Anyone who has ever unwrapped an uninspiring in-flight meal will have undoubtedly dreamed of a more luxurious dining experience in the sky. So we’ve taken a look at some of the most lavish airline menus throughout history, from Thanksgiving turkey and kangaroo tail soup to fine dining feasts in the 21st century – and everything in between.

Click or scroll through our gallery to see some of the most decadent airline meals ever served – counting down to the most remarkable of all.

We've based our ranking on how unusual and luxurious each meal is, and on the opinions of our team. The list is unavoidably subjective.

The first meals on passenger planes were served in 1919 by the Handley Page Transport Company on a flight from London to Paris. Flight attendants, or 'cabin boys', brought hampers of sandwiches and fruit onboard and distributed them among the passengers. This cost the princely sum of three shillings – or roughly £8 ($10) in 2025 money.

Lufthansa was the first airline to offer its passengers hot food during a meal – undoubtedly the most luxurious flight food offering of the time. It was only an option for the 15 passengers lucky enough to be hopping from Berlin to Paris in Lufthansa's Flying Dining Car in 1928. To get the meals onboard, the cabin crew filled insulated bottles with warm food ready for service.

The world’s first truly luxurious air service was launched in 1927, courtesy of Imperial Airways. Its Silver Wing service was super-exclusive, offering more comfortable seating and stewards dressed in white jackets, bow ties and caps. Most excitingly of all, the crew served afternoon tea using fine china, small tables with linen tablecloths, silver cutlery and crystal glasses.

Imperial Airways (British Airways’ predecessor) offered a stunningly ambitious menu in the 1930s once its so-called 'flying boats' started running routes to Africa and Australia. One menu included a multi-course meal that started with foie gras, moved on to roast chicken, ox tongue, ham and salad, then ended with peach Melba. That's not to mention the cheeses and drinks served, too.

The 1930s was a wonderful time to fly. United Airlines brought in its much-promoted 'world's first flight kitchen' in 1936, so chefs in Oakland, California could carefully prepare food for the sole purpose of being eaten onboard. The first menus included fried chicken and scrambled eggs. Aboard Pan Am’s Clippers, meanwhile, passengers had a dining room where they could eat from a buffet on tables with white tablecloths.

Qantas didn't neglect its economy passengers when it came to quality food. A rediscovered menu from the 1970s revealed that travellers on a Qantas Boeing 747 could look forward to pepper steak, veal or lamb for their main meals and, interestingly, more steak (with pan-fried bacon and hash browns) for breakfast. 

In the 1940s, William L. Maxson effectively invented the TV dinner when he introduced his blue-plate frozen dinners on military planes towards the end of World War II. But, while the so-called Sky Plate is a step closer to the much-derided plane food served in later years, this development was economical and allowed for more varied dishes. It was, after all, a complete portion of meat and vegetables in one neat package.

Meals on Alitalia in the 1950s started with canapés before several lavish courses followed – all accompanied by an extensive wine list. At the time, the airline was fighting an uphill battle to convince customers to fly on its comparatively slow planes, so it offered what others couldn't: the very best Italian food served in chic style.

In the 1960s, flight attendants on Pan Am's Clipper planes could cook steaks to order – rare, medium or well done – in seven minutes using a quartz grill in the galley. Roast beef was also prepared daily on the ground before being completed in the galley's infrared oven. The cabin crew then wheeled the beef out on a trolley and carved it seat-side for the enjoyment of passengers.

In the late 1950s, Lufthansa began offering its Senator Service. The airline transformed planes that usually seated 95 people into first class carriages for just 32 wealthy passengers. The menu, of course, was one of the main attractions, with everything available being a la carte. Options included steaks cooked to order by the sky chef, fresh lobster salad and caviar.

On a first class British Airways flight from Oslo to London in 1977, the starters were smoked salmon with scrambled egg, while for their main course, passengers could choose between fillet of beef with pimento sauce, pan-fried potatoes and buttered leaf spinach or poached halibut with lobster sauce and boiled potatoes. Those with room left could go on to enjoy French apple cake, a cheese board and a fruit tray.

