Meal Review: American Eagle Barbecue Dinner

American Eagle serves a “legacy” American Airlines onboard meal service, which is something that’s particularly interesting (and welcome) to me. Their First Class product is in a 1×2 seating configuration.

Route: New York La Guardia to Atlanta,GA

Aircraft: CRJ-700

Meal Window: Dinner

Meal: Barbecue Dinner (no pre-order option available)

On this route, there were two choices for dinner: a cold chicken with rice, or a barbecue platter. Since the barbecue platter sounded more interesting I chose that, and boy was I glad I did.

On the meal tray included:

• A barbecue platter of beef, chicken and shrimp, with asparagus and tomatoes
• Cole slaw
• Peppers and onion salsa
• Crispy jalapenos
• Jalapeno cornbread (pre-packaged)
• Caramel cheesecake

There was a ton of food on the tray, and to be honest, this was probably one of the best dinners I’ve had on American, let alone American Eagle.

Everything tastes very fresh, and the meats were cooked fine. Particularly interesting was the cole slaw and pepper salsa, which complimented the meats nicely. The cheesecake dessert was delicious, too. If there was an improvement to be made, I’d suggest fresh cornbread vs. something pre-packaged, but it was tasty nonetheless.

Drinks were replenished constantly, and the lead flight attendant on this trip was a delight.

Overall, I’m happy to see a legacy AA meal product here – and one that’s very filling, too. This was by far one of the best meals I’ve had on AA, and I really hope this concept expands beyond just Eagle flights.