Business Class Bliss: Philippine Airlines Business Class Dining, Part 1 (LA to Manila)
Well, here we are again: I didn’t expect to be here again, so soon after my first time flying business class last year. Given the exorbitant price, I thought it was a one-time thing for our honeymoon.
But I suppose the extra legroom, plus the ability to lay flat (especially on a 14+ hour flight!) was a lot more life-changing than I thought it would be for my husband. Tall-people problems are very foreign to me… So after discussing and taking a long, hard look at our finances, it was decided: We were flying business class for our (long-awaited) Christmas trip to the Philippines, and I had another opportunity to sample Philippine Airlines’ Business Class Dining.
I was excited to compare this trip with our first experience and see if there was a difference between a summer trip, and a holiday one – especially in food options, if any! Either way though, any opportunity to sample Philippine Airlines’ Business Class Dining sounded great to me – and also, can that be a job???
Table of Contents
The Lounge
For our May 2023 trip to the Philippines, we made the dumb mistake of eating at home. I can’t even remember exactly how or why we made that decision, other than maybe my horror at the price and quality of airport food on our trip to Seattle (our most recent flight at the time), plus my husband’s abhorrence for spending more time than absolutely necessary at the airport, and a mutual fear about missing our flight.
We both just completely forgot about Business class lounges being a thing…
So last time, we barely had time to pop into the lounge for a drink, before we had to make the long trek towards our gate. Did I mention we both had a (so far, unfounded) paranoia of not making it to our gate on time???
But for this trip, we were both determined to get the full experience. My husband and I set out for the airport a lot earlier than last time. So naturally, we arrived at around 8 am at LAX, for our 11 am flight.
LAX was, understandably, more chaotic than normal (presumably) due to the holiday season. But we still had a relatively smooth check-in process, especially since we packed light – by Filipino standards, anyway.
We also survived the TSA process, where my electronics magically took up about 5 times more space than they did right before going through the X-ray machine. But after finally managing to shove my new Nikon Z7ii camera back into my (somehow fuller?!?) backpack, we were ready to make our way towards the Star Lounge.
Brunch at the Star Alliance Lounge
Most of the food certainly looked amazing, but I was rather cautious about what and how much food to get. The goal was to take notes on the Philippine Airlines’ Business Class dining experience, and for that, I figured I had to be able to eat it.
Basic Breakfast Plate
So I began with a pretty sparse plate: a hard-boiled egg, bacon, some potatoes, and scrambled egg. It wasn’t my intention to double up on the eggs, but curiosity got to me. Finally, I rounded off my first serving with a glass of orange juice, just to complete the breakfast vibe.

I contemplated grabbing more, but honestly, while the food looked good, it wasn’t personally appealing to me.
I tried the hard-boiled egg first since I usually like it…but this was just disappointing. I’m not a soft-boiled egg person, but this was just too firmly on the side of overcooked. Plus it was somehow also cold and sad. But surprisingly, the scrambled egg was pretty good? I’m honestly shook that it was as fluffy and moist as it was, for something that was most likely cooked in large quantities. My previous experiences with large servings of scrambled egg is either unevenly cooked, or overdone and dry.
The bacon was small but satisfyingly crispy. The orange juice was fine. But the breakfast potatoes were just…meh. If I didn’t have the (sad) hard-boiled egg, the potatoes probably would’ve been the worst item on my plate. But as it is, it wasn’t exactly bad, just mid.
The muffins were extremely tempting, but I decided not to get them since they were pretty big. My husband probably would’ve been willing to split one with me, but I knew he preferred the savory food items instead.
I had to make three attempts to try their hot chocolate: On my first attempt, the machine I went to seemed to need a water change. I’m not super clear on that, but it was asking for water, so I decided to try my luck at a different machine.
At the second machine, they didn’t have an option for hot chocolate, but I already grabbed a mug and was in line…I guess I was too embarrassed to walk off empty-handed, so I picked a cafe latte. At my table, I was promptly reminded why I don’t drink coffee because it was just bitter and slightly sour.
Finally, after my husband offered to take my (disappointing) latte off my hands, I went back to the first machine I tried. He told me that he definitely saw a hot chocolate option there, and since I’m a slave to my curiosity, so off I went to (finally) try a cup of hot chocolate.
The hot chocolate was okay – but only okay. It was better than Swiss Miss, but neither was it worth three trips to an automated machine.
From the Noodle Bar
The only good thing that came out of my multiple attempts (especially at the second machine) was I saw a crowd of Asians lining up for something: a noodle bar. I told my husband about it, and off he went. So while my hot chocolate was only okay, at least my husband loved the noodle bar.

