JetBlue’s new Mint meals go live tomorrow

Back in June, JetBlue told us that it was changing the restaurants behind its Mint catering. Out were Charlie Bird and Pasquale Jones (who have been supplying the menus since late 2020) and in came Crown Shy and Birdee, but that’s just about all the information we were given at the time.

Now, we know more, as the menus for the upcoming months have been published and the new meals should start appearing onboard from tomorrow, 31 July 2026.

The new dishes JetBlue announced

JetBlue has published what it describes as “featured menu highlights”, grouped like this:

Breakfast comes from Birdee – a bakery in Williamsburg, which JetBlue describes as “the beloved Brooklyn bakery and all-day café known for its elevated comfort food and pastries”:

• Strawberries and cream croissant
• Mochi waffle with butter and maple syrup
• Bacon, egg and cheese on a Parker House roll with harissa aioli
• Shakshuka with cherry pepper relish and feta

Lunch and dinner come from Crown Shy – a Michelin-starred restaurant in Manhattan’s Financial District:

• Warm Parker House roll with olive labne spread
• Crown Shy chicken with citrus marinated thigh and hot sauce vinaigrette
• Pork katsu with hot cherry glaze and scallions
• Razor clam chowder with roasted carrots and thyme
• Sweet potato lasagnette with pecorino cream and chervil

Desserts are split between Birdee and Crown Shy:

• Chocolate tart with sabayon and port wine syrup
• Strawberry olive oil shortcake with meringue and crème fraiche
• Warm chocolate chip cookie by Birdee

Link to JetBlue’s Mint dining and drinks menus page

Which menu you get, and when

The menu you’re handed depends on the local departure time of your flight.

On transatlantic flights:

• Breakfast on departures between 05:00 and 09:46
• Lunch or dinner on departures between 09:47 and 20:29

On domestic and Canada flights:

• Breakfast on departures between 05:00 and 09:46
• Lunch or dinner on departures between 09:47 and 20:00
• The Shut-Eye Savor & Sleep menu on departures between 20:01 and 23:59

On dietary options, the press release lists vegetarian, nut-free, dairy-free and gluten-free selections. JetBlue’s own menu page says only vegetarian and gluten-free are built into the menus, and that every other special meal has to be ordered at least 24 hours before departure through Manage Your Booking.

Coming in 2027

Two more New York restaurants join the Mint lineup in early 2027, Red Hook Tavern and Hometown Bar-B-Que.

Thoughts

JetBlue’s announcement talks about “the first menus” from its new partners, but based on what we can see on JetBlue’s menu pages, that isn’t entirely correct.

There is no Crown Shy menu to go and look at, and no Birdee menu either. There are the same route-specific menus JetBlue has always run, with some of these new dishes added to them (presumably in place of others). That makes this a seasonal refresh with two well-known names attached rather than the full new menu launch that the wording in the press release suggests.

Another thing that the press release doesn’t make entirely clear is that while nut-free and dairy-free menu selections are available, they have to be ordered at least a day in advance. For most of us that won’t be an issue. If you have a dairy or nut intolerance, however, that’s worth noting.

As for the dishes themselves, they sound good, but some accompanying images would have been nice (if anyone from JetBlue is reading this, feel free to send some over).

For breakfast, a mochi waffle, or shakshuka with cherry pepper relish and feta, sounds quite a bit nicer than what I’ve been offered by a number of the bigger carriers on my Europe flights, and I like the sound of the pork katsu with hot cherry glaze and scallions.

I’m less sold on the idea of razor clam chowder (will that reheat well?) and the Strawberries and cream croissant (it sounds too sweet for breakfast), but I guess we’ll only really know how good or bad all of this is when the first reports from JetBlue’s flyers start to come in.

Bottom line

JetBlue is adding dishes from Crown Shy and Birdee to its Mint menus from tomorrow, 31 July 2026, with Red Hook Tavern and Hometown Bar-B-Que expected to follow in early 2027.

This isn’t, as the JetBlue press release would have us believe, a new set of menus. It is, instead, a series of new dishes that are replacing some of the dishes that the airline currently offers.

The dishes themselves sound good and it’s nice to see that the small plates format that makes Mint dining unique hasn’t been changed, but we’d really like some first-hand reports telling us what the new dishes are like, so if you’re flying in a JetBlue Mint cabin from 31 July, let us know what you think of the offering.