Flying business class on Singapore Airlines gave me to opportunity to check out the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Melbourne and its Star Alliance sister lounge Air New Zealand. I was really looking forward to visiting the SilverKris lounge at Melbourne Airport as I had not been there before, being a mainly Oneworld flyer. The first thing I noticed about it was it was small and busy! I got one of the last seats and I arrived at 6pm which was about 1.5 hours before my flight. More people arrived after me and struggled to get a seat. The buffet was interesting to explore and I wasn’t sure what to make of it to be honest. There was a small range of foods but I felt they didn’t quite gel. My plate ended up being a mish mash of different flavours. But that doesn’t mean the food was necessarily bad – let’s explore.
What’s healthy?
- The fruit and salad bar was full of vibrant colours which was great. There was chopped fresh fruit, vegetables sticks, grilled vegetables, and two types of salads.
- It was great to see vegetable sticks available for people who just wanted a light snack before the flight. Tzatziki and baba ganoush dips were available for a flavour boost. I always have a small plate of vegetable sticks in a lounge before jumping on a flight as you can’t always guarantee your will get many vegetables in airline meals and so I like to have vitamin and antioxidant boost before I board. Carrots, cucumber and celery are standard trio of vegetable crudites offered on buffets but don’t underestimate them – they each have their own nutrition benefits and so adding these to your plate is a great idea before you fly.
- A vermicelli rice noodle salad is not always a nutritious salad as sometimes the ratio of noodles to vegetables is too high (i.e. there are too many noodles in the dish). But this one had a decent amount of grated carrot mixed through, along with sliced onion and cucumber, which provided more taste and nutrition. It had a light dressing on it too.
- The rocket and pomegranate salad (called Apple and Brie) was a gorgeous looking salad – the pomegranates provided a lovely flavour, along with the walnuts, apple and brie. The salad did not have a dressing on it but it didn’t need it as all these flavours came together and made a delicious (and nutritious) salad. There was a sumac dressing available for it that was available on the side. Walnuts were a great addition as they are high in plant-based omega 3 fats (ALA) – the only nut which is a good source.
- The grilled vegetable sandwich bites had a pumpkin, onion, grilled capsicum (peppers) and pesto filling. Sandwiches are not always easy to place but I have included the grilled vegetable sandwich here in the ‘healthy’ category as they have a fairly decent amount of filling and are cut into quite small bites. The bread is thick and white and so if the portions were larger and there was less filling I would have placed then in the ‘caution’ section (similar to the beef sandwiches). But I love seeing a variety of colourful vegetables as a filling in a sandwich.
- A charred broccoli dish was available with an olive and caper tapenade and flaked almonds. Adding two spoonfuls of broccoli to your plate will add one of your five serves of daily vegetables – delicious and easy! But be careful of the flaked almonds – these can be easy to fall off a spoon onto the buffet or et stuck to cutlery if you use a different spoon or tongs etc. It is important to make sure you don’t drop these anywhere as people with nut allergies may react and this is really dangerous before a flight.
- While the mushroom risotto was creamy it was packed full of mushrooms. They weren’t just a garnish, they were a main part of the dish. So balancing up the ingredients overall, a bit of cream to help make the mushrooms tasty is ok. One spoonful can be part of a balanced meal – and add some great flavour and nutrients.
- The Malaysian curry chicken was really flavoursome without being drowned in sauce. The chicken was quite moist and it was served with potatoes. Overall this was a delicious dish.
- There was a jar of mixed nuts available for snacks and surprisingly there were brazil nuts in the mix. You don’t usually see these large nuts in buffet nut mixes but great to see them here as they are a good source of selenium.
Not so great. Caution.
- Fried spring rolls, lamb koftas and honey soy fried chicken were tempting little hot snacks. While some people say to me but the spring rolls are vegetable we need to look at the larger picture, while they might contain vegetables they don’t contain a lot compared the the amount of fried pastry. So essentially they don’t have many nutrient benefits. The fried honey soy chicken was not very crispy – it had quite a soft batter. The lamb koftas were really tasty and would go well with the dips from the salad bar.
- Along with the hot snacks there were crisps (chips), corn chips, prawn crackers, smarties and Anzac biscuits also available for snacks. Not much to say here – I think we all know these kinds of foods are not very nutritious.
- There were two hot meat dishes available: Balsamic pork belly and Kerabu fish tempura. Both these were more on the fatty style of dish with pork belly being a fatty cut of pork, and tempura a deep fried style of fish. The pork belly oddly seemed to not have much flavour even though it had a balsamic dressing. The tempura fish had what seemed to be a sweet chilli sauce on it and also pineapple, onion and coriander. The batter was a little soggy.
- There were chicken and beef instant noodles available. And I know they are popular, and some people say delicious, they don’t really offer much in terms of a nutrition benefit. In fact many instant noodle pots are high in sodium (salt) which isn’t great, especially while travelling when we are more likely to be eating out more than usual.
- The roast beef sandwich came with caramalised onion, cheese, dijon mustard and rocket, but as you can see from the pictures below there is not much filling compared to how much bread there is. So basically they are mostly white bread – regardless of how big or small the portion sizes are.
- Nasi Lemak was also available with a range of toppings including sambal, fried ikan bilis, cucumber, egg ribbon, peanut. While this is not necessarily an unhealthy dish, I have placed it here more as a warning to think about how you eat it and what else you have from the buffet. Make sure you add a range of toppings to the rice to boost your nutrient intake.
Last word Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Melbourne
The Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Melbourne was a small lounge that had a cosy feel to it. But just before my Singapore Airlines flight left it was busy and crowded. The buffet didn’t have a large range of foods to choose from and I felt that the variety of dishes was bit all over the place. I did like the lounge had fresh fruits and vegetables, and that there were both a range of small bites and snacks as well as heavier hot dishes. It would have been good to have had a larger range of hot dishes that were more nutritious. This helps ensure people can eat to their appetite – it is a 7 hour flight from Melbourne to Singapore so having light bites and snacks available is important before long flights. There were a few dishes that contained fried foods such as the tempura fish and honey soy chicken and unfortunately these weren’t served hot and crispy, but were a little soggy. So the quality wasn’t quite there.
NOTE: All pictures of Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Melbourne are my own and I review the food from the foods available at the time I visited the lounge. There may be different options available at other times.
If you are flying out of Singapore Changi you might like to see my review of the Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge Changi Singapore Airport. If you are thinking of flying Singapore Airlines from Melbourne you can check out my review of the Singapore Airlines Business Class flight from Melbourne.
