Memorable Amtrak Dining Experiences

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Feb 27, 2019
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I realize the title sounds like a bit of an oxymoron these days, but as @crescent-zephyr has reminded in another thread, Amtrak dining has had its moments in the distant and not-so-distant past. There's been a lot of discussion about the current degraded state of dining, and hopefully it's just in the short term, but here's a chance to share memories of the better days. To start things off...

The Pacific Parlor Car on the Coast Starlight featured a rotating menu of items that could not be found elsewhere in the system. Although the meals were reheated prepared meals (as opposed to chef-made) they were pretty good and made it almost pointless to venture to the main diner, given the ambience of the space and the quality of the personal service. Among the best were the Lamb Shank (credit to crescent-zephyr) and there was this Korean beef dish that was so good I had it in both directions. Add the wine and cheese tastings in the afternoon to unique breakfast and lunch items that weren't offered in the diner and you had a Memorable Amtrak Dining Experience.

Also on my list are the short-lived hi-level ex-Santa Fe diners featured on the Desert Wind - by far my favorite Amtrak train. They featured a unique glassed-in almost "open" kitchen area with some meals that were not found elsewhere in traditional diners. For example, the breakfast "hash" of scrambled eggs, ham and potatoes and baked-on-board blueberry muffins. Yummy.
 
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Having rode Amtrak since the 80’s and so many miles, I can remember many great meals, like the super thick pork chops, unbelievably full of juice, or the prime rib with an option of medium rare to medium well. Yes, the Prime Rib was partially cooked before delivered to the DC but the chefs finished it in an oven. The cooked to order breakfasts, eggs your way, fresh batter pancakes, and of course fresh cooked to order French toast. The selection of desserts made even the greatest willpower wilt. I also remember being jolted around on the LSL out of Chicago when it left earlier so hard twice I ended up in the aisle of the DC with at least another person or a server. Everyone looked forward to each meal, because it was such a great experience. My children and grand children all still talk about the meals in the DC.
 
In addition to the Lamb Shank, which I also enjoyed on the Empire Builder, some of my favorite entrees included -

Mahi Mahi (I had this several times on the Zephyr, it was consistently good).

Pasta with Beechers Cheese Sauce (Beechers is located in Pike place in Seattle). This was served on the Builder and Starlight.

Crab Cakes. Served on many east coast trains. These were also consistently excellent.

I believe everything I mentioned were part of the “Chef Inspired” entrees.
 
Arguably, the best meals served on Amtrak, were in its first year, when everything was pretty much a 'holdover' from the heritage railroads prior to Amtrak Day.
Especially excellent were the Santa Fe, and Seaboard Coast Line operated trains...it all ended when Amtrak "homogenized" the service nationally, although it was still pretty good...
 
Sadly my first Amtrak long distance trip was 2016 -2017 on the auto train (I am 34) and my first non auto train traditional dining car was summer of 2018 SPG to ATL and back so I did not get to experience great railroad dining. The service on that trip was outstanding - a fantastic dining car crew - but I would describe the food as good but not spectacular. Probably part of why I probably seem to some like an apologist for Amtrak flex dining (not an apologist - I preferred that experience over the current flex dining I just feel I can deal with the entrees for a one night trip - it’s not enough to make me not ride sleeper - if it was up to me it wouldnt have happened even just for the staff that got displaced over it) - I’m sure if I experienced it back when it was real railroad food I would be just as ready to throw the current stuff in the dumpster.

Having said all that the land and sea that Amtrak had before going flex dining everywhere was not too bad - I wouldn’t call it memorable or spectacular but it was pretty decent eats for traveling food.

What year would you say that your memorable meals were?
 
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What year would you say that your memorable meals were?

2011-2015 were probably the best years for me. I think it was 2012 when I took the Starlight - Builder - Lake Shore on my way back from California and all 3 had excellent food and complimentary wine tastings (wine and cheese on the Starlight and Lake Shore, wine only on the Builder).

I had the Lamb Shank on my last starlight trip in late 2017 though, and for lunch I had an excellent entree salad with organic apples grown in Washington state. I’m trying to remember if the builder still had real plates in 2017 or they had switched to plastic.
 
