British Airways Galleries First

4 stars for the champagne and wine selection, the mostly super staff, and comfy seating. Negative two stars for the breakfast food, but a better than average rating (relative to other airport lounge food — not real restaurants) for anything past midday.

Every since I went to BA first galleries for the first time, I have been very much looking foward to getting my Gold status. As much as I feel tired of flying long hauls, having the ability to stop at the Galleries first to get a couple of champagnes and order some fresh cooked food makes the whole next 12 hours stuck on a plane much more tolerable.
Galleries First is really a HUGE upgrade compare to the business lounge if you plan on getting any food. I always wonder why they serve economy class plane food on a business class lounge… Ok I fully acknowledge I am a food snob, but there is really no reason why anyone would want to eat at the business lounge. On the contrast, the food at Galleries first is actually really good, so good that I would opt to go to the airport with empty stomach so I can eat there. That speaks a lot considering how much I love food.
Considering BA has a separate concorde lounge for real first class passenger, you can expect most Galleries first people are BA gold members. I am impressed with how BA takes care their loyal passengers.

I am in the south galleries. As mentioned in other reviews, it is really spacious here. Sofa is definitely more comfortable than the Galleries Club (Business Class). Food selections in the buffet area seems to be identical to the business class, however, they do offer a menu of food that can be served to wherever you sit — you can order wonton soup, burger, pasta, even thai curry to your liking.
Liquor selections are a bit better than business lounge, and having a champagne bar is a nice touch.
Staff are quiet but attentive.

Huge lounge but the staff are 1*
Staff on the front desk always seem to have a bad attitude towards FF’s. Disappointing.

The BA lounge in terminal 5 at Hethrow is very spacious. I was thrilled to see that they offered 110 volt outlets as well. Yes, the food isn’t all that great, but after eating two meals while flying in from Dallas, who has the appetite? There are plenty of open work spaces, computers to use and even free wi-​fi. There even is an enclosed «kid zone» complete with a Foosball table and video games. This isn’t the best airline lounge I’ve visited, but it’s certainly comfortable.

This first class lounge is schizophrenic. There are some really good things, and some really bad things.
First the good… this huge lounge has plenty of space to spread out, with several themed sections. There should be plenty of different decors so that anyone will find a comfy place to hang out. The staff is helpful of course, and they thought to add a specific customer service counter just for this lounge.
There’s quite a variety of refreshment available, but overall the food offerings are somewhat disappointing. Seriously, are you supposed to use canned mushrooms in a first class lounge?
But there are some very odd decisions that were made when T5 was built and decorated. On the weird side are the life-​size horse lamps that greet you at the entrance. I also don’t like the check-​in area… it makes me feel like going through an imaginary turnstyle. And exiting requires you to walk headlong into those trying to get in.
I’m perplexed why they didn’t build separate showers to be within the first lounge… instead it’s shared space in the complex within the Elemis Spa. Beyond that, the description I came up with for the shower rooms are «Stormtrooper-​esque»… I guess someone was living out their Death Star fantasies. The shower rooms are TINY, with tiny toilets and tiny sinks to go along with it. There’s a suction drainage system, so the toilet sounds like a lav on the plane… classy! Finally, the finishing touch is the inkjet printed sign warning that anything left on the floor would get wet.
BA had such an opportunity with T5, and I think they’ve utterly failed in their first lounge. This is a lounge I definitely would not go out of my way to go to.