TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Iberia has rolled out new menus across Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class on long-haul flights from Madrid and we’re told that they have been built (mostly) around dishes that have already proved popular in previous rotations. There’s also a small seasonal update for the Dalí and Velázquez lounges at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas.
The details
We should start off by saying that Iberia hasn’t provided a full breakdown of every item that we can expect to find on every menu (you can find out what’s being served on your flight on this Iberia page), but we do have a few details.
Business Class
The newly introduced starters on the Business Class menu include a salmon tartare with avocado, pickled vegetables, radish and berries, served on a horseradish cream.
The main course highlight is a grilled beef tenderloin with potato gratin and seasonal vegetables.
Dessert is a chocolate tartlet with hazelnut praline.
For reasons best known to Iberia, its press release didn’t include an image of the grilled beef tenderloin, but included a pasta dish which, we presume, will be another of the options on the menu.
Premium Economy
In the Premium Economy cabin, braised beef cheeks served with glazed carrots, broccolini and a white bean purée return to the menu and Iberia tells us that this was one of the cabin’s most highly rated dishes in earlier rotations.
Given that the beef cheeks served on British Airways are usually one of the better options on its menu (and on BA they usually appear in Business Class), and given that Iberia and BA both use Do&Co for their inflight food (so the quality should be similar), it’s good to see this make a reappearance … although it should probably be a little embarrassing for BA that Iberia is serving its Business Class meals in Premium Economy.
Economy Class
We’re told that the Economy Class menu will now rotate more frequently through the year (good news if you fly with Iberia quite often) and that the options include a beef burger with Café de Paris butter, peas, sautéed green beans and potato purée, or meatballs in romesco sauce with Padrón peppers and potato gratin.
We’re also told that these options will alternate with chicken-based dishes and that’s good, because while I’m sure the meatballs will be fine, I’m not convinced that any airline has yet managed to serve a good burger in the sky.
Lounge ice cream update
Iberia says that for the summer (and through 15 September), both the Dalí Lounge and the Velázquez Lounge will offer self-serve Magnum mini ice creams.
In addition, through 13 September, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday will see the Velázquez Lounge host a manned ice cream cart which will serve “traditional ice cream”.
Quick thoughts
I like this news. This is Iberia bringing back dishes that, we’re told, have been popular in the past and there’s nothing wrong with bringing back food that has already tested well.
New can be good, so if beef cheeks and beef tenderloin worked for customers before, why fix what’s not broken?
The one thing to note as far as the new/returning onboard food goes is that there’s no hint as to what vegetarian flyers will be offered. If we find out, we’ll update this article.
Lastly, I guess some mention should be made of the ice cream in the Madrid lounges – this is a nice touch (and I’d love to know what flavors of ice cream the traditional cart will offer), but it’s not really big news is it? Still, I guess it shows that Iberia is putting a little thought into what it can add to its lounges this summer, and that’s more than a few other airlines that I could mention seem to be doing.
Bottom line
Iberia tells us that its long-haul menus have been refreshed with a mix of returning customer favourites – salmon tartare and beef tenderloin in Business Class, braised beef cheeks in Premium Economy, and a wider rotation of burgers, meatballs and chicken dishes in Economy Class.
Separately, if you like ice cream, the Dalí and Velázquez Lounges in Madrid have you covered through 15 September.
Note: All images supplied by Iberia and all appear to have come through ChatGPT, so the actual meals may not actually look like what you see in the article above 😁
