BA confirms new Club World dining to JFK from Friday …. without Bollinger

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British Airways has confirmed that the new ‘trolley style’ Club World dining service will launch on Friday. This will be exclusively on the New York JFK route, with other routes being added during 2018.

Despite the images released during service trials, it seems that Bollinger will not be part of the new service.

Here is a typical menu released by BA yesterday:

Starters:

Loch Fyne smoked salmon tartare with wasabi crème fraîche

Burrata and tomato carpaccio with olive oil and balsamic dressing

Creamy butternut squash soup with chive and sour cream

Fresh seasonal salad, grilled vegetables and a choice of French dressing or olive oil and balsamic dressing

Entrees:

Best of Heritage beef homemade gnocchi in Café de Paris sauce and pan-fried green asparagus

Line-caught grilled Cornish Dover sole with Mediterranean lentils, celeriac mousseline and lemon butter

Homemade artichoke ravioli Parmesan

Dessert:

DO & CO‘s double chocolate medley

Lemon tart

Viennese-style apple strudel with vanilla sauce

Fresh strawberries

Cheese board with Somerset brie, Keen’s cheddar, Cropwell Bishop stilton, walnuts, grapes and fig chutney

It has to be said that, because this is being overseen by DO & CO, the most exclusive airline caterer in the business, it could work. If BA has written a big enough cheque, and if the BA cabin crew can prepare and serve the food properly, DO & CO will deliver.

DO & CO don’t have anything to do with the alcohol selection. Highlights from the wine list include:

a Bourgogne Chardonnay 2016

Patriarche Père et Fils from Burgundy

a Tiki Sauvignon Blanc 2016 from Marlborough

a Las Olas Malbec/Bonarda Reserve 2014 from the Famatina Valley in Argentina and

a Reata Three County Pinot Noir 2013 from California.

The champagne options are:

Champagne Henriot Brut Souverain NV

Champagne de Castelnau Brut Réserve NV

Champagne de Castelnau Brut Rosé NV

…. which is a bit poor, frankly, but let’s see how it goes.

The new Club World bedding and amenity kits, in partnership with The White Company, have been pushed back until ‘the Autumn’. Again, this will only be on the JFK route this year.

I look forward to seeing how this beds (sic) in. More importantly, I am keen to see how many people who have dropped BA for a better seat elsewhere will be tempted to return by improved food. Especially as I have an invitation on my desk to try out the Qatar Airways Qsuite in two weeks ……

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

The_real_a says:

30 Aug30 August 05:39

Why is the BA menu like marmite? I’m not a faddy eater whatsoever but there is only one dish on each section that I would actually choose. If that was not available then I would ask for something from Y (if I dared)
- Fenny says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 08:36
  
  Totally agree. The one thing that puts me off bothering with Club is the menu. I don’t care about the Bollinger, but I do want a decent meal.
Jovanna says:

30 Aug30 August 06:04

A very British airline serving two starters?
- Hingeless says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 06:29
  
  entree in america is a main, it all goes back to the middle ages (a little bit like public toilets in america)
- Jovanna says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 12:30
  
  I know. My point is that this is British Airways. They serve ‘afternoon tea’ and now entrees. A main is a main. An appetizer (sic) is a starter. You either go with one or the other. If you’re making such a big song and dance about your Britishness then stick with it. This sucks.
Paul says:

30 Aug30 August 06:20

Because it’s the JFK route they will get decent reviews. The real test is when it’s up against CX QR QR et al.
I personally am still not interested. Just flew several CX sectors and they are a great carrier. Like AA direct aisle access seating which is now the standard and until that changes it’s ABBA.

As an aside BA can’t get much right. Was in MXP yesterday and checking in with bags was truly painful. Took over 35 minutes to checkin. This was club bag drop. By the time I had been processed the queue was enormous. Boarding was better organised but my club europecseat had less legroom than Garuda Domestic flights and not nearly as clean.
- John says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 09:56
  
  On Hong Kong forums, CX gets worse than BA does here.
AlanG says:

30 Aug30 August 06:35

I’m trying out the Qsuite this coming Friday and as luck would have it also on my return on 10Sep. I’m looking forward to seeing how good it is.
Susan says:

30 Aug30 August 06:45

What the heck is “burrata & tomato carpaccio” – carpaccio is a raw meat/fish dish. Just call a salad a salad.
- Graeme says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 06:52
  
  Wikipedia? 🙂
  - Alex W says:
    
    30 Aug30 August 08:28
    
    Can’t use Wikipedia on board as there is no WiFi!
  - Susan says:
    
    30 Aug30 August 08:36
    
    Wikipedia confirms raw meat/fish – not that I needed wikipedia to know this is gastronomic gobbledegook after a decade in Italy.
    - Michele says:
      
      30 Aug30 August 09:58
      
      Carpaccio is normally thinly sliced raw meat but nowadays it’s trendy to call anything carpaccio if it is in thin slices. And what do thin slices mean – that it’s cheaper 🙂 The menu is hardly earth shattering – surprise, surprise BA have tomato and mozzarella salad, beef and salmon. Pretty much standard fare jazzed up a bit.
    - Graeme says:
      
      30 Aug30 August 15:00
      
      I meant for the caterers Susan, heaven forbid a HfP reader would need Wiki for such basic gastronomic terminology… 🙂
- john says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 10:04
  
  There looks to be a thin sliver of continental meat in the image which could be of this starter..
  - pauldb says:
    
    30 Aug30 August 11:14
    
    The pictures are a bit confusing: that plate shown in 3 pictures seems to carry the salmon starter and the tomato/burrata, plus asparagus/prosciutto. Probably too optimistic to think that implies you get a selection of starters? But otherwise the latter too are rather dull!
    If not, is it not reasonable for the release to contain one picture of one actual dish!
- Drav says:
  
  31 Aug31 August 09:42
  
  its the kind of uninspiring menu that undermines the work of the last 2 decades or so of british chefs and the whole food industry to try and change the international perception of British cuisine.
  
  dull english dishes or poor riffs on italian food.
Steven says:

30 Aug30 August 06:52

I flew ro Singapore and Philly last week (one leg on first) – the food was very average so any improvement welcome. I am gluten free (I never order special meal as usually boiled fish) – a lot of meals have gluten when it could be avoided (using wheat rather than corn flour to thicken) or a small cake to the salad. Hopefully they fix this on the new menu. I am flying Qatar again to Oz in November (I flew them last x-mas) – it was like night and day compared to BA – a fantastic soft and hard product
Mike says:

30 Aug30 August 07:00

Looks okay to me! Are DO & CO also overseeing the F menu?
Keith says:

30 Aug30 August 07:11

It looks to me that they are just moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. Describing food in a way that may appeal to ego orientated food buffs will I suspect mean nothing to the average CW traveller. Is the most important thing that CW passengers want is a change in the menu?
Have they carried out similar market research to that similarly concluded that Economy passengers wanted to pay for food?
The research from one passenger (me) would say that I want CW to be a place of tranquility where I can relax comfortably. A seat that doesn’t face someone I don’t know. A seat that when I need the bathroom I don’t feel uncomfortable about clambering over another passenger. Especially in the dark on a night flight. Perhaps even a smiling crew or a CSD or whatever they are now called that comes and has chat with me because I’m a Gold for Life. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. This food selection would not be the reason I would select BA over and above most carriers.
- Prins Polo says:
  
  30 Aug30 August 08:55
  
  +1