Sunday, 12 July 2015

Ryanair - Getaway Cafe Breakfast

Breakfast on-board flight FR9044
Stansted to Barcelona

I often enjoy a coffee and a twix on most short flights.

I'd already eaten breakfast this morning but when I spotted this on the menu I couldn't miss the opportunity to review it.

With such slow service I eventually ate somewhere above the French Pyrenees well past lunchtime.

The picture on the box looked dreadful and the breakfast inside was dire.

This slushy and tasteless offering had been accepted by Ryanair to serve on their menu, what were they thinking?

I gave up waiting for the cutlery to arrive so ate most of it with my hands. 

The Lavazza filter coffee was quite nice.

Having just eaten a lukewarm breakfast at Cafe Balzar in Stansted Airport we boarded our Ryanair flight to Barcelona. When the menu was handed to me I realised I had the opportunity to eat another cooked breakfast on-board this flight, it looked dire in the picture but I just had to try it.

Upon entering - There were two entrances accessible via some steps, all the other customers were desperate to find space for their free hand luggage allowance which seemed to created quite a panic. I had a reserved seat but getting to it was no easy task, many customers were blocking the aisle trying to find a space for their precious hand luggage. Once seated there's very little leg room and a small pull down table, one in every three people have the added bonus of a window. Menus are handed out after take off, later your order is taken and you pay, much later the food arrives. 4/10

Service - I placed my food order somewhere over the English Channel, it finally arrived over the French Pyrannes. Sadly they'd forgotten to bring cutlery, I was told cutlery would arrive shortly but in the end I started to eat the food with my hands. By the time we had entered Spanish air space the cutlery finally arrived, I only had a sausage left at this point so just picked it up and ate it. The staff were fairly friendly but the service was really slow on this particular flight. 4/10

Contents - 1 sausage, 1 slice of bacon, 1 small potato waffle, white pudding and 4 tiny mushrooms. 3/10

Presentation - The plastic microwave tray arrived complete with the card outer sleeve. The picture of the breakfast on the card sleeve looked awful but I suppose at least they're being honest about what you're going to receive. I braced myself and slid the sleeve off, all the items sat staring back at me looking quite alien like, this was not for the faint hearted! 1/10

The food - A squashy and fairly tasteless sausage, a dried up slice of bacon and a mushy circle of white pudding. None of the meats tasted of much at all, it was difficult to focus past the bizarre textures. The mushrooms were slimy and the waffle collapsed as I touched it, on a positive note everything was piping hot. Certainly the worst breakfast I'd ever been served though. 1/10

Value for money - It cost €6 but please don't do it, buy a twix or a packet of crisps instead if you must buy something. 1/10

Veggie option - No

Overall - I was never expecting this breakfast to impress me but having eaten a fairly nice cooked breakfast on a Virgin flight I thought it could be half decent. With really slow service, forgotten cutlery and such a dire offering I declare this breakfast to be the worst I've ever been served! What puzzles me most though is that Ryanair must have at somepoint been presented with this breakfast option, tried it and accepted it for their flights. Surely anyone developing this breakfast would try it and go straight back to the drawing board again?  2/10 


  1. Yet another excellent reason to NEVER fly Ryanair.

  2. That white pudding looks like something out of the anti smoking ad, when that gunk comes out of the end of the fag. You're a real hero putting yourself through a meal like that so we won't have to. Keep up the good work. JF

  3. Baffling. The "presentation" rather reminds me of the presumably microwaved breakfast Scotrail serve on the sleeper train, with one very important difference - the Scotrail offering looks unappealing, but is surprisingly delicious.

  4. OK, let's all go back to the time when flying abroad was the preserve of the rich and famous. Fly cheap, don't expect good quality food. Catch yourself up.

    1. Ok, let's all go back to the time when people actually read a review before commenting! I said "I was never expecting this breakfast to impress me but having eaten a fairly nice cooked breakfast on a Virgin flight I thought it could be half decent" Catch yourself up!!

  5. Come on Ryanair...ok its cheap airline food but I've seen better micro breakfasts...even the tinned All Day would beat that abomination hands down.

    1. Good point, they could do much better than this.

  6. That burger thing looks like it's got smallpox. You seem unduly generous with your scoring, FYI.

  7. It always amazes me how often rubbish like this gets through to customers. Someone is responsible. In such large concerns too.Good job someone is available to inspect it , reveal and analyse the findings.The staff on Ryanair are pretty good under the circumstances though in my experience.Good review ,with perhaps the opportunity of some playful humour eschewed. P+H.

  8. Wow just wow. the fact you actually had to pay for this makes it even more galling. No wonder they leave the cardboard sleeve on the cardboard looks more appetizing. If anyone ever dared to serve me something that looked like that they would be in for trouble.

  9. They're now charging £10 to pre-book it. Glad I read this and I won't be! Thanks...