The reason why drinks and breakfast rolls are of a different size from LGW is because of the cuts in cabin crew complement. We now operate flights over 90 minutes with the CAA minimum complement of 3 while still retaining the Club class.
BA had to find a Traveller service that was possible to do with only 2 crew and having smaller deli cups for tea & coffee means less runs to and from the galley to top up the pots. Also the breakfast roll is small but you get a cereal bar and some fruit in one go.
I am personally not a fan of this service, but looks like the only option at the moment as when 2 cabin crew have to feed, water and deal with requests of 131 people and do the tax free sales on their own and the time is so limited there's not much else that they can do, really.
If anybody doesn't like the new meal solution I offer them a comment card and ask them to kindly fill it in. What's good though is that pax often complain about the sandwiches but not the service given by the crew, and this is what really matters to me. I agree with them that the food is not the best!!!!
FBW
PS: if/when also LHR has minimum CAA crew complement on SH aircraft (being proposed already) probably the service will become more consistent throughout the airline's SH operation. Just a matter of months maybe. This "new" arrangement at LGW has saved the company lots and lots of money despite not being agreed with the union and forced upon the employees.