I’ve reviewed the 787-10 on United Airlines many times and don’t need to do so again. But I did want to provide a catering update for those wondering what food and drink you might expect if you are traveling in United Polaris Business Class this summer to Europe.
Food + Drink In United Airlines Polaris Business Class
I traveled from Newark to Amsterdam on United, a 7-hour flight that leaves around dinnertime and arrives the following morning.
Dinner choices were:
- Seared beef short rib
- Bordelaise sauce, mustard mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetable
- Seared lemon grass salmon
- Coconut red curry sauce, coconut risotto, stir-fried bell pepper, carrot and onion
- Ricotta Salata and wild honey manicotti
- Brown butter cauliflower, rainbow carrots, vegetable caponata with tomato and cranberries
Each meal is served on a single tray with mixed nuts (cashews and almonds), a packaged bread roll, green salad with dressing, and dessert, which has been mango sorbet for several months.
United’s full drink menu is available, with choices including:
- Coca-Cola
- Coca-Cola Zero
- Diet Coke
- Sprits
- Seagram’s
- Ginger Ale
- Seltzer Water
- Tonic Water
- AHA Orange Grapefruit Sparkling Water
- Minute Maid
- Apple Juice
- Cranberry Apple Juice Cocktail
- Orange Juice
- Mott’s Tomato Juice
- Mr & Mrs T Bloody Mary Mix
- Illy Dark Roast coffee
- regular
- decaffeinated
- Hot tea
- Dasani Bottled Water
- Michelob Ultra
- Stella Artois
- Breckenridge Brewery Juice Drop Hazy IPA
- White Claw Hard Seltzer – Mango
- Red wine
- White wine
- Sparkling wine
- Bombay Sapphire Dry Gin
- Bailey’s Irish Cream
- Disarronno Amaretto
- Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
- Glenfarclas Single Malt Scotch Whiskey
- Courvoisier Cognac
- Wheatley Craft-Distilled Vodka
- Bacardi Silver Rum
- Jack Daniels’ Black Label Whiskey
Cold drinks are served in blue plastic cups and hot drinks are served in paper cups.
Meals are served wrapped, with foil around the main entree and a plastic cover over the salad. The bread is also wrapped (and served cold).
But the meals themselves have not changed. While they are not as visually appealing as before, they are still generally tasty.
The beef short ribs were tender and needed no sauce and the mustard mashed potatoes were tasty.
I’m generally hesitant to eat farmed salmon any more, but the salmon dish is one of my favorites and has a great coconut curry sauce that is good with both the fish and risotto. Be warned: the risotto has a nice spice to it, so avoid this if you cannot tolerate spicy food.
Finally, the pasta dish is simple cheese and red sauce with vegetables, but always one of the safest things you can order.
Prior to landing, hot breakfast is served. This month, that includes a choice of a kale and egg puff party with chicken sausage or steel cut oatmeal with agave apples and berries. Both are served with a packaged croissant, yogurt, and Dole fruit cup on the side.
My menu was not unique to EWR-AMS but what you can expect on ALL international longhaul flights (marked as Polaris business class) departing the United States. Yes, whether you are going to Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, or Europe, United is currently offering the same menu in business class.
It changes each month and next month the three choices will be different, but generally you can always expect a beef, fish, and pasta dish when departing the United States. Special meals are currently not available, except for Kosher meals on flights to/from Israel.
When you return to the United States, each station may have a slight twist on meal service, but it is typically also three choices. For example, flying from London to Washington earlier this year the choices were beef, chicken, or pasta.
For the last few months, the pre-arrival meal on European flights has been a choice of vegetable couscous with pesto sauce or a hamburger Wellington. Breakfast is served on inbound flights from South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa.
When Will United Airlines Restore Full Meal Service In Polaris Business Class?
I’ve put this question to United several times and there is no answer right now, at least that United is willing to publicly provide. While I am confident more service will return to international flights (as it will on domestic flights in June 2021), I doubt it will happen this summer.
