Flying out of Singapore to Melbourne, Australia on Jetstar saw me departing from T4 at Changi. There are only two lounge options in T4: A Cathay Pacific lounge (which I wasn’t eligible for since I was flying Jetstar) and the Blossom Lounge Singapore. I was able to access the Blossom lounge and to be honest I am not sure whether it was the fact I was flying business class on Jetstar or my Qantas frequent flyer status as the answer from the staff was not clear – they said something about different Jetstar tickets have different conditions and could they see my Qantas frequent flyer status but didn’t actually say which one let me in. Any way if either of those hadn’t worked I have Priority Pass membership which is also accepted. While there is nothing grand or outstanding about this lounge, I found it is a welcome space for a shower and some food before flying. The food offering was solid – yet nothing special. There were both cold and hot buffet dishes and also some dishes which could be ordered such as a laksa. There were some nutritious elements to this lounge with a salad buffet dominating the cold food buffet.
What’s nutritious?
Plenty of cooked vegetables and fresh salad ingredients graced this buffet. There were hot steamed vegetables available, along with a variety of raw salad vegetables for people to create their own salad. These vegetables and salads were served plain so you could eat them/flavour them how you like. There was an abundance of mixed leafy green vegetables available – great to form the basis of a salad before a flight.
Slices of cheese were available which are good for snacks while travelling. The crackers looked low in fibre – it would have been good to have wholegrain crackers. There were also green apples available on the cold buffet which are also nutritious snacks.
An A la carte section of the buffet offered three noodle dishes that were able to be ordered and it was mentioned that these would take up to 5 minutes to prepare the dishes. The Vegetarian noodles describe coming with vegetables, while the Singapore Laksa describe coming with bean curd and beansprouts. These are nutritious additions to noodle dishes. There were also a range of garnishes you could choose from for the noddle dishes.
Not so great. Caution.
There were two main hot dishes available: one was a fried fish dish with garlic scallion sauce and the other a chicken rendang curry. I didn’t find the fried fish dish particularly nice as the batter was a bit soggy if it was sitting in the sauce. The curry was really tasty and I liked the chicken pieces were quite generous with a good chicken to sauce ratio. However I have placed it in the ‘caution’ section as curries can be quite oily at times. Both dishes didn’t have any vegetables and so adding a few spoonfuls of mixed vegetables helps to balance out the dishes. There was traditional ‘blue rice (Nasi Kerabu) available as an accompaniment to these curry and fish dishes and while steamed rice is not necessarily unhealthy, I have placed it in the caution section as it is a refined carbohydrate and there aren’t any high fibre alternatives for people to have. So being mindful of portion sizes is important if heading off on a long-haul flight – try just 1 spoonful of rice alongwith fish/chicken and vegetables. Similarly the chicken noodle soup described it as containing noodles, chicken and chicken soup. This dish may also be high in refined carbohydrates (mainly noodles) however I didn’t order it to see how much chicken there was. So be mindful if choosing the soup to also add some vegetables to your meal (even if it is on the side if you don’t want to put it in the soup). Eating large portions of refined carbohydrates before long-haul travel, especially at night is not conducive to travel wellbeing.
There was a creamy pasta dish available which consisted of pasta and sauce. The sauce seemed incredibly thin (see video below) – almost like a soup rather than a pasta sauce that would cling nicely to the spirals. This dish also didn’t have any vegetables or protein.
Even though it was nearly 8pm in the evening there were three kinds of cereals available. I could kind of understand this as Changi is a major transit hub and people could have been arriving with their body clocks on a range of times and so may have felt like breakfast. While it was good to have a variety of meals options available, the cereals on offer were quite processed. It would have been good to have options such as oats or muesli etc.
Potato chips (crisps), biscuits and ice creams were available. I don’t need to say much about these – just eat them mindfully and in small portions.
Final word on Blossom Lounge Singapore food
The Blossom Lounge Singapore was an okay lounge. I was grateful to have had access to the lounge on my way back from Europe to Australia as I was hungry and desperate for a shower – and the lounge provided both which was great. The food variety was okay with both hold and cold dishes available. I was delighted to see vegetables and fresh salads, but the hot dishes were a bit heavy and there weren’t many other cold dishes available other than the salads. The Blossom Lounge Singapore was a good option to have in T4 – a terminal without many lounge options.
NOTE: All pictures of the Blossom Lounge Singapore 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.