My favorite on the City of New Orleans were the Cajun Dishes and the Bourbon Pecan Pie( even though it was made in Chicago, it was delicious!)

On the Crescent, I thought the Breakfasts were great, and so were the Good Steaks before the " Pot Roast" replaced the New York strips!

On the Texas Eagle the Ribs and Catfish were outstanding!

I too ate as often as I could in the PPC on the Starlight, and agree that the Lamb was first rate as was everything else including the Winexand Cheese tastings.

The Empire Builder had Enhanced Dinning( with Real Dishes and Silver) for awhile where everything was Excellent and the Wine and Cheese Tastings were always enjoyable.

The Chocalate Bundt Cake served on this Route was the Best I've ever had!

The Portland Section always had an Excellent catered Box Dinner between there and Spokane ( the Breakast heading to Portland was never as good!)

The Sunset Ltd had lots of old time OBS and the Chefs and Servers always made a Meal in the Diner a pleasurable expierience no matter what was on offer!!
 
Not remembering the actual meals, although hearty, plentiful, and of a very high quality... it was the overall service that was so special. Upon boarding the SCA would direct you to your roomette... which was sparkling new and clean on those brand new Superliners. Set up included a cold mini bottle of welcome champaign, a toiletries kit, and a snack pack of munchies to be enjoyed along the way.

There was also a packet of coupons to be given to the server when dining, a time table and mile by mile route description. Each car had coffee brewing all day, juices, bottled water... as now [pre covid], and usually some mints, magazines, and sometimes cookies at the station adjacent to room 1. Oh how we all long for those days!

An old Amtrak Pioneer Menu.png
 
After the first year "holdover" service, I mentioned earlier, Amtrak slowly started to standardize the service nationally, and for some routes, slightly improved what the heritage railroads had offered before. This lasted for a few years, until some budget crisis, made the dining service an easy target to downgrade. There were a few ups and downs during those decades, including having a featured train elevated above the others. For me, after that, the best period was the early 1990's, when Amtrak contracted with the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, to conduct a customized course for all of the Amtrak chef's to attend.
At the end of that, was when Amtrak started offering a chef's special, where each chef was given the latitude to create their own "signature dish"...
 
From Jiml
“The Pacific Parlor Car on the Coast Starlight featured a rotating menu of items that could not be found elsewhere in the system. Although the meals were reheated prepared meals (as opposed to chef-made) they were pretty good and made it almost pointless to venture to the main diner”

This is what I always come back to when people say that traditional dining car services need to be reformed, more efficient, less labor costs, etc.

The answer to Amtrak’s horrible contemporary dining is right in Amtrak’s recent past. The great meals in the PPC were prepared and served with the equivalent of 1.5 employees. The PPC attendant and some prep help from the actual diner. Now imagine how good a product could be produced with the same concept in an actual dining car kitchen versus the tiny counter and heat trays that the PPC had. This should be concept going forward on all trains in my opinion especially if we want to expand service.

For those that aren’t familiar the PPC offered freshly prepared sandwiches and salads for lunch and 2 hot entrees and a salad option for dinner. The lamb shanks and desserts were amazing. My idea for breakfast would be a freshly made egg sandwich along with a vate of freshly made oatmeal and cold cereals. Simple but good offerings for every meal. The way the PPC did it.
 
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Let's talk about the much-missed Montrealer, where passengers had two dining options (although not consistently through its two "lives"). For "lighter fare" one would go to the pub car complete with piano bar and have a Reuben sandwich - made with New York quality corned beef/pastrami northbound and they'd restock with Montreal smoked meat southbound. (For those who aren't familiar, it's pastrami with the spice level kicked up a notch.) You could also get Quiche Lorraine or the "Beef Burger Superb" and this cafe delight at any time:

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The train also had a standard Heritage dining car and the choices have to be seen to be believed:

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Seeing the old menus along with the recommended wines makes me wonder about the "flex meals" since I don't remember there being any recommendations. They probably suggest Ripple, Mogen David, Thunderbird. My guess is they use bumwine.com for suggestions.

"With your flex meal, may we suggest a glass of our quality Thunderbird with its acute barnyard aroma, hints of creamy oleomargarine, a bit of stogie cigar flavor followed by the earthy taste of the local kennel, the pleasant bouquet of racoon roadkill and the ambiance of the local opium den."

