Whoever you’re flying with, Business Class or Economy, chicken or fish, airplane food is somewhat of an acquired taste. Either way, those in-flight meals are the punctuation marks of long-haul flights and there’s no denying that the little flourishes on your tray can make or break your experience. Here’s our rundown of the best flight meals.

Delta

Over the last few years, Delta has been upping the ante to become one of the best airlines for food. The focus is on local farmers and artisans, with a twist on Southern tradition. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q’s has designed some dishes for passengers flying out of Atlanta, USA: the short rib open-faced sandwich with sweet pickles and a side of cheddar and broccoli is not to be missed. Top it off with banana pudding for a true down-home affair. As far as the best airplane food goes, the Biscoff and chocolate chip cookies are legendary – they come warm in a brown paper bag, making them the ultimate snack in the clouds for economy and first class passengers alike.

Credit: Mashama Bailey for Delta

Hawaiian Airlines

Fly from Los Angeles to Honolulu and you’ll get brunch, lunch and a late-night snack. Look out for international offerings like the coconut and lemongrass braised chicken with eggplant and Israeli couscous or the warm yuzu pound cake (by Honolulu-born executive chef Michelle Karr-Ueoka). But the island offerings are a thrill, too: there’s a Kalua pork hash on the menu, plus beers from Maui Brewing Company and custom cocktails from On the Rocks, including the celebratory Tropical Landing (gin with violet, guava, coconut and citrus).

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Singapore Airlines

A consistent favorite among frequent flyers, Singapore Airlines has an admirable number of options for all passengers. Premium economy dishes include garlic-roasted prawns with smoked aioli and patatas bravas, beef Bourguignon and Chor Mee (minced pork noodles). The airline has an air sommelier program, in which cabin crew can apply to become wine experts, which means they can offer passengers guidance on wine pairings.

Credit: Singapore Airlines

Korean Air

Think your taste buds are useless at 40,000 feet? The bibimbap is one legendary in flight meal you’ll definitely be able to enjoy (and the same one is served in economy, business and first classes, just with different utensils); it’s a platter of beef, steamed rice, cucumber, mushrooms, beansprouts, spinach and pickled radish, ready to be tossed together with a tube of gochujang and a sachet of sesame oil (the pros ask for extra gochujang). On the side: pickled cucumber and seaweed soup. The snack service includes hot rice balls and cup ramen, brought to your seat with the hot water already added, and the seasoning sachet on the side.

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All Nippon (ANA)

ANA works with various chefs to get their menus just right. Toru Okuda – a Michelin star master of kaiseki (multi-course meals) – takes care of Japanese food, while Ryuta Iizuka (who studied under Joel Robuchon) advises on French. Expect them to go all out if you’re in first or business class: Wagyu beef sirloin stew with a side of fragrant shiitake, maitake, and abalone mushrooms, sautéed in Échiré butter, for instance. But there are treats in store for the economy classes too: the likes of red rockfish teriyaki and oyakodon (chicken and egg rice bowl) will see passengers through, with proper miso and pickles.

 

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Emirates

Emirates is consistently at the top of the lists of best flight food, thanks to its ever-evolving menus, attention to detail and unlimited Dom Perignon for first class flyers. Every passenger gets a multi-course meal and there’s lots of choice and flexibility. Trays are jam-packed with dishes like paneer makhani, vegetable paella, sweetcorn salad and Russian salad plus alluring desserts like apple caramel mousse or chocolate truffle cake. The wines (all from Bordeaux) are excellent. In first class, there’s a movie snack menu which features boxes of popcorn and cheeseburger sliders.

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Etihad

This UAE-based airline is driven by farm-to-table freshness, which means salad greens harvested hours before you eat them – a true revolution as far as airline meals are concerned. Business and first class food can be eaten whenever you’re hungry, and includes steak sandwiches and eggs prepared to order, plus elaborate brunches like shakshuka and ricotta pancakes. First class mains include a seafood assiette (scallop, salmon, lobster), chicken margooga, five spiced duck breast and paneer kofta. There is oh-so-much choice.