Boarding: First impressions
My 7-scoop Matcha Frappucino in hand (trust me, it was necessary) from the airport Starbucks in hand, we made our way to our seats in business class. The first thing I noticed was that they had different seats from last time: less pod-like, which probably saves on space and weight, but it also lessened the privacy and luxury we felt from our last trip.
As soon as we sat down, an attendant came up to get us settled with a hot towel and offered us drinks. I blanked and picked orange juice, instead of asking for mango juice right away like I’d been planning – because by then I realized that I had no storage space whatsoever, not for my drink and certainly none for my tech.

The new seats certainly had more legroom and space for foot traffic, but I was already (internally) stressed about how to juggle all my (necessary and unnecessary) stuff. Sure, a cup holder would’ve been nice, but ultimately, it’s not a dealbreaker. But what tripped me up was that there was no convenient place to store my iPad during the flight.
I was just thinking that I could just put my iPad into my backpack every mealtime – oh wait, they also want the personal items stowed away during takeoff and landing. So that was also a no-go. If someone wanted to work on their laptop (or iPad in my case), you could either wait to grab it after takeoff, or just have it awkwardly on your lap or on the table…which you’d have to move onto your lap or behind you in an hour, when they serve the first meal.
Speaking of that first meal though, after settling down with our drinks (and backpacks stowed above), our flight attendant asked for our selection for the first and last meals. At least the business-class dining experience remained more or less the same.

PAL Business Class Dining 1: Hot Meal
It was both nice and just a smidge disappointing that some food options appeared the same. Nice because it was delicious, but a smidge disappointing because I thought it would vary depending on the season.
Nonetheless, I’m mainly here to enjoy the ride and take notes!
Tuna Tataki Salad, with Garlic Bread
It was sharp, crisp, and citrusy – a very refreshing salad. It’s honestly my perfect appetizer. So I was glad to still find this on their menu.

I’m not a fan of most Western salads, since they tend to be a little more heavy, due to Ranch (or similar) dressings. I do like the Caesar salad dressing, but I think that’s thanks to the anchovies and the lemon that it should come with…
Give me a light soy sauce, ginger, or even a vinaigrette dressing and I’m a *chef’s kiss* happy girl!
The garlic bread they had probably could’ve been warmer, but it was otherwise fine. I just automatically started spreading butter on it before I realized…it already came with butter. But since I had already started trying to spread the butter (albeit failing), I figured, “Oh well, go big or go home.” So I put more butter on my garlic bread while waiting for the main course to get served.
Filet Mignon, with Mango Juice
The last time I flew PAL business class, I had the Miso Seabass. So in the interest of getting a fuller experience, I ordered the Filet Mignonette as my entrée.

I’m not usually a fan of polenta (which is why I didn’t order it last year), but it was surprisingly pretty good?! I generally don’t like it because I don’t enjoy a gritty texture in my food, but this polenta was smooth, yet not creamy.
Ironically, I usually like spinach, but the spinach with my dish was almost a touch too bitter. So as one of my go-to solutions for parts of a dish I don’t like, I proceeded to just eat that first and wash away the taste with some tender steak. Oh, and mango juice, of course! Worked like a charm.
Extra bitter spinach aside, this was still one of my favorite meals from my cumulative business-class dining experience.
Chocolate Ice Cream
I opted for the ice cream (again) by the process of elimination.
Technically, I do like Häagen-Dazs’ chocolate ice cream, more so than other brands. But it’s still, well, just a chocolate ice cream. It didn’t taste better or worse, for all the novelty of being consumed while cruising at 37,000+ feet in the air.

