Qatar Airways Business Class is known for dine on demand, an expansive wine list and restaurant-style presentation. On this 7-hour flight from Frankfurt, the sensible option would have been to select one meal and settle in. Instead, the entire available food menu went under scrutiny, along with a serious number of drinks and every snack within reach.

The result was an epic in-flight meal covering 3 starters, 4 mains, cheese, cheesecake, fruit and a broad selection of wine. Only small tastes were taken where possible. Any food left over after meal service would otherwise be discarded on arrival, so this was a practical way to see just how deep the Qatar Qsuite menu goes.

A Qatar Business Class Menu With Serious Range

The menu was not short of options. Starters included cream of asparagus soup, Qatari mezze with pita bread, and smoked salmon with dill labneh. Main courses ranged from Angus beef fillet and hammour machboos to butter chicken and penne pomodoro with basil pesto.

The final courses were a New York cheesecake, seasonal fruit and a cheese plate. There were also 11 wine offerings to consider, plus champagne, rosé, port, a sweet wine and non-alcoholic drinks. This is the kind of menu that makes a single choice rather difficult.

Service began with Joseph Perrier rosé champagne. It was beautifully chilled, light and very enjoyable, with delicate strawberry and red berry notes. Gosset champagne followed, though the rosé was the clear preference. A mint and lemon drink provided a welcome non-alcoholic change of pace, while the mixed nuts were good without quite matching the nut selection found on some Qantas flights.

Bread, Oils and an Excellent Amuse-Bouche

About an hour into the flight, the table was set with 3 bread rolls, butter, salt, pepper and 4 small bottles of flavoured oil. The choices were lemon, tomato, olive oil and balsamic vinegar with oil.

The bread was a reminder that aircraft cabins are incredibly dry. Leave it too long and it quickly becomes firmer than intended. Still, it was good with butter and balsamic. The lemon oil had a noticeable bite, but the tomato balsamic was probably the standout. In truth, there was not a massive difference among the oils, but all added a pleasant touch to the meal.

The amuse-bouche was Arabic coffee infused beef, served cold over a green puree. Coffee is not usually a personal favourite, but the coffee flavour did not dominate. It was cold, tasty and a very good start.

The cream of asparagus soup was also a success. It was not about to replace chicken and corn soup as the preferred soup choice, but it was smooth, pleasant and perfectly acceptable for an in-flight starter.

The Starters: Salmon Wins Over Mezze

The Qatari mezze came with baba ganoush, hummus, muhammara and little flatbreads. It was beautifully presented, with each dip served in its own small bowl. The baba ganoush and hummus were not personal favourites, while the muhammara had the more appealing tomato and savoury edge.

That is not necessarily a criticism of the dish. Mezze is simply one of those meals that depends heavily on individual taste. The presentation was spot on, and anyone fond of these Middle Eastern dips would have a far better time with it.

The smoked salmon with dill labneh was the winning starter. It was light, fresh and exactly as remembered from previous Qatar Airways flights. It is a cold dish, but if salmon is your thing, it is hard to go wrong here.

A small taste of Whispering Angel rosé accompanied the starter selection. It was light and easy to drink, with the sort of aromatic description involving red berries, rose petals, rosemary, lavender, grapefruit and peach that wine experts somehow manage to identify from one sip. For the rest of us, it was simply a nice rosé.

The Main Courses: Butter Chicken Takes the Crown

The first main was Angus beef fillet with mushroom sauce, potatoes, carrots and broccoli. Steak can be a risky business at 35,000 feet. It often arrives well done, regardless of the request. This one was closer to medium, perhaps a little beyond, but far better than the usual airline steak experience.

The beef was genuinely excellent, and the mushroom sauce was more than enough without needing mustard, tomato sauce, mayonnaise or Tabasco. A Château Belgrave red accompanied it. Its official flavour language involved truffle, tobacco and juicy plum. The straightforward assessment was that it was definitely red wine.

The Qatari hammour machboos was next. The first mouthful did not quite convince, but the accompanying yoghurt lifted the dish noticeably. It was good, though not as good as the beef.

Then came the butter chicken with jeera rice, and this was the winner. Tender chicken, a lovely sauce and good rice made it immediately better than the steak. The small bread accompaniments were ideal for mopping up the remaining sauce, assuming it made it onto the plate rather than the shirt.

The butter chicken was paired with Sutil Limited Release 2022 Syrah from Chile. This was a lighter red, more suited to personal taste, with fruit-forward character and red berry notes.

Finally, there was penne pomodoro with basil pesto, cherry tomatoes and parmesan. It had a rich tomato flavour, plenty of basil pesto and a satisfying finish. Choosing between this pasta and the butter chicken was difficult, but both were outstanding. More broadly, there was not a genuinely disappointing main course in the lot.

Cheese, Cheesecake and the Perfect Sweet Finish

After 2.5 hours of eating, the cheese course arrived with brie, Emmental, blue cheese, crackers and sweet accompaniments. The fruity element worked particularly well with the crackers and cheese.

A port proved to be an excellent pairing. It had plenty happening in the flavour department and was a pleasing return to a drink that does not appear often enough on an airline menu.

The New York cheesecake was creamy, rich and topped with a lovely raspberry sauce. It was followed by a sweet wine, or “sticky,” which made an exceptional match with dessert. This was precisely the sort of indulgent conclusion expected from a premium cabin meal.

Fresh seasonal fruit rounded out the formal meal. The plate included melon, watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, berries and citrus. A half still, half sparkling water mix was tried alongside it, although the still water overpowered the sparkling portion.

The Snack Basket: A Few Hits Among the Sugar

Even after the full meal, there was still the snack basket. The selection included protein pops, salted caramel popcorn, cinnamon salted popcorn, sea salt crisps, organic berries with chocolate, beetroot chips, truffle and porcini potato chips, and chocolate and strawberry fitness bars.

The green protein pops were not bad. The salted caramel popcorn was reasonable but not an absolute favourite, while the cinnamon salted popcorn did little to impress. The sea salt crisps were short on flavour.

The organic berry snack, with plenty of chocolate, was very good. The beetroot chips, however, did not work at all. The truffle and porcini chips were similarly underwhelming, while the chocolate fitness bar delivered a sizeable sugar hit.

The strawberry fitness bar was the snack-basket standout. It was undeniably sweet, but it was the one worth eating again. Small chocolates were also available, which felt almost unnecessary after such a substantial meal.

Final Verdict on Qatar Airways Business Class Food

Qatar Airways delivered a remarkably strong Business Class dining experience on this Frankfurt flight. The menu had breadth, presentation was consistently polished and the mains were particularly impressive.

The best dishes were:

• Butter chicken with jeera rice
• Penne pomodoro with basil pesto
• Angus beef fillet with mushroom sauce
• Smoked salmon with dill labneh
• New York cheesecake with raspberry sauce

The butter chicken narrowly took the top spot, but the pasta ran it close. The steak was far better than expected for an airline meal, and the cheesecake completed the experience beautifully.

Ordering almost everything is clearly not the recommended approach for an ordinary flight. But as a test of Qatar Qsuite dine on demand, it showed that the menu is more than just extensive. Much of it is genuinely very good.