12. June 2025
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Food I Had Onboard XXIII (April 2025 – May 2025)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Due to my new job, I did not travel that much and worked quite a lot from home instead. However, there have still been quite active, especially due to some sports events, in recent times. Thus, it is time for a new edition of my Food I Had Onboard. Let’s have a look into culinary and service experiences I recently had on flights and in trains.

 

31st March 2025, Deutsche Bahn ICE 225, Cologne/Deutz – Munich Main Station, First Class

Not really an April experience, but I felt to put it in here. Traveling to a new job in Munich, I had the urgent need for a snack and went for this “Cheese Croissant Roll”, which is served as a warm dish. Ordering via the web platform went well. The warming up of the snack worked average. While one part was nice and warm, the other half felt rather cold. Nonetheless, a rather nice snack. I felt, though, that the price (6.90 EUR) was a bit on the too high side.

17th April 2025, British Airways BA 933, Cologne (CGN) – London (LHR), Business Class

My wife and I spent the Easter weekend in London. The flight was rebooked from a Friday morning service to a Thursday late evening one. After spending some time in the poor The Lounge at Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN), the service onboard was really nice. Already check-in went very smooth, but the crew was lovely as well. Really friendly and funny people, who were a bit of surprised by the colder weather in Cologne compared to the BA hub. There was a choice of two salad dishes for the flight in business class. We both went for the lemon pepper chicken one, which was really nice, served with a warmed bread roll and some cream with fruit compote on it.

 

21st April 2025, British Airways BA 932, London (LHR) – Cologne (CGN), Business Class

On Easter Monday, my wife and I flew back to Cologne/Bonn Airport (CGN). There was again a choice of two salad-style dishes. We both opted for the poke bowl – style dish. The meal was really nice and came with warmed bread rolls and a dessert. The crew was really nice and friendly, so that the very full flight was a very enjoyable experience in the front row of the cabin.

 

25th April 2025, Finnair AY 1394, Dusseldorf (DUS) – Helsinki (HEL), Business Class

For my trip to the Swedish floorball finals, I went for a morning Finnair flight via Helsinki (HEL). The crew was lovely and the breakfast meal was really nice. There was even a second round of bread to the omelette roll with potatoes and vegetables as well as a nice selection of cold cuts. Especially as the meal was not the typical one, I really enjoyed that service. I also liked that there was a bottle of water provided before the flight.

 

25th April 2025, Finnair AY 807, Helsinki (HEL) – Stockholm (ARN), Business Class

Short Finnair flights just come with a sandwich in Finnair’s business class. This, of course, also applied for the 45 minute net flight time hop from Finland to Sweden. Nonetheless, the crew felt active, friendly and attentive. I really liked the rye bread sandwich with smoked salmon.

 

27th April 2025, Eurowings EW 9217 (operated by Eurowings Europe), Stockholm (ARN) – Dusseldorf (DUS), BizClass

My trip back to Germany came with a direct flight in Eurowings’ Biz Class. In fact, the flight was driven by a Swedish crew by Eurowings Europe. The crew was nice and welcomed the front of the cabin with water before the flight, which I absolutely liked. I went for the really nice French fries and some nuts as well as a drink, which I started to love during the Eurowings Dubai (DWC) service. I would have loved a second drink service, but overall, the performance was really nice.

 

9th May 2025, Deutsche Bahn ICE 202, Düsseldorf – Bremen, First Class

The first leg of my somehow weird Rock of Ages and ice hockey trip took me to Bremen. I did not have too much breakfast, so I went for the Bavarian meat loaf roll and some French fries. Especially when you keep the operational limitation in the high speed train in mind, the food was – again – really good. The Fleischkäsebrötchen more and more becomes one of my favorites. I also had a gin and tonic, due to the free drink vouchers I receive as a Deutsche Bahn frequent traveler. The total for the two meals was 10.80 EUR an I felt quite filled thereafter. The service was quick and friendly, ordering via WiFi was possible – so I absolutely liked this experience.

 

10th May 2025, SAS SK 648 (operated by Braathens Regional Airways), Hamburg (HAM) – Copenhagen (CPH), SASPlus

My first leg to the IIHF Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships was an early morning SAS flight, operated by Braathens’ / BRA’s ATR-72. It is always a funny experience to sit in business class (or here, SASPlus) in the rear of the cabin. Due to the short flight duration, I did not expect too much on the culinary side. However, the breakfast box with a smoothie, yogurt with some cereals and a really lovely sandwich definitely exceeded my expectations. The crew of the Swedish regional carrier was really nice and friendly as well, so that I really loved this flight experience.

