Qantas’ new first class cheeseburger takes flight
This gourmet “American cheeseburger” will be served in the Qantas first class cabin.
By David Flynn, March 31 2026
Qantas is elevating the humble hamburger to first class fare – and it’s not just any burger, but a culinary creation hailed as the best burger in Australia.
From this week, the airline will serve up the Café Margaret American Cheeseburger to passengers in the first class cabin of its Airbus A380 jets soaring from Sydney and Melbourne to Los Angeles, Singapore and Dallas.
Café Margaret is of course the casual all-day dining neighbour to Chef Neil Perry’s award-winning Margaret restaurant at Double Bay.
The Perry-designed Café Margaret American cheeseburger has been listed as the tenth-best in the world by The World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants, and Australia’s best by The World’s Best Burger Places.
After a guest appearance at Qantas’ Sydney business class lounge in late 2025, the burger landed on the à la carte menu of the Qantas First Lounges in Sydney and Melbourne (where it’s listed as the CopperTree Farms American cheeseburger).
Also read: We taste-test Qantas’ business class hamburger
Now it’s taking to the skies, as a replacement for the trusty steak sandwich in first class as of April 1.
Qantas' Sydney domestic business class lounge saw an Aussie twist on the PerryBurger, courtesy of beetroot relish.
“We take CopperTree Farms’ beef – a mix of brisket and chuck – grind it daily and hand-form the perfect 160g patty, cook it to medium, and serve it with melted American cheese, rose mayo (spiked with umami and tomato sauce), onion and pickles, in a milk bun,” Perry has previously said of his creation.
Rose mayo is a blend of ketchup and American mustard with a dash of Tabasco, resulting in “a beautifully balanced, creamy sauce with a soft rose colour.”
Just be careful not to let that mayo drip onto your first class pyjamas, which Qantas is also updating from April 1 to a relaxed-fit pairing of a button-down top and “wide leg pant with pockets.”
Of course, Qantas is not alone in serving hamburgers to high flyers.
British Airways' first class burger was specifically designed to taste great at 35,000 feet.
British Airways claims to have perfected the high-flying hamburger with a chef-honed patty recipe of three different cuts of British beef to ensure full flavour even at 35,000 feet – where your ability to taste reduces by 30% – topped by a smokey tomato relish and served between a sweet brioche bun.
Emirates serves an Angus beef burger with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and a side of fries in first class on select long-haul flights.
Cathay Pacific’s Boeing 777 first class sees a bacon cheeseburger accompanies by chunky chips.
Cathay Pacific's first class bacon cheeseburger.
Singapore Airlines’ Book the Cook first class menu features a Wagyu beef burger, while Swiss offers a ‘Swiss-style cheeseburger’ as an occasional first class menu item.
What’s your take: does a hamburger really belong in first class, or does it feel out of place in this premium cabin?
Also read: Should hamburgers be served in first class?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 402
Wow, oh so premium.
25 Nov 2025
Total posts 35
Meanwhile, EK and SQ are serving unlimited caviar. Watch, the next step will be this on QF - "would you like caviar on your first class burger ?"
07 May 2015
Total posts 76
EK and SQ benefit by being heavily state-backed, and EK also has lower labor costs, so easier for them to really 'go to town' in First catering. But I agree with Qantas' silly approach to including caviar in First on that tint 'caviar tartlette' appetiser, it's almost insulting to boast caviar and then serve this up.
14 Dec 2022
Total posts 3
"Bring us your finest food, stuffed with your second-finest."
"Very well, the lobster stuffed with tacos."
25 Nov 2025
Total posts 35
"culinary creation hailed as the best burger in Australia".
That's VERY debatable, by that picture.
The onion looks raw (no thanks, only red onions should be served raw) and that bun doesn't look at all toasted, which you need to stop it going soggy; it's already bleeding into it.
03 May 2013
Total posts 712
This is hilarious. Cheeseburger in Qantas 'first'. Not lobster or smoked salmon....maybe marketing and comms on campus at Mascot made a mistake....surely they meant to say Economy?
07 May 2015
Total posts 76
Re: the steak sandwich, I know it doesn't sound fancy but the steak sandwich has apparently been the most-ordered menu item in first class and I think business class since, well, pretty much forever. It went from being a 'mid-flight snack' to becoming a permanent fixture on the main menu because so many people requested it over a standard meal choice. A steak sandwich is admittedly more 'Australian' than a cheeseburger, and in my books tastier and always preferable, but I can see the burger 'hitting the spot' for some. Not as fancy as Gulf carriers or SQ but its seems that Qantas passengers actually do want 'comfort food'?
04 Dec 2017
Total posts 75
Yep, that's exactly why they pay 15-20K for an F ticket, the opportunity to order a Qantas burger inflight-not.
21 Dec 2012
Total posts 45
I think this is fair. I used to quite enjoy an EY steak sandwich in F - bvut it wasn't a 'main'. It was an "I'm X hours into a long haul and I want something good, but simple, between meals" - more than a mezze, less than a meal. The elevated menu was as "First Class" as you'd expect on a full service gulf carrier, but sometimes you don't want that.
