Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
I took sort of a mini-mileage run to the 2022 Chicago Seminars. (That’s generally my MO for at least one leg of a Seminars trip.) I flew Burbank (ORD) to Salt Lake City (SLC, where I enjoyed some time on that Sky Club’s Sky Deck) to Seattle (SEA) to O’Hare (ORD).
I sat in Delta Air Lines’ First Class cabin for the final flight. We flew during dinner time — and that gave me a chance to try a new Delta meal!
Delta emailed me a menu about a week before the trip. Here were my options:
Steak it was! I select the Seared Check as my entree.
RELATED: What determines where Delta flight attendants start serving First Class meals?
High Steaks: Dinner at 31,000 Feet
This turned out to be a rather interesting meal.
I started with the salad — which I really enjoyed.
Then came the main course.
The green beans were crisp and bore some nice flavor.
I’m not a big potato gratin fan. Their texture sort of weirds me out. But this potato gratin was delicious. (Maybe it was all the cheese and heavy cream.)
The tastiest ingredients were the mushrooms and onions! Their flavors absolutely popped.
The steak wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t anything particularly special. It simply didn’t have a lot of flavors. I wish Delta would’ve provided some salt and pepper; this steak desperately needed them.
I’m also curious where exactly the “sear” came into play. I didn’t see or taste any crust from a pan or grill.
Finally, the meal ended with a tasty chocolate chip cookie from Bell’s Cookie Company in Seattle. The cookie feature a light dash of sea salt — which perfectly complemented the rest of the sweet dessert.
(I washed everything down with a Woodford Reserve on the rocks and some water.)
Final Approach
Delta’s Seared Chuck Steak dinner wasn’t anything particularly special. It was fine. I wasn’t hungry afterward. Ironically, the steak took a backseat to the salad, potatoes, mushrooms, onions, and cookie — all of which were delicious.
Have you had Delta’s Seared Chuck Steak meal? What did you think of it? Please share your thoughts in the below Comments section!
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Delta switched at most airports to the catering company that does Turkish, Austrian and others. I just haven’t seen any good food. I say seen because most of it I didn’t eat.
While the food I’ve seen since first-class meals came back has looked a little more chef-driven than the catering company before the pandemic, the quality hasn’t been there. I actually think Delta domestic meals are worse until the new caterer than before.
They have also been very heavy on meat (pork, chicken) or faux beef burgers for vegetarians. I never see fish anymore. I have had several flights where the pre-selected meals aren’t catered or catering doesn’t give enough meals for whatever reason. From DTW, the most regular hot option since May or June has been the faux beef burger.
The Sky Club lounges at JFK, SEA and LGA have better food than others in the system. I would rather eat at those particular lounges now and not take my chance on the plane. If I’m at DTW, ATL, CVG or SLC, I’ll probably eat something in the terminal.
5 our of the 6 meals in Delta One earlier this month ATL-ICN and ICN-ATL were AWFUL! And the caterer ATL to ICN did not put ice cream sundaes on the plane. The excuse was “they ran out of ice cream.” However, on my flight yesterday ATL-BOS the meal (Chef Mashama Bailey’s Roasted Chicken Leg) was EXCELLENT. Salad great. Dressing great! Chicken leg great, and dessert cake great. And there was a packet of salt/pepper on the tray, same as for all 6 meals ATL-ICN-ATL. You should have asked the FA for a packet of salt/pepper.
No ice cream? Isn’t the purpose of Delta to get people to their destination safe & hopefully on time? You have the rest of your life to enjoy your much needed ice cream.
Well, yes. That’s one of Delta’s purposes. They also exist to work with American Express, make crazy changes to their loyalty program… 😉
Had the chicken leg last month- do not order it! Gray n stringy. Had the artichoke ravioli on Monday . It was ok but got the tray as the pilot was announcing 30 minutes to landing! It was ok but the chocolate cake dry.
Uh-oh! We have a chicken-leg showdown between you and Don in ATL! 😉
Anytime! I have pictures of the gray leg!
I find Delta meals shockingly underwhelming. Far worse than the competition. I find FEBO ridiculous – it doesn’t make any sense unless you had the same 12 or 16 pax flying every flight. And with the inconsistent implementation of FEBO you really don’t have any idea what you will find on the plane.
As somebody who only flies paid FC I have to admit that I expect more, and the idea of a gold member with a gate upgrade getting choice of entrees while I get stuck with the weird veggie pasta infuriates me. Delta should do meal selection like this:
Paid FC first. Then 360s with upgrades. Then everybody else with upgrades.
