wayman
Engineer
I'll try to keep the traveloginess to a minimum (not that there was much of it anyway, PHL-ALX), and cut straight to the meat of the post
Yesterday's 19 was only barely half capacity in the first coach out of Philadelphia, though we filled up at Wilmington. I had a full choice of dinner reservation times when the LSA came through at 4:15, so I chose 5:00. 4:30 just seemed too early, and 5:00 was just right as it turned out. There were only four tables in use before Washington, as it turned out.
The menu:
There might be more than one menu, but I didn't see the telltale (1), (2), or (3) anywhere on this. Of course I'll let you know if one I see Monday has a different cover and slightly different contents when I see it.
Here are much larger shots of the menu items; I'll link to them rather than post them here because they're huge images so you can read them: new menu, pages 2 and 3 and new menu, page 4
Here's the new salad. It's better quality (non-iceberg, I don't like iceberg) lettuce in a more attractive (still plastic, of course) bowl. A really simple change that still makes for a much more enjoyable salad, in my opinion:
I splurged and ordered the shrimp cocktail, since this was intentionally a "sample the new menu" dinner. I wound up feeling really, really stuffed by Alexandria, but it was worth it! My experience with shrimp cocktail is that there's not much potential for variety in this dish, such that "how good it is" really comes down to "how much do you like shrimp and cocktail sauce"; I've had a few exceptional shrimp appetizers in my day, but they don't really count as "shrimp cocktail". Amtrak's was par for the course, which is to say that I probably won't spend $6.50 for it again as an appetizer (unless I've got traveling companions who want to share it) but I'm glad I tried it, and someday I might feel like a salad and good appetizer is all I want for dinner, so I'm glad I now have that option. There are four reasonably large, but not jumbo, shrimp:
And now... the star of the meal. I didn't really need to see the menu, but I did read through it (and photograph it) before ordering; with the diner so empty I could afford to take my time. Here's my receipt (note the unshaded shrimp cocktail box; for some reason, that was on a separate receipt). I ordered it prepared rare, both because that's the way I like it and because that's the fullest test of their steak--is the preparation, and the cut of meat, high quality?
And here it is. Now first, a few negative notes: the broccoli. Also, my dining tablemate's green beans (with the tilapia). They were inedibly bad. The broccoli was sort of rubbery and devoid of anything that might be construed as "flavor"; it didn't taste *bad*, it just really didn't taste... at all. But then, vegetables have never been Amtrak's strong suit (they were surprisingly good on the Cardinal's Diner Lite, though), and if any part of the meal has to be the loser, unless I ordered a vegetarian dish I'm ok with it being the vegetable. To be fair and balanced, I should also mention that my tablemate's fish was well-prepared but a little cold for her tastes.
Moving on, the potato. Hot and fluffy, with a slightly--very slightly--crispy jacket. Pretty good, in other words, but not by any means stellar. Still, I've had much, much worse. The entire plate:
And of course... the meat! I was not sure what to expect here, so I was, honestly, expecting a half-inch-thick cut of meat slightly pink somewhere in the center. Pretty low expectations, yes, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Boy was I surprised! This was easily an inch thick, and with a little juice on the plate my expectations suddenly went up. Now, at a good restaurant, I will slice into the center of the cut first, just to see how well it's prepared. Here, I didn't, because my expectations still weren't so high that I wasn't convinced I would discover a somewhat disappointing pinkness. So I went straight for my first bite... and it was rare. All the way to the edge, with a nicely seared outside. Holy cow! Moist, just the correct warmth, great contrast between seared outside and juicy inside. I moved for the center, sliced the cut in half, and... see for yourselves. (It was actually a richer red than the photograph shows; that's the fault of the camera, and I apologize. I'll see if Photoshop can make the color more accurate. It was really and truly rare.) It was gorgeous, through and through, and tasted every bit of it:
Really, my only cause for complaint here--and it's not really a complaint with the steak, per se--is that there was no accompaniment, no sauce. The steak wasn't *quite* good enough to stand completely on its own, but finding such a steak is a remarkably difficult thing. Peter Luger on a good day, or the sort of steakhouse in Texas which has large oil paintings of prize state fair cattle the restaurant has bought and served. Or, for the "southern steak experience", Doe's Eat Place in Little Rock (warning: minimum steak you can order, 2 pounds; yes, minimum, they go up from there). A bordelaise, or a bearnaise, or something would have complemented this well. But it never even crossed my mind to ruin this with the provided A-1--totally unnecessary given how perfectly juicy it was.
