SQ318 SIN-LHR in New Y (77WN), Terminal 2, The Shard, and Perfect Fish & Chips

[yflyer]

leisurely jog = 1/2 marathon.... Amazing

Thanks, 9V-JKL!

I have to say that running that distance in 18 degree weather in London is a lot more comfortable than doing it at 30 degrees and 90% humidity over here!

After that run, that was the one day on my trip that I didn't use the 123 step spiral staircase at Queensway tube station, and used the lift instead...

[yflyer]

It was time to depart for home.

After a round of last minute shopping on Oxford Street, I picked up my bags at the Hilton, stuffed my shopping inside, then grabbed a taxi for the short ride to Paddington Station. Bayswater Tube station down the road from the Hilton gets you to Paddington in minutes as well, but I had way too much luggage with me to attempt the tube, hence the taxi.

From Paddington, a short and comfortable 15 minute Heathrow Express train ride brought me right to Heathrow. And from there, it was a longish trek from the train to T2 – The Queen’s Terminal, where the first thing that caught the eye was a large sheet metal sculpture suspended in the atrium, which either looks like a large cloud, wave or whale depending on who you ask.



I personally thought it was an eye-catching design element that stood out from the fairly minimalist terminal design.



The terminal has a fairly conventional layout with the Departures Level above the Arrivals Level.



There is a main terminal T2A (A gates) and a satellite terminal T2B (B gates) connected by a tunnel (Travellators and walkways only, no Peoplemover or train).

All check-in, security and border control/baggage claim are in T2A. Airside shopping and dining are available in both T2A and T2B, but the selection in T2A looked much larger. There are lounges in both T2A (The LH *G lounge and Plaza Premium Lounge are there) and T2B (UA, AC and the future SQ Lounge).

The departure area was large, and not particularly crowded when I arrived at around 7pm, three hours prior to the flight.





The SQ check-in area was not busy at that hour. In fact there were no lines at all, despite a fairly full flight that evening.

A rank of self service machines stood ready, ahead of a row of counters for baggage drop-off and premium class check-in.



This looked like a fairly straightforward system to use.





I didn’t progress beyond that screen though. I felt like a little human contact that evening, and as the manned counters were empty, I headed there instead to check-in.

[yflyer]

As a KF Gold member, but not PPS, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to use the Fast Track lane at the security checkpoint. In any case, neither the regular queues, nor fast track were particularly busy, and I was through security within 15 minutes.

The airside area was decorated for Christmas...



There were two levels in the A concourse departure area, both full of shops, eating outlets and airline lounges.



A very striking sculpture of a london taxi done in luminous orange wireframe sat in the middle of the terminal.



Even up close, it maintained a convincing illusion of being a computer generated wireframe diagram somehow suspended in space in front of you. Wonderful!



“The London Taxi, by Benedict Radcliffe”

[yflyer]

There were quite a few restaurants in the T2 airside area that looked worth trying, but the one that caught my attention was The Perfectionists’ Café.





This is one of Heston Blumenthal’s restaurants, inspired by his TV series, In Search of Perfection, where Heston strives to create the perfect version of classic dishes.



There is even an accompanying coffee table book about the series on sale at the café.

So great marketing, as well as TV and book tie-ins, but from a previous meal at The Fat Duck a couple of years back, I also knew that Heston Blumenthal could deliver the goods where it mattered: his food tasted fantastic. So I was keen to try his creations at the Perfectionists’ Café.



The menu, which included classics such as steak, burgers, fish and chips and a full English Breakfast…



But beyond standard fare, Heston has introduced gourmet items, including Jamon Iberico, and modern/molecular cooking techniques, including copious use of liquid nitrogen…



There was a decent selection of wine and cocktails as well.





The cocktails in a cloud drinks looked a little gimmicky, but as I did not try them, I would give them the benefit of doubt…

[yflyer]

A quick look around revealed that the most common orders coming out of the kitchen were the burgers, which looked really tempting, as well as the fish and chips.



I went for the fish & chips…



These came with very crisp beer batter, chips and mushy peas.

You could also request a bottle of malt vinegar, and an atomiser of malt vinegar picked onion juice to spray on your fish in order to keep it crisp and not soggy…



I sliced into the fish and took a bite…this was wonderful! The batter was light and crisp…the fish was moist and delicate...



The versions of this dish I have tried in pubs and takeaways elsewhere in the UK were good – enjoyable in their own way, but this was comfort food on a different level. More remarkably, it tasted crisp from first bite to last.

I had two scopes of the nitro ice-cream for dessert: chocolate and hazelnut.



I could not honestly say that I could detect any significant difference between this ice cream, prepared with liquid nitrogen, and say, a good tub of Ben & Jerry’s, but it was excellent ice cream all the same.

A very memorable meal, and some of the finest airport dining I have had.

So there are now two great places I have tried in Heathrow: In T5, there is Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food. I am a fan of Gordon Ramsay, and I like eating at Plane Food in T5 as well. It is a much more interesting dining experience than your typical airline F&B outlet. But in my view, the originality, quality, refinement and obsessive attention to detail at The Perfectionists' Cafe puts it on a much more exalted level, and by quite a large margin.