I seriously wonder what I am paying for most of the time, and as a result am driving a lot of trips I would previously have flown. And choosing other airlines when it makes sense. For example, I took my family to Hawaii on AA in paid FC instead of Delta. First, I saved $6000. Delta tickets were twice as much. The plane was clean and beautiful and had nice lay-flat seats. Service was spectacular, and the food was great. It’s too bad the AA is such a cluster-F these days, or I would go out of my way to fly them.
I’m a diamond, and with the amount of credit card spend I do, I can basically stay one forever without flying at all. As it is, I fly Delta when it makes sense, but any sense of loyalty or value I felt 10 years ago (or 20 years ago on NWA) is gone. These days, I feel like I’m just a means for Delta to extract revenue…
I agree 100%.
Deltas loyalty is to them selves.
I am 4 million mile and diamond for over 20 years, always pay for first or business.
I see the premium I pay to fly and I am seriously looking for a o term carrier that is often 20-30% lower in price.
If you’re buying paid first, you should be getting an email before flights with a meal selection option. Of course, that doesn’t mean the meals are edible.
I cannot believe that Delta described that meat as “chuck steak” … Chuck Steak is a think cut of meat and the photo looks like chunks of chuck roast. But then again I would be happy to have the time to fly these days! (and do not call me “chunk” or “chuck” …)
Chuck cut is a low quality cut that is typically stringy and tough. For that to be FC is ridiculous.
Why does every airline meal have to have cheese. To me all of this would be disgusting starting with the salad and the main course.
I guess the cookie would work.
Hey All, I’m Executive Platinum with AA.
These are all very interesting discussions, especially from the Diamond flyers.
The food over here on the AA side is really very innovative and great. The best I’ve seen anywhere, I’m happy to say. When I see a cookie for dessert in F Class [or Biz Class] I think of a buy on board economy box. It just feels and looks very “Basic Economy” Just saying. AA usually provides choices for dessert -AFTER- the meal.
Keep the faith my friends and don’t ever be afraid to shout out those opinions.
Let’s face it…first class just isn’t what it was back in the ‘golden’ days. As a teenager, I once flew first class on TWA (yup I said it!) to LAX. I literally felt like I was Mick Jagger. The food was amazing. The drinks (soft) kept coming and the FA’s couldn’t get enough of me. I promised myself if I could ever be lucky enough to get the opportunity to fly first class again…I would do it.
Fast forward to today…I’m in first class almost all of the time. The biggest benefit? (Well, it certainly isn’t that sorta-like chuck steak ‘thing’ in the picture.) The biggest benefit? I get to de-plane quickly upon arrival.
Talk about low expectations…
Excellent Mick Jagger reference, TravelWarr!
Chris:
Great post about the food I (try to) eat essentially every week.
These days, I think Delta’s trying a bit too hard to impress with “celebrity” menu items and such.
My preference would be for them to keep it simple (“KISS ” to some, but I won’t post that for fear of offending!).
Additionally, a small editorial suggestion :
Can you correct the line …”I flew Burbank (ORD)”…
I know that you know that Burbank’s BUR.
Also, to Rick regarding his post…”diamond for over 20 years…”
Delta began the Diamond program in 2010.
https://news.delta.com/delta-2010-skymiles-medallion-program-launch-industry-first-rollover-elite-qualification-miles
Sadly, the status has been devalued so many times it should probably be renamed cubic zirconia
Keep up the great posts…they’re so appreciated.
The words “chuck” and “steak” really don’t go together. Chuck is best slow-cooked and braised or made into hamburger. Chris, I wonder whether sources might reveal whether Delta’s beef is USDA Choice or USDA Select. If I had to guess, it would be Select.
Wtf…a beef stake Is a beef stake…why they use such a pompous words for nothing…chuck ,Mack,dack,luck…etc ..common sense and confusion out of the window!!!!
First time flyer and on our trip back we decided to upgrade to first class. My husband and I really enjoyed our meals. We actually swapped after seeing them. I had the seared beef chuck. Everything was good. The highlight for me was the salad and dressing. Ranch or caesar dressing have always been my top choices. Honestly, I’m not an adventurous eater. I decided to try it anyway. Fell in love with it. So much so I want to make it at home. I asked the flight attendant if she could tell me what the dressing was and she said it wasn’t listed. I have searched the web for a few days trying to figure it out. Finally came across post. THANK YOU!!!
Thank you!