9. January 2026
Home » Travel » Airports and Airlines » Food I Had Onboard XXVIII (December 2025)
Airports and Airlines

Food I Had Onboard XXVIII (December 2025)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

I had quite a lot of interesting flights during December 2025 (and the beginning of January 2026),. Thus, there are rather frequent updated of my Food I had Onboard currently. Here is the 28th edition of reviewing food and service during the trips I took.

 

5th December 2025, Lufthansa LH 73, Dusseldorf (DUS) – Frankfurt (FRA), Economy Class

My flights in December 2025 started with a trip to Florence. The short hop from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Frankfurt (FRA) was not too spectacular. The Airbus A321 was at most a third full. Again – I had that topic in my last Food I Had Onboard, the crew did a lousy cabin check before take off and did not see that I need an extension for the belt. Hard to judge on the service – there wasn’t in fact any, apart from a small chocolate. Not even water – others do that better. Needless to say that there was also no buy on board service.

 

5th December 2025, Lufthansa LH 6910 (operated by Air Dolomiti, EN 8852), Frankfurt (FRA) – Florence (FLR), Economy Class

I just had very few Air Dolomiti services in the past – the more I was curious about them during my flights in November and December 2025. The crew was very nice and attentive. You felt a lot of pride for the brand. Despite the flight was quite early in the morning, there was already some delay in Frankfurt, but overall, the service was nice and we reached Florence (FLR) with a small delay. The service was a bottle of water and the good, old Air Dolomiti cookie. Surprisingly few people made use of the opportunity to by onboard on top of that. They have a quite interesting menu for that.

 

7th December 2025, Lufthansa LH 9499 (operated by Air Dolomiti, EN 8855), Florence (FLR) – Frankfurt (FRA), Business Class

Flying Air Dolomiti in Business Class on the return felt really exciting to me. The welcoming in the Embraer 190 was really nice: a free seat next to you in the 2-2 configured cabin and water, a refreshing towel and a pastry at your seat as a pre-flight snack. The water came with a blueberry water drop. On top of that, the crew was really friendly at boarding. The in-flight service was a bit of limited, though. The meal was something with mushrooms (I just cannot tell what it exactly was), coming with two pastries and crackers. weird that they serve butter and olive oil to it – no idea how to use that for that meal. There were two rounds of drinks, which was limited with the small glasses given. On the outbound flight from Frankfurt, I saw the service provided by Air Dolomiti, which felt significantly more friendly than my flight. Especially, I was looking forward to the espresso service they offered on the outbound. However, after serving food, the crew majorly chatted in the galley. A bit of disappointing.

 

7th December 2025, Lufthansa LH 84, Frankfurt (FRA) – Dusseldorf (DUS), Business Class

The much I was a bit of disappointed on the Air Dolomiti leg, the more I was rather impressed by the Lufthansa service on the short flight from Frankfurt (FRA) to Dusseldorf (DUS). The crew handled the meal easily and I also liked the food provided. The main was a sandwich with some cheese and pickles, which was an absolutely nice choice for the time and duration of the flight. On top of that, there was a crumble-alike dessert. I would have loved to have a water bottle at my seat – especially as you cannot blame the crew for serving not more than one round of drinks. Nonetheless, a really nice performance by the Germans.

18th December 2025, KLM KL 1798 (operated by KLM Cityhopper), Dusseldorf (DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS), Business Class

Our first leg enroute to our vacation in the United States was the good, old Dusseldorf(DUS) – Amsterdam (AMS) flight. However, this time the flight was a “real” KLM Cityhopper service and not one driven by German Airways. The really only remarkable event about the service were the luggage handlers at Dusseldorf, who shouted at each other that load in the hold that you could hear it in the cabin. Some sort of morning entertainment, I guess. The staff was kind. If you read my Food I had Onboard regularly, you are not surprised about the catering: a small bag with a double chocolate muffin and a smoothie. On top, there was pre-flight water – not too bad for a 30 minute hop.

 

18th December 2025, KLM KL 635, Amsterdam (AMS) – Las Vegas (LAS), Business Class

Flying KLM for the first time in intercontinental business class was of course a special experience to me. The Boeing 787 service from Amsterdam (AMS) to Las Vegas (LAS) was slightly delayed due to a necesary aircraft change. However, the crew kept up well-informed and finally, there was quite a bit of tailwind en route, so that we made it in time. First of all, there was – of course – the pre-flight drink. You could choose between champagne, orange juice, a KLM mocktail – and beer. Heineken is simply a big thing in the Netherlands. As a pre-meal snack, you could either have a small salmon sandwich or some Dutch cheese cubes – I just liked to have that.

 

Main Meal

Then, there was the first food service. The crew had taken your orders at the ground already, so that the starter had been served some 45 minutes after take-off already. A very good time, I appreciate that. There was a choice of salmon on pasta as a cold starter or a tomato soup. I went for the fish and really loved that dish, which was served together with a small, nice salad. My wife and I already did choose the main course before our flight. While my wife went of an Indonesian style rice pay with chicken and beef. The vegetarian option was a pancake with Eggplant Balado, being served with different vegetables. I had ordered the slow cooked steak with baked potatoes, leek and thyme, which was absolutely delicious to me. To close the main course, I went for the cheese board, putting it over a cinnamon mousse with Fresh apple. I did have larger cheese boards at other airlines in the past, but it was definitely a nice selection. The last picture shows the Indonesian meal my wife had.