Flight loads will be up as Europe re-opens, but the current arrangement saves cost and minimizes crew contact…that will take some time to unwind.
My prediction is full meal service will return when Polaris Lounges re-open. I expect that will not happen till next spring.
CONCLUSION
You will never go hungry in United Airlines business class. While the food is not nicely presented, main courses and salads are the same as prior to the pandemic and you can still expect a full dinner and full breakfast even on flights from the East Coast to Europe.
While you don’t need to bring your own food onboard, you may wish to bring your own cup or glass.
I get they are still in cost control mode.
But giving a halfway decent sorbet or ice cream option instead of that nasty mango crap would basically cost them nothing
Agreed.
@ Matt It really looks good, however presentation is a little bit subpar. Anyways Matt, thanks for posting this. I haven’t flown for over a year now and can’t wait to take another Polaris Route. Btw, did you hear what Kirby said yesterday at some aviation forum. He expects business travel to 100% of 2019 levels by 2023. Thus not making it necessary to adjust the wide body fleet count by then?? What are your thoughts?
@Matthew Thanks! I was one of those people asking what I can expect for my flight to MUC next month. Suffice it to say, I will make sure to eat at the Turkish Lounge @ IAD prior to this flight to maximize sleep as the menu doesn’t look like anything I would necessarily feel bad about missing out on.
Tom, enjoy your trip!
Definitely time for the Mango to go. Do they have any way to track how much is actually eaten?
I don’t know, but I have not eaten it in months. United, if you’re reading this: this is truly waste. Chocolate ice cream please or bring back the cookie instead.
What’s your reasoning for ditching the farmed salmon usually?
My wife showed me this horrible documentary about how they are raised…ugh. But I suppose the cows used in airline beef are probably raised under similar squalid conditions.
If they can have real plates why not REAL glassware?? Wine especially tastes better in glassware..It does not need to be a fancy big glass but GLASS!!
Dreadful – those mains are like the bottom of the barrel pmUA business class mains.
No appetizer? Single tray on a 7 hour+ flight?
LH, BA, AF have each managed to maintain catering standards despite the conditions. Time for UA to step up here.
I always found the Polaris food to be terrible. Even when it was first introduced, it just seemed to be poor quality and looked pretty disgusting. There is no justification other than cost to cut things like fresh fruit for a packaged fruit cup. The Polaris lounges were great and I loved the food and service. With those gone, Polaris is just a lot of marketing hype and I advise eating before boarding or bringing food as these meals are basically college cafeteria quality with a spin of being luxurious. I appreciate your site and reviews but praising these meals seems a bit much.
I wouldn’t say I am praising them as much as saying they are very edible and that at least there is sufficient quantity.
Chicken sausage is universally disgusting. They have to add so much crap to make it taste like anything that it’s just a horrible idea. Go pork or don’t offer.
Sparkling water is pretty universally enjoyed in the USA these days. I’m tired of being served odd canned “seltzer water” or club soda. Why can’t airlines just offer S. Pellegrino, Perrier, or Topo Chico. There’s no way the cost difference could be anything other than negligible.
Remember United had S. Pellegrino for several years in Polaris. Would love to see it return.
dee, current policy requires a new glass for each beverage; there’s no refilling the glass or topping up the wine/coffee allowed. Therefore, they’d need to have about 10x the glassware onboard as prior to covid. There’s not enough galley space for that. I think it’s time to change that policy, but that is the reason for the plastic cups right now.
Bigotry of low expectations – as a blogger advocate for higher standards
I do think glassware, appetizers, cheese, and dessert need to return immediately. I’m not defending the current service, just helping people know what to expect.
Matthew, were you able to get all 5 choices (3+2) in a single flight?
No. This was two flights. From EWR-AMS I had beef + pasta then oatmeal and from EWR-LHR I had the salmon and eggs.
Decent food has not been my recent experience on international Polaris. Not even close.
When I travel in either market, I always bring my food. I always know that I can supplement the airline choices. Bev in plastic is ok due to safety and costs effectiveness. All airlines will have to realize this no matter what the ads say. Travelers own up to your own needs. Travel isn’t the same anymore and we all know this.
