienna at 10:35PM and arrived into Yerevan at 3:45AM the following morning, representing a 3hr, 10minute flight and two hour time change. Shortly after takeoff, FAs offered a choice of beverage. A hot meal followed.
No choice was offered; each passenger received the same meal. Tonight’s meal was a vegetarian pasta with cake and bread. Talk about a carb overload…
That said, I had eaten dinner several hours earlier and the small pasta plate hit the spot. The sauce was rich, creamy, and very cheesy, but what really satisfied my tastebuds was the sage, which is such a nice accompaniment on pasta. The tomatoes also had a kick.
Bread was served hot and fresh and the cake was also fresh and very moist.
CONCLUSION
I’m not sure if you can tell by the picture, but the portion size was tiny. This would hardly substitute for dinner. But in terms of a late night snack, it hit the spot. And the carb-inducing coma (postprandial somnolence) that followed helped me get through the flight in those terribly uncomfortable slimline seats.
“Homemade” dessert? That has to violate some advertising law… 😮 XD
It wasn’t quite clear, but I gather that this was in Y, based on your full-service and complimentary meal comments. The presentation and quantity are pretty poor for a 3-hour J flight.
In any case, while I haven’t flown OS in a few years, my experience with their DO&CO catering has been… less than impressive. Their lounge offerings and J food onboard were mediocre at best.
This was economy class.
🙂 I figured.
No more Austrian for me. The way they sell connecting flights they can’t deliver, followed by the hours long drama to get rebooked, and then the cheeky wriggling out of compensation despite a 8 hour delay was enough. Lucky there is plenty of choice in Europe.