British Airways are very fond of the fact they used to operate the supersonic Concorde airliner. There is a Concorde Room at London Heathrow, which is an exclusive lounge for First Class passengers and the crème de la crème of British Airways frequent flyers. The Concorde Room has a counterpart at New York JFK and together they used to serve Concorde passengers back when the aircraft was the fastest way between London and New York.
A new lounge concept is being introduced at British Airways. Rather than having separate First Class and Business Class lounges, they now have a single lounge and within is one separate room reserved for First Class passengers only. In Singapore, this manifested itself as the Concorde Bar. In Washington DC, it is the Concorde Dining Room and that’s what I am here to tell you about.
When you get off the train at the gates at Dulles airport, the British Airways lounge is literally one of the first things you see. The striking blue colour is unmissable!
The lounge is accessed via a lift which is festooned with signage to make sure that only the great and good are allowed access.
I was greeted by a friendly attendant once I was on the correct floor and asked if I had been to the lounge before. I was given a brief rundown on where things were and I chose to dine immediately in the Concorde Dining Room. A server escorted me inside and as the dining room was empty I was allowed to sit wherever I wished. The dining room looks great!
The menu was provided and my drinks order was taken.
I waited for my meal to arrive and I took some more pictures. Here is the table setting and a view across at the other booths.
I like quinoa, so my starter was the Organic Quinoa Croquettes Roquefort, Parmesan Crisp, Basil, Carrot, Rutabaga. It looked fantastic when it arrived.
The taste was out of this world! The dish looked fantastic as well and that is why the cut croquettes are the featured image on this post. I was very impressed! I chose the Porchini Mushroom Ravioli, Leeks, Tomato Cream Sauce for my main meal.
The meal was a pleasingly petite size which I appreciated as I planned to eat on the flight also. The taste was very good though I found it heavier than I would have preferred. My dessert choice was the Almond Financier, Raspberry, Brown Sugar, Crème Fraiche. Part of the reason I chose this was that I wanted to see what an Almond Financier actually was.
That was excellent! The raspberry design in the cream was quite pretty and I appreciate details like that. It was time to leave the lounge and join the main lounge.
The Lounge
The lounge features one long corridor and off the corridor are various rooms where you can sit and relax. At the far end of the lounge there is a bar and also the Club World dining area. British Airways offers a pre-dine service from selected transatlantic ports so that passengers may maximise sleeping time on board. The lounge was quite busy though there were still enough seats for all. I sat down and particularly liked the well placed mirror in the first image that reflects the curved windows very well.
I didn’t take photos of the Club World dining area or the bar as there were just too many people around when I was visiting.
Overall Thoughts
British Airways offer an excellent lounge experience at Washington Dulles. The Concorde Dining Room for First Class passengers is an excellent feature with a tasty and well presented menu. The main lounge is modern and well designed with a decent selection of food and drink on offer.
It will be interesting to see if the Concorde concept is rolled out to other lounges around the world. I think they’re definitely things to tick off a list of things to do! Thanks for reading and if you have any comments or questions please leave them below.
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