So The Perfectionists’ Café in T2 takes its place as my favourite airport dining outlet at Heathrow Airport, or indeed any airport I have visited recently.

I made a mental note to return to this café again in future to try their burgers and steak.

And let's not understate the allure of good airport food: I am keen to eat at The Perfectionists' Cafe again. This is only available airside in T2...I say again the only place where Heston Blumenthal has setup this cafe. So keen, in fact, that the next time I head to London, it is likely to sway my airline decision towards flying SQ out of T2, instead of flying BA out of T5...

[yflyer]

There is a Star Gold Lounge in T2A that SQ*G / KF Gold pax have access to: The Lufthansa Senator Lounge/Business Lounge. (This was not mentioned on the lounge info sheet at the SQ check-in area).



As time was short, I decided to leave this lounge for next time, and instead head to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in T2B.

I passed a small children’s play area on the way to the connecting tunnel to concourse T2B.



Once again, there was a lot of walking to be done to get from the A concourse to the B concourse. Down a very long escalator…



And along a never-ending corridor…



You finally emerged into T2B, where a smaller selection of shops and F&B outlets were available.



My recommendation: stay in T2A, do your shopping, eat and drink your fill, before heading to the lounges or boarding dates at T2B. The travellators only go one way: from A to B, and I did not notice any escalators heading up back to T2A either. I’m thinking that there must be some way to get from T2B back to T2A. Perhaps you could walk back through tunnel, and maybe there is an elevator somewhere to bring you back up to the A concourse? But that’s not clear if this can be done. Appreciate any info on whether it is possible to get from T2B back to T2A.

[yflyer]

I headed to the Air Canada Lounge in T2B.

From the signage in the lift, the SQ Lounge, still under construction, will be next to the AC Lounge.





This was not a large lounge, but it had an attractive design, and more importantly, it was not crowded at all at the time prior to SQ321’s departure.

Main seating…



Complimentary beverages were served from the bar…



A glass of champagne…



The dining area...



Both cold and hot selections were available…



Hot selections included broccoli and blue cheese soup, penne pasta in a tomato-based sauce, chicken Zurich-style and basmati rice.







A small work area…



And internet-enabled tablets...

[yflyer]

I headed for a shower in the lounge...





A very stylish bathroom, full of dark polished surfaces…

And within the shower stall, a brain-teaser lay waiting…

Just what did those four shiny unlabelled knobs do? In order to reach the knobs, you had to stand directly under the rainshower.



The penalty for guessing incorrectly was a blast of icy cold water from the rainshower above…



I began frantically twisting knobs at random…



…and by pure luck the icy stream of water, causing spasms in reaction to the cold droplets, turned warmer and I eventually managed to have a decent shower.

If anyone on SQTalk wants to have a shower in this lounge, remember this: The larger, right knob controls hot and cold. The others adjust water flow. To this day I have no idea how the functions are divided between the left 3 knobs…

[yflyer]

I left the lounge and headed to the B concourse holding area. This is a spacious, open holding area, without enclosed holding rooms for each gate. It was not crowded, and there was ample seating available.




Today’s flight, SQ321 LHR-SIN, would be operated by 9V-SKK, a five year old A380.



There was ample space to board a large aircraft like the A380, with separate lanes for each class of travel.



Boarding through the premium lanes was smooth and hassle-free, while lines in the Y section were orderly.

[yflyer]

I was warmly greeted when I boarded the main Y deck of the aircraft.



I’ve covered SQ’s A380 Y cabin in other TR’s so I’ll not dive into the details. Suffice to say, the cabin was clean and spacious. The lower-deck was laid out 3-4-3.

Here is a view of one of the emergency / bulkhead rows on the lower deck…



This is the last row of the main deck. While the SQ seat map shows this as “windowless”, you do get at least half a window view.



Note that the rear lavs of the A380 are fairly noisy, so if you sit in the back of the main cabin, be prepared to hear the soft sounds of flushing loos every few minutes. Best to wear headphones or earplugs.

Flight time today was a fairly long 12 hours and 30 minutes.



I popped up the rear stairs for a look around…



This was one of the aircraft with a small Y cabin, laid out 2-4-2, in the rear section of the upper deck.



It was quite full upstairs, with departure preparations in full swing…



The last two rows of the upper deck have just two seats in the middle section.



There rear seats on the upper deck are some of my favourite Y seats on the A380, when travelling alone, or with a partner. You get a little more space on the side, and the last row seat reclines fine with no-one behind you.

[yflyer]

Back downstairs in the rear of the main cabin, while waiting for other pax to board, I had a chat with R, a young and engaging cabin crew member who simply radiated charm...

"Going home?" she asked...."Yes I am! I was just here for over a week..."...she had been in London for a couple of days too, and she too loved coming to London. When I mentioned that I was staying in Bayswater, her eyes lit up and she asked "Did you try the Roast Duck?"...we exchanged Chinese restaurant suggestions...she was a fan of Four Seasons and Goldmine, which were down the road from my favourite, Kam Tong...

I returned to my seat and settled in for the flight...

Amenity kits were handed out.

