The ANA business class food experience from Tokyo to London was really enjoyable providing both Japanese and International menus for the flight. This was the second leg of my journey, having flown in from Sydney, Australia overnight, and it was nice to experience ANA business class food on a flagship route rather than an overnight flight in their regional configured planes with a supper menu. I sat back and really enjoyed the food service on this 13 hour flight to London Heathrow – the food was beautifully presented and the service was great.
ANA Business Class food menu – Tokyo to London
This flight took off mid morning and was serving lunch as the main meal service, followed by a range of ‘any time foods’ during the flight and then another lunch service just before landing.
Main Meal Service
The service began just before 11.30am (which was nearly 1.5hours after take off) when the crew came around with a drink trolley and served an amuse bouche and ANA’s ‘signature stick’ from the trolley. Cabin crew also handed out a menu at this time and then came back around and took orders. Interesting the ANA stick was labelled a cinnamon and ginger stick on the menu however when it was placed in front of me it had what looked like peanuts all over the top. I checked with the cabin crew, not because I am allergic but because I was curious as to why peanuts weren’t listed in the name of the biscuit since they were obviously a major ingredient/flavour. This could be dangerous to people with allergies on board as they should be able to know if there are nut products being handed out on the menu. The sticks smelt really sweet but tasted quite savoury which was interesting (and I couldn’t really taste any ginger). The amuse bouche was delicious and contained two tiny prawns, a sundried tomato, an olive and cheese (feta I think).
I chose the International menu for my main meal. I love Japanese food however I wanted to try both the International menu and Japanese menu (I chose one menu on the way to London and one on the way back- review to come). There was only one choice for an appetiser dish and this contained two small dishes: Cauliflower mouse with crab and carrot salad, and Jellied foie gras with grilled chicken. The presentation of the dish was beautiful, exceptional food quality and your could tell these were carefully designed and created dishes. The only problem was I found the flavours a bit weird (for lack of a better term) for a western menu. The cauliflower was incredibly soft and mushy (I suppose to be expected since it was described as a mousse) – not to my liking. The crab meat tasted very fresh and lightly salted. Overall I didn’t feel the flavours worked – perhaps it was because the dish was so cold and the cauliflower when so cold just didn’t work for me. The appetiser was also served with two pieces of bread: a piece of baguette and spinach bread. The baguette was crusty (perfect), while the spinach bread was really soft (almost cake like) and while having a tinge of green to its colour, it didn’t really have a strong flavour (no spinach flavour). The breads were not served warm and the butter was very cold and hard.
There were two choices for a main meal: a beef fillet which I chose and a a Spanish Mackerel dish. The beef filled was described as being sauteed and was accompanied by Burdock root and crushed potatoes with a Japonaise sauce. Lightly cooked green beans were also served with the dish. This dish was delicious! I did have to ask for the steak to be cooked more as they served it too me nearly blue! They were happy though to take it back and cooked it more – it was then served to me medium well. It was interesting though at no time did they ask me how I liked my steak cooked. Even the second time – they just asked whether that was too raw for me which I said yes and then they just whisked it away without asking me how much I like it cooked. It was a really nice steak though once it came back and was cooked more through. The potatoes were flavoursome – they were crushed as opposed to mashed as they still had some texture to them without being too smooth. The green beans were lightly cooked and slightly crunchy. The burdock root was nice too.
There was no choice of dessert either with only one option on the menu called Melty Chocolate – a chocolate mousse with chocolate cake at the bottom and raspberry sauce on top. (There was cheese and ice cream available in the Anytime Menu but you needed to wait until the main meal service was finished before you could order those). I only had two small mouthfuls of the dessert as I was full. The chocolate mousse especially was nice but overpowered by too much raspberry sauce. Blue sparkles on top were a bit of fun.
Nutrition comment
Including a wholefoods amuse-bouche as a pre-dining snack instead of crisps or crackers not only elevates the dining experience in business class but also provides nutritional benefits. Including burdock root in a western menu was a great touch. Burdock root is a nutritious plant containing antioxidants such as quercetin, and luteolin. While including these with steak was great it was disappointing there were only two small pieces. Including foie gras on the menu was controversial I thought – while considered a delicacy and so probably assumed it would be a good fit for business class, the animal welfare considerations are fairly strong. While foie gras itself can contain a range of vitamins and minerals (as liver is a store for some vitamins and minerals) it is also quite high in fat. Fantastic to see extra virgin olive oil served with the bread alongside butter as as extra virgin olive oil is a rich source of monounsaturated fats and polyphenols. This olive oil had a beautiful flavour that went really nicely with the baguette.
Second Meal Service
For the second meal service I again chose the International cuisine dish as I was interested to see what the risotto was like. And when it was served to me the first thought I had was this does not look like a traditional risotto – it was rice with the ingredients then placed on top of the rice (not cooked through). This dish had a dark brown sauce and a fatty cut of chicken on top of the rice. There were also some mushrooms, green beans and a tomato on the sides of the dish as well. Essentially they were ingredients of a risotto but not made in the traditional risotto way. There was not a strong truffle flavour throughout the dish and overall dish was delicious. The bread rolls were both very cake like in texture. One bread roll was a citrus bread which did have quite a citrus flavour.
Nutrition comment
This dish could have been more balanced with less rice and more vegetables. The white rice and the white breads made up a significant proportion of refined carbohydrates of the main meal. Since it was technically coming up to midnight back in Japan (and just after midnight in Australia where I was coming from) this was not great for travel wellbeing as while wanting to eat something to help resync body clocks, reducing the refined carbohydrate at a time our bodies think it is night time is important while travelling.
Snacks
The Anytime Menu had a variety of foods available throughout the flight from fresh fruit, cheese, yougurt, sandwiches, salad, ramen, rice bowl and more. I ordered the garden salad and sweet and sour pork rice bowl to about two thirds of the way through the flight. I was especially interested to see what the garden salad was like. While I applaud ANA for having a salad on the menu it was not a garden salad in the traditional sense. It was just a bowl of leave with two thin slices of what I think was raddish(?). It was not very appealing at all. It really needed some other vegetable salad ingredients. The pork in the sweet and sour pork had a soggy layer over it (like a batter or something). It wasn’t crispy but rather stodgy/gluggy coating. The bowl was about half white rice and then a couple of pork and some stir-fried vegetables.
There were a range of packaged snacks available in the galley which were mainly rice snacks, mixed nuts and cookies.
Nutrition comment
The Anytime menu concept is a great initiative from a travel wellbeing perspective. Having a range of whole foods available such as fruit, cheese, yogurt, sandwich and soup available provides passengers with nutritious food options throughout the long flight. It also allows them to tailor their food intake to their appetite and time zones that their body clock is currently on/what they are wanting to get too. It would have been good to have higher protein and vegetable light dishes though as refined carbohydrates did feature heavily with white rice, noodles, and bread dominating the larger menu offerings.
Final thoughts on ANA business class food
While I enjoyed the ANA business class food experience I did find some of the meals/ food combinations on the western meal a little odd. There certainly was an emphasis on food quality and presentation which really elevated the passenger experience. The variety across the anytime menu was impressive. I thoroughly enjoyed the food service flying to London from Tokyo.
NOTE: All pictures of ANA business class food are my own and I review the food from the menu I was given, the menu on the website at the time and the food I ordered on my flight. There may be different options available at other times.
If you are flying out of T2 Tokyo Haenda on an ANA flight you may be interested in the review of the food in the ANA Lounge.