 

10th May 2025, SAS SK 1416 (operated by SAS Connect), Copenhagen (CPH) – Stockholm (ARN), SASPlus

Despite my flight from Hamburg (HAM) was too early, the short transfer in Copenhagen was a nightmare. I rushed and was absolutely sweaty when I arrived at the other side of the terminal finally. The crew of Irish SAS Connect was really nice, though. When I saw that there was another breakfast box, I already expected something very similar. However, the Swedish kwark and the cold cut box to do a sandwich as you like it was really nice finally. The bread roll was warmed and there was also a full drink service on this slightly longer flight.

 

11th May 2025, Eurowings EW 9213 (operated by Eurowings Europe), Stockholm (ARN) – Dusseldorf (DUS), BizClass

Eurowings Europe again – my Sunday morning flight from Stockholm (ARN) to Dusseldorf (DUS) was driven by the Maltese carrier and their international crew. The flight was not too full and thus the crew was absolutely nice and caring. I had a lovely breakfast at the American Express Lounge at Stockholm airport before, so that I just went for a drink, a chocolate bar and the lovely Eurowings cookie. In parallel, my seat neighbor started the Sunday with Eurowings’ Currywurst (Curry Sausage). I love the concept of picking just what you feel alike in the moment.

 

23rd May 2025, KLM KL 1798 (operated by KLM Cityhopper), Dusseldorf (DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS), Business Class

Türkiye was calling for the first time of my life. I had a couple of transfers in Istanbul so far, but never made it to the city. Being quite exhausted from the weeks before, I rather felt like relaxing than like really working or being too active on the short hop from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Amsterdam (AMS). The crew on this KLM Cityhopper service was friendly, but also a bit of harsh. For example they insisted that the German Airways pilot sitting next to me puts his case into the overhead bin – for safety reasons. In fact, larger items are safer on the ground. The breakfast service was the typical KLM short flight bag with a cookie and a strawberry-orange juice. Apart from slight delays due to weather in Amsterdam (AMS), it was a nice flight experience, though.

23rd May 2025, KLM KL 1959, Amsterdam (AMS) – Istanbul (IST), Business Class

The second leg of the day took me on a three hour journey to Istanbul (IST). Sitting in the very front of the Business Class “cabin”, I slept quite a bit on the ground and did not really get that we lost about one hour compared to the schedule before flight already. The crew was nice, but could have been a bit more attentive. The meal was a Scandinavian style potato salad with a slice of smoked salmon, The smaller sections of the KLM lunchbox were some coated cashew nuts and a set of three macaroons.

I had a warm snack to the box on shorter KLM flights already, so that the meal felt a bit of limited at first sight. However, after cleaning the lunchboxes, the crew also offered a warm vegetable quiche. Instead of handing out full cans, my Coke Zero was just served (and refilled once) in the rather small glasses. The bread roll was warm, though. There has also been a hot towel service after take off.

25th May 2025, Turkish Airlines TK 1527, Istanbul (IST) – Dusseldorf (DUS), Business Class

My last leg in this post was one of the mutual highlights of the two months. The Airbus A330 cabin by Turkish Airlines is maybe not the most modern and posh one – but the 2-2-2-2 seating leads to quite some space. The crew was friendly and welcoming, even though there was a clear difference of the service attitude between the three ladies serving the business class cabin. For example, I sat in the last row, so that I got an almost empty bread basket with just two choices. Before I could choose, my seat neighbor said something in Turkish and got a full basket after me. Overall, the service was really nice, though. I looked forward to the lemon and mint lemonade as a pre-flight drink. The Mediterranean prawn salad looked very similar to some British Airways dishes I had before (they both use Do&Co), but was really tasty. Additionally, there was white cheese and tomato in olive oil.

There was a selection of three main dishes. The main was served once you finished the salad. My neighbor had a grilled chicken breast with gnocchi and spinach, which looked really nice. The vegetarian option was the olive oil braised artichoke. However, I went for the Adana Kebap with roasted red pepper eggplant, grilled green pepper and buttered rice. That was one of the best dishes I had in planes for quite a while. The supply of drinks was a bit of sparse, though. The two closing dishes, a selection of cheese and chocolate mousse with figs was already on the tray when initially served. Later, the crew also gave us some nuts. Turkish is definitely doing it the very fine way, I really loved that flight.

 

Food I Had Onboard

My bites and drinks on flights and trains are shown in Food I Had Onboard:

 

Aviation Top Pick! Experiences

Here are all my Airports & Airlines reviews, which I rated in the Top Pick! range:

 

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