This was my first time in the Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney and I was looking forward to seeing whether it was similar to it’s sister lounge in Melbourne which I reviewed in 2024. I don’t get into Star Alliance lounges often since I usually travel on Oneworld airlines so I always look forward to flying with other alliances and the chance to experience new lounges. So when I decided to fly to London on ANA from Sydney via Tokyo I had the chance to try the Air New Zealand lounge food. And I really enjoyed my visit as the lounge had a fairly solid buffet offering with a variety of fresh and nutritious dishes.
What’s nutritious?
I loved being greeted by four big bowls of salad. These salads were quite varied and most likely had something that would suit everyone’s taste. There was a fresh looking garden salad, an artichoke and chickpea salad, and a tabouleh made from quinoa. While the artichoke and chickpea salad is a great source of prebiotic fibre (and so usually a really gut healthy salad) your might like to only have a small portion before jumping on a long-haul flight. Quinoa is a source of plant protein and has a low glycemic index making it ideal for those flying out of Sydney on a long haul flight.
How fantastic are these little vegetable cruidites and dip pots?! I absolutely LOVE these! What a great snack before travel. My only comment is 1-2 more vegetable sticks per pot please as for me there was just too much dip – especially in the tzatziki and hummus pots. The baba ghanoush amount was more proportionate.
There were more wholefood snacks in addition to the fabulous vegetable sticks and dip pots with a simple, yet delicious, cheese board available. Along with the cheese there were dried fruits, fruit chutney and olives – fabulous for a snack or to finish off a meal. Cheese is a good source of protein (not to mention vitamin and minerals). Higher protein snacks are important for travel wellbeing before long haul flights, making cheese an perfect choice. Try choosing wholegrain crackers to accompany the cheese – in the case of the Air New Zealand lounge in Sydney they had water crackers and rice crackers which tend to be low in fibre. There was also both whole fruit (apples) and a fruit salad – perfect also for snacking!
There were a number of hot dishes available that has some nutritious benefits to them. The mashed sweet potato was quite watery and very sweet (it was maple syrup flavoured) but it is a great source of beta carotene which is an antioxidant which has the possibility to be good for travel wellbeing. I would have preferred it to not be flavoured with maple syrup (a source of added sugar) as I feel there are many other great flavouring that can be used such as spices or herbs). The roasted eggplant dish was a great addition to the buffet, providing more vegetable choices for passengers.
Ok so this lab dish is not much to look at at all – when I opened up the lid I was like ah that doesn’t look great. But the stew while not pretty, was tasty. While great to see plenty of peas in the stew they did look over cooked with the green a real kharki green colour.
There were a variety of sandwiches/wraps but only one stood out – the Tuscan herb chicken and grilled vegetables wrap. This wrap had a decent amount of filling (both chicken and vegetables), however to me the chicken seemed to be the processed chicken as it was a little translucent and tasted salty. The wrap also had butter and marinated eggplant which made it quite oily.
But it was fabulous to see a whole basket of dark brown rolls available. Dark brown rolls suggest the bread was made from wholegrains (potentially a rye bread) which usually are more nutritious than white bread.
Not so great. Caution.
Unfortunately the other sandwiches/rolls were just a lot of bread. I tried the roll which was pastrami with pickled onions, cream cheese and rocket however there wasn’t much filling. There was a tiny smear of cream cheese covering not even half the top of the roll and there was one tiny little pickled onion. It was so dry to eat – I just tasted dry bread. The white bread (low fibre carbohydrates) with not much filling (protein and fibre) is not really conducive to travel wellbeing.
There were a couple of cookie jars available offering chocolate cookies and chocolate chip cookies, and a basket of assorted muffins for people looking for a sweet snack. The muffins were pretty dry but I liked how they are quite small in terms of portion size. The savoury snacks of colourful rice crackers and pretzels are quite processed snacks.
The vegetarian Nasi Goreng was mainly white rice so not ideal to have as a dish on its own. If you enjoy this dish then try adding some protein and vegetables to your plate too.
Final word on Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney food
I was quite comfortable in the Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney and found the food to be fairly nutritious. They could have done with a bit more variety on the hot buffet, however the dishes that were there were pretty flavoursome with some healthy benefits. The salads on offer where fantastic and there were great wholefood snacks on offer and so whether you were in the lounge for a meal or just for a snack you could eat a balanced meal.
All pictures of the Air New Zealand Lounge Sydney are my own and I review a lounge from just the foods I see during my visit. There may be different options available at other times.
