They tasted no different than any other bag of kettle chips. I just failed to see how they were expected to reflect the supposedly premium experience of the "Parlor Car" when they'd be equally at home in any random vending machine.
You and my husband! I had to be on a trip alone, to take the Card. I loved it for the scenery. And the company was pretty good, too. The food, incidentally, was quite acceptable for one night.
Perhaps in your opinion. In reality there is no reason this has to be the case. Trains operating over meal periods should have basic food options available. Cafe car provides that.
Wow. $22 for pulled pork and mac & cheese. That's one of the cheaper cuts of meat on the pig. Also $22 for tilapia, which is pretty low cost farmed imported fish. There's a good BBQ place near me that has pulled pork with 2 sides for $13. Even Red Lobster has tilapia for $16, and they prepare it better than just steamed..
On my recent trip both the chicken sliders and the salisbury steak were available. They also had a breakfast special with both scrambled eggs and french toast. The lamb shanks were tasty. The chocolate mousse thingy was outstanding. The cheesecake in a cup was good. I had the pre-scooped ice cream ball of whatever brand once. It was OK....not Blue Bell or Hagen Daaz that's for sure. I had the steak a couple of times - they seemed considerably smaller than prior experience, and tougher. They called them flank steaks, perhaps that is the reason. I enjoyed all my meals and company in the diner.
Do you know if all the cold dinners on your trip were Asian themed? I'm curious because sometimes it appears that each dish has a different theme to it - the beef dish is Asian themed, the Chicken is Mexican, etc.
When I rode the Builder eastbound about 3 years ago, the attendant served the meals in the room. He did a nice job of making it as classy as he could. Back then the Empire Builder still served champagne or the sparkling cider as a "Welcome Aboard" gift. He made that apart of the dinner to class it up. I must admit... it worked! I had the shrimp entree' that the above poster mentioned, and I thought it was very good. I enjoyed eating dinner in my roomette and watching the gorge.
That's exactly what they did for us in the Portland sleeper, and that was back around 1990.
There was one occasion in which I was a sleeper passenger on the Portland section and the choice seats in the SSL were reserved for sleeper passengers and their meals at breakfast. There weren't a whole lot of seats blocked off.....just enough to irritate the coach passengers who were treated to a spectacular view of rocks and dirt while the sleeper passengers got the view of the Gorge. :lol:
I forgot about those two points - we've ridden the EB west into PDX, but never east. Since we travel during the busy summer months the LSL is usually packed full, but the one time there was plenty of room was westbound from SPK. There were a lot of diesel fumes, though. I guess we'll see how it goes.
Yes, we have an awesome Chef on our crew ^_^ . And we do indeed order food from Taylor and also at Pontiac, IL. The place we get food from at Pontiac has the best Parmesan garlic chicken wings!
I miss having the whipped cream. I'm ask the diner for one to use for hot chocolate in the cafe.