 

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Turkish Airlines

Aficionados of Turkish Airlines’ long-haul flights always order the sour cherry juice, and some claim it helps them to sleep. If it works for you, you can press a button on your screen to let cabin crew know you’d like to be woken for dinner. Beyond the juice, it’s all about the Turkish appetizers, grilled fish, Adana kebabs and sesame pittas. First and business class passengers enjoy the ultimate inflight amenity: flying chefs, who work alongside cabin crew. On long-haul or international flights of over eight hours, those passengers can opt to enjoy chef-cooked meals by candlelight.

Which airline food is best?

While this is subjective, when it comes to ranking Emirates often comes out on top for having the best flights meals. Emirates focuses on creating flavors and textures that are resilient to changes in altitude and pressure, like heavy reductions and braises, used in casseroles and stews, paired with quality fresh ingredients.

Which airline has the most delicious food?

Singapore Airlines is often cites as having the most delicious food, and travelers can choose the Book the Cook service, offered in Suites and First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy Class for flights above 1.5 hours flight time. Customers can choose a restaurant-class meal, from lobster thermidor to a perfectly-cooked steak.

What is best to eat on a long haul flight?

Prioritize protein, vegetables and fruit when it comes to eating on a long haul flight. Carry extra nutritious snacks with you like nuts (checking nobody on the flight has an allergy) or seeds. As well as eating properly, it’s important to stay well hydrated on a long haul flight – your perception of salty and sweet tastes drops by almost around 30 per cent inside a flight, but drinking water helps reactivate your taste buds.

Keen, cultured visitors to Stockholm will almost certainly have Fotografiska on their hit list. The museum, that is – one of the Swedish capital’s top sights, a temple to contemporary photography and an HQ for modern photographers and experts the world over. But not every visitor to the city knows that the building, a former Art Nouveau style customs house, also houses one of Sweden’s most sustainable restaurants. 

Known simply as “The Restaurant”, it’s helmed by the innovative, boundary-pushing Executive Chef Martin Wall. “My role here is as ‘planet keeper’,” says Wall. “I try to keep our philosophy forward-thinking and make sure we do as much as we can, sustainability wise”. Guests on Luxury Gold’s Timeless Scandinavia tour will visit this extraordinary sustainable restaurant during their time in Stockholm – in the meantime, we asked Martin to tell us a little about how he merges a luxury museum experience with a sustainable ethos.

“The Restaurant” Executive Chef Martin Wall

The Formula

“The Restaurant at Fotografiska is plant-forward,” explains Wall. “We try to push the boundaries and understand nature”. His team is on a mission, he says, to “prove that [sustainable restaurants] can be high-end gastronomy and sustainable at the same time”. With a firm zero-waste policy and seasonally-led ingredients, Wall’s team curates set menus of different sizes – three or five courses starting with an appetizer of the day, say – as well as sharp, unusual beverage pairings (one popular selection is “Nordic and funky”, featuring some excellent Scandinavan wines and ingredients). “We normally say that the farmers are the bosses of the restaurant. They decide what’s on the menu – we want the best, today, from nature,” adds Wall. Dishes might include blue mussels with seaweed and root vegetables, or lamb with cucumber, garlic and caramelised cream. It’s contemporary but appealing; the ingredients are the star of the show.

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A dish at The Restaurant at Fotografiska, Stockholm

The “S” Word

Though luxury travellers are more aware than ever before of the need to balance incredible travel experiences with an awareness of impact on the planet, Wall feels the very word “sustainability” has perhaps been overused, or lost some of its power in recent years. “Sustainable dining has been up and down since the pandemic,” he ponders. “I think the word [itself] is the big problem; it doesn’t have the same effect as before. So we’re more talking about ‘consciousness’: to be out there and to be aware of what’s going on, to try to keep pushing forward.”

What does that consciousness mean to him? “It’s important for us to be out there, to make people conscious of the world and to show them and guide them to a more sustainable way. It is possible to do it.” To be a thought leader among sustainable restaurants in the region, this could be through highlighting the best vegetables or foraged plants available that month on the menu, or getting creative with zero-waste principles. Initiatives involve using apple cores in desserts or converting onion peelings to compost to nurture future kitchen vegetables. 