A smooth take-off after a very long take-off roll...

Service began with a round of drinks...



Today's menu:

Supper…



Light bites (between meal service)…



Breakfast…



For dinner, I chose the tandoori chicken…



The starter was tuna salad…



The tandoori chicken was excellent…



Creamy and strongly flavoured tender chunks of chicken accompanied by basmati rice. A very enjoyable main course.

Dessert was blackcurrent sorbet, which came in a garish shade of maroon, but it was a fairly tasty dessert.



After dinner, I slept soundly for a few hours before waking up hungry. I headed to the galley to grab a snack…



Koka noodles were also available on this flight (despite not being listed on the “light bites” menu)…

[yflyer]

Back at my seat, I turned on my IFE…

On Airshow, it turned out that we had overflown Kabul (during daylight hours) during the flight. Unfortunately I was asleep at the time, and did not take any photos out the window over Kabul. In any case, the A380’s door windows were much smaller than the 77W or 77WN, and that would have made photo taking much more difficult.

I did head to the doorways to raise the windows to have a look out the window to check out the view. Over India, we were blanketed by cloud.



Krisworld on this aircraft was the familiar AVOD Krisworld, with a great selection of entertainment options.





While not as advanced as the system on the 77WN, this was still a great system, and in some ways this version of Krisworld was simpler and more user-friendly as well.

Unlike the onboard wifi on the 77WN, which was charged by time/duration (with unlimited data usage), on the A380, wifi was charged by data usage, at fairly expensive rates.



2+ hours prior to landing, the cabin lighting was switched on, and the cabin crew came round with steaming hot towels.



Breakfast was served…



The tableware used was the newest version, with glossy white bowls and casseroles.



One thing I noticed on this trip was that the clear plastic covers on the small bowls is quite tightly attached to the bowl, and that I found it impossible to lift the cover off without taking the whole bowl off the tray, grasping the bowl with both hands, and prying the top lid off. A very secure fit, for sure, but I wonder if there is a secret to taking this lid off without having to take it off the tray…



I chose the noodle option for breakfast.



The noodles had good texture. A tasty dish.

[yflyer]

We were soon close to Singapore, with 7pm as the estimated arrival time.





The view out the window from the last row of the main deck…



Some congestion at the airport at this hour, so a few circuits and a few minutes delay before landing just after 7pm.



A very smooth touchdown and a short taxi to the gate.

We parked at the gate, and as we waited in the rear of the Y cabin for pax to exit the full A380, I caught up with R again...she had obviously been busy throughout the flight, taking care of pax in my section of the cabin in true SQ fashion...

"Did you get any rest at all on the flight?", I asked.

"Yes! Just a few hours, on a flat bed! We take turns to rest..."

"That's good! Yah, I've never been to the crew rest area on an A380, I heard it's really comfortable".

"What were the names of those roast duck places you recommended again?"

"I'll write them down for you" and she whipped out her stack of post-it notes and jotted a few restaurant names down for my reference.

She would have the whole weekend off, then stand-by, and would be back in Europe again within a month...

The line of pax waiting to deplane cleared...I thanked her again, and her colleagues, for a wonderful flight and left the A380...



I remember thinking that the 12+ hours on this flight just whizzed by...

Once off the plane, I was through immigration and at baggage claim in a few minutes.

[yflyer]

Overall another wonderful flight on SQ, with the overall experience on this A380 service being top notch as well, despite having a slightly older hard product than the 77WN I flew to London a couple of weeks before.

A special word of mention to the cabin crew on this flight: This was an excellent set of cabin crew, led by a very “switched on”, yet warm and friendly IFS who spent more of his time in the Y cabin than the supervisors on the other flights I have been on.

The cabin crew in my section of the plane, from the leading steward, to the individual cabin crew members in my section of the plane were uniformly excellent. On SQ, friendly professional cabin service is a basic expectation…this set of crew topped that by being exceptionally responsive, friendly and spontaneous.

I wonder what it is about the SIN-LHR-SIN route, which seems to bring out the best in SQ cabin crew.

[yflyer]

And that wraps up this TR.

Overall impressions?

Great flights on Singapore Airlines, on the 77WN and A380 to and from London in Y.

The A380 experience in Y remains top notch, while the 77WN Y product really sets the standard for excellence in economy class travel. And cabin crew were flawless on both the outbound and return legs.

A smooth and hassle-free experience arriving and departing from the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow – just be prepared to do quite a bit of walking.

Wonderful food in T2 – I would strongly recommend the Perfectionists’ Café in the T2A airside area for a full meal prior to flying.

There are still a couple of things left to do and explore at the airport…the UA and Lufthansa lounges for example, and of course the SQ lounge once it opens.

But the food on offer in the T2 lounges now seems almost irrelevant: Just show up at the airport early and eat a sumptuous meal at the Perfectionists' Cafe before heading to the lounge to have a drink or shower before the flight!

For regular visitors to London, do check out The Shard as well, both for the view, and for some of the dining options within the complex.

And for those of you who enjoy a good run or jog, when the weather is good, get your running shoes out and enjoy the sights in London on foot!

Thanks for reading!