Amtrak dining and cafe service

[20th Century Rider]

Actually there was something even less attractive than the Flex Meals called Contemporary Dining which the Millenials were allegedly supposed to love - that was introduced in the LSL when they ran out of serviceable Diners while the Viewliner II Diners were delayed for almost a decade. It did not have any hot dish for dinner or breakfast! And then even that pretense went away when they discontinued Dining altogether on the Silver Star. So we have come a long way baby!

TG Anderson's idea is long gone... 'gone with the wind!'

 

[RRrich]

Possibly. I’m not entirely convinced Amtrak wants traditional dining back on all trains. But I’m hopeful it will come back.

Amtrak may not want to return to traditional dining from (inflexible) flex eating but I suspect that the passengers do

 

[joelkfla]

Amtrak may not want to return to traditional dining from (inflexible) flex eating but I suspect that the passengers do

As do the OBS, from all reports.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Actually there was something even less attractive than the Flex Meals called Contemporary Dining which the Millenials were allegedly supposed to love - that was introduced in the LSL when they ran out of serviceable Diners while the Viewliner II Diners were delayed for almost a decade. It did not have any hot dish for dinner or breakfast! And then even that pretense went away when they discontinued Dining altogether on the Silver Star. So we have come a long way baby!

I never got to try Contemporary Dining but I think I may have preferred it to the flex dining. I know the “cold” meal I recently had on American Air was way better than flex dining.

Contemporary was only on the Lake Shore and one other train correct? I know I had just missed the full dining car when I took the meteor. They went from full dining to flex on October 1.

 

[jis]

I never got to try Contemporary Dining but I think I may have preferred it to the flex dining. I know the “cold” meal I recently had on American Air was way better than flex dining.

Actually Flex came out of contemporary as they added more hot dishes. There was a version of contemporary with an omelette in its latter days for breakfast. They also added first one and then two hot dishes for dinner, essentially the same fare as in Flex.

I had the several versions on the LSL.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Actually Flex came out of contemporary as they added more hot dishes. There was a version of contemporary with an omelette in its latter days for breakfast. They also added first one and then two hot dishes for dinner, essentially the same fare as in Flex.

I had the several versions on the LSL.

Did you think the salads were higher quality than the hot “flex” meals?

 

[jis]

Did you think the salads were higher quality than the hot “flex” meals?

Possibly, but it was small and it looked like they used a special compressing tool to stuff it tight in the serving container.

But then again I don’t much care about salads, so how it was did not concern me much

But I don’t know of too many who did not complain about the lack of hot items, nice salad or not.

 

[Rasputin]

The last meal I had on the Lake Shore was in May of 2019 on No. 48. I think that was close to the end of Contemporary Dining and just before the introduction of flex dining.

The Contemporary Dining salad was extremely small. It made the garden salad served on the western trains appear gigantic by comparison.

 

[jis]

The Contemporary Dining salad was extremely small. It made the garden salad served on the western trains appear gigantic.

Extremely small and extremely compressed as I seem to recall

 

[Bob Dylan]

Seriously, you would NOT have liked the Contemporary Meals served on the LSL and the Cap!

They're still the worst Meals I've ever had on any type of Transportation anywhere in the World.( the Boxes were nice, but they created lots of Waste!)

 

[jis]

Seriously, you would NOT have liked the Contemporary Meals served on the LSL and the Cap!

They're still the worst Meals I've ever had on any type of Transportation anywhere in the World.( the Boxes were nice, but they created lots of Waste!)

Oh yeah! Those cute Balsa boxes! They always made me think of the model flying planes I used to build and fly when I was a kid.

 

[lordsigma]

I never got to try Contemporary Dining but I think I may have preferred it to the flex dining. I know the “cold” meal I recently had on American Air was way better than flex dining.

Contemporary was only on the Lake Shore and one other train correct? I know I had just missed the full dining car when I took the meteor. They went from full dining to flex on October 1.

Maybe a few people would have preferred it but the overwhelming feedback was negative on all cold meals and the number 1 complaint they got was lack of hot meals. The switch from the boxes to flex meals was due to the negative feedback. The first revision to contemporary dining added in a single hot option (beef short ribs) that was the precursor to the flex meals. The next revision added more hot options. The name change to “flexible” occurred when they extended it to the Meteor and Crescent. But at that point contemporary dining was essentially what flex dining is now - with flex dining they essentially introduced that black plastic tray that they use to try to improve the presentation a bit.

 

[WWW]

Those balsa boxes could be mistaken for an edible taco salad if used today -
A waste even more than the poly strofoam stuff -

 

[Barb Stout]

Actually after all is said and done, the recent improvements on LD dining in the West has been pretty good except that they took out the carrot cake with that dreamy creamy white icing; my favorite thing on the menu. Why oh why did they do that?

Do you think we can introduce a bill in congress to bring back the carrot cake???

We recently returned from a trip on the SWC and one of our partners at the table told us that on their outgoing trip, Amtrak ran out of the lemon cake that replaced the carrot cake, but they did have carrot cake on board, so our table partners had the carrot cake. I guess that would have been last week. So I guess they still have some squirreled away.