(I'm surprised at the media photo though, the onion looks uncooked and the bun looks like it has already started going soggy under the patty)
I do have to laugh at the way these Chef cult-of-celebrity items are dressed up in articles, I'm sure it's a nice burger, I'd rather have Neil Perry's beefcake than Luke Mangan's Balls.
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 612
Very much in two minds about this. Yes I love a good burger, but can you really have a good burger at 40,000ft? More to the point, for the price of a first class ticket I expect to be offered something a lot better, a really special and memorable meal made with premium ingredients that'll really impress me, not a 'cheeseburger' I could buy from any suburban cafe. Come on, Qantas, knock my socks off with something amazing and worthy of First.
11 Sep 2015
Total posts 270
For anybody wondering, here is the current Qantas A380 First menu from Sydney to LAX
CANAPÉS
- Calvisius caviar tartlet with Pepe Saya crème fraîche
- Roast duck with pomelo and toasted coconut, cashew and betel leaf
TO START
- Green pea soup with spanner crab and zucchini flowers (GF)
- Margaret's tartare of yellowfin tuna with gochujang, toasted sesame and baby cos
- Tortellini of ricotta, broad beans and fennel with tomato and basil broth (V)
- Our signature steak sandwich with tomato and chilli relish
MAIN
- Braised shiitake and king mushrooms with wheat noodles and chrysanthemum greens (VG)
- Margaret's seared Glacier 51 Toothfish with macadamia romesco, snow peas, lemon and Cobram estate Hojiblanca extra virgin olive oil (GF)
- Roasted Wollemi duck with orange caramel, crisp Chinese greens, golden sesame and jasmine rice (GF)
- Crumbed Margra lamb cutlets with shaved fennel, pine nuts, rocket, salsa verde and lemon
- Coppertree farms beef fillet with chive potato purée, thyme roasted heirloom carrots, asparagus with your choice of Café de Paris butter, hot English mustard or seeded mustard (GF)
Regardless of what you think about the merits of a cheeseburger in first class,. the rest of this menu is pretty decent in my books. Not SQ or EK, sure, but that's comparing apples to oranges.
04 Dec 2017
Total posts 75
It's really not "apples and orange's" when people pay the EXACT same amount for an F ticket with QF as they would with SQ, QR, EK LH etc. Qantas does need to rethink the relative poor value for money Qantas First represents. A burger on the menu in F does very little, if anything, to raise QF's offering.
11 Sep 2015
Total posts 270
It's apples and oranges when EK is owned and funded by the Government of Dubai, and SQ is majority-owned by the Singapore government's Temasek Holdings investment company, which means both airlines have much deeper pockets when it comes to what they can spend on product, f&b, service etc. There's simply no way Qantas can level up to that, even if airfares are the same, because EK and SQ simply have much more money to spend on every passenger.
21 Aug 2024
Total posts 2
Unfortunately the majority of paying customers aren’t going to look at airline ownership when they’re weighing up the relative merits of hard and soft product against first class pricing.
06 Feb 2021
Total posts 73
A cheeseburger, and culinary standards in first class, ( not that I've ever had the opportunity to experience them, ) is surely, by default, a contradiction.
16 Oct 2012
Total posts 62
Just an observation, but it seems increasingly the case that those in Australia’s airlines who make decisions about premium products (business and first) demonstrate little understanding of what is premium.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
11 Nov 2016
Total posts 72
Rather than an American cheeseburger, I'd prefer Qantas to be serving French wine.
QFF
12 Apr 2013
Total posts 1616
Does not matter what poem you write it is still no more than humble cheeseburger.
25 Aug 2017
Total posts 22
Maccas before boarding, anyone? Neil Perry - you have to go!
17 Jan 2018
Total posts 87
When is QF going to ditch Perry and get some fresh ideas. It must be 20years or more.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Sep 2017
Total posts 172
That’s a mere burger at a premium price.
12 Jul 2019
Total posts 3
I think it’s April 1!!😂😂
12 Jul 2019
Total posts 3
I think it’s April 1 ! 😂😂😉
17 Jan 2018
Total posts 87
Oh it must be an April fool.
05 Jan 2022
Total posts 4
I love the first of April. Next year I want to be offered a chance to fly the plane while eating my hamburger.
BTW, if this story isn't an April Fools Day joke then it should be.
27 Jan 2018
Total posts 6
And no beetroot? That’s the travesty.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
07 Dec 2014
Total posts 175
I mean, not everyone wants caviar? There are probably people out there flying first for the hard product, and would actually prefer a burger to patagonian toothfish or whatever - not everyone has adventurous pallets. The question is whether its a good burger?
29 Jan 2012
Total posts 221
A rather sad looking offering in my opinion, surely they could dress it up to 'first class' standards as it looks like something from BK. I have no issue with a hamburger being in the offering, but at least put some polish on it and I also hope they still offer the 'first class' menu items as an alternative or is this going to be the future of QF's service levels.
I remember being offered a hamburger option back in the 90's when flying international with UA - but this was in economy class. Makes me wonder where the industry is heading.
05 Dec 2018
Total posts 158
The game changer is if you can serve crunchy, hot fries with the burger up in the air.
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