Originally, I was more excited and (more importantly) curious about what would be included in the “Curated Desserts.” Because last time, it was an assortment of French-inspired small pastries made with Filipino flavors. The options seemed to vary based on what was available from the takeoff location.
Unfortunately, the only “curated dessert” option they ended up with was disappointing. They only had a Mais con Yelo (Sweet corn on ice), which is a popular street food. It’s also really tough to glamorize or gentrify since it typically just has four ingredients: sweet corn, crushed ice, evaporated milk, and sugar. They did add ice cream to it, which isn’t exactly typical, but…
It was so odd for me to even think about eating a bougie Mais con Yelo when I still remember buying (an admittedly basic) cup of it for less than $1 in high school. It was, and always will be in my mind, a cheap after-school snack I’ll remember fondly – not a dessert I would want to have while I’m in business class.
PAL Business Class Dining 2: Mid-flight Refreshment
Low-key traumatized by missing out on the mid-flight meal on last year’s Manila-LAX flight, so this time I wanted to make sure I was awake when they served it. This is part of why I upped my usual 6-scoops of matcha to 7-scoops. Though in the interest of full disclosure, I don’t need much incentive to consume more matcha.
I got SO worried when I saw and/or heard other people getting served the mid-flight meal. But it was like 1-2 other people, so I thought it was a special request to be served early. But when the (lovely) flight attendants went around with the basket of snacks, I feared the worst… I did lie down after the first meal to read one of the new (Kindle version) books I bought, so maybe I looked asleep.
Eventually, after my husband woke up from his nap, I mustered up the courage to go look for a flight attendant to ask about the mid-flight refreshments. Turns out I didn’t, and it’s a meal that could be requested at any time!
Chicken Quesadilla
Since a quesadilla isn’t exactly a quintessential part of Filipino culture & cuisine, I didn’t exactly have high hopes. It tasted like, well, a regular quesadilla – not bad, but not exactly bursting with flavor and complexity either.

The strongest flavor was the distinct tang and acidity of the tomatoes. Which, I mean…makes sense.
Though to be fair, I don’t know if it’s due to being on the plane supposedly dulling my taste buds. On the one hand, I know Filipinos love strong flavors. On the other hand, the flight did have to cater to more than just Filipino tastebuds.
Chocolate Bar (snack)
On one hand, it’s a chocolate bar, nothing remarkable. But it IS better than any mass-produced chocolate they have in the US. A lot better than Hershey’s though, that’s for sure.

PAL Business Class Dining 3: Breakfast
Honestly, I wasn’t even too hungry at this point. Also, I think we ended up eating our breakfast a little too close to having our mid-flight meal partially because our flight was arriving in Manila an hour early!!! A whole hour – was there a shortcut or something???
Fresh Fruit, with a Chocolate Croissant
In the 10+ years that I haven’t gone home to the Philippines, there were times I wondered why I still order fresh fruit, over fries sometimes. It’s never satisfying. Then I eat fruit from the Philippines and remember, “Oh yeah, all tropical fruits in the US just suck.

There’s a certain natural sweetness, but more importantly, a certain mouth feel to melons that’s always missing from the ones found in the US. Alternatively, the Philippines needs to stop adding strawberries to everything, unless they get them from the US – berries just grow better in North America (except for pineapples, the Philippines and Hawaii do that particular one better).
Anyway, I picked the Belgian Waffles by process of elimination. I could get a Tapsilog Bowl for cheaper (& better) when we land in the Philippines. I was also worried it would be too big, and I wouldn’t enjoy it… It completely missed my mind that the Chicken Sisig Burrito would not be the giant San Diego burritos I was used to.
Belgian Waffles
My plate came with only 2 waffles, but I had already regretted my choice by the end of Waffle 1. It was just way too sweet. The last time I got waffles as my breakfast, it came with chicken sausage so the sweetness was sort of balanced out by a savory element. That…was not the case this time.

Ugh, this choice will haunt me periodically. I already know I’ll regret missing out on that Chicken Sisig Burrito every time I see this post or even think about the title… At least the chocolate croissant was just as good as last time, I guess. I think (hope?) it would be pretty hard to mess up on a chocolate croissant.
Bonus Content: The Husband Experience (& Verdict)
Tasting new food was one of the first (& best) bonding experiences I had with my husband when we first started dating. We didn’t have music, movies, or hobbies in common, but we had – and still have – a shared love of food. Most of the available food on the menu was no longer new to my husband, but he still found at least 1 item that was new to him.
Beef Bulalo
Hot Meal Appetizer
According to my husband, “Delicious.”