You didn't need to cough up the cash for a seat in Lufthansa's top-of-the-range Senator Service to get a good in-flight meal in the 1960s. Menus from Lufthansa during this period showcased delicious meals such as saddle of veal with curry cream sauce and pistachio rice or fillet steak with dauphinoise potatoes.

Trans World Airlines (TWA) is no longer with us, but there was a time in the 1950s when the airline was strongly pushing its food offerings. One memorable ad asked its potential customers, 'What does a man like for dinner 20,000 feet up?' Its answer in the ad was 'thoughtfully planned meals – perfectly cooked and graciously served with TWA's compliments'. In reality, it involved decadent meals such as roast beef au jus carved from an aisle trolley. 

By 1971, airlines were battling to outdo their competitors' lavish first class offerings. This Singapore Airlines menu gives an example of the food available at the time. Choices in first class included spiced chicken, prawn curry, roast mignonettes of lamb and a Malaysian salad, but even in economy, the offering was delicious, with options such as stuffed mushrooms with crab meat and stir-fried shrimp.

The 'golden age' of travel certainly wasn't over by the 1970s, especially for Singapore Airlines. Boasting about 'the most delicious 747 in the world', the airline's first class experience was luxurious, with meals served on Royal Doulton bone china and Irish linen tablecloths. One menu mentioned hors d'oeuvres such as Russian caviar, main courses of lobster cooked in Pernod, roast pigeon served with grapes and beef carved at the table.

The 1970s saw the exciting launch of Concorde – and its sumptuous menus. Onboard Concorde from Bahrain to London in January 1976, the menu was particularly decadent, with caviar and smoked salmon canapés to start, guinea fowl with foie gras and asparagus spears to follow and an orange poached in Grand Marnier for dessert.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Scandinavian Airlines, the company released a series of eye-popping images of the in-flight food offered to customers in first class from the 1950s to the 1980s. This shot had to be the pick of the bunch, showcasing a jaw-dropping array of succulent-looking food served by the flight chef. The table included fresh lobster, salmon and caviar amongst many other things.

As the first airline in Asia to offer food on board its planes, Philippine Airlines was always ahead of the curve. In 1984, it kicked things up another gear by serving nouvelle cuisine at 30,000ft. Canapés in first class included pumpernickel with smoked trout mousse and sea perch salad in vine leaves, while desserts featured intricate creations such as a millefeuille Strasbourgeoise.

When Virgin Atlantic started operating between London and New York in 1984, the company revolutionised the travel industry by making air travel fun and cool again. That included offering decent food – even in economy. An economy class menu from the 1990s revealed that passengers had three distinct choices: pork chow mein, sautéed fillet of salmon and Mediterranean vegetables and lentil pasta. Not bad, eh?

If passengers in the 1990s sought the luxury of the golden age of flying, they really had to upgrade to first class (if they could afford it). This Air France Concorde menu from 1992 shows the sort of decadent food passengers of the 1960s would have been used to: fresh caviar, lobster salad with truffles and guinea fowl in Champagne sauce.

McDonald’s has made many attempts to expand beyond burgers and fries over the years. Arguably its wackiest venture of all was the McPlane – part of a 1996 collaboration with Swiss air carrier Crossair and now defunct tour company Hotelplan. The McPlane operated flights from Basel, Switzerland, to various Mediterranean destinations and passengers onboard could enjoy McDonald's menu items such as milkshakes, Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets. Despite initial enthusiasm, the high operational costs and dwindling public interest led to its discontinuation a few years later.

In 2011, Delta Air Lines collaborated with chef Michael Chiarello to create the menus for Delta's Business Elite cabin on domestic flights. His first offering included an antipasti plate to start, a pan-seared fillet of beef, chicken Vendemia or fusilli Michelangelo for the main, and a selection of Old World fine cheeses or gelato for dessert.

