Meals

[Susan]

I am reading on another website about the changes to meals served on long distance trains. Can you please tell me about this and the menus on the SW Chief and Lakeshore Limited?

 

[rmgreenesq]

I am reading on another website about the changes to meals served on long distance trains. Can you please tell me about this and the menus on the SW Chief and Lakeshore Limited?

The meal service changes are known as Simplified Dining Service or SDS. In an effort to save labor costs, Amtrak has change the food and the dishes served in the dining car. Gone are the steaks, freshly cooked eggs, and anything else that boards the train in its raw state. Now the meals are cooked off the train and the dining car chef reheats the food via convection and microwave ovens.

Also gone are the china, cloth tablecloth and glassware. They have been replaced by plastic plates and cups, and a paper tablecloth. The silverwear remains metal which makes for some interesting experiences cutting the food. The one thing Amtrak has not done is lowered the prices to reflect the change of quality. Amtrak posts sample menus on its website here.

By simply reheating the food, and by having no dishes to wash, Amtrak thinks it can save money by eliminating one of the chefs in the kitchen. Not wanting to put words in people's mouths, but passenger opinions about SDS vary greatly. You can read about SDS opinions/analysis here.

I had the experience of SDS last month on the Silver Star. The food wasn't bad, however I'm not I'm the best judge of the food. It'd been nearly 10 years since I'd stepped foot on a long distance train. Also, I'm not a very fussy eater. I'll eat almost anything. My complaint about SDS is the plasticwear. It seemed to cheapen the entire experience. Also, the metal knife did just as good of a job cutting the plastic plate as it did the food.

In my opinion, I'm afraid that SDS is going to hurt revenue. Sleeping Car Passengers will eat there because the food is paid for in the price of the sleeper. The customer they are going to loose is the cash paying coach passenger. They enter the diner and are presented a menu. This menu has some pretty high prices on it ($15-$20 for dinner). Maybe they have eaten here in the recent pre-SDS past, or have heard from their folks or grandparents about the experience of eating in the diner. Then they are presented with microwave food on a plastic plate and a rather expensive check. I think that passenger will eat in the diner once and then either give their business to the Cafe car or plan to bring their own food.

Rick

 

[PRR 60]

You can see three of Amtrak's dining car menus HERE. You would have one of these menus, or something very much like it, on the Lakeshore and Chief.

 

[Anthony]

I had the experience of SDS last month on the Silver Star. The food wasn't bad, however I'm not I'm the best judge of the food. It'd been nearly 10 years since I'd stepped foot on a long distance train. Also, I'm not a very fussy eater. I'll eat almost anything. My complaint about SDS is the plasticwear. It seemed to cheapen the entire experience. Also, the metal knife did just as good of a job cutting the plastic plate as it did the food.

A recent experience last weekend showed that some of the crewmembers have wisened up to this plate cracking, and now supply two plates per meal - one under the first plate. I wonder how much Amtrak is really saving now that the "china" is being consumed twice as fast.

 

[ATSFNewton]

I've found that certain foods on the new menu are more freshly prepared than others. For example, on my recent trip on the SWC, the omelete was excellent. I commented to an Amtrak customer service official who was intervewing passengers, and he said the omelete is one of a few items actually prepared fresh on board. So if the meal plan concerns you, be selective.

 

[AlanB]

I've found that certain foods on the new menu are more freshly prepared than others. For example, on my recent trip on the SWC, the omelete was excellent. I commented to an Amtrak customer service official who was intervewing passengers, and he said the omelete is one of a few items actually prepared fresh on board. So if the meal plan concerns you, be selective.

When Amtrak initially started SDS the omelet was indeed prepared off the train and reheated. However in part because of complaints from the passengers, in part because enough of the chef's convinced management that they could still manage to cook the omelet fresh without hurting service or incurring extra costs, Amtrak reversed its earlier decision and allowed fresh cooked omelets to return to the diners.

 

[rmgreenesq]

When Amtrak initially started SDS the omelet was indeed prepared off the train and reheated. However in part because of complaints from the passengers, in part because enough of the chef's convinced management that they could still manage to cook the omelet fresh without hurting service or incurring extra costs, Amtrak reversed its earlier decision and allowed fresh cooked omelets to return to the diners.

