Flying on United Airlines out of a hub city? Keep an eye out for “signature regional entrees” served in first class, which offer a local taste and a welcome variation to the usual United meal options.
Signature Regional Entrees In United Airlines First Class
United, like other US carriers, calls its domestic premium product “first class” (what the rest of the world might call business class). On flights of more than 900 miles, United serves a hot meal onboard. During lunch and dinner hours (between 10:00 am and 5:00 am), the meal is served with mixed nuts, a side salad, bread, and dessert.
This year, United has expanded its dynamic preordering program and when you book in advance, you can reserve your preferred meal up to 24 hours in advance, with a choice between 5-7 options depending on the market. Those will typically include a chicken dish, salad option, pasta, and a hamburger.
In a memo circulated to employees, United highlights how it is bringing “local flavors” onboard its flights.
One of the best parts of traveling is sampling local flavors and trying new cuisines that you can’t get anywhere else. For our United First customers, that experience doesn’t have to end when they board the plane.
To begin, United has rolled out signature entrees at four hubs, including:
- Chicago (ORD)
- Houston (IAH)
- Newark (EWR)
- San Francisco (SFO)
Each hub will offer a unique dish available for pre-order.
Our Hospitality Programs team recently launched new signature regional entrees that are available for preorder on domestic flights departing from EWR, IAH, ORD and SFO.
The goal of these entrees is to give United First customers a taste of the local cuisine from our world-class hub cities. The entrees were developed with an eye for both trending and familiar local cuisines at each hub, in combination with the pillars of our culinary identity to ensure they are fresh, simple and delicious!
Let’s take a look at the first four dishes:
Chicago: Chicken Vesuvio with roasted potato wedges, green peas, herbed peppered parmesan and a grilled lemon wedge
Houston: grilled chicken breast with Mexican rice, jalapeno cheese velouté, ranchero beans and grilled lime wedge
Newark: seared beef tenderloin with creamy spinach, scallop potatoes and bordelaise sauce
San Francisco: grilled sweet and spicy shrimp with Singapore-style stir-fried noodles, gai lan greens (Chinese broccoli) and carrot
Ultimately, United will introduce unique dishes at all seven hubs (by the end of the year). I’d love to see specialty breakfast dishes as well…
Jenny Jackson, United’s Hospitality & Planning Director, said:
“As we build on United’s mission of connecting people and uniting the world, I’m thrilled that we’re starting to introduce regional dishes that celebrate our hub cities and are reflective of the communities we serve. We will continue to introduce these dishes across all seven of our hubs over the coming months, and rotate offerings so that they stay fresh and relevant for our guests.”
CONCLUSION
I’m glad to see United continue to invest in its premium cabin meal options. While I will reserve final judgment until I try them, the choices above look decent and I appreciate even the effort to provide regional favorites that create a more varied menu for frequent flyers.
If there’s one thing Houston loves, it’s a nice jalapeno cheese velouté.
Chicken with potatoes, chicken with rice, steak with potatoes, shrimp salad. What totally innovative and authentically regional airplane food! Home run, United.
As long as they don’t extend the cut off for meals by distance once again…
I keep hoping UA will reintroduce exception markets, especially on hub-hub flights…DEN continues to take a big hit. It isn’t right…
Thank you for mentioning DEN. I keep hoping for the return of hub to hub catering. You really feel the difference when flying out of Denver.
Flight to and from DEN were definitely hit the most with the 800miles to 900s miles change.
+1
Hey, Whoppers look good in ads too.
I just chocked.
So the plane doesn’t roll away right?
Hope springs eternal.
The “Singapore-style stir-fried noodles” is clearly spaghetti. I really wonder who is in charge of UA catering and what their qualifications are (assuming they have any qualifications at all).
The budget is clearance priced frozen meals. Marketing needs to name it something that sounds fancier.
Definitely a step in the right direction. Holding out hope for return of “snack” plates rather than the “basket” on shorter routes. Remember when they had the terrible decision of everything under 3hrs gets a cold snack plate? How about just repurposing that concept for flights in 1.5-2 hr range and then 2.5+ gets meals?
It would be nice if they actually had full size wine glasses instead of the CO style thimbles they’ve been using for years. DL and AA use stemless glassware, so I’d be willing to go with that if it meant a bigger pour.
Wonder if that is cheese or fennel on the salads. During the 2016ish meal improvements (full sized meals on transcons) served fennel with everything
Writing this on a flight after just finishing the Chicago meal. It was fine for a domestic first class meal. Plating did not resemble the picture. Chicken was small and a little overcooked. Overall dish could have use some more flavor. The dish was not too heavy though. Saying all that, I will probably order it again.
So United will add an additional disgusting entree in a premium cabin and call it local. It’s still the same gross offering with a wilted salad and rock hard bread.
As for preorder: Yesterday I flew the MNL-SFO flight. I preordered the Beef Short Rib for what it’s worth (not much). The FA acknowledged my preorder during introductions from the purser. As the main was brought to the section I was in (17A) they informed me they needed to heat mine again and there would be a delay. They finally came out with it while they were clearing others desert. It took a half hour. It was not the beef short rib. It was some dry meat slices with brown rice in a coach style dish. I asked what this was…they said, “The beef.” I said this was not the beef short rib and I know what it looks like (unfortunately). They said, “well, it’s beef.” I pushed back and they admitted that they ran out of the Beef Short Rib so were “kind enough” to bring me a crew meal with beef. It was disgusting so they found me a salmon. As a side point I am a 1K (for whatever that matters) on a paid J ticket. I was not upset about them running out as, well, stuff happens. But to serve me a crew meal and pretend (lie) it was what I ordered was more than insulting.
The moral is, United lies about its premium food. Right down to the FA’s thinking they can pass off a crew meal in an additional lie as, really, no one cares.
The tenderloin looks better than many Polaris main courses
As a person born, bred, raised, and educated in Chicago, and currently living in the burbs, I can definitely tell you that chicken vesuvio and unidentified side dishes have absolutely nothing to do with Chicago. In fact, under these criteria, Chicago, the City Of Neighborhoods that still has its ethnic areas, has no “signature dish”. Deep dish pizza and loaded-down hot dogs on a poppyseed bun. That’s about it.
Please, United, you’re our hometown airline. You should know better.
Hard to believe you are from Chicago if you miss Italian beef. And, of course, while deep dish is a Chicago feature, the vast majority of pizza is Chicago thin, with sausage, of course.
Give me a Costco hot dog, and I’ll be happier.