Cathay Pacific First Class JFK-HKG

Well friends, it was going to happen sooner or later, but I'm already behind on the blog.  Or as they say in the restaurant business, I'm in the weeds.  86 the blog posts!  Just kidding, I'm not going anywhere, though as my loyal readers know (all two of you) from the "Where's Enzo" widget off to the right, I've been in Cairns now for 2 days and I'm just getting to this flight to HKG.  Oooops!

So I flew Cathay First on the 777-300ER.  I booked this using 80,000 Alaska Airlines miles. (They partner with lots of carriers, including Cathay.)  How do you get Alaska Airlines miles you ask?  Mostly by opening the Alaska credit card, spending money on it, and also flying on Alaska Airlines.  (Though there are lots of other ways.) I think this particular miles redemption was a great value.

There are only 6 seats in Cathay first and what seemed like perhaps 3 flight attendants dedicated to first class?  There was always someone available and overall the service was exceptional.  I pushed the call button once, which I never do, and a flight attendant was at my seat in literally 3 seconds.  Here's the seat map, just to give you a visual.  I was in 2A.

So lets start with the seat.  I mean, its huge. You could fit two people in it easily. I was pretty giddy upon boarding (or I was feeling all that bubbly from the lounge) and I could barely focus on ordering my drink (or making sure I looked slender for my photo!)  Anyway, take a look at the seat and my pre-departure beverage.

You can't really tell from the photos, but there are no overhead bins in first class which gives the cabin a more open feeling with higher ceilings.  Your carry on bags go under the ottoman (that later becomes part of the bed) or in the personal closet next to your seat.  After getting settled, and while everyone back in steerage boarded I took a trip to the restroom, mostly for this silly photo.

They had real towels!

Take off actually took forever, but lets skip the tales of me staring out the window looking at planes and zip on up to 30,000 feet to the menu being handed out.  It was actually several pages longer, but here are some select pages.  I of course took the menu home with me, so if you want to read it cover to cover, its available for review for those of you in the greater Washington, DC area. :)

While deciding what to order, I had some more bubbly, cause like, why not?

The flight attendant also brought me this cute little note, which I knew would happen, cause I've read a million reviews about this flight, but when she did it, I still found it very sweet!  (Yeah, also, champagne glass number XX at this point, so there's that too.)  I especially liked how it was personalized to note my final destination which was Cairns, and she'd asked me at the beginning of the flight if this was business or holiday, which she worked into the note as well.

The meals in first are served at any time, so I decided to have the lunch shortly after we leveled off.  I chose the filet for my entree.  The flight attendant asked me how I wanted it cooked which I couldn't help but wonder, how in the heck are they going to pull this off with whatever cooking tool they have up there in the galley.  (Sidebar: It reminded me of a friend who on a recent vacation asked 12 of us personally how we wanted our steaks cooked each of which he was preparing along with the rest of the meal. To his credit all the steaks were perfect, and you guessed it, so was my medium steak served at 30,000 feet!)  Though prior to the steak there are three other courses.  First, the caviar, and more champagne.  It's also not just caviar, but its served with a bread basket, butter, chopped egg, chive creme friache and blinis (little mini pancakes).  It was all delicious.

After the caviar was a tasty yellow pepper lemongrass soup.  It has some real heat to it which I was not expecting and it was quite good.

Next up was the salmon salad served with quinoa, green beans and quail egg.  The salmon was so melt in your mouth soft and tasted very fresh.

Then came the star, the filet, which was served with green beans and baby carrot.  It was well cooked and quite yummy.

You also may notice I added in a red wine in addition to my bubbly, because you've got to have a nice red wine with a filet, right?  I went with the Canteau Lynch Bages Pauillac 2008.  Yeah I have no idea what kind of wine that is, but that's what the flight attendant recommended. :)  Based on my sophisticated palate I can say that it paired quite well. (I don't know what I'm talking about but I enjoyed it.)

I actually asked to skip the cheese course because I was totally full at this point, but I had to try the dessert.  I went with the carrot banana souffle and dolce de leche ice cream.  It was good, not great.

After dinner I watched lots of movies and then several episodes of The Good Wife.  I'd never seen it before, what a good show! That Julianna Margulies is not messing around.  I'm still in season one, so no spoilers please!  The selection of movies and TV shows is great, the TV screen is quite large, and the Bose noise cancelling headphones are really nice.  Though prior to watching all that TV I changed into the Cathay provided pajamas while the flight attendant made up the bed.  It was hard to photograph and obviously the cabin was dark, but, you get the picture.  It was quite long and I could spread out and stretch pretty comfortably without banging into the side of the seat.

In the middle of the night (day?) I ordered shrimp wontons in noodle soup along with some Hong Kong style tea as a "snack" before resuming my The Good Wife marathon.

Then about an hour before landing I had dinner.  I started with a Cappuccino and went with the Steamed Sea Bass as my entree which was served with rice and vegetables.  I skipped the dessert!

The Sea Bass was probably my least favorite dish on this flight.  It was good, but had a hint of that fishy flavor.  I'm also not a big fish person, but wanted to give it a shot and it seemed lighter than the lamb and rigatoni options.

Overall, I was beyond tickled and delighted with the first class experience.  The seat and bed were very comfortable, the fight attendants could not have been more attentive and the food was on the whole delicious and beautifully presented. Even the china, glassware and silverware were beautiful.  I particularly liked the plating of the last entree above with the little bowls fitting in around the rice bowl.  No detail is overlooked, the entire experience was executed very well by an excellent crew.  On my way out I realized I'd forgotten to photograph the live orchid at my seat, so I leave you with that.  See you soon for the review of The Wing and The Pier, two of Cathay's first class lounges at Hong Kong Airport.