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I’ve never had a reason to visit the Marhaba Lounge Melbourne airport as I always try and fly a Oneworld airline and so I can use the Qantas lounges. But I was curious about this lounge (which is opposite the Melbourne Qantas First Lounge) and so I dusted off my Priority Pass card and rocked up to the lounge at 4.45am (as I had an early morning flight). This timing was actually perfect as it was open quite early in the morning but the Qantas First lounge didn’t open until 5.15am so it was very useful for me to visit so early in the morning.
And when I went in I was pleasantly surprised that there was a buffet in full swing for me to review.
What’s Healthy?
- It was good to see light and nutritious foods on offer at such an early time of the morning. For many people they wouldn’t feel like eating much since it was earlier than 5am, but on the flip side may have already been up for a couple of hours (or transiting). So having a light bite to eat may be enough for a small appetite until getting on the plane and having breakfast.
- Cooked tomatoes, sauteed spinach and mushrooms – always a welcome sight for me. If you would like a hot meal before your flight, having these vegetables available is an easy way to load up on the vegetables to help you get close to your 5 serves a day before jumping on a plane. There were also boiled eggs available – they were hard boiled eggs that were quite hard.
- And not only where there cooked vegetables but there were also individually portioned salads (coleslaws on the the day I visited). The coleslaw looked fairly light too, without much dressing, which was great.
- A bowl of fresh fruit was also available in addition to the fruit salad. And tubs of flavoured yogurt were available. The yogurt was a no added sugar and low fat variety; while is low calorie does have a number of additional ingredients such as polydextrose, thickeners and artificial sweeteners which suggest quite a processed product.
Not so great. Caution.
- Two flavours of instant noodles lined the top of one of the buffet counters. I am not sure why these were available since there were hot buffet options available and they could of had a buffet noodle dish option (its not like other lounges I have visited where only prepacked foods were on offer or no hot foods available). A noodle dish could have been provided on the hot buffet. Instant noodles are usually quite high in salt and fat, and are quite processed.
- Biscuits and chips also were available and while I support light meals/snacks being available, these are not nutritious foods suitable for a light breakfast meal. If you just wanted a very small snack to pick at the peanuts available would be a more nutritious option.
- Sweet pastries and croissants were also available. Pastries such as these are usually high in energy, being made from layers of dough and fats such as butter. Traditionally butter is used but in some cases pastries made in large numbers (more on an industrial prepackaged scale) less expensive fats may be used such as hydrogentated oils. So if you like pastries then have them when they are a really great quality and when you have time to enjoy them. Unfortunately it is hard to know in situations like this how fresh foods are cooked so that’s why I try to eat mindfully and eat foods that are less nutritious when I know it is going to be really delicious. There was also carrot cake available, wrapped in individual bowls. One good thing about the individual portions of cake is they were fairly small and being served individually can help reduce over eating.
- There was a mushroom frittata and vegetarian quiche available and I must admit I had to think hard about where to place these – whether here in the Caution section or in the What’s healthy section. That’s because vegetable style frittatas and quiches can be quite nutritious, however when I tried these ones they didn’t seem to contain many vegetables. The vegetable quiche had corn, spring onion and herbs, while the mushroom frittata had small amounts of mushrooms. I also must admit I found it hard to tell what they were made of and which one was the frittata and quiche (when I wasn’t looking at the label even though one is supposed to have pastry and one is not).
- Sausages and bacon were available – while it was good that the bacon was just the eye and fairly lean, it is still a processed meat.
Final comments on The Marhaba Lounge Melbourne Airport
The Marhaba Lounge Melbourne is not too bad a lounge and I was delighted that I could make a balanced breakfast, even so early in the morning. There were quite a few foods that weren’t so nutritious and fairly processed but it was great there were also a variety of nutritious options too. Next time I am flying a non-Oneworld airline I would consider this lounge for breakfast, and I look forward to checking out the lunch/evening foods the next time I am flying out of Melbourne in the afternoon/night.
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NOTE: All pictures of the The Marhaba Lounge Melbourne food are my own and I review a lounge from the foods and menu I see during my visit. There may be different options available at other times.
