Flight Review: Garuda Indonesia, A330-300, Business Class, ICN - CGK

This was my first time flying with Garuda Indonesia. Garuda Indonesia is the flagship carrier of Indonesia and is a member of SkyTeam Alliance. For this trip I was departing Seoul, South Korea to Jakarta, Indonesia aboard a Garuda Indonesia A330-300.

Let me say off the top that I was pleasantly surprised with the service and all-around experience flying with Garuda Indonesia. I would have no hesitation recommending this route with Garuda Indonesia in business class. Perhaps my review was influenced by the top notch latte that I was served during the flight, but I make no apologies for that.

The business class cabin on the A330-300 is laid out in a 1-2-1 format.

For my seven hour flght, I was situation in seat 9G in the middle row. As a solo traveller my preference would be one of the window seats, though I felt the privacy between the middle seats was quite good.

The seat itself was very comfortable. It also included two USB charging plugs in compartments to the left of the seat. Also in another compartment to the left of the seat was the In Flight Entertainment remote.

The seat had ample legroom though that is to be expected in business class. The configuration was typical of sleeping pods with the narrow area for your feet when your seat is converted to lie flat.

Garuda Indonesia provides an amenity kit in business class. My kit consisted of an eye cover, toothbrush and toothpaste, a comb/brush combo, Clarins moisture-rich body lotion with shea butter, Clarins hand moisturizer and Clarins lip balm.

Prior to take off, I was offered a welcome drink which consisted of a bottle of water and passion fruit juice.

There were plenty of snacks available for in-flight grazing during the trip.

I had to give the Nori Seaweed flavoured Lay's potato chips. They were actually surprisingly tasty, though I'm not sure they are as good as our ketchup flavoured chips back in Canada.

The drink menu included a decent champagne and adequate red and white wines.

I was also pleased to see that they served guava juice. While it wasn't freshly squeezed, it was nice to have options other than the typical orange and apple juice.

For dinner, I had a choice of typical western dining options or traditional Korean options. I was surprised at the Korean options but presumably that was because the flight departed Seoul.

Much like Turkish Airlines, Garuda Indonesia also has an on board chef (though I always suspect these are just flight attendants who put on a chef's hat). In any event, I found the attention to detail around meal service was impressive as was the personalized service. Indeed, the dinner was experience was not dissimilar to a fine-dining restaurant.

For my meal, I started with the tuna tatakki salad which also came with a couple of dinner rolls.

For my main course, I chose to go for the traditional western meal and had the pan fired halibut with curry sauce. It was delicious with the asparagus cooked perfectly including the right amount of crunch. I can honestly say this was one of the best main courses I have ever experienced at 32,000 feet.

For dessert, I had wanted the cinnamon pineapple pie but was told that they had run out. That left me with the only other choice being the chocolate brownie with caramel sauce. The brownie did not disappoint as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After dinner I settled in with a nice java latte which was very satisfying.

Later in the flight, I felt like a snack and to my surprise I was offered nachos and cheese. This was a first for me on an airplane!

All in all, the service and food on this flight was exceptional. I would not hesitate to take another flight on Garuda Indonesia.