For our flight from San Francisco to Tokyo Narita in ANA's "The Room" Business Class, we tested both the Japanese and Western menus side by side. Here is the full taste test.
(For the seat and flight experience itself, see the dedicated "The Room" review on the channel.)
We pre-ordered meals online, which we strongly recommend. It guarantees your first choice and the Japanese options sell out fast. This is ANA's Book the Cook equivalent for long-haul business class flights, and it is 100% worth doing as soon as your booking is confirmed. I checked a few days before departure and several Japanese selections were already gone. Do not sleep on this.
The SFO to Narita route is one of ANA's flagship transpacific routes, and The Room cabin is their newest and most premium business class product. If you are going to try ANA business class, this is the route and the cabin to do it on. We booked using ANA miles transferred from American Express Membership Rewards points, and the value was genuinely excellent.
Welcome Drinks and Appetizers
We started with ANA's signature Aromatic Kabosu: a citrus drink with honey, light and refreshing, somewhere between a citrusy sports drink and a lemonade. A good start. The flight attendants were warm and attentive from the moment we boarded, which set a great tone for the whole flight. They remembered our drink preferences without being asked again, which is the kind of detail that makes business class feel worth it.
Western starter: Mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, and salad dressing. The salty seedless olives that came with it were overpowering and threw off the whole dish. The bread arrived cold and hard with un-melted butter. Not a great first impression. This was the moment I started to suspect the Western menu was not going to keep up.
Japanese starter (Zensai and Otsukuri): Fresh sashimi, tofu, and pumpkin. Everything was served very cold, which is standard for sashimi, and the quality was excellent. Eating fresh, high-quality sashimi at 30,000 feet is a genuinely strange and good experience. The tofu was silky and lightly seasoned. The pumpkin was slightly sweet and earthy, almost like a palate cleanser between bites. Vincent is not a huge raw fish fan, so we swapped a few items between our plates. He took the tofu; I happily took the extra sashimi.
The presentation on the Japanese side was noticeably more elegant, too. Everything was arranged with care on small ceramic-style dishes, which added to the feeling that you were eating something special rather than just airplane food.
Main Courses
The mains came out a bit slow, but they arrived piping hot, which made up for it. On a long transpacific flight like SFO to Narita, I would rather wait an extra 15 minutes for a hot meal than get something lukewarm in a hurry.
Western main (my order): Salmon with tomato medley and green beans. Well-cooked and tasty. Nothing remarkable, nothing wrong. The salmon was not overcooked, which is honestly the bare minimum for airline fish, and it cleared that bar. The green beans had a nice bite. I ate the whole plate, but I was not thinking about it afterward.
Japanese main (Vincent's order): Grilled red rockfish with sweet soy, served with miso soup, a radish dish, and rice. The fish was exceptional. Flaky, moist, with just enough of the sweet soy glaze to add complexity without overwhelming the fish itself. The radish had incredible depth of flavor: savory, slightly pickled, with a texture that held up well next to the delicate fish. The miso soup was rich and warming. This was a clear 10/10 dish.
I kept stealing bites from Vincent's tray. He let me, mostly because he was too distracted by how good the rice was.
If you are debating between menus and you enjoy seafood, there is no debate. Get the Japanese meal.
Desserts and Mid-Flight Snacks
The dessert spread included a fruit bowl, a brownie with vanilla, and chocolates. The brownie was decent: dense and chocolatey, the kind of thing you eat because it is there. The fruit was fresh and nicely chilled. There was also bread with cheese, but again, the bread was too hard and dry to enjoy. I do not know why ANA keeps serving bread that arrives at a texture somewhere between a crouton and a hockey puck on the Western side, but here we are.
About halfway through the flight, after a few hours of sleep, we ordered the inflight ramen. This is one of ANA's signature mid-flight offerings and it is worth staying awake for. The broth was comforting and good: savory, warming, with a depth that surprised me for something made at altitude. The noodles were a bit doughy and starchy, which is typical for airplane noodles, but honestly, at 2am somewhere over the Pacific, a bowl of hot ramen is exactly what you want. We both ordered one and finished them completely.
Breakfast Before Landing
Breakfast service started a couple of hours before landing at Narita, and this is where the Japanese option pulled ahead one final time.
Western breakfast: Chicken, zucchini, fruit, and rice. Interesting and genuinely flavorful. I was impressed that the chicken was not rubbery. The fruit was fresh. If this had been my only experience with the Western menu, I might have rated it higher overall.
Japanese breakfast: A clean seaweed soup and a perfectly cooked piece of mackerel. The mackerel had such a firm, meaty texture that I mistook it for chicken when it arrived. I had to look twice. The seasoning was simple and clean, letting the fish do the work. It was the better of the two breakfasts, and one of the better things I ate on the entire trip.
The Japanese breakfast felt like the right way to ease into arriving in Tokyo. Light, clean, savory. By the time we landed at Narita, I was genuinely satisfied rather than that bloated, slightly regretful feeling you sometimes get after eating too much on a long flight.
Tips for Booking ANA The Room Business Class
If you are planning to fly ANA The Room on the SFO to Tokyo route, a few things worth knowing:
How to book with points: ANA miles are the sweet spot here. You can transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Capital One miles to ANA. Business class from the US West Coast to Japan runs around 75,000-88,000 ANA miles one-way depending on the season and partner program. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Air Canada Aeroplan are also strong options for booking ANA metal at good rates.
Pre-order your meals: As soon as your booking is confirmed, log into your ANA account and pre-select your meal. The Japanese menu options, especially the fish courses, fill up weeks in advance on peak routes. If you wait until check-in, you may end up defaulting to Western by necessity.
The Room configuration: Not every SFO to Narita flight uses The Room. Check the seat map when booking. The Room cabin has suites with full doors and a 1-2-1 configuration. If the seat map shows a different layout, you may be on an older aircraft.
Is It Worth It?
Yes, without hesitation. ANA business class on the SFO to Narita route is one of the best ways to fly to Japan. The Room cabin is genuinely impressive: private, well-designed, and staffed by crew who make you feel like the flight itself is part of the destination.
The dining is the headline feature, and as long as you order the Japanese menu, it delivers. The rockfish main and the mackerel breakfast are the standouts. The mid-flight ramen is a must.
The Western menu is fine but unremarkable, and the hard bread situation is a recurring problem. Order Japanese at every course and you will land in Tokyo happy.
Verdict
The main dishes on ANA are excellent. The appetizers and desserts are more hit-or-miss. The rule is consistent: stick to the Japanese menu. It outperforms the Western options at every course.
If you are flying ANA business class from San Francisco to Tokyo, pre-order the Japanese meal, order the ramen at midnight, and save room for the mackerel breakfast. You will not regret any of it.