I should be an ad writer for Amtrak. Wonder if I can apply when they start hiring?
 
And then there was the actual china dinnerware... the need to wash and dry, water, power, and space requirement cost cutting ended that... but it sure was nice! Especially the refillable coffee mug... not sure if the one below is the actual mug but I understand they still refill it for free for those lucky enough to have one!


Amtrak DinnerWare.png
 
Most memorable meal was on CONO c. 2004 when the New Orleans based chef used his own spices to make the best ever catfish dinner. A close second was the French toast on the Super Chief with our infant son in 1972 when it was still essentially a Santa Fe operation. Third would be any dinner in the PPC. All meals were good and I especially liked the table for two where I could sit opposite my wife. Finally, I always enjoyed the many Amtrak steak dinners when it was still sirloin, which I preferred to the flat iron.
 
And then there was the actual china dinnerware... the need to wash and dry, water, power, and space requirement cost cutting ended that... but it sure was nice! Especially the refillable coffee mug... not sure if the one below is the actual mug but I understand they still refill it for free for those lucky enough to have one!


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That isn't the refillable mug. The refillable mugs were plastic, Route specific, and had a lid so it could safely be carried throughout the train.
It would probably be a struggle to get one refilled nowadays even if you did have one, due to both FDA regulations as well as the fact there are very few employees still working that even remember the refillable mugs.....
 
In my earliest years riding Amtrak, I couldn't afford the dining car. On a cross-country round trip around New Year 1978, I had one meal in the dining car--on my last morning aboard, delicious railroad French Toast on the National Limited. I also made a couple trips to Florida around then, and can remember having an excellent slice of Key Lime Pie in the dining car.

My first trip in an Amtrak sleeper was around 1993, and we had very good meals in the dining car on the California Zephyr. In particular, I remember catfish for lunch and ahi for dinner. We connected to the Broadway Limited, which had an Amfleet Dinette and lower-quality food.

On trains I have taken in the past few years, as a nod to my sedentary lifestyle on the train, I had been ordering only the veggie burger for lunch. They were tasty, and didn't make me feel sluggish from a lot of fat. I have not experienced Flexible Dining.

By the way, I have one of those "Three Sheets to the Wind" mugs. I didn't steal it from the train--I think someone gave it to me for Christmas. I don't use it because I like a bigger mug.

Here are my two photos of food on Amtrak. I don't usually photograph food, and in fact someone at the table complained when I took the dinner photo. This was on the Empire Builder in 2017, and the second photo is the Portland section breakfast.

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In my earliest years riding Amtrak, I couldn't afford the dining car. On a cross-country round trip around New Year 1978, I had one meal in the dining car--on my last morning aboard, delicious railroad French Toast on the National Limited. I also made a couple trips to Florida around then, and can remember having an excellent slice of Key Lime Pie in the dining car.

My first trip in an Amtrak sleeper was around 1993, and we had very good meals in the dining car on the California Zephyr. In particular, I remember catfish for lunch and ahi for dinner. We connected to the Broadway Limited, which had an Amfleet Dinette and lower-quality food.

On trains I have taken in the past few years, as a nod to my sedentary lifestyle on the train, I had been ordering only the veggie burger for lunch. They were tasty, and didn't make me feel sluggish from a lot of fat. I have not experienced Flexible Dining.

By the way, I have one of those "Three Sheets to the Wind" mugs. I didn't steal it from the train--I think someone gave it to me for Christmas. I don't use it because I like a bigger mug.

Here are my two photos of food on Amtrak. I don't usually photograph food, and in fact someone at the table complained when I took the dinner photo. This was on the Empire Builder in 2017, and the second photo is the Portland section breakfast.

View attachment 19847

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I've been on that Portland sector of the EB and didn't like this breakfast... unfortunately it was a cursor of things to come. Of course the draw dropping scenery of the Columbia River made up for it!
 