The Restaurant at Fotografiska, Stockholm

Award-winning Dishes

The Restaurant at Fotografiska was awarded a Michelin Green Star in 2020, and has maintained it for every year since. “They introduced the Green Michelin star a few years ago,” says Wall. “It means we’re acknowledged for our sustainable work.” Venues are awarded these rare stamps of approval for having high ethical and environmental standards, from provenance to suppliers and employing locals, as well as combining culinary excellence with an eco ethos. The team’s forward thinking also won them three circles by the 360°Eat Guide. “The 360 Award is big here in the Nordic countries, but it’s all about social and planet-minded sustainability, so it’s a big award for us and we’re so proud to be in it.” While it’s a joy to receive accolades, says Wall, it can also place the burden on the team of keeping such a high standard. But he’s up for the challenge. “It’s a huge role to take on, to make sure you understand the planet the best to make the gastronomy line up with the future,” says Wall. “My plan is to [always] be a little bit better tomorrow than today.”

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The Experience

“When they come here, guests can expect to be ‘here and now’,” says Wall of the museum-restaurant space, which occupies a large-windowed, waterfront dining room with – naturally – great photography on the walls. “It’s not all about what’s on the plate – it’s why it’s on the plate.” Everything presented in sustainable restaurants like his, he says, should be centred around provenance, slow food, zero waste principles and great suppliers. It should represent how great cooking can be done in the age of sustainability.

It’s only when asked for his favourite dish of the moment that Wall pauses for thought. “That’s a tricky one. In Sweden right now, it’s been a long, hard winter, so the asparagus feels like the sun, and the future.” He wants guests to become more conscious of what sustainable restaurant can do, but in the moment, to rest and relax, and be completely present with the food in front of them. “We proudly present the way of the future, so you can calmly come here and wine and dine. We’ve been doing the thinking, so here’s the place where you can relax and enjoy – we’ve done the work for you,” he says.

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Some of us have bucket lists, others have “to eat” lists – and these fine dining restaurants are some of the most ravishing places around the globe to share a meal. From experimental Scandi venues to classic Italian cuisine, via restaurants drawing on the indigenous and native plants and techniques of their country, you can count these 10 stops as a cultural experience in themselves.

Le Monzù, Capri, Italy

Perched on a dramatic cliff with sunset views, Le Monzù is a showstopper. A hotel restaurant in the Le-Corbusier-designed Punta Tragara hotel, it attracted one Michelin star in 2019. Now, head chef Antonio Pedana’s dainty take on Neapolitan and Caprese cuisine includes octopus ragu served on mezzipaccheri pasta, cuttlefish with sea urchins and green apple, and “milk and cookies”, a deconstructed biscuit dessert with hot and cold creamy foams. The eight-course Labyrinth of Flavors tasting menu will take you through the best of Padana’s creations. Luxury Gold clients get to visit Le Monzù on Day four of our Ultimate Italy journey.

La Colombe, Cape Town

The drive to this restaurant, on the Silvermist wine estate in Constantia, hints at the fine dining experience that awaits: a minimalist white conservatory, views of forested mountainside, and imaginative plates served on smooth-edge, shell-like ceramics. Head chef James Gaag crafts little canapes inspired by snacks from South Africa’s Cape Malay culture, followed by the signature “Tuna la Colombe” dish, unfurled in a tuna tin but revealing high-end seared Bluefin tuna with king crab and caviar. Dishes are inspired by Gaag’s travels and the wine list, naturally, is ample and strong on South African vintages.

Food at Mayta restaurant, Lima, Peru

Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark

With two Michelin stars in one of Europe’s premier dining cities, Alchemist isn’t just a dinner, it’s a theatrical experience. Six hours, 50 bites, different locations around a labyrinthine industrial building, video screens on the ceiling… as fine dining restaurants go, it’s quite a head-spinner. You might eat freeze-dried butterflies (head chef Rasmus Munk is championing them as a future sustainable protein source) or what looks like a plate of plastic junk (but is actually grilled cod jaw with a “bag” made from dehydrated cod bouillon). There’s a strong sustainability message, but the performance trips through emotions, memory and even interpretive dance.

