Is This United Airlines? Sublime Catering In Polaris Business Class On My Dubai Flight – Live and Let's Fly

After arriving in Dubai on Air India, my next leg was traveling from Dubai to Newark on United Airlines, a service United started earlier this year. The flight itself was pleasant enough, but the great surprise on this flight was the superb business class catering. I had to pinch myself to ensure I was traveling on United!

United Airlines Superb Dubai Catering In Polaris Business Class

To be honest, I think United’s catering has come a long way in the last year and am generally quite satisfied with it. But the catering on this flight was on a whole different (and superior) level.

Menus were waiting on each seat and included four entree choices for dinner and two for breakfast prior to arrival. 

Dinner was served after takeoff, and among the many appetizing options I chose the beef tangine, a Moroccan-inspired stew that is slowly cooked for hours (at least in theory). The dish was served with turmeric infused Israel couscous, olives, roasted red onion, and parsley. A home run.

What was a bit odd was that the salad (halal bulgur, bean and corn salad with mesclun, cumin seed, and cumin vinaigrette) and appetizer (sumac chicken with Aztec farro, jicama, bean and corn salad
with smoked paprika aioli) were largely the same. Fattoush and lentil soup would have been preferred, but this was not bad. Bonus: buttery garlic bread.

Next I enjoyed a delicious cheese course with crackers and grapes before concluding the meal with an ice cream sundae topped in whipped cream, strawberries, and almonds.

A very nice meal which helped me quickly fall asleep for the next six hours.

This is a 14-hour, 50-minute flight and typically I can sleep for 10 hours on these longhauls. This time, I awoke roughly halfway through the flight and unable to fall back asleep, ordered a snack: potato leek soup and a wrap with with hummus, olive tapenade, cheese, and lettuce. I also had a piece of fruit cobbler left over from the dinner service. It hit the spot.

The biggest surprise, though, was for breakfast prior to landing in Newark. I ordered the halal grilled beef tenderloin, which was served with scrambled eggs, truffle Hollandaise sauce, grilled tomatoes and rösti potatoes with onions.

You always take a risk in ordering airline steak, but this was a very decent cut of beef and cooked medium well (still too much, but better than well-done). It really hit the spot and the truffle Hollandaise sauce was excellent.

I also loved the full-sized croissant and especially the generous bowl of fruit with ripe and sweet watermelon, raspberries, and blueberries. A great breakfast indeed.

I noticed a lot of people were sleeping through breakfast, so I asked the flight attendant if I could also try the halal buttermilk pancakes, served with cinnamon butter, apple compote, and maple syrup. Wow. The pancakes (I guess the cinnamon butter was key) were so delicious!

I have more than a theory about the catering on this flight. Live And Let’s Fly has learned that as part of its wide-ranging codeshare agreement, Emirates and United have specifically consulted on the catering on this route. Yes indeed, I’d say this route offers the best catering in the system right now.

Every meal on this flight was excellent and it shows me very clearly that serving excellent food onboard is 100% possible on United.

I will have many more details about this flight in my upcoming full review, but did want to dedicate a special post to the superb catering. Well-done, United.