This isn't so fancy, but back in 1975, I had the occasion to ride the Merchant's Limited several times between Philadelphia and New York. They had a dining car, and it was very convenient to eat there for dinner, even for the "poor student" that I was at the time. It was set up for incredible efficiency. The second you entered the car, the LSA (or whatever they called them back then) guided you to a table. Community seating, of course. Your menu was your order form, and you selected your choices. The choices were pretty limited -- fish for $2, chicken for $3, and steak for $8. This was a full meal, I believe with a non-alcoholic beverage, so the fish dinner was price competitive with a McDonald's combo. The waiters came by, took your filled out order, and brought you the food pretty quickly. After you ate, they took your cash and gave change. (I didn't have a credit card at the time, so I don't know how or whether they handled them.) The food wasn't fancy, but it was well-cooked, and it was nicely served on legacy PRR china and silver (plate.)

The great thing about this was that I would go to the diner about the time the train got into Trenton, and would be finished by the time the train got to Newark. Yes, the trains were slower back then, but it's still pretty amazing, a full dinner service in a little under an hour.
 
This isn't so fancy, but back in 1975, I had the occasion to ride the Merchant's Limited several times between Philadelphia and New York. They had a dining car, and it was very convenient to eat there for dinner, even for the "poor student" that I was at the time. It was set up for incredible efficiency. The second you entered the car, the LSA (or whatever they called them back then) guided you to a table. Community seating, of course. Your menu was your order form, and you selected your choices. The choices were pretty limited -- fish for $2, chicken for $3, and steak for $8. This was a full meal, I believe with a non-alcoholic beverage, so the fish dinner was price competitive with a McDonald's combo. The waiters came by, took your filled out order, and brought you the food pretty quickly. After you ate, they took your cash and gave change. (I didn't have a credit card at the time, so I don't know how or whether they handled them.) The food wasn't fancy, but it was well-cooked, and it was nicely served on legacy PRR china and silver (plate.)

The great thing about this was that I would go to the diner about the time the train got into Trenton, and would be finished by the time the train got to Newark. Yes, the trains were slower back then, but it's still pretty amazing, a full dinner service in a little under an hour.

Reminds me of the Manchester Pullman in England... so many years ago. My BritishRail pass - supplementary fee with my BritRail pass. My first international trip back then was to London... 'dream city' for RR fans with so many rail stations!

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Here are my two photos of food on Amtrak. I don't usually photograph food, and in fact someone at the table complained when I took the dinner photo.

That’s nothing, I was once scolded by a table mate for salting my eggs and potatoes at breakfast. :p

I’m not sure why people get so annoyed by things that don’t affect them. It’s fun to take photos of cross country trips and special experiences.
 
Reminds me of the Manchester Pullman in England... so many years ago. My BritishRail pass - supplementary fee with my BritRail pass. My first international trip back then was to London... 'dream city' for RR fans with so many rail stations!

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Oh, well, if we're morphing away from Amtrak dining experiences, I had a memorable meal on British Railways in 1985. My brother and I were tootling around the country on a 2nd class Britrail Pass, and our final ride was back to London from Penzance, a 6-hour ride. (Most of our rides during the trip were too short to be too concerned about on-board service, but we sometimes bought tea from the refreshment carts that were pushed through the 2nd class carriages.)

We found out that this train had a "restaurant car" and since we were near the end of the trip, decided to try it out. It was basically a First-class carriage fitted up for dining, which didn't really require much, as all of the open coaches, first and second class, had facing seats with fairly substantial tables. The table was set for dinner, with china and silver. The food was cooked in an adjacent catering car. Dinner was 25 pounds (which was about $30-$35 at the rate of exchange at the time), and this was 1985, so that was a hefty chunk of change. But it was a full dinner, and not a bad value for a one-off. I had the steak, which was cooked very nicely. The main thing I remember was that, in addition to dessert, they served a cheese course at the end of the meal, a large plate of cheeses, warmed to room temperature as they should be, served under a glass cover. I don't remember whether the price included wine or not, although I suspect it didn't. Off the train, we never spent more that 10 pounds or so for dinner, but then we were eating at a lot of Indian restaurants, and at the time, the Indian food in London was far superior to anything that was available back home. (My brother had just returned from a semester in Nepal and a tour of India, so he introduced me to the unusual stuff on Indian menus that I had never tried before.)
 
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