Thursday, April 7, 2011

Meals before flying: Singapore Airlines First Class Lounge in Terminal 3 Changi

As a longstanding Solitaire member (year 11 of my membership...I missed out on the lifetime PPS membership by a sliver some years ago, and now need to qualify annually), I enjoy the services of the Silver Kris First Class lounge whenever I fly Singapore Airlines. This is a worthwhile privillage, especially before a long night flight, where I can have a nice meal at the lounge before boarding, and put the seat down immediately after the captain puts the seatbelt sign off, and go to sleep. This way, I can often manage 10 hours sleep during a SIN-FRA flight, and still have time to eat a breakfast. Sometimes, I order a "Book the Cook" facility available for First and Business Class in Singapore Airlines for some flights...one of my favourites is the Lobster Thermidor which I have featured in a blog post before, and often I have this just before landing in Frankfurt or Zurich as breakfast after a long night flight.



Anyway, I thought for this post, I'd touch on the lounge. The First Class Lounge is a fancy name...it is basically a Solitaire lounge. If you purchase a full fare First Class Ticket, you'd be ushered in a Private Lounge within the First Class Lounge. This special lounge is not open to anyone with a redeemed First Class ticket, or travelling on Business and Economy. But I digress. The First Class lounge is open to Solitaires who are travelling on SQ in any class.

The Lounge has a rather spacious lounge area with a bar. And a nice dining area shown above. During meal times - breakfast, lunch, dinner, they have a chef in attendance, and meals can be cooked.

This time, I was on a morning flight to Hong Kong, and breakfast was being served. There was a roti station, doing chappati and dhal. And a chef station with chicken hor fun:





Not bad. The noodles were very soft and fine. I rather liked the sauce on the dry version, but the soup was very tasty too. Sometimes, they serve a laksa, which I think is particularly excellent, rivalling the famous ones along East Coast Road.

On the buffet table, a slection of fresh fruits and cooked stuff.

Nasi Goreng Istimewa...special fried rice...I am not so sure about the istimewa tag, though this seemed to be common for fried rice in Indonesia...so perhaps this is to denote the Indonesian style of fried rice. Shown here with a piece of siew mai, which I thought was rather good, especially with the SQ special chilli sauce. The chilli sauce might not be anything special in Singapore, but try it for the Dim Sum breakfast on the way back after two weeks of German, Swiss or French food...and its quite heavenly:



A plate of Dim sum with chewe kueh and har gow.



The fried carrot cake:



In the evenings, I am quite partial to the braised pork ribs...very nice.

Good work Singapore Airlines.


Singapore Airlines Silver Kris First Class Lounge
Terminal 3
Changi International Airport

3 comments:

Heng Tin Hong said...

Hi Peter,
Do You mean that,i can go to the first class lounge even i only take the economic seat?
How much they charge?

Thanks.

Heng.

Scenes in Singapore life said...

Hi Heng,

Yes, but you need to be a Solitaire member first. And it is not easy to qualify.

You must first become a PPS by spending at least S$25k per year on Business Class or First Class flights (Economy flights do not count towards PPS). This is one level below Solitaire, which denoted by SQ as TPP. To get to TPP, you need to qualify as PPS for 5 consecutive years.

PPS: Priority Passenger
TPP: Top Priority Passenger
LPPS: Lifetime Priority Passenger (now not offered anymore. Existing LPPS will continue to enjoy benefits)

Heng Tin Hong said...

Thanks for the information.

Look forward to see more good food from your blog.