 

Snack and Pre-Landing Meal

I was definitely looking forward to the mid-flight snack, which KLM calls Sky Break. You could choose between three rather traditional Dutch fast bites, a vegetarian croquette sandwich, a stroopwafel ice cream – or Dutch French fries with majo or ketchup. I just had to take the fries, which were in line with the ones Eurowings is providing. A really nice snack, which made me smile during the flight.

As a light meal before landing, KLM served a pulled chicken salad, which had a bit of a bowl feeling. It came with a chocolate cream pastry. As a starter, you could choose between a vegetarian Thai red curry and pumpkin ravioli.

 

20th December 2025, Southwest WN 554, Las Vegas (LAS) – Albuquerque (ABQ), Choice Extra

I did not expect too about from this 80 minutes flight, despite we had the highest possible fare class. It’s a bit of disgusting that the preferred drink voucher you get as a Choice Extra customer (formerly Business Select) grants you a full can of beer, but no can of soda. Instead I got a typical US-American drink: an orange juice full of ice, which felt too little for this flight to me. Apart from that, there was a cookie snack (no choice), which was quite nice – but served way after my drink was already finished. Apart from that, I really liked the cabin service and the friendly crew.

 

29th December 2025, WestJet WS 1161, Phoenix (PHX) – Calgary (YYC), Premium Class

The trip back to Germany gave us our first flight ever with Westjet. Their B737-MAX Premium Class came with 2-2 Domestic Frist seating, which was overall very comfortable. At boarding, there was a small bottle of water at the seat. After take-off, the crew served a pre-meal drink as well as a chocolate cookie and pretzels.

For the breakfast service of the early morning flight, there was the choice of French toast with a berry compote and ham and eggs. The French Toast I chose was actually quite nice, served with some Frech fruit, a yogurt and a warm croissant. The crew was very attentive with some refills on the three hour service to Calgary (YYC). Later in the flight, they even surprised me with a snack service featuring chips, chocolates and similar items. While I went for a KitKat, Sarah had some chips. A really nice experience with the Canadian airline.. The pictures also shows the ham and egg my wife had.

 

29th December 2025, KLM KL 678, Calgary (YYC) – Amsterdam (AMS), Business Class

After checking out their Dreamliner on the outbound, the inbound intercontinental service with KLM was served by the Boeing 777-200. The staff was friendly from the beginning, welcoming the business class passengers with champagne, a mocktail or orange juice.

Main Meal

Orders for the main meal were already taken on the ground. I appreciate that a lot, it gives more time to sleep overnight. Unfortunately, this did not work out at all. For the starter, I opted for a creamy corn soup over a poached shrimp with fresh crab salad and salmon caviar. The soup was really nice. The downside of the meal was definitely the butter. I’m sure they wouldn’t even use it in the Netherlands to fry Frikandel in there. There were three options for the entree, mushroom-filled ravioli, beef short ribs with fig sauce and a dish named Tasting of delicacies. I went for the latter, pulled pork with barbecue sauce, a cauliflower steak with Romanesco sauce and a sweet potato mousseline with grilled red pepper and spinach. Unfortunately, service was now severely delayed.

They started serving the main course some 1:45 hours after take off. This is unbearable for a some eight hour overnight flight in my point of view. I later chatted with the purser about that. She did not like it as well, but stated that this is exactly the service KLM envisages for the flight. I liked the idea of the tapas-style presentation, but the sweet potato dish was awful in my opinion. I would have loved to have a second round of bread as well. I feel. For dessert, there was the choice of wild berry pie with Creme Anglaise and a cheese plate. I am more and more a cheese person above the clouds nowadays. The cheese and port made me really happy at the end of that meal. The last pictures shows the meal my wife had.

Breakfast

The breakfast service did not offer a choice. There was Bircher muesli with pomegranate seeds and pistachio as well as a cold cut plate. The hot breakfast dish included was Canadian chocolate pancakes with vanilla sauce and banana with maple syrup. I really liked the combination of a healthy, savory and sweet dish. However, there was a bit of little bread for that kind of cold cut plate with items like cheese and salmon. Over the whole flight, the crew was absolutely lovely and lead to a very enjoyable experience.

 

30th December 2025, KLM KL 1799 (operated by KLM Cityhopper), Amsterdam (AMS) – Dusseldorf (DUS), Business Class

The last flight of the year was the short KLM Cityhopper service from Amsterdam (AMS) to Dusseldorf (DUS). The Embraer crew was lovely, both flight attendants were very attentive. Apart from the typical smoothie and (vanilla) muffin, the crew added some snacks. We were even offered the good, old economy class cookie. On the drinks side, there was a large bottle of water – which was sufficient for us on the short service. However, the crew did offer additional drinks to us as well. Another time, KLM and their subsidiaries proofed themselves as a great option for European flights.

 

Air France & KLM on Flyctory.com

Here are postings related to the AIr France & KLM Group on Flyctory.com:

 

Miles and Status

My topic Miles and Status deals with earning miles and loyalty programs:

You might also like

Graz Airport (GRZ)

Flying Sun-Air of Scandinavia

Airport Marrakech-Menara (RAK)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *