What to Eat: Qatar Airways Business Class

Updated June 23, 2020.

This What I Ate Wednesday is coming at you from the skies! My experience on Qatar Airways was definitely one to remember, and one reason why is the food.

Choosing Meals

Qatar Airways offers a perk I’ve never heard of before: the ability to choose your meal preference up to two weeks before departure! There were 17 options! The meals were:

• Asian Vegetarian (vegetarian meal with Indian spices)
• Baby (pre-packaged baby food for children up to 2 years old)
• Bland (for those who prefer easily digestible foods)
• Child (meal for children)
• Diabetic (low in sugar, high in health)
• Fruit Platter (self-explanatory)
• Gluten-free (also self-explanatory)
• Hindu (non-vegetarian, prepared according to Hindu religious requirements)
• Low-cholesterol/Low-fat (self-explanatory)
• Low-sodium (lower in salt content)
• Low-lactose (for the lactose-intolerant passengers)
• Raw Vegetarian (raw vegetables and some raw fruit)
• Vegetarian Jain (Indian vegetarian meal, prepared according to Jain practices)
• Vegetarian Lacto-ovo (vegetarian meal that includes eggs and dairy)
• Vegetarian Vegan (absolutely no animal products, not even honey, eggs, or dairy)
• Vegetarian Oriental (Oriental-style vegetarian meal)

There was also a footnote below this list stating that all meals served on Qatar Airways are prepared according to Islamic principles.

After reading this list, I realized the perk was only for special dietary needs. Good to know! Here’s what I actually ate on my flights to and from Qatar! The flight attendant actually said I didn’t eat enough! Part of the reason was that I was actually able to sleep on both flights–not an every-flight occurrence! Nevertheless, what I did eat was far better than the airline food of yesteryear. Take a look!

The Set-up

Before the dinner course, whenever I chose to have it, the flight attendant came over to set my table for me. The battery-operated tea light was a very nice touch! This is my table on the flight from IAD (Washington-Dulles International Airport) to DOH (Hammad International Airport Doha).

Appetizers

I’ll be perfectly honest, the on-demand meal options took a little longer than I was expecting. When I ordered, the flight attendant said it would take about 15-20 minutes to heat the food through. That’s fine, except half an hour later, I was still waiting! I realize I had 12.5 hours on the first flight and nearly 14 hours on the return, but I was hungry and wanted to sleep! Thankfully, there were some options to tide me over! Both came before dinner on the way from IAD to DOH.

Entrees

All the options sounded so good, it was hard to choose which entree was for me! So I ordered two on the way from IAD to DOH.

And this one was just right on the way home from DOH to IAD:

Dessert

If you know me, you know I have a crazy sweet tooth! I couldn’t believe it when I saw chocolate lava cake on the menu–I signed up for that right quick on the way from IAD to DOH! And the sticky toffee pudding was such a treat on the way home from DOH to IAD!

Snacks

Godiva chocolates were offered on both flights. They did not last long in my Q-suite!

Breakfast

This whole food-on-demand thing definitely has its perks. Where else could I get crab mac and cheese for breakfast? This was one incredible offering on the way from IAD to DOH.

These next two were actually from the Qatar Airways Lounge in Doha (DOH), but I’m including them here because that was part of my business class flying experience! I had to be at the airport by 5:00am, so I definitely needed some breakfast before my 8:45am flight!

Check out my review of the Qatar Airways Lounge at DOH!

After boarding, taxi, and take-off, I totally took a nap! I didn’t have to stay up for the first meal service because I could order what I wanted, whenever I wanted! When I did wake up several hours into the flight from DOH to IAH, this was my choice:

The flight attendants said I didn’t eat enough–and they are probably right! I could have certainly ordered more and perhaps I should have done so to really get my money’s worth. But for me, the ability to sleep so incredibly comfortably was worth far more than overeating! But that won’t stop me from planning for more meals on my next flight with Qatar Airways!

The Menus

For anyone interesting in all the options, here are some photos I took of the menus! I took them for my own reference in case I forgot the names and descriptions of what I ate, but I thought some of you might be interested, too! Just zoom in when necessary. The little leaf symbol means “Vegetarian dish; may contain dairy products.”

IAD-DOH

DOH-IAD

Want more on flying with Qatar Airways? Check out my blog post all about the experience! And see my Air Travel Page for all my airline reviews, too!

Want more about traveling in Qatar? You’ll find everything you need on my Qatar Page!

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