Imagine, a chef asking managment: please let me cook the food!

Sigh.

Rick

 

[AlanB]

When Amtrak initially started SDS the omelet was indeed prepared off the train and reheated. However in part because of complaints from the passengers, in part because enough of the chef's convinced management that they could still manage to cook the omelet fresh without hurting service or incurring extra costs, Amtrak reversed its earlier decision and allowed fresh cooked omelets to return to the diners.

Imagine, a chef asking managment: please let me cook the food!

Sigh.

Rick

I'm sure that there were a few who were more than happy that they didn't have to cook anything on the grill. But most of these chefs were recruited by Amtrak direct from culinary schools and many of them actually do take pride in trying to turn out a decent product for the passenger. There are even chefs who buy and bring their own spices on board, just to be able to spruce things up a bit.

So yes, as odd as it sounds, they wanted to do something good for their passengers, even in the face of management's stupid decisions. Thankfully someone in management actually listened this time too!

 

[benale]

I ve ridden a few LD trains this year and I don t find SDS too bad. I do miss the eggs in the morning and the steak for dinner. I ve been in sleepers, so the cost of the food is included in the price, of course. For coach passengers, the prices are a bit on the outrageous side. For example, the beef ragout,while good. is certainly not worth $19, and that price does not include dessert and a soft drink. For that price one can go to a high class restaurant or eat a very good buffet. It seems tne quality of the food has suffered and the prices are still high.

 

[had8ley]

I am reading on another website about the changes to meals served on long distance trains. Can you please tell me about this and the menus on the SW Chief and Lakeshore Limited?

The one thing Amtrak has not done is lowered the prices to reflect the change of quality. Amtrak posts sample menus on its website here.

Rick;

It has been our experience that the prices have stayed the same. If you take into account that a cooked on board steak was below $20 pre-SDS then the SDS prices are higher than when everything was fresh. I noticed no diference on any LD train in prices. Then again, maybe I missed something since I only travel in the sleeper. The chocolate cake at $5 can be one of the worst priced items on the menu. I did notice that beer went up with the change of full service to SDS (not that I'm an avid beer driker.)

(edited to fix quotes, by AmtrakWPK)

 

[RedUnderTheBed]

I have always found the quality of the food to be acceptable, but the temperature of it seldom is satisfactory..have any passengers been able to send food back to be reheated? (I am mostly too hungry and too shy to do this!) Sadly I have never had a "first class" experience in any Amtrak dinner, either on china or plastic plates!

B)

 

[rmgreenesq]

Rick;It has been our experience that the prices have stayed the same. If you take into account that a cooked on board steak was below $20 pre-SDS then the SDS prices are higher than when everything was fresh. I noticed no diference on any LD train in prices. Then again, maybe I missed something since I only travel in the sleeper. The chocolate cake at $5 can be one of the worst priced items on the menu. I did notice that beer went up with the change of full service to SDS (not that I'm an avid beer driker.)

Had8ley:

I had the beef dish in mind when I wrote that Amtrak had not lowered the prices to reflect the lower quality of food. Before SDS $19 was a fair price, nay even a good price for a steak from a restrauant, especially a restrauant that is moving at 79 mph. I will admit that it has been 9+ years since I've eaten the pre-SDS steak, but I remember it to be a reasonablly sized cut of beef cooked to order. It wasn't Ruth Chris', but it wan't horsemeat either.

Four cubes of beef swiming in a brown sauce is not worth $19, even at 79 mph. Beef gravy or brown sauce is a well known method to breathe flavor into cheap meat. Cheap meat that was cooked somewhere other than the train.

I didn't expect Amtrak to lower the prices of SDS food. The point of SDS was to make more money by lowering labor costs. I'd be curious to know if the cost of the SDS processed food versus the pre-SDS food. Pre SDS food could be suplied by any restrauant supply service (of which I'm sure that there are many in all of Amtrak's train terminal points). SDS food is coming from something akin to an airline kitchen. I'm sure the cost of the processing of the food has driven Amtrak's costs up.