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Mayta, Lima, Peru

A contemporary Peruvian restaurant in the country’s capital, Mayta takes plenty of inspiration from nature. Weaving native leaves, moss, rocks bark and flowers into the restaurant’s dish presentations, chef Jaime Pesaque conjures up dishes like scallop with leche de tigre, grilled eggplant in a smoky broth or Amazonian paiche fish cheeks in a rich glaze. This fine dining restaurant’s name means “Noble Land” in the indigenous Aymara language of the Andes, so it’s Peru’s heritage and character that’s being celebrated in its fine dining experience – all among nature-inspired interiors of plants and hanging baskets.

Belcanto, Lisbon

Portugal’s capital is an underrated fine-dining treasure trove, and this restaurant in the Bairro Alto district has the two Michelin stars to prove it. Helmed by chef José Avillez, the space itself is all wood-paneled, parquet-floored, mirrored grandeur, while the tasting menu reinvents several Portuguese classics. Among them are pot-au-feu, with meats, sausages and potatoes in a slow-simmered dish, and Avillez’s grandmother’s rice pudding. But also expect intriguing bites like crunchy seaweed with barnacles, or partridge escabeche.

A “heartbeat” themed interior at Alchemist restaurant, Copenhagen

Oteque, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Atmospherically set in a 1930s house in Rio, this restaurant from Japanese-Brazilian chef Alberto Landgraf is all about fish and seafood. Oysters with brazil-nut milk and green apple, monkfish with burrata, glazed turbot, sea urchin with mussel cream… let’s just say you have to love the fruits of the sea to get on board with this one. Styled with Japanese flair and the star of the show might be the venue’s playlist: a grunge-rock riot of Smashing Pumpkins, Pink Floyd and Judas Priest you won’t find in most fine dining restaurants.

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DiverXO, Madrid, Spain

With ice-white interiors, dramatic curtained tables and wacky art, this avant-garde Madrid restaurant has no less than three Michelin stars. The dining room feels like a blank canvas for the colourful cuisine that emerges from the kitchen: head chef Dabiz Muñoz spins stories across a 26-course menu that might include mini caviar curries with sauces in miniature pans, beef rib soup dumplings or coconut ganache with black garlic. Quirky animal sculptures and figurines from flying pigs to chrome ants set the tone for something weird but wonderful.

Frantzen, Stockholm, Sweden

Frantzen’s head chef, Bjorn Frantzen, was a chef in the Swedish army before taking on the fine dining world. Here he creates New Nordic cuisine with Japanese and French elements across a three-floor dining room of dreams: canapes are served in a comfy lounge before you’re shown to a chilled counter, with all the ingredients that will be used in your tasting menu on display. One of the more expensive menus on this list, it’s not for the faint hearted, but whimsical dishes include a truffled French toast, pumpkin macaron with foie gras and pork chawanmushi (a Japanese egg custard). Wine list connoisseurs will also appreciate the thousand or so wines on offer.

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Den, Tokyo, Japan

One of the best restaurants in Tokyo, this creative spot recently earned a Michelin Green Star for its sustainability efforts, on top of the two Michelin stars it already held. The “Dentucky Fried Chicken” is probably the most famous dish, a deep-fried chicken-wing dumpling with sticky rice and chicken ginseng soup, served in a faux takeaway carton. But there’s plenty more to this modern update on the traditional Japanese kaiseki form, including clay-pot-cooked rice and bamboo shoots cooked two ways. The dining room is small and minimalist, with a counter facing the open kitchen. Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa says his main goal is “to make others happy”, and you’re sure to leave with a smile on your face.

Don Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Not all fine dining restaurants are futuristic spaceships of white and chrome: this traditional Buenos Aires parrilla (steakhouse) has a classic green-striped canopy and a cosy, brick-lined dining room trimmed with wine bottles. It’s all about the meat here: different cuts of steak, morcilla blood sausage, provoleta cheese and even vegetables cooked on the vast, smoky parrilla grill. The wine list draws on a 60,000-strong cellar and owner-chef Pablo Rivero has done great work when it comes to sourcing sustainable beef and working with the Argentinian cattle farming world. The olde-worlde looks mean it has atmosphere in spades. All of this adds up to one Michelin star, well deserved.

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