I didn't really have space for dessert, but what the heck. I was hoping for chocolate cake, but perhaps it's a good thing that wasn't available on this trip. They had cheesecake, red velvet (aka red food coloring) cake, and key lime pie. I've had the cheesecake before, so this time I opted for the key lime. It was... merely acceptable, I'm sorry to report. Now, I'm a bit of a key lime pie fanatic, so my standards may be harsh here. And I admit I was going entirely against my own rules, ordering key lime pie in *January*, in 20-degree weather no less--I'm actually more inclined to have ice cream in this weather, all things considered. So that certainly didn't help matters. But it just wasn't tart enough, not anywhere close. And the meringue was obviously not freshly made; I didn't expect it to be, of course, but it's disappointing just the same. Here it is:
And that was dinner! I finished my last few bites of pie and sips of decaf (a mistake on my part, really, what was I thinking? I would have been far, far better at Wii Tennis later that evening if I'd had caffeine! ) just after the lights cut out in Washington. I had to pay my bill in the dark, and realized at that moment I'd forgotten to clip my mini-Maglite to my belt before heading forward from coach. (I admit, I love whipping it out to help the crew on the rare occasions I can.) The LSA was extremely friendly throughout the meal (and as she came through the train taking reservations; sometimes they're sort of indifferent as they pass by). On my way out, I passed the chef, shook his hand, and told him what a pleasure it was to have a fine steak on a train again after so many years.
Perhaps I got lucky--a good chef on a good night. But I thought things were a *tremendous* improvement from SDS. If this was a representative experience, Amtrak deserves heaps of praise. I'm really looking forward to breakfast on Monday.
Yesterday's 19 was only barely half capacity in the first coach out of Philadelphia, though we filled up at Wilmington. I had a full choice of dinner reservation times when the LSA came through at 4:15, so I chose 5:00. 4:30 just seemed too early, and 5:00 was just right as it turned out. There were only four tables in use before Washington, as it turned out.
The menu:
There might be more than one menu, but I didn't see the telltale (1), (2), or (3) anywhere on this. Of course I'll let you know if one I see Monday has a different cover and slightly different contents when I see it.
Here are much larger shots of the menu items; I'll link to them rather than post them here because they're huge images so you can read them: new menu, pages 2 and 3 and new menu, page 4
Here's the new salad. It's better quality (non-iceberg, I don't like iceberg) lettuce in a more attractive (still plastic, of course) bowl. A really simple change that still makes for a much more enjoyable salad, in my opinion:
I splurged and ordered the shrimp cocktail, since this was intentionally a "sample the new menu" dinner. I wound up feeling really, really stuffed by Alexandria, but it was worth it! My experience with shrimp cocktail is that there's not much potential for variety in this dish, such that "how good it is" really comes down to "how much do you like shrimp and cocktail sauce"; I've had a few exceptional shrimp appetizers in my day, but they don't really count as "shrimp cocktail". Amtrak's was par for the course, which is to say that I probably won't spend $6.50 for it again as an appetizer (unless I've got traveling companions who want to share it) but I'm glad I tried it, and someday I might feel like a salad and good appetizer is all I want for dinner, so I'm glad I now have that option. There are four reasonably large, but not jumbo, shrimp:
And now... the star of the meal. I didn't really need to see the menu, but I did read through it (and photograph it) before ordering; with the diner so empty I could afford to take my time. Here's my receipt (note the unshaded shrimp cocktail box; for some reason, that was on a separate receipt). I ordered it prepared rare, both because that's the way I like it and because that's the fullest test of their steak--is the preparation, and the cut of meat, high quality?
