Etihad Mezoon Grille – a real restaurant on board your next flight

Etihad has put itself firmly in the “crazy but they might just pull it off basket” by launching the Mezoon Grille on flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Dusseldorf, London and Paris to Abu Dhabi for Diamond First Class passengers. It’s literally a restaurant on your flight.

When you travel first class and pay upwards of $10,000 for your return ticket, you would be forgiven for thinking a restaurant in the sky is the least the airline could do for you. But as world renowned chef Heston Blumenthal discovered in his TV series Heston’s Mission Impossible, where he tried to revolutionise the airline food industry, it’s bloody hard. With small, confined kitchens, large amounts of passengers and the air pressure affecting passengers’ taste buds, fine dining at 10,000 metres up was anything but easy.

Etihad have thrown caution to the wind though with the Mezoon Grille. Smartly, its is only offering the Mezoon Grille to a small amount of passengers, its Diamond First Class no less. Currently its available on selected routes, of which Australia gets two. Each of these flights will have chefs on board who will personally help you select your meal and accompanying drinks and then prepare it on board for you, fresh.

According to the Etihad website: “To help design your own fine dining masterpiece in person, your onboard chef will see you at your table. With 5-star hotel & leading restaurant experience, your chef will personally guide your meal choice and offer expert advice on creating or adapting your dishes. Our chef’s pantry is always stocked with fresh produce – so feel free to ask for something ‘off the menu’.”

From March 2012, all Etihad flights with Diamond First Class will have the Mezoon Grille on board. Has this got your taste buds tingling? Well, fly from Sydney to Abu Dhabi in March on Diamond First and you’ll be shelling out $10,710 if you book today… better start saving.

Web: Etihad