Drinking wine out of a plastic cup just makes me sad.
So basically for the first meal they ditched the appetizer and also downgraded the dessert.
“You will never go hungry in United Airlines business class. While the food is not nicely presented, main courses and salads are the same as prior to the pandemic and you can still expect a full dinner and full breakfast even on flights from the East Coast to Europe.”
I need to start flying with you I guess. Two recent Polaris flights, FRA – IAD the beef portion was about 1/2 – 1/3 of what you are showing. It was tasty but awfully small. I was left hungry the first time. The second time I purchased a sandwich before boarding. Good thing. Mid-flight snacks don’t amount to anything if you want to use that as a filler.
The beef Wellington burger prior to arrival was much better than the 50 cent turkey and cheese sandwich I got the first time. That was the same sandwich they handed out in Y pre-pandemic.
The service and product in business on Ethiopian from ADD to FRA ran circles around UA and Polaris. But then they don’t have a Sara Nelson and the FA union to contend with. Even their business lounge was open and fully stocked
It may in most cases be edible, but would disagree about “very”. F&B in Polaris has been dropping in quality since it was first rolled out. But more importantly, to me, it pales compared to most of the non-US carriers, which is why I largely avoid flying US carriers internationally, particularly UA. And I say that as a 1K up until shortly before the pandemic.
They manage to make it look like department store cafeteria food from the 60s and 70s…
“WHAT KIND OF FOOD DOES UNITED AIRLINES SERVE IN POLARIS BUSINESS CLASS?”
The kind of food I won’t eat. None of the US airlines serve food that is worth the calories.
I flew to London and back last week. The fruit cup is an an abomination. Yes the plastic is sad but I can (unfortunately) live with it. They need to replace the fruit cup with something healthier …
I’d say the fruit cup is the biggest shortcoming. Just bring back fresh fruit and it will make a world of difference.
Unless you are flying to a hub outside of Germany, you do have the option of LH for nearly all bookings to Europe. I recognize many do not care for LH seats or the particulars of German catering, put the wine is better (and served properly) and service generally more professional than UA. For those that value privacy bunkers above all else, keep lovin’ that UA chicken sausage. Have flown both UA and LH during pandemic. LH by a mile. Even AA is head and shoulders above UA catering.
When I flew LAX-FRA a few months back, the service and food was indeed better (though the UA service, especially from LHR-based crews, is very good). I’d still choose UA for the seat, though.
I’ll add my review on spirit airlines with the family on Friday for comparison lolll
Can someone tell me or comment on how is the food AA please.
I am sorry everyone, this is the same menu that United has served since the begining of Polaris. Atleast at Contitnetal we had a quarterly rotation of the menu. Let’s not forget, UA management Fired or ran out the talent from CO. We are left with how to save a dime by spending a quarter on managers who are clueless.
UA is basically serving the equivalent of domestic F meals and there is nothing premium about Polaris catering; AA and DL manage to actually differentiate their Business/First meals and they are plated on proper dishware instead of the casserole dishes UA seems to be so fond of. What a sad progression compared to Polaris when it was first introduced.
@Tom, there aren’t many choices in the Turkish Airlines lounge right now in the evenings. Maybe an eggplant salad and a sandwich. So plan accordingly. An enjoy your trip!
@Marik – revisionist history much? It was CO leadership that ran the post-merger UA into the ground. $misek and majority of the C-suite came from CO you know.
Very true. CO did have much better catering than UA. But the CO crew led by Smisek cut it.
@Ankur Boruah
I thought they serve a few hot options (beef and chicken), which are cooked fresh and served as ordered and also fresh made pide as well. Or is that just for lunch?
There are a few options, but I don’t think there is pide right.
wooooow yuuumy
Sad. Just flew Air France business class from Denver to Paris. Real dishes, tablecloths, fresh bread served by the flight attendant, not wrapped in plastic. Menu features a bio on the chefs & includes information on wine selections.