And here it is. Now first, a few negative notes: the broccoli. Also, my dining tablemate's green beans (with the tilapia). They were inedibly bad. The broccoli was sort of rubbery and devoid of anything that might be construed as "flavor"; it didn't taste *bad*, it just really didn't taste... at all. But then, vegetables have never been Amtrak's strong suit (they were surprisingly good on the Cardinal's Diner Lite, though), and if any part of the meal has to be the loser, unless I ordered a vegetarian dish I'm ok with it being the vegetable. To be fair and balanced, I should also mention that my tablemate's fish was well-prepared but a little cold for her tastes.
Moving on, the potato. Hot and fluffy, with a slightly--very slightly--crispy jacket. Pretty good, in other words, but not by any means stellar. Still, I've had much, much worse. The entire plate:
And of course... the meat! I was not sure what to expect here, so I was, honestly, expecting a half-inch-thick cut of meat slightly pink somewhere in the center. Pretty low expectations, yes, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Boy was I surprised! This was easily an inch thick, and with a little juice on the plate my expectations suddenly went up. Now, at a good restaurant, I will slice into the center of the cut first, just to see how well it's prepared. Here, I didn't, because my expectations still weren't so high that I wasn't convinced I would discover a somewhat disappointing pinkness. So I went straight for my first bite... and it was rare. All the way to the edge, with a nicely seared outside. Holy cow! Moist, just the correct warmth, great contrast between seared outside and juicy inside. I moved for the center, sliced the cut in half, and... see for yourselves. (It was actually a richer red than the photograph shows; that's the fault of the camera, and I apologize. I'll see if Photoshop can make the color more accurate. It was really and truly rare.) It was gorgeous, through and through, and tasted every bit of it:
Really, my only cause for complaint here--and it's not really a complaint with the steak, per se--is that there was no accompaniment, no sauce. The steak wasn't *quite* good enough to stand completely on its own, but finding such a steak is a remarkably difficult thing. Peter Luger on a good day, or the sort of steakhouse in Texas which has large oil paintings of prize state fair cattle the restaurant has bought and served. Or, for the "southern steak experience", Doe's Eat Place in Little Rock (warning: minimum steak you can order, 2 pounds; yes, minimum, they go up from there). A bordelaise, or a bearnaise, or something would have complemented this well. But it never even crossed my mind to ruin this with the provided A-1--totally unnecessary given how perfectly juicy it was.
I didn't really have space for dessert, but what the heck. I was hoping for chocolate cake, but perhaps it's a good thing that wasn't available on this trip. They had cheesecake, red velvet (aka red food coloring) cake, and key lime pie. I've had the cheesecake before, so this time I opted for the key lime. It was... merely acceptable, I'm sorry to report. Now, I'm a bit of a key lime pie fanatic, so my standards may be harsh here. And I admit I was going entirely against my own rules, ordering key lime pie in *January*, in 20-degree weather no less--I'm actually more inclined to have ice cream in this weather, all things considered. So that certainly didn't help matters. But it just wasn't tart enough, not anywhere close. And the meringue was obviously not freshly made; I didn't expect it to be, of course, but it's disappointing just the same. Here it is:
And that was dinner! I finished my last few bites of pie and sips of decaf (a mistake on my part, really, what was I thinking? I would have been far, far better at Wii Tennis later that evening if I'd had caffeine! ) just after the lights cut out in Washington. I had to pay my bill in the dark, and realized at that moment I'd forgotten to clip my mini-Maglite to my belt before heading forward from coach. (I admit, I love whipping it out to help the crew on the rare occasions I can.) The LSA was extremely friendly throughout the meal (and as she came through the train taking reservations; sometimes they're sort of indifferent as they pass by). On my way out, I passed the chef, shook his hand, and told him what a pleasure it was to have a fine steak on a train again after so many years.
Perhaps I got lucky--a good chef on a good night. But I thought things were a *tremendous* improvement from SDS. If this was a representative experience, Amtrak deserves heaps of praise. I'm really looking forward to breakfast on Monday.
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