What’s more important to you in a premium cabin airline lounge: a great buffet or a la carte dining?
In trying to be objective, I’ve put together three pros and three cons for buffets and the same for sit-down dining.
Buffet Pros:
- More variety
- Speed (instant gratification)
- Chance to showcase quality
Buffet Cons:
- Lower quality
- Temperature control
- Crowds/Waiting for refills
A La Carte Dining Pros
- Personalized Dishes
- Less Waste
- Higher Quality
A La Carte Dining Cons
- Wait time
- Less Variety
- Variable quality
I’ll stipulate that a nice buffet is perfectly sufficient. For example, I had breakfast in one of the Lufthansa First Lounges in Frankfurt last week. The spread was amazing:
This was more than enough. But the issue here is not about sufficiency, but about preference. I find myself rarely touching the buffet when in a Lufthansa First Class Lounge because I far prefer to sit and order food. It just makes the premium cabin experience more personalized.
And let’s be real: not all buffets are like Lufthansa’s. Take United’s new Polaris Lounges. The buffet is nice enough: the assortment of food available is more than enough for a meal. But the a la carte menu offers freshly-prepared choices that just strike me as far better than anything on the menu. I find this is almost always the case when both options are available, including with Garuda Indonesia, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas (Sydney and Los Angeles), Star Alliance LAX, American Flagship Dining, and British Airways. That’s just a small sampling.
Perhaps I do not give as much weight to time in the way most do. I can work from anywhere in the world as long as I have a stable phone and internet connection. When I have a long-haul flight that grants me lounge access to a nice lounge, I will make it a point to arrive early or schedule deliberately extended connections. Not only does that give me time to work, but it gives me time to fully enjoy all the amenities of the lounge.
For those who view a la carte dining as a gimmick, why? For those of you who would never schedule a longer connection than necessary, do you prefer buffets over a la carte dining?
CONCLUSION
I’m just a sucker for a la carte dining. Maybe I’ll get over it, but I think offering a quality meal on the ground makes the business or first class experience so much more premium.
When flying international F i always order a la carte… always. Then if i still have space I check out the buffet. Otherwise what’s the point of being in these nice lounges? Especially Lufthansa lounges in JFK, FRA and MUC have great a la carte options… a real steal for award flyers.
Having gotten a la carte only at the BA Concorde Rooms, AF La Premiere (both of which are available at IAD, though not many people seem to know that), and the LHR UA First lounge, I prefer that because I know they are fast and very good (much better than the buffet), and leave more time for sleeping on the plane. However, for breakfast it does not really matter. Much anything I would order is the same on the buffet.
I’m definitely in the buffet camp, finding the a la Carte offerings in most lounges to be unworthy of the wait ( one exception is Cathay in HKG, definitely worth it).
Qantas F lounges are poor: too crowded, the food far too slow and when it does arrive, mediocre . Al Safeway is the same ( not crowded but food unworthy of the wait).
Emirates has a good system for buffets: sure, it’s not gourmet but fresh and tasty; Qantas, Singapore lounge buffet is good also.
While I get that some people prefer a (pale pink copy of) ‘fine dining’ experience, it’s not what I want in a lounge, ie decent , fresh buffet, promptly replenished. Sometimes I choose a J lounge rather than F to get it.
If I have time, I always prefer an a la carte option. I travel pretty much 100% for either pleasure or blog material, so I have no problem getting to the airport early or scheduling a long layover to take advantage. TBH, though, I’m ridiculously paranoid about missing connections, so I prefer long layovers anyway.
I think where people see a la carte dining as a “gimmick” is the reality that the majority of customers traveling for business have more traditional desk and/or client-facing jobs, and thus, the goal is keeping airport time to a minimum (this was certainly true in my last job). If you’re only arriving at the airport an hour before your flight, and scheduling layovers as tight as possible, a la carte dining isn’t really feasible.
Doesn’t really matter to me. What matters is the quality. Some, like Lufthansa, have both great buffers and a la carte dining options. Some, like Qantas, have better buffets (or the difference in quality between buffer and a la carte dining is negligible). Some, like BA, have better a la carte food.
The big issue for me is the time I have in the lounge. If it’s a short-ish visit, would rather a decent buffet, especially if it’s a short transit and I want a shower and/or a nap as well. If it’s a longer visit, then definitely a la carte.
I prefer a decent buffet to any sort of service in a lounge for both food and drinks and then I get what I want not what someone else wants to serve me.
That said decent buffets are few and far between, good ones for me are LH F or SEN lounges, MH at KUL, SQ in most places and NZ in most places.
I particularly dislike the BA offerings at LHR which are tied to the time of day in the UK and sometimes your body clock wants something a bit different. Given how much transit traffic BA has in premium cabins you might think they would take that in to account but the don’t and even their time of day offerings are sub-par.
Silly question- can’t you have both?
Yes you can.