Our vegan business class experience with Etihad Airways

As we read more and more press releases about how airlines are offering exciting and nutritious vegan meals in their premium cabins, you would presume that now is the right time to turn left on boarding as a vegan. Well, we have decided to document our experiences on a series of flights in the premium cabins with a selection of airlines. Below you will find our honest review from a series of recent business class flights with Etihad Airways including what they got right, and where there was room for improvement with our *VGML meals.

*VGML is the universal airline special meal code for a vegan meal, and should therefore be free of all animal derived ingredients.

Singapore to Abu Dhabi in Business Class

On our first flight from Singapore to Abu Dhabi, we were served a salad comprising sweet potato, chick peas, roast potato, tomato and mixed leaves as a starter. There was no dressing for the salad meaning it was dry and lacking in flavour. This came with a small fruit salad and bread with no butter alternative which was a moot point as the bread was cold, hard, and simply inedible. Upon request, the flight service manager kindly offered an alternative salad from the main menu with sweet potato, beetroot, walnut and mixed leaves. This salad came with mini pitta breads and a lemon vinaigrette and was far superior than the VGML option that was loaded for us.

The main course was a vegetable based dish topped with nuts, perhaps dukkah? None of the cabin crew knew exactly what the dish was, which is often the case with special meals, with no name and no description available it’s often left to guess work. It was pretty flavourful with eggplant, cauliflower, carrots, asparagus and cherry tomatoes, but really needed rice, quinoa or another grain in our opinion. For dessert, well, there wasn’t a dessert so we were offered fruit. Why offer a vegan option but then don’t include a dessert? Other passengers had a choice of desserts, and also a selection of mini Haagen Dazs ice cream pots to select from during the flight. For us, none of the dishes or snacks that were available throughout the flight were suitable for vegans.

Etihad Business Lounge at Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi

It was a struggle but we got there in the end with help from the lounge manager. Despite an excellent array of food in the stunning new lounge all with very clear labelling, there was nothing hot that was labelled vegan. Plenty of salads, grains, hummus and dips, but we really fancied a hot meal. After being offered pumpkin soup which contained dairy, we located the lounge manager and asked her for help. She spoke to the chef and it wasn’t long before we were enjoying a trio of curries served with rice. All tasted very good and it was exactly what we wanted, but why not have one or two of these curries available on the buffet? There were also bags of potato chips, packets of nuts and date bars available which were all labelled vegan, the date bars were delicious so we took a couple for our next flight.

Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow in Business Class

Due to the timings, we slept through the whole of our flight from Abu Dhabi to London, but were woken up for breakfast upon request. We were served a mixed bean and avocado wrap, with tomato salsa and rocket. Fresh orange juice, peppermint tea, fruit and a warm bread roll with vegan butter were also part of our breakfast. We were very happy that on this leg we had an alternative spread for our bread, and overall our breakfast was satisfactory, but not great.

Etihad Business Lounge at Heathrow Airport, London

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The Etihad Business Lounge at Heathrow Airport was the highlight of our vegan travel experience on this recent trip. Oat milk lattes, freshly squeezed orange juice, coconut milk chia puddings with mixed berries, and a ‘full English’ breakfast complete with vegan sausages and toast with vegan butter. There were salads, hummus, stuffed vine leaves and foul medames too for anyone who fancied a Middle Eastern inspired breakfast. The excellent labelling and varied options made this the perfect plant based breakfast. Very impressive.

London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi in Business Class

So close yet so far would be the best way to describe the vegan meal served on our London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi flight. Lunch started with a nutritious lentil and roasted vegetable salad, another side salad with balsamic dressing and a bread roll with vegan butter. Next up was one of the tastiest dishes in the sky we’ve ever had, skewers of tofu and peppers with a lightly spiced tomato sauce and basmati rice. We could not fault this dish and eagerly awaited our dessert, which if good, would have ended a memorable lunch. But we were offered fruit. Fruit is not dessert, it’s fruit. Don’t get us wrong, we love fruit but it is a pretty poor alternative to the warm chocolate fondants and pavlovas that other passengers were enjoying. The onboard crew agreed that it was less than inspiring and hunted down a refreshing citrus sorbet from first class. This was better than fruit, but still wasn’t a warm chocolate fondant and or a pavlova.

Etihad Business Lounge at Zayed International Airport, Abu Dhabi

Again, zero warm options in the flagship lounge at Zayed International airport, surely it would make sense to have at least one vegan option? We created our own mezze platter from the excellent selection on offer, and it was very good. No dessert option so we enjoyed a couple of the vegan date bars again which gave us a sweet fix before our next flight.

Abu Dhabi to Singapore in Business Class

Whilst waiting to hear what had been loaded as our VGML option from Abu Dhabi to Singapore, we perused the onboard Business Class menu. This was our fourth flight with Etihad in as many days, and up until now the onboard menu had nothing that was labelled vegan or even could perhaps be vegan. So it was to our surprise that the starters included a vegan laksa soup which of course we had to order. It’s kind of strange that having experienced varied success both in the lounges and on board with our Vegan Food Quest, that on our final flight there was a vegan option on the main menu? It was indeed lucky that the vegan laksa was available, as the three courses loaded for my vegan meal were described by the crew as follows: “For starter you’ve got some chickpeas, for main tomato pasta and fruit for dessert”. How very, very disappointing, uninspiring, and unacceptable. The vegan laksa was tasty, but was lacking in a vegetables or tofu for that protein hit. It was a flavoursome broth, with vermicelli noodles and bean sprouts, very enjoyable to eat. The excellent crew also created a vegan mezze platter for us too, with fattoush and beetroot hummus. We certainly didn’t go hungry, but would have loved a dessert!

We would describe the overall experience as a contrast of well thought out, nutritionally balanced and delicious dishes, and missed opportunities due to forgotten items, unclear labelling and thinking that fruit is ok for dessert. The catering on Etihad is of a high standard, the good food was very good, and looking at dishes that other passengers were served we could see that a lot of thought and effort goes into creating the menus. But as vegan passengers we felt that we were an afterthought and that we most certainly missed out on the full business class experience. The final word has to go to the lounge staff and the crew on each of the flights, they done everything they could to enhance our vegan dining experience, and were genuinely apologetic at the missing items and sometimes uninspiring choices, which we appreciated very much.

Paul Eyers

Paul Eyers is co-founder of Vegan Food Quest who write about luxury hotels and resorts in Southeast Asia with a focus on sustainable travel, eco travel and vegan travel. Currently based in Malaysia, Paul also writes about sporting events and some of the finest golf courses throughout the region.