On my way to check out the new Virgin Australia business class meals on their planes, I stopped by the Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney to see what the food was like. It is a large lounge with an upstairs and downstairs area, however when I visited on a Sunday afternoon the upstairs area was roped off. Since I do not visit this lounge very often I don’t know if this was just closed because it was a Sunday afternoon. There was one buffet in the lounge downstairs which was mostly cold food, and a small amount of hot food. But big question… was the food in the Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney on a Sunday afternoon any good?
What’s Nutritious?
- The salad buffet had two beautiful looking salads: a Mediterranean bean salad and a quinoa, kale and tahini salad. The bean salad was bursting with legumes such as edamame beans and chickpeas – how fabulous! This salad is a great source of plant protein and soluble fibre (which is important for good gut health). However if you are prone to bloating or IBS then you might want to just have a spoonful – eating foods that cause bloating is not necessarily great just before a flight. The kale salad was absolutely delicious – it had quinoa, kale, carrot, capsicum and tahini. Quinoa is a source of protein, while kale is a good source of vitamin K and vitamin C, and antioxidants such as beta-carotene and quercetin (well vitamin C acts as an antioxidant too).
- There was also a creamy pasta salad which tasted nice, but was way to creamy for my liking. It could have done with less dressing. While there weren’t many vegetables in this dish to make is a salad in my eyes, a small spoonful to add to the side of the other salads can add some more flavour. Pasta isn’t the bad food many people make it out to be – I love pasta. But it’s what else you eat with the pasta that helps determine how nutritious a pasta meal is. So adding salads to the side of this dish is great. Cold pasta is also a source of resistant starch – with is a superstar for gut health.
- I loved the salad ingredients to make a garden salad are there so people can make a salad how they like. Not everyone loves their salads exactly the same so this way you can make them to your taste. I have also used these ingredients to bump up the salad in the sandwiches/wraps in the Virgin Australia lounges.
- Cheese, water crackers and dried fruits were available for afternoon snacks. It was fabulous to see dates available as while they are sweet, dates are also a source of fibre and have a range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Try having 2-3 as a snack instead of a handful of crisps. Cheese is also quite nutritious and is not the bad food many believe it to be. It is a great snack and you could also add some to a salad for extra flavour and protein. These chunks are a little too thick for me and so I always cut them in half .
- Premade wraps were available and during this visit they were tuna wraps which were described as having tuna mayo, onion, parsley flakes and lettuce.
Not so great. Caution.
- There were three varieties of cookies available near the coffee machine. Good they were tiny bite sized cookies, but they were pretty dry and crumbly. I didn’t love them.
- These hot bites flew off the buffet when they came out at about 3pm and replaced the pasta. There were sausage rolls and ricotta pastries. The sausage rolls were ok, nothing amazing but tasting not too terrible. They had fairly thin pastry and and decent amount of sausage filling. The ricotta pastries were extremely greasy and were mostly pastry. There wasn’t much filling in them at all unfortunately. There is nothing wrong with having these types of foods occasionally but if you flew often and snack on these regularly then this is where they become not so great. If you like these foods take a look at see what they look like – do they look good quality? Do you actually like them? Don’t eat them just because they are there.
- Before the sausage rolls and ricotta pastries turned up, there was pasta available when I first entered the lounge at 2.40pm. Now as I mentioned earlier there is nothing wrong with pasta per se – it is the base for many fabulous and nutritious dishes. However, this is not such a great dish being just tomato sauce and pasta. It didn’t taste great either. While the dish had a hint of chilli, the pasta spirals felt way too soft with a mushy texture. If you feel like having a hot meal then try adding a small side salad to the pasta to boost the nutrient content.
- There were more snacks available on the buffet next to the cheese and dried fruit including chips (crisps), corn chips and honey mustard cretzels. These are highly processed foods, which are considered to be discretionary foods (typically known as junk-foods). These foods don’t usually offer much in the way of nutrition. If you travel often try not to choose these foods every time you travel. If you like them then choose the smallest plate or bowl available at the buffet.
- There were two types of bread rolls on offer with the soups available, including one which was labelled as being vegan. While great to see there are vegan options available, it would have been good to have one variety a wholegrain style of bread. The soups are also hard the place as it is hard to know what the ingredients are and how much sodium has been added e.g. this one was a Thai creamy chicken soup.
Last word on Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney Food
The Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney food offerings were very similar to the Virgin Australia lounge in Melbourne – in fact almost identical. The food offerings were fairly basic without much flare. I could see how these offerings could become fairly monotonous if you visit the lounge regularly. But what was great to see is there were nutritious food available – both for snacks and something more substantial. I loved the vibrant salads! I hope there is lots of variety with these salads and that they rotate often.
If you fly the Sydney-Melbourne on Virgin Australia you might like to check out my review of the Virgin Australia lounge in Melbourne.
NOTE: All pictures of Virgin Australia Lounge Sydney are my own and I review the food from the menu I was given and the food I ordered on my flight. There may be different options available at other times.
