They kept the menu, but dropped the dining car style service many years ago.
My point is the tray meals used on the Cascades were pretty good and those meals were available until they withdrew all food and beverage service on the single surviving Cascade during the pandemic. I was making no comment at all on the long dead "dining car" style service. They were heat and eat during the "dining car" style years, and they were heat and eat until the withdrawal of food service entirely due to the pandemic. They were never, ever freshly prepared on the Cascades. At most they were plated. The same employee that waited table heated the food. The main difference now is you order it at the counter and carry it back to the "dining car" (if you want to eat it there, I think the remaining Talgo 8s have that table car) instead of being served there and the guy at the counter does the heating.
They were serving Ivar's Clam Chowder right up to the pandemic when they stopped food service entirely. Now that food service is back, as of May 24th, I hope Ivar's is back with it. That Ivar's Clam Chowder came onboard in a big bag, by the way. It wasn't made onboard.
I rode the Cascades a lot pre-pandemic and during the "dining car" years I usually ate in it.