Etihad celebrates Ramadan every year with a specially curated menu. Top Emirati chef Khaled Alsaadi is in charge of putting the menus together, with recent dishes including carraway goat cheese curds, bulgur salad with date vinaigrette and a delicious-looking cheesecake. Best of all, Etihad released a cookbook for guests hoping to recreate the dishes at home.

China Airlines branded itself 'the world’s first flying Chinese restaurant' in the 1970s, focusing heavily on its food offering in advertising. Passengers could enjoy traditional Chinese dishes on board, with one advert highlighting 'warm and tasty' spring rolls, sweet and sour pork that 'only a few chefs know how to make perfectly' and Mandarin chicken 'flawlessly spiced', served with 'shimmering' golden noodles.

The development of frozen meals onboard helped luxurious airlines like Pan Am prepare American classics in the air. Food in the Air and Space details how, on Thanksgiving, the airline would serve a full turkey dinner no matter where they were. Staff recalled a day in 1967, in which they enlisted a handsome first class passenger to don an apron and carve the turkey, which was served with potatoes, gravy, cranberry jelly and more.

Air France has long offered gourmet food on its planes, and the airline is still pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve today. In 2024, for example, Air France teamed up with triple Michelin-starred French chefs Glenn Viel and Arnaud Lallement and renowned pastry chefs Philippe Rigollot and Nina Métayer for its 'la première' and business cabins. It even had single Michelin-starred chef Frédéric Simonin doing the premium economy menu. 

Of course, everything was terribly chic on board Air France planes back in the 1950s, too – especially the meals. Dinner options included Beluga caviar, endive salads, medallions of lobster and more. Forget about plastic cups and foil trays too: meals were served on china plates with drinks presented in the finest glassware.

According to Food in the Air and Space by Richard Foss, food onboard the now-defunct airline TWA was a sight to behold. One passenger, flying in 1962, had a surprise birthday cake prepared for him, with flight attendants checking each passenger’s passport in case it was anyone else’s special day. Main courses at the time included decadent dishes such as smoked Nova Scotia salmon, fillet of sole, sirloin steak and fresh lobster.

Things have come so far for in-flight food that now Cathay Pacific is tapping a Michelin-starred chef to produce menus for its premium economy and economy cabins. In January 2025, the airline announced a collaboration with the one Michelin–starred Cantonese restaurant Yat Tung Heen to boost the food offerings in the 'cheap seats'. Economy menus included chilled marinated cherry tomatoes with preserved plum, while a stand-out premium economy dish was the stir-fried pork neck with green beans and XO sauce.

Scandinavian Airlines faced an existential problem in the 1950s and 1960s. Who, it wondered, would want to take a flight into or out of Stockholm in the middle of winter? So, to get a one-up on the competition, the airline started serving some seriously impressive in-flight food. This included whole legs of ham carved from the aisle, salad served by attendants from big bowls and salmon filleted in front of passengers.

If you were lucky enough to travel first class from Sydney to London with Qantas in 1947, you paid 85 times the average working wage for your ticket. But for the price, passengers enjoyed fresh lobster, oysters, kangaroo tail soup, fried shrimp and caviar on board the luxury flights. Plus, the first class cabins were reportedly so spacious you could play mini-golf!

If you can afford to pay for a first class seat on a long-haul Emirates flight, you'll certainly get the first class treatment. Along with many other treats, the cabin crew will serve you a healthy portion of caviar alongside seven sides, including Melba toast, egg, chives, white onions, sour cream and lemon. You'll also get the classic mother-of-pearl spoon.

At the tail end of 2024, Delta Air Lines announced a unique partnership with the beloved American fast food chain Shake Shack. First class passengers travelling on long-haul flights out of Boston from 1 December could pre-select an iconic Shake Shack Cheeseburger to enjoy during their journey. If all goes well, the plan is to roll out the innovation to more services throughout 2025.

Now discover what it was really like to dine on Concorde

Last updated by Luke Paton.