Having access to arrival lounges can be very useful, especially when travelling long-haul. And so when the chance came up to try the Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge Sydney I thought I must go in and check out the food. Arrivals lounges are a great place to have a shower when you are on the go for many hours, but they are also a good chance to take some time out and have a bite to eat. I entered the lounge via my Priority Pass membership which gave me access to the lounge and food and drink for 2 hours. However showers were not included in my entry via Priority Pass but that was ok as I was flying out internationally in the evening and had just flown into Sydney at midday so I wasn’t looking for a shower ay this stage.
The Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge Sydney is physically quite small and has a basic buffet. When I visited in the early afternoon it had a small range of hot dishes, a couple of cold ‘salads’, yogurt, cheese, and fruit. There were also jars of snacks including cookies, corn chips and dates. Croissants, slices of bread and muesli were also on the buffet. When I arrived at 1.50pm and had a look at the foods they looked like they had not been touched in quite a while – they just seemed to have that dry look on the surface of the dish etc. And while I was here for 2 hours until 3.45pm no-one touched the food either (it was very quite) and the staff did not either. So it did make me wonder how old the food was on the buffet and whether this was an unusually quite day/time of day or if the afternoons are always like this.
What’s nutritious?
- It was nice to see there were 4 cold ‘salads’ when I first walked in – the colours certainly stood out on the buffet. However when I looked at them further and then tried them I was a little disappointed. The pearl cous cous salad was incredibly bland – there was just no taste to it. The couple of slices of capsicum (peppers) you see on the top are a garnish, I could not see any in the rest of the dish. The quinoa dish behind it was similar – there wasn’t much taste and it was just a bowl of quinoa. It was great there was a bowl of mixed green salad leaves but other than that there wasn’t really any salad vegetables per se. The chickpeas dish offered a great source of fibre which is important for gut health.
- Packing an antioxidant punch was the variety of fresh fruit available – perfect for when you arrive off a long haul international flight! There were chopped fruits and also a bowl of green apples.
- A small range of cheeses were in the fridge section of the buffet. Unfortunately there were no crackers to go with the cheese that I could see. There were corn chips and chocolate cookies in jars on the buffet, but I couldn’t see anything that resembled crackers to go with the cheese.
- There were small plain yogurt pots with a blueberry coulis. Plain yogurt can be a good choice after long-haul travel to help support gut health. Additionally it is also great as it is a source of protein and slowly digestible carbohydrates which are especially important if you have crossed a number of timezones and your body-clocks are out of sync.
- It was a nice surprise to see dates on the buffet for a snack. Dates are a source of gut-friendly fibre and antioxidants, providing a nutrient dense snack. While they are a source of natural sugars, dates are a wholefood snack and with many nutrition benefits which help to balance out the sugar content in terms of weighing up if they are a good snack. Just a couple of dates for a serve.
Not so great. Caution.
- Noodles, pasta and white rice were the main feature of the hot buffet. The tomato based penne pasta was very bland – it barely had any tomato sauce on it and in the spoonful I got there wasn’t anything else in it. Interestingly the sign on the buffet said there was to be Fettucine Carbonara however this dish was not present, but there was this tomato penne pasta. The Hokkien noodles had a little more flavour than the pasta and had very small amount of shredded/grated vegetables – I got 1 piece of grated carrot and a tiny piece of an Asian green. But mostly these dishes were just noodles or pasta and…sauce. If you have gotten off a flight which has crossed a number of time zones it is important to reduce your intake of refined carbohydrates (such as white rice and noodles) if you are eating when you body thinks it is night time. This is just for a few days while your body adjusts to the new time zone. So be mindful in this lounge in regards to the hot food of not having large plates of rice, noodles or pasta – try and keep it balanced by adding protein and vegetables where you can.
- There was also a big bowl of white rice to go with an unidentifiable dish as it didn’t have a sign. It had chicken, olives and a few vegetables however it didn’t seem to taste like it looked. I can’t describe it – it wasn’t quite a curry flavour but it did have a little bit of spice. By looking at it I thought it was going to be more like an Italian or French style stew but the taste didn’t quite get there for me. So while I am not quite sure what the dish was I have to say the chicken was fairly moist and tasty.
- There were also chicken wings and drumettes and the sign said they were honey soy glazed chicken wings. However again they just didn’t quite remind me of honey soy glazed chicken – the flavour didn’t quite taste like it to me and they didn’t have the sticky type of honey soy glaze I am used to. However perhaps they were and they are just cooked differently to other I have had. Whatever the flavour they were tasty too. However be mindful how many you eat as they can be quite fatty and if you have gotten off a long-haul flight and are jet lagged you just want to be gentle on your digestive system so don’t have a large fatty meal.
- Here are the food signs on the hot buffet on the Plaza Premium Arrivals lounge Sydney – you can see the one for Fettucine Carbonara and also the missing sign for the chicken dish.
- To me this food cabinet looked like if was left out from breakfast with croissants, pastries and slices of bread with jam. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing as passengers will be arriving into an international airport from a range of time zones and so for some they might feel like breakfast style foods. Again though these are mainly sources of of refined carbohydrates and so not great options for a breakfast normally, let alone if you are jet lagged. There was however a jar of muesli on top of the buffet and so if you did feel like a traditional breakfast food – the muesli could go nicely with the yogurt pots.
Final word on Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge Sydney food
Overall a basic lounge in the Plaza Premium Arrivals Lounge Sydney in terms of food. But for some people that might be enough and they are looking more for a quite place to sit. There were some nutritious elements to the foods served in the lounge, however not all types of foods in the lounge were great from a nutrition angle. If you were after a hot meal if was harder to eat well – you needed to visit the cold buffet to boost the nutrition elements of your meal.
NOTE: All pictures of the Plaza Premium Arrivals 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 more Plaza Premium foods reviews see Plaza Premium Changi, Singapore T1 and Helsinki- Vantaa
