The Amex Centurion Lounge Sydney food surprised me – not because the food was any better than other Amex lounges I have been in but because I had just come from the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge in Sydney (don’t ask it was a long transit in Sydney and so I had time to review). And what greeted me in the Amex Centurion lounge was basically the exact same food as the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge. There was a sign in the Amex lounge highlighting this lounge was run by Plaza Premium but I didn’t expect to see the exact same foods! I guess not many people visit both lounges in the same day.
What’s nutritious?
The four salads were a welcome sight on the buffet. However three out of four of them were carbohydrate based and so it would have been good to have at least one more colourful salad made of vegetables. It was good the cous cous salad had pumpkin in it – was good there was a fairly decent amount so when you take a spoonful chances are you will get a few cubes of pumpkin. The pasta salad was mostly pasta though with some olives and what looked like a garnish of capsicum. Fabulous there was a chickpea dish – again quiet a few olives but only a few random slices of tomato and capsicum. Would have been good to see more tomato and capsicum through it.
A soft cheese and two varieties of hard cheese were available , along with salami and dates. There were water crackers in a jar off to the side that could be paired with the cheese board.
Mixed nuts are great nutrient bundles and make a great snack before boarding a flight. Overall nuts are good sources of protein and fibre, and each type of nut has it’s own unique nutrient profile (including vitamin and mineral levels). And while nuts a a great plant-based snack, they can pose dangers for people with nut allergies when flying. If you enjoy eating nuts in the lounge while travelling there are some things you can do to help reduce the risk for people with nut allergies including ensuring you only use the dedicated utensils for the nuts, don’t move the utensils to other dishes, wash your hands before boarding your flight and don’t take the nuts onboard.
There were chia seeds, pumpkin seeds (there weren’t many left) and coconut available to sprinkle on your dishes. A great initiative to boost nutrient intake.
Not so great. Caution.
The hot meals were mainly carbohydrate based with coconut tumeric rice and jasmine rice, stir fried noodles, pasta and bread rolls available. There were fiery harrisa wings and chicken cacciatore available but wings don’t really have much meat on them and they are fairly fatty, making the chicken cacciatore the only dish that really had any protein. The mushroom pasta (mushroom ragout) had some mushrooms but was predominately pasta and sauce and tasted fairly bland. Similar story with the stir-fried noodles which did have some vegetables too. The Hokkien noodles and pasta tasted fairly bland – not much flavour here. The tumeric coconut rice had a light coconut flavour – it tasted quite nice I thought. The fiery Harrisa wings didn’t taste too spicy to me (and I hate spicy foods so would have been the first to say if they were hot and spicy).
There were chocolate biscuits (cookies) and small slices of cakes available. While these are usually sources of added sugar it was good to see a limited range available in small portions.
Final words Amex Centurion Lounge Sydney Food
Overall the Amex Centurion Lounge Sydney food was okay. Offering a predominantly carbohydrate based menu (which for my evening flight was not ideal) I thought could have done with more vegetables and protein based dishes. But with careful choices a nutritious meal can be made which is good – it mainly involves having half your meal from the hot buffet and half your meal from the salads on the cold buffet. That is a good rule of thumb for the offerings in this lounge that I experienced. So if you don’t have airline lounge access this is a comfortable option with a fair variety of foods.
And I was a little disappointed to see the Amex lounge had basically the same dishes as the Plaza Premium arrivals lounge (with only very small tweaks) – I know not many people will visit these two lounges in the same day but there was just something about knowing that the Amex Centurion lounges wasn’t offering a more premium product, or even a more bespoke menu, than another lounge. It was just a cookie cutter approach.
NOTE: All pictures of the Amex Centurion Lounge Sydney food 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.
For other Amex Centurion Lounge food information see reviews on Centurion Lounge Melbourne, Centurion Lounge Dallas, Centurion Lounge London Heathrow T3, Centurion Lounge Hong Kong, and Centurion Lounge by Pontus Stockholm
