Flying can be a thrilling adventure, but nothing brings that excitement crashing down faster than a disappointing meal on board. While some airlines offer gourmet dishes, others serve food that leaves passengers baffled—or worse, hungry. These meals are the kind that make passengers wish they’d packed their food. Swipe to find 15 of the worst meals ever served in the sky.
Pasta With Bland Sauce
If you’ve flown economy long enough, you’ve likely encountered the notoriously overcooked pasta with a sauce that somehow manages to be watery and tasteless. The pasta arrives clumped together, and the flavor is reminiscent of wet cardboard more than anything Italian.
Meat Sandwich
Ah, the infamous “mystery meat” sandwich. It’s the kind of meal where you spend more time trying to identify the meat than actually enjoying it. Served cold, this sandwich often features unidentifiable processed meat slices that could be turkey… or ham… or something else entirely.
The Plastic Omelet
Airline breakfasts aren’t immune from criticism, and the plastic-looking omelet is proof. Cooked long before your flight even took off, this rubbery, tasteless egg puck somehow manages to be dry and flavorless while maintaining a suspiciously shiny exterior. Paired with a handful of overcooked potatoes and a soggy sausage, it’s breakfast gone wrong.
Over-Salted Stew
Who doesn’t love a good stew? Apparently, the answer is airlines. The typical in-flight stew is salty enough to make you question your decision to skip the bottled water. With chunks of unidentifiable meat and vegetables swimming in a thick, gelatinous broth, this dish often leaves you parched and unsatisfied.
Rock-Hard Dinner Rolls
It’s not exactly a meal, but the rock-hard dinner roll that accompanies many in-flight dinners deserves a special mention. Served cold and often impossibly tough, this bread roll seems designed more for self-defense than consumption. Slathering butter on it won’t save you, either—the butter is typically frozen solid.
Salad With Dressing
Just imagine yourself opening your in-flight salad to find wilted lettuce, a sad cherry tomato, and a drizzle of dressing that’s either too tangy or tastes like pure oil. While salad seems like a light, healthy option, in-flight versions are typically tired, limp, and tasteless, especially when paired with dressing from a plastic packet.
Overcooked Chicken
Chicken can be a challenge to cook perfectly, even on the ground. On a plane, it often comes out dry, chewy, and oddly tough. You know things are bad when you need to see your way through it with plastic cutlery. Paired with a side of over-steamed veggies, this meal is the essence of uninspired.
Gelatinous Pasta Salad
A cold pasta salad sounds like a light, refreshing meal, but not when it’s a gelatinous mass of mayo-covered pasta shells. Toss in a few bits of questionable vegetables and a rubbery chunk of cheese, and you’ve got yourself the quintessential disappointment of a meal. With its weird texture and lack of seasoning, it’s a dish you’ll leave half-finished.
Rice With Bland Curry
There’s nothing quite as disheartening as seeing “curry” on the menu, only to receive a tasteless, neon-colored sauce poured over a pile of spongy rice. The curry lacks any hint of spice or flavor, and the rice seems to have been microwaved into a soggy lump. A far cry from the flavorful meal you had in mind.
Bland Fish Fillet
Serving fish on an airplane is already a bold move, but when that fish filet arrives dry, bland, and smelling far stronger than you’d like, you’ve got yourself a problem. The fish usually lacks seasoning, and by the time it reaches your tray, it’s a sad, dried-out slab with a side of tasteless steamed vegetables.
Rubbery Lasagna
Lasagna should be warm, cheesy, and comforting. Unfortunately, airline lasagna is more like a springy stack of noodles layered with a flavorless red sauce and cheese that barely melts. Each forkful feels like chewing through plastic, and the disappointment is palpable.Plus, the lack of flavor and the strange texture is worse than sleeping hungry.
Cold, Overcooked Veggies
We’ve all been served that sad little tray of over-steamed veggies. Carrots, peas, and maybe some cauliflower—except they’re cold, soggy, and devoid of any real taste. It’s like the vegetables gave up long before they made it onto your plate. You try to be healthy, but the universe (and airline kitchens) say no.
Artificially Sweetened Yogurt
Breakfast on a plane can often include a tiny tub of yogurt, which seems harmless enough—until you taste it. Overly sweetened and artificial-tasting, this yogurt has the consistency of glue and a flavor that feels more like a dessert gone wrong than a healthy start to your day.
The Tasteless Veg Option
Vegetarian travelers often get the short end of the stick when it comes to airline meals. Typically, the “vegetarian option” is a sad pile of under-seasoned vegetables or a rubbery soy product that leaves much to be desired. It’s bland, uninspiring, and hardly enough to keep hunger at bay.
Mystery Dessert Cube
Is it cake? Is it mousse? Is it pudding? No one really knows. The mystery dessert cube is a staple of bad airline meals. Covered in an overly sweet glaze or jelly, this dessert lacks flavor and texture. You’re never quite sure what you’re eating, but you know it’s not something you’ll be raving about.
