I appreciate airlines that offer thoughtful buy-on-board meals for economy class passengers and thoroughly enjoyed both a sandwich and salad on a transcontinental JetBlue flight from the carrier’s EatUp Café menu.
Salad + Sandwich From JetBlue EatUp Café
We landed from Paris and had a few hours at New York JFK before our connection to Los Angeles. Onboard, my wife and kids went right to sleep, but I found myself hungry. Thankfully, JetBlue has an attractive buy-on-board menu including snack boxes and heartier items on flights over 3.5 hours it calls its EatUp Café.
I was having trouble deciding between the sandwich and salad…so I had both.
First, the salad, which cost $13.
Harvest Salad
fresh kale, wild rice, roasted butternut squash, pomegranate seeds, toasted chickpeas, mint, shallots and tahini dressing.
I loved everything about this salad. The kale was fresh, I loved the pomegranate seeds and toasted chickpeas, the mint and shallots flavored it nicely, and the tahini dressing was excellent. A great “superfood.”
I’m glad I ordered the sandwich, because the salad was not enough. The sandwich also cost $13.
Turkey Pretzel Sandwich
sliced turkey breast, white cheddar cheese and fresh arugula on a soft pretzel baguette.
While I would not call the baguette German-style, it was pretty good for American bread and the sandwich was delicious. I appreciated the turkey tasted fresh and not processed.
These are both very salty choices, but I find them much better than the snack boxes filled with shelf-stable, highly processed ingredients.
Could I have waited till I got back to LAX and had a Double-Double at In-N-Out for $6? Sure…but this satisfied my hunger on the spot and tasted great. I love high-quality cold meals on airplanes and feel that JetBlue ahs nearly perfected this.
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.
Ouch $26 for a salad and sandwich!
Hopefully things turn around for you!
So the regular exonomy food isn’t enough…
This is on a domestic trip, Aaron. Not trans-atlantic.
Calling that a salad should be a crime. Sounds like something the Antifa freaks in Portland would steal to eat after getting hungry after a 3 day heroin bing.
The sandwich looks great other than using that fake lettuce stuff but I guess it holds longer and doesn’t quickly brown. Best part is the condiments are on the side. Nothing worse than a ruined sandwich after finding out they put mayo, mustard, whatever on it.
Good job by JetBlue on 50% of this.
At a 350% profit .
I’s rather buy a better n.y. deli sandwich at a good deli shop in the terminal .
Dave, Matthew posted about a coffee chain called Kitsune. There are many of them (with different menus ) but one standard is a baguette with a dry ham and Swiss only dressed with a light coat of salted butter. They are delicious and are safe to consume for about 6+ hours without refrigeration. Good bread should never be cold Best part is the bread as locally baked fresh each day. The location I discovered was in the far west village in Manhattan. I sense you might enjoy it.
Thank you, that sounds PERFECT for my tastes.
I hope they expand more internationally too.!
You sound like someone who likes to eat at McDonalds and Subway.
On an unrelated note:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/17/travel/tsa-family-military-checkpoint-expansion
Funny how I seem to lose my sense of hunger or thirst when I step aboard and airliner these days !
The EatUp Cafe is legitimately great (unlike some of the brutal boxes), but it’s a real crapshoot which routes get it. Ex-BOS it really feels like a lottery.
For something American and particularly packaged plane food, I’m really impressed with the ingredient lists of these items, but especially the turkey in the sandwich. I expected that list to be much, much longer.
Give me half the sandwich and 2/3 of the salad as my F meal on a domestic big3, and I’m happy.