While SAS just announced it will serve multi-course business class meals on porcelain dishes on intra-European routes, KLM serves boxed meals on its intra-European routes it calls a “deluxe meal box.”
Taste Test: KLM “Deluxe Meal Box” In European Business Class
I was flying from Prague (PRG) to Amsterdam (AMS) in KLM Business Class, the first leg of my journey to Los Angeles. The flight left at 6:30 pm and dinner was served onboard the short journey to Amsterdam Schiphol.
It has been many years since I’ve flown in business class on a short-haul KLM flight. Meals are now served with 100% disposable dishes, plates, and utensils, all found inside a fancy blue cardboard box with the KLM logo embossed in gold in the center. The box, designed for KLM by Dutch designer Marcel Wanders, is full of intricatae details.
Lifting up the box, I found a menu card on top which explained the contents of the box:
Main Course
Teriyaki soba noodle salad with soy beans, oriental vegetables, and plant-based teriyaki beef. Topped with spring onions.
Served with moon crackers, bread and butter, and a selection of macarons
The bread roll was warm, the rest of the meal cold.
Lifting up the plastic covers, I found a very attractive salad, though I’m not sure about “moon crackers” side dish and the macaron cookies were tasteless…
I like eating fresh food (that’s a relative term of course, when talking about airline food) and so the idea of a freshly-made salad on a short 439-mile flight is appealing. I’m not a fan of soba noodles, but this was a very acceptable dish.
Even so, I’d love it served in a ceramic bowl with metal eating utensils…even if the net cost of washing these costs more than throwing away all this plastic, I just hate all the waste. At least the “silverware” is plastic and not paper…
I appreciated that sparkling water was served in a 50 mL bottle–I stayed hydrated and did not have to ask for any drink refills–but my favorite part of the service was the “strawberry sunshine” smoothie, which was very refreshing (just the right balance of strawberry and orange).
I was warned about how bad KLM meals are on intra-European flights and did not find that to be the case, though I do wish that KLM served meals more sustainably. A fresh salad is not bad, though it would be even nicer if there was a choice of two.
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.
This looks yum. Love a soba salad.
Aligns with the Air France FA union bullying the company into offering cold meals only on short-haul business class flights.
That’s the AF FA union? I was wondering why I had a stone cold meal from CDG-TUN…
Don’t get me wrong, Wanders boxes have significantly improved since their initial introduction and the smoothies are pretty good. But, personally, would still avoid them and fill up on the ground.
Since SK is bringing back proper dishware in Euro J, hope that KL does the same at the minimum.
Let’s see how long SAS sticks with SAS’s upgrading back to intra-European business class and going back to a more proper meal service for the front cabin of short/mid-haul flights. I suspect it will eventually end up cut back to what we already see in SAS Plus on the short/mid-haul routes that are to get SAS Business service.
I’d discourage you from hating on the “waste” with disposable items. In your own kitchen at home using disposable items might be wasteful, although some analyses indicate that disposing of a paper plate is less demanding on resources than cleaning a ceramic plate either by hand or in a dishwasher.
In the context of serving on a plane, involving collection of items, getting them to cleaning facilities, redistributing them, etc., etc,, I am not persuaded that single use items, even if they are not appealing to the eye, are, on balance, wasteful.
completely agree.
Paper is degradable. Plastic is not.
Water is a resource and it takes a lot of effort to make it clean and also to remove soap.
and there are labor cost considerations onboard. A prepared box takes less time to distribute than serving on dishes.
and this is short-haul. If this stuff shows up on 4 hour flights to the Middle East or Africa, then questions should be asked. But the competition is low cost carriers that do not offer anything as well as connecting flights.
Also, SAS is trying to re-establish itself as a credible player the short-haul business class market after pulling back to fight Norwegian.
The real competition is BA, LH Group and AF over comparable distances. and there is a very different approach to food and its presentation from France than other countries.
Does anyone else find it pretty surprising that an airline would hand out monolingual menus in a language that’s neither native to its home country nor the origin/destination of a flight?
goes to show that English has become the de facto language of business.
They could add Dutch but the Dutch have always been able to speak other languages at high levels
If you add any language other than Dutch or English, you end up with lots of complexity and cost.
KLM serves more British airports with international flights than British Airways does.
KLM serves far more English-speaking passengers than it serves Dutch-speaking passengers.
The Dutch tend to be amongst the most-multilingual people in Europe — most of the Dutch whom went to school with me or whom I’ve worked with are conversational in no less than 3 languages — Dutch, English and something else.
I do know that most people in the Netherlands can communicate in English, but it still feels very strange to me because KLM and the other flag carriers aren’t easyJet – their national origin is part of their corporate identity.
Perhaps you’re fluent in Dutch?
How much is 50 mL of water ? Speak English please.
1.4 cans of Busch Light.
Just say a tall boy natty. Don’t confuse things with decimals.
The English have gone to the metric system too.
You know the 3-1-1 war on water rule to fly from airports waging that stupid fight against passengers? 3.4 ounces is about 100 milliliters. Divide by half to know what 50ml is in ounces.
In England we’ve long used metric measures. Please catch up.
That’s 50 cL of water, not 50 mL. Same as 500 mL.
Interesting that the centiliter is in such regular use in Europe as a unit, but not so much in North America.
Exactly…. As a 50ml bottle of water would be the same quantity as a airline mini liquor bottle, not exactly thirst quenching.
The seats on most Intra-European business flights may only be economy with the middle seat blocked, but the food and service put all of the US carriers to shame (withe possible exception of Alaska and the late lamented Virgin America). I truly prefer KLM and AF to DL, UA or AA.
I’m not opposed to the concept (boxed doesn’t have to mean bad), but fake beef as the protein? Blech. Take a look sometime at the preservatives and fillers in plant-based “meat”, and tell me how healthy and “sustainable” it is. If we’re going to play that game, just give me the edamame (which is really quite good) and add more veggies.
Congratulations! You got what is one of KLMs best intra-European dishes. It’s still not great. And as you noticed 1/4 of the meal are crackers. (Great way to make a meal feel cheap). Considering KLMs intra European fares there is no excuse for them to be so cheap on food. Heck, I’d rather pay a few Euros more and actually get good meals. KLM currently has one intra-European dish that is better than this one — with salmon and potatoes (but don’t count on the potatoes to be properly cooked). And yeah the snack boxes make the experience look cheap. Air France has none of these issues. Why KLM consciously degrades its brand through at best mediocre and worst less than what any airport sandwich shop sells is beyond my comprehension. I’m booking away from them when I know another airline has better service and food.
It’s a pitty to serve business class meals in a box and plastic. I’m talking about the ticket price and not the actual seat of a europeran business class seat which is also an issue.
I saw they offer cava on the menu (not champagne), what a disgrace! haha
I had their breakfast box a few years ago and was pretty disappointed. Meanwhile parent AF served a tray with proper dishes, a nice salad, salmon with quinoa etc and a nice dessert on my 1 hour flight back from Paris to the UK which I was very impressed by! All the single use plastic doesn’t seem especially great either
Weird, I’ve flown KLM business class several times from Amsterdam to Norway and it’s never plastic utensils. it’s always wooden. The meals are always decent.
I’ve rarely been able to express myself in so abbreviated a fashion. But my thought about this is: W. T. F.? A youtube channel recently uploaded a vid and called KLM ‘The Worst Business Class in Europe?” Your review substantiates that.