I guess the point of that line was that in my opinion, the passenger is paying the same amount of money for an inferior product.

Rick

 

[AlanB]

Rick,

While I understand your comparison presented above, that is about the only comparison that can be made between pre-SDS and SDS food. Fully 90% of all meals served aboard Amtrak for the last few years prior to the start of SDS, were meals that were prepared off the train and reheated. SDS only killed cooking of steaks on the train and eggs to order.

So basically the passenger is paying exactly the same as they were pre-SDS, for the same food that they had pre-SDS.

 

[rmgreenesq]

Alan:

Thanks for the info. My perspective is I'm returning to long distance trains after a nine year "affair" with the airlines. The steak/beef dish is dear to my heart because when I rode the Sunset Limited in 1997, it is what I had for dinner every night. Well every night but the last night. Seems the train was over a day late getting to LA and the dining car ran out of food. But that is fodder for another thread.

Rick

 

[printman2000]

Rick,
While I understand your comparison presented above, that is about the only comparison that can be made between pre-SDS and SDS food. Fully 90% of all meals served aboard Amtrak for the last few years prior to the start of SDS, were meals that were prepared off the train and reheated. SDS only killed cooking of steaks on the train and eggs to order.

So basically the passenger is paying exactly the same as they were pre-SDS, for the same food that they had pre-SDS.

Back in July on the Capitol Limited, they seemed to have been cooking the eggs. They announced it was taking longer to bring out breakfast because we were on some rough trackage and they were struggling to control the eggs on the griddle.

 

[battalion51]

The eggs are being cooked to order. I believe initially they tried to use "canned" eggs, but it got terrible reviews from passengers, so they reverted to made to order eggs.

 

[AlanB]

The eggs are being cooked to order. I believe initially they tried to use "canned" eggs, but it got terrible reviews from passengers, so they reverted to made to order eggs.

Just to be clear about this, unless there has been a very recent change, there are no "cooked to order" eggs. What Amtrak is doing is to prepare the omelet listed in the menus, fresh on board. But I'm aware of no chef's actually doing requests for eggs.

 

[haolerider]

I think you are correct. Omlets only - no eggs over easy, with turkey sausage and grits!! What a shame.

 

[PRR 60]

The eggs are being cooked to order. I believe initially they tried to use "canned" eggs, but it got terrible reviews from passengers, so they reverted to made to order eggs.

Just to be clear about this, unless there has been a very recent change, there are no "cooked to order" eggs. What Amtrak is doing is to prepare the omelet listed in the menus, fresh on board. But I'm aware of no chef's actually doing requests for eggs.

Some grilled-onboard items have returned. Omelets, using fresh eggs, are now prepared on the train. The pre-cooked hash browns and Angus beefburgers are being warmed and browned on the grill. And, according to the October issue of Trains, some chefs will cook eggs to order upon request.
I am a bad one to comment, however. Other than hard boiled, I HATE eggs. If I were stranded and only had eggs to eat, I would starve.

 

[AmtrakWPK]

I HATE eggs. If I were stranded and only had eggs to eat, I would starve.

Well, having skipped all that cholesterol, at least you'd die healthy :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[PRR 60]

I HATE eggs. If I were stranded and only had eggs to eat, I would starve.

Well, having skipped all that cholesterol, at least you'd die healthy :lol: :lol: :lol:

If I have to go, I at least want to puzzle the coroner for a while. As far as eggs are concerned, I don't care for the look, smell, or taste. Other than that, they're not too bad.

 

[Amtrak OBS Gone Freight]

Out of due respect, I'll take eggs anyday over many food items. But please, oh please, do not ever make me eat ricecakes! I tried them once, and they are about as bad as tryin' eat the lid off a styrofoam bait bucket!!! OBS.... :lol:

 

[GG-1]

Out of due respect, I'll take eggs anyday over many food items. But please, oh please, do not ever make me eat ricecakes! I tried them once, and they are about as bad as tryin' eat the lid off a styrofoam bait bucket!!! OBS.... :lol:

Aloha

Never ran into rice that tasted like styrofoam, but with over 30 ways to use rice, Including rice paper(not bad clear, sweet) I also prefer eggs.