ANA The Room Business Class Dining: Japanese vs. Western (SFO to Narita)

For our flight from San Francisco to Tokyo Narita in ANA's "The Room" Business Class, we tested both the Japanese and Western menus side by side. Here is the full taste test.

(For the seat and flight experience itself, see the dedicated "The Room" review on the channel.)

We pre-ordered meals online, which we strongly recommend. It guarantees your first choice and the Japanese options sell out fast.

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Welcome Drinks and Appetizers

We started with ANA's signature Aromatic Kabosu: a citrus drink with honey, light and refreshing, somewhere between a citrusy sports drink and a lemonade. A good start.

Western starter: Mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and salad dressing. The salty seedless olives that came with it were overpowering and threw off the whole dish. The bread arrived cold and hard with un-melted butter.

Japanese starter (Zensai and Otsukuri): Fresh sashimi, tofu, and pumpkin. Everything was served very cold, which is standard for sashimi, and the quality was excellent. Eating fresh, high-quality sashimi at 30,000 feet is a genuinely strange and good experience. Vincent is not a huge raw fish fan, so we swapped a few items between our plates.

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Main Courses

The mains came out a bit slow, but they arrived piping hot, which made up for it.

Western main (my order): Salmon with tomato medley and green beans. Well-cooked and tasty. Nothing remarkable, nothing wrong.

Japanese main (Vincent's order): Grilled red rockfish with sweet soy, served with miso soup, a radish dish, and rice. The fish was exceptional. The radish had incredible depth of flavor. This was a clear 10/10 dish.

If you are debating between menus and you enjoy seafood, there is no debate. Get the Japanese meal.

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Desserts and Mid-Flight Snacks

The dessert spread included a fruit bowl, a brownie with vanilla, and chocolates. There was also bread with cheese, but again, the bread was too hard and dry to enjoy.

After a nap, we ordered the inflight ramen. The broth was comforting and good. The noodles were a bit doughy and starchy, which is typical for airplane noodles.

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Breakfast Before Landing

Western breakfast: Chicken, zucchini, fruit, and rice. Interesting and genuinely flavorful.

Japanese breakfast: A clean seaweed soup and a perfectly cooked piece of mackerel. The mackerel had such a firm, meaty texture that I mistook it for chicken when it arrived. It was the better of the two breakfasts.

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Verdict

The main dishes on ANA are excellent. The appetizers and desserts are more hit-or-miss. The rule is consistent: stick to the Japanese menu. It outperforms the Western options at every course.