 

[joelkfla]

with flex dining they essentially introduced that black plastic tray that they use to try to improve the presentation a bit.

Sometimes -- recently some of the Flex meals I had in the diner were handed to me at the kitchen door in standard cardboard carryout trays. And I had to ask for the mini-salad.

 

[lordsigma]

Sometimes -- recently some of the Flex meals I had in the diner were handed to me at the kitchen door in standard cardboard carryout trays. And I had to ask for the mini-salad.

Me too. The tray is the way they are supposed to do it but In practice…:

 

[joelkfla]

Me too. The tray is the way they are supposed to do it but In practice…:

Maybe the Flex trays are mysteriously disappearing to the same place as the VL II mattresses.

 

[trimetbusfan]

We recently returned from a trip on the SWC and one of our partners at the table told us that on their outgoing trip, Amtrak ran out of the lemon cake that replaced the carrot cake, but they did have carrot cake on board, so our table partners had the carrot cake. I guess that would have been last week. So I guess they still have some squirreled away.

On a recent trip on the coast starlight, they had all 3 of the current deserts in addition to the old chocolate torte desert.

 

[trimetbusfan]

Maybe the Flex trays are mysteriously disappearing to the same place as the VL II mattresses.

When I rode the crecent recently, the crew had a whole bag of these trays stacked on one of the cafe tables. They never actually used any.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Amazing that in all the years now what’s it been, 4-5 years? Amtrak refuses to give Acela first class meals a try on the Eastern trains. I wouldn’t be surprised after the 12 month study that’s going on in conjunction with RPA that’s one possible solution.

Acela first class meals would probably appease 70 percent of riders where as that number is probably closer to 30 percent with with Flexible meals.

Of course with all things Amtrak now there’s reasons that can’t happen. Wrong commissaries, wrong equipment (might be too hard to heat Acela first meals in a full dining car, lol) the list goes on. The main reason being apathy at the leadership level in my opinion.

 

[lordsigma]

Amazing that in all the years now what’s it been, 4-5 years? Amtrak refuses to give Acela first class meals a try on the Eastern trains. I wouldn’t be surprised after the 12 month study that’s going on in conjunction with RPA that’s one possible solution.

Acela first class meals would probably appease 70 percent of riders where as that number is probably closer to 30 percent with with Flexible meals.

Of course with all things Amtrak now there’s reasons that can’t happen. Wrong commissaries, wrong equipment (might be too hard to heat Acela first meals in a full dining car, lol) the list goes on. The main reason being apathy at the leadership level in my opinion.

There isn't a heck of a lot of difference between some of the Acela first meals and flexible dining at least food quality wise from my experience. Though the presentation on Acela first is much better. The Acela first menu is somewhat limited for an overnight trip but it could certainly be used as a starting point of how to do it better. In my opinion when flex dining meals are properly heated and served they aren't all that bad. But Acela First definitely has better consistency in properly heating the meals. Possibly because it's run with two crew members instead of just one like with flexible dining.

 

[20th Century Rider]

Amazing that in all the years now what’s it been, 4-5 years? Amtrak refuses to give Acela first class meals a try on the Eastern trains. I wouldn’t be surprised after the 12 month study that’s going on in conjunction with RPA that’s one possible solution.

Acela first class meals would probably appease 70 percent of riders where as that number is probably closer to 30 percent with with Flexible meals.

Of course with all things Amtrak now there’s reasons that can’t happen. Wrong commissaries, wrong equipment (might be too hard to heat Acela first meals in a full dining car, lol) the list goes on. The main reason being apathy at the leadership level in my opinion.

Acela 1st class meals are a bit small but very high quality. Anything is possible except where brick walls block any decent possibilities.

 

[freejak]

I am NOT a fan of flex meals. That being said, I think if they didn’t over cook or burn the meals, they’re not that bad.
On our northbound Silver 92 in June, I ate Cheerios for breakfast and for lunch. For dinner I ordered the salmon and shrimp. I liked that they gave me lime wedges instead of tiny lemon pieces. Dry but not that bad. Needed a little dipping sauce.
My husband on the other hand got an omelette that was burnt on the bottom and around the edges, and overcooked, burnt stinky broccoli on his overly dried out chicken a la Rosa. Thank goodness I packed a chicken cutlet sandwich for his lunch.
On our upcoming 91 I plan on packing some of the goodies from the lounge.

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Thanks for the photos! A picture is worth a thousand Flex Meals.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Breakfast and lunch on todays Coast Starlight. Great food!

Scrambled eggs could come plain, with or without cheese, and with or without all veggies. The eggs and potatoes were both excellent.

The salad was quite good, very good flavors and good quality ingredients. Good portion for an entree salad.

Chocolate cake was good. I liked it better than the lemon cake but not as good as the cheesecake.

 

[lordsigma]

Breakfast and lunch on todays Coast Starlight. Great food!

Scrambled eggs could come plain, with or without cheese, and with or without all veggies. The eggs and potatoes were both excellent.

The salad was quite good, very good flavors and good quality ingredients. Good portion for an entree salad.

Chocolate cake was good. I liked it better than the lemon cake but not as good as the cheesecake.

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Enjoy the trip.