I landed very early into T2 Tokyo Haneda from Sydney after a flight on ANA (and by early I mean at about 4.50am) and headed through the transit security and straight to the ANA Lounge to await my flight to London. Luckily the lounge was open as I really wanted a shower to wake up. When I entered the lounge just after 5am it was very very quiet – only a handful of people in there. However the food buffet was up and running and there were many staff members positioned around the lounge ready to help any passengers who had questions. The breakfast buffet was a mix of both Japanese and western flavours, and there was both a hot and cold buffet available. As the morning progressed the dishes on the buffet stayed exactly the same, even as the lounge ramped up and became quite busy. So it seems that the foods available right from when the lounge opened were the full offering so you weren’t missing out on anything if you were in the lounge really early.
What’s nutritious?
- I loved seeing these pearl barley and kelp rice balls. Not only were they really tasty with a light seafood flavour, but the inclusion of pearl barely gave a nice chewy texture. And I can’t not mention the nutrition benefit – pearl barely is a good source of fibre so mixing it with the rice really gives a nice nutrition boost (especially when white rice is dominant in the Japanese cuisine).
- There was a small salad bar on the buffet offering corn, tomato, lettuce and a seaweed salad – providing a fabulous nutrition boost for any breakfast. There was also a potato salad on offer that looked very creamy with a lot of mayonnaise. I loved the seaweed salad – seaweed is a great source of iodine which is important and some areas of the world the traditional food sources of iodine have reduced amounts of iodine due to changes in technology and the environment. So great to be able to have a few options for seaweed in this lounge. The seaweed salad allowed you to eat seaweed without all the white rice that would come with some of the sushi handrolls (if you are looking to reduce white rice intake while flying).
- More high fibre food- I love it! Look at this braised bean dish which was described as having three kinds of beans. Now while it is good that high fibre foods are available, beans can contribute to bloating in many people. So if you tend to bloat after eating beans then you might like to limit the amount you have to one spoonful before flying. And more broccoli please – make it a fixture of the dish not a garnish!
- A bowl of fresh fruit was on the buffet filled with apples and oranges – perfect for a nutritious snack. If you are prone to bloating you might like to choose an orange rather than an apple, especially if you know fructose containing foods are an issue.
- There were two sweet dishes on the buffet for breakfast – an almond bean curd with fruits, and a chilled sweet adzuki bean soup. Be mindful though with these dishes regarding how sweet they are – they may be a source of added sugar.
- There were a range of noodle dishes available from a noodle bar in the ANA lounge. You could order these at the noodle bar or from a QR code at your seat. Now noodle dishes like this are hard to place, as not only can they be quite salty but it depends how much toppings are added. The majority of these noodles had plant based toppings such as tofu or vegetables which was great to see.
Not so great. Caution.
- The scrambled eggs had the weirdest texture I think I have ever experienced in regard to scrambled eggs in airport lounges – they were almost a mush. I have experienced scrambled eggs (and other varieties of eggs) undercooked more in Japanese cuisines than in western cuisine (like they are very watery and running) but these eggs weren’t quite just that, they were different again. They just fell to mush in your mouth and on your plate. I really didn’t enjoy the texture. In saying that eggs are quite nutritious. However the food sign indicated there was dairy in the eggs so this could be milk, cream, butter or cheese – so there were added ingredients in the dish which may be adding more calories and fats. So the takeaway message here is while they are nutritious be mindful not too head back to the buffet for more than one plate.
- These little sandwiches are good portion sizes but don’t really have too many of them. There was a ham and cheese filling and a vegetarian filling which was tomato and cucumber. Caution they are so small they can be easy to over eat with 2-3 of these adding up to a slice of bread.
- Just like in the Japan Airlines lounge there is a Japanese Curry available – but ANA’s was chicken not beef. This Japanese curry was mostly sauce with some chicken, sliced mushrooms and also a white root vegetable which I must admit I wasn’t quite sure what it was (I don’t think it was potato as it had a more watery texture).
- There was a creamy seafood pie with sliced mushrooms available for breakfast. It was quite creamy and cheesy which makes it quite a heavy dish for some. For people about to get on a long-haul international flight (such as the ~13 hour flight I was getting on) having a heavy fatty dish before sitting down for hours may not be great for digestion. If you think this dish looks great try having a small spoonful and then visiting the salad bar and adding some colourful vegetables to your plate.
- There was a separate section of the buffet which had a chef in the middle cooking a dish – on the morning I was there this dish was sausages and potatoes. It was quite popular and the chef was constantly refilling the dish on the buffet with freshly cooked sausages and potatoes. The couple of sausages I tried were fairly fatty.
- There were croissants, rolls, white rice and white rice sushi available. While bread, white rice and sushi are not necessarily unhealthy foods, the reasons why I have these in the ‘caution’ group is because many of the foods in this lounge are based around lower fibre carbohydrates and so it can be harder to put together a more well balanced meal. Also having a large amount of refined carbohydrates before long-haul flights and while crossing time zones is not great for wellbeing. It was good to see on the white rice machine there were three different serving sizes – yet the small option still pumped out quite a fair bit of rice.
Final word on ANA Lounge Tokyo (Haneda) food
The ANA Lounge in Tokyo Haneda is a big lounge with space for a lot of people. And when the buffet got busy staff were incredibly attentive to the amount of food available and constantly replaced empty dishes so it never felt like food was running out. The majority of the foods in the lounge were Japanese inspired cuisine (to be expected), but there were some western flavours as well. White rice and noodles featured heavily on the buffet so it is important to try and balance any meals with some protein and vegetables were possible before a long flight.
NOTE: All pictures of the ANA Lounge Tokyo (Haneda) at breakfast 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.
See plane food reviews of flights from Tokyo Haneda including ANA to London
