As someone who loves to eat and loves to fly, I usually have pretty high expectations when flying internationally in premium cabins. My recent V Australia Business Class from LAX to Sydney provided great service and very good meals. V Australia really seemed to do the little things well, particularly for a business class product. One example of that is in the fact that all glassware used during the service was made by Reidel, a small thing but a nice touch.
Virgin Australia Business Class dining
The flight attendant presented a lengthy menu of options for business class including food, wine and spirits:
V Australia International Business Class menu
Service description within menu
All Virgin Australia onboard menus are designed by Luke Mangan
On to the business class menu on Virgin Australia:
Los Angeles to Australia
Deluxe supperWe are pleased to offer you a variety of options from light and tasty, to the full dining experience. Just make your selections from the list below and enjoy...* Your choice of warmed artisan breads * Baby cos, tomato, cucumber, walnut, blue cheese and chive salad with a mustard balsamic dressing * Soup - sweet potato, chickpea and coriander * Salad of Atlantic salmon with Japanese cucumber, ginger, coriander and mint * Rigatoni with veal meatballs, green olives and oregano * Lamb and vegetable pie with tomato and chili relish* Warm blueberry pie with fresh strawberries and creme anglaise * American triple chocolate and walnut brownieCheese Selection* Brillat Savarin Triple Cream, Normandy, France * Fourme d'Ambert Blue, Auvergne, France * Saint-Nectaire Washed Rind, Auvergne, France Served with walnuts, dried fig, dried pear and Highland Oat Cakes
I chose the baby cos salad, soup, and the rigatoni. The flight attendant suggested a wine paring with each course, and I went with that and was quite happy with it.
Place setting with lots of branded items
tray table set for first course, with unique salt/pepper shakers
Somehow, I didn’t get photos of initial courses, my apologies. The salad was good, but not particularly memorable. The soup was excellent.
veal rigatoni main course with the GSM
I don’t normally order pasta on airplanes, but I wasn’t in the mood for meat pie (maybe it was the burger I had a few hours beforehand…stay tuned), and the salmon didn’t sound good to me at the time. The rigatoni was good, but nothing special. Then again, considering it was airplane food, it tasted like real pasta, cooked appropriately, it beats many airplane meals. Don’t worry, I mixed it up on the return flight, and went more classic Australian cuisine with barramundi. The GSM is a typical Australian blend of Grenache, Shiraz and Mourvèdre, which was a great match with the veal rigatoni.
Warm blueberry pie with creme anglaise
If it hasn’t become clear in my past trip reports, I have a sweet tooth. I’m not really a chocolate lover, so blueberry pie is nearly a perfect dessert for me, and this was excellent, tasty and fresh. I like cheese too (I am from Wisconsin), but to me, there really wasn’t a choice in my dessert options.
Wine List
Overall, the meal was tasty, and the wine was quite good. I’m often indecisive, so the different wine paired with each course let me taste a variety of wines, and I’m happy to defer to their expertise on matching wine with the food options.
wine lists
Cocktail listings
One item of note on the wines, the menu was marked as from August, and this flight was in October, so several of the wines actually served were different from the menu. The return trip had a more up to date menu.
Pre-arrival breakfast menu
For breakfast, there was a card that I filled out soon after takeoff to specify preferences for the meal.
Breakfast* Orange juice or seasons fruit smoothie* Muesli, Cornflakes or Weet-Bix cerealBakery * Croissant or bread roll served with a selection of preserves or vegemite * Blueberry Muffin* Seasonal fruit selection served on its own or with natural or fruit yoghurtMain Selections * Pork chipolata, bacon, celeriac potato cake, sauteed button mushrooms, goat's cheese and spinach frittata with trussed cherry tomatoes * Buttermilk pancakes, vanilla berries and creme fraiche
Breakfast menu
First breakfast course, croissant, smoothie, fruit and muesli.
Buttermilk pancakes which were much more tasty than they appear in this photo.
More info on the seat and service can be found in my V Australia Business Class flight between LAX and Sydney. Up next: my layover in Sydney.