Mais con Yelo
Hot Meal Dessert
“Great, minus the corn.”
Sadly, it slipped both of our minds to take a picture of my husband’s food from this point on. By the time we were having our mid-flight refreshment, I’d been awake for about 12-13 hours straight, thanks to those 7-scoops of matcha…
Arroz Caldo
Mid-flight Refreshment (not pictured).
He enjoyed the one he had in the Philippines last year, but he still liked this one!
Tapsilog
Breakfast (not pictured).
“Tasty, same as last time“
Deplaning: Final Thoughts (and Disappointments)
I never thought I’d say this, and I acknowledge that I have barely any experience and absolutely no authority in the matter: But what the HECK was up with those seats??? I get that it was probably a practical choice to essentially gut the business class seats, as it saved space and most likely weight for the airline. But as a passenger…
PROS:
Admittedly, having the streamlined or gutted seats (depending on your point of view), gave the impression of having more room. I was able to step over my husband’s feet even as he was laying down flat, to use the bathroom.
Granted, I blocked his view of the in-flight entertainment with each pass. But that would’ve happened with all seats except for the front ones: their screens flipped out from inside your seat, instead of being mounted to the back of the seat in front of yours.
I also appreciated that there was a bigger space to place my backpack, rather than having to squish my backpack into a box reminiscent of a 90s drink cooler.

CONS:
Unfortunately, because my backpack was no longer held “safe” by a (presumably) bolted-down box, it had to be stowed in the overhead compartment during takeoff and landing.
Not the most convenient, but doable, if I had anywhere else to store some items.
The aforementioned personal item box from our 2023 trip, which was reminiscent of a 90s drink cooler, barely holding onto my backpack…RIP.

But unlike last time, there wasn’t a small cubby for me to place my iPad or even my phone. At least, not without it either being in the way (shared armrest), or falling (in-between seats, or to the floor) when I recline the chair. So the process of using my iPad to work on my blog offline became:
- Stow my personal item (my backpack) up on the overhead bin, with the help of a flight attendant.
- Wait until takeoff is done and the seatbelt signs are off, then retrieve my backpack (or rather, nicely ask my husband to get it for me).
- Stow my backpack under the seat in front of me, then get my iPad so I can type out some blog outlines.
- Either put my iPad away in the backpack every meal time, OR
- Place it behind me (against my lower back) to make sure it wouldn’t fall in the space between the seats, each time I got up or changed the seat’s reclining position.
Repeating steps 4 and/or 5 at each meal time and bathroom break was not conducive to a streamlined workflow.
It sounds spoiled AF to even type it out, but last time, I could place my phone and iPad in a small cubby and be sure it wouldn’t fall in between the seats, or get sat on. Keep in mind too that it’s unusual that I only had a tablet, rather than a full laptop – I can’t imagine how much it would suck to have a laptop in business class, but no convenient spot to put it down for meals and bathroom breaks.
Plus, okay, last time we had a cup holder – which was, admittedly, great for first holding my Matcha Frappucino, then later the complimentary water bottles the flight attendants passed out. It’s not as disappointing to lose as the cubby, but it was certainly nice to have in business class – which, wasn’t that the whole point of splurging? Having a nice experience I normally wouldn’t have elsewhere???
For the price of business class tickets, I would’ve hoped to have more space than economy to place down personal items – whether it be my phone, a book, or at least a tablet (if not a laptop). But holding on to them in my pockets, or setting them down on the seat just… didn’t feel luxurious nor convenient.
There wasn’t even space to put the travel amenities – the pillow, plus bag that contains the blanket, slippers, and toiletry kit – after sitting down. Last time, at least it sat on top of the personal item box. This time, I had the option of either sitting on it or setting it on my lap – except not the whole time, because it was harder (if not impossible) to use the meal tray while having that extra bulk!
To End Part 1,
If I hadn’t experienced the previous seat styles, I think I would’ve said this experience was fun, though a little inconvenient at times.
But since I do have the one experience to compare it to – one with what felt like more amenities, thanks to the extra storage – I have to say I’m a little disappointed. Overall, the experience felt much reduced in terms of privacy, luxury, and convenience.
I really would’ve thought a sliding or an accordion door for that space under the seat would’ve been better. Honestly, I would’ve taken even a net or mesh, just to keep personal items from sliding around willy-nilly during taxi, takeoff, and landing. It might not have been the prettiest solution, but at least would’ve been more functional.
It seems that Philippine Airlines has made a few, relatively small adjustments that might have helped them as a business, but I’m not so sure if it benefits us passengers. At this point, the main thing we’ve felt improvement on is more legroom and a bigger space to stow my backpack – once it’s permitted, anyway.
But in retrospect, I could presumably get that (and more?) from other airlines… definitely something to think about for a future trip!
But for now, stay tuned for part 2, our return trip from Manila to LA, which had a…questionable conversation with one of the staff.