Trip Report: Aer Lingus business class meals best in class

Surprise hot samosas on Aer Lingus (Chris McGinnis)

Back in March, Aer Lingus invited TravelSkills along for the maiden voyage of a big green A330 outfitted with its new lie-flat business class seat and enhanced service. In our first Trip Report you find all you need to know about the hard product— what the best seats are, inflight entertainment, sleep quality, etc.

But today, let’s take a look at the food service, which I must say was some of the tastiest, most satisfying and beautifully presented business class fare I’ve had in a while. Highlights include big healthy portions, a nice express option for those who want to sleep, and some off-the-menu surprises, like the warm samosas pictured above.

NEWS: Aer Lingus to be taken over by British Airways parent IAG (and likely switch to Oneworld from the Star Alliance)

There’s very little negative news to report here… about the only thing that went wrong with the meal service was that hot towels came after appetizers were served… in both directions. Seemed odd to touch food with airport- dirty hands… but anyway…

Let’s take a look! First, the SFO-DUB leg (about 9.5 hours) was on a Friday evening (departing at 6:30 pm) and the mood was festive because many of us were flying to Dublin for St Patrick’s Day weekend. So the pre-flight champagne flowed freely.

Preflight champers on Aer Lingus (Chris McGinnis)

But I wanted to get some sleep since I had meetings planned as soon as we landed, so I opted for an orange juice and the express meal, which was prompt, beautiful and delicious. That meant I got several hours of good sleep on the lie-flat seat.

Service was excellent with some nice touches that I noticed. For example, before placing a white linen table cloth on the tray table, busy flight attendants would ask, “May I dress your table?” or before pouring wine, “Would you like to try the Valpolicella before I pour?” This was all the more impressive because there were only two flight attendants hustling to serve the sold out business class section (23 seats). What was even nicer is the kind way that they worked together, saying things to fellow attendants like, “Can you fetch another bottle of fizzy water from the galley, darling.”

Best sure to read the first Trip Report about this Aer Lingus flight.

Beef and eggplant canapes provide a nice start to meal service on SFO>DUB Aer Lingus departing 6:30 pm (Chris McGinnis)

Express meals served on a single tray, all at once- this is grilled oregano marinated chicken in alfredo sauce (Chris McGinnis)

A fine selection of warm bread, oregano marinated chicken breast with a tomato alfredo sauce with a nice touch- sprigs of fresh oregano and ravioli.

All food served on Wedgewood China (Chris McGinnis)

Hefty wedges of cheese, fresh fruit and Carr’s crackers- express meal gets this or dessert (Chris McGinnis)

One of the best parts about a trip to Ireland are opportunities to taste the country’s fine cheeses- flights on both directions provided several.

Full dinner menu on Aer Lingus SFO>DUB (Chris McGinnis)

After my express dinner, I slept soundly for a few hours and awoke to a light continental breakfast (Bread, fruit, yogurt, coffee/tea) just before landing.

Nice white china, and robust dark roast coffee in the morning (Chris McGinnis)

Continental breakfast lacked eggs or meat, but was fine considering the ample dinner service (Chris McGinnis)

Here’s what the business class section looks like without passengers (Chris McGinnis)

Okay, so that concludes the SFO-Dublin portion of the trip. Now let’s fly back to SFO and dine exquisitely!

On the return DUB-SFO flight, I went to the Aer Lingus business class lounge for a look and a bite (Chris McGinnis)

A nice bright business class lounge at Dublin airport (Chris McGinnis)

A full selection of breakfast breads at the Aer Lingus business class lounge (Chris McGinnis)

Fruit and yogurt and a full bar for breakfast (Chris McGinnis)

Okay, let’s get onboard for the 11-hour flight back to SFO!

Aer Lingus champagne pre-flight (Chris McGinnis)

Hot samosa surprise! Flight attendants passed these around to the delight of hungry passengers. Went well with Champagne! (Chris McGinnis)

More canapes! (Chris McGinnis)

Smoked chicken salad beautifully presented kicks off this food fest of a flight (Chris McGinnis)

The beef was beautiful, but regrettably overcooked and tough but the mushrooms, beans and potato and bernaise were tasty (Chris McGinnis)

Four choices for lunch. Nice (Chris McGinnis)

A french lemon tart served with berry coulis for dessert. Perfection! (Chris McGinnis)

Still room for cheese after all that? Barely! The dark one is Irish Cheddar made with Guinness, natch (Chris McGinnis)

After an 11 hour flight, there’s room for more. This is a nice cold beef open faced sandwich served with tart grainy mustard  as we flew over Mt Shasta (Chris McGinnis)

I’ve never seen allergy information presented on a business class menu (Chris McGinnis)

This is Part 2 of our Trip Report on Aer Lingus SFO-DUB. Best sure to read the first Trip Report about this Aer Lingus flight.

–Chris McGinnis

Disclosure: I was a guest of Aer Lingus on this roundtrip flight.