Thick Stomachs For Amtrak Food?

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What is the most consecutive meals you've had from Amtrak? (Diner or lounge)

  • 0

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1-3

    Votes: 17 17.0%
  • 4-6

    Votes: 36 36.0%
  • 7-9

    Votes: 17 17.0%
  • 10-12

    Votes: 18 18.0%
  • 13

    Votes: 2 2.0%
  • 14

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • 15

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • 16 and up

    Votes: 8 8.0%

  • Total voters
    100
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ALC Rail Writer

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Just curious and looking for laughs, what's the longest you've gone on an Amdiet?

My record is 15 meals over 5 days during a loophole trip. I don't think I could take it more than a week, usually after three days I skip a lunch or two (I did on this occasion).
 
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25 meals over 10 days of travel spread over a month, on the CS, EB, LSL, Cresent, SM, CL & CZ. Generally good food but it got very repative towards the end.
 
When I took my 45 Day Loop of Canada and the US in 2004 on a North American Rail Pass, I usually would Alternate Nights in a Sleeper with Short Overnites in Coach (Mostly in Canada)! I would Eat the Included Meals when I was in a Sleeper and Usually Breakfast when I rode in Coach! I would either buy Cafe Chow, Pick up Supplies on Stopovers or Wait until I got to a Layover Station to Eat! I Probably Ate 50 Meals in the Diners (the Canadian had by Far the Best Food! ;) ) Total and IMO the Food wasn't as Good in the Diners on Amtrak then as it is Now but there Was Regional and Route Differences in the Menus!

Long Trips Like Some of Us are Known to Take (are you there traveler?? ^_^ ) have the Effect of Making the Same Old Same Old Menu in the Diner Reason to Skip Some Meals as was Said!

I Think the Standardization of the Menus on Amtrak is an Overall Minus, but Understand the Need to Cut the Losses on Food Service Cars since the Budget Hawk "Experts" in Congress have Gone after a Mosquiuto (Amtrak) with Atomic Missles! (Congressional Hearings and Press Releases! :help: )
 
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I love there food. I like the pizza and the bufflo chicken bites they have. I also like the half chicken and the spare rib. There are some things that are edible. I remember on the empire buider going to the Seattle gathering there was a item on the menu and one of the servers would not serve it or recommend it. He said I took one look at it and said I can't serve that.
 
5 consecutive meals all of which were excellent. That was on the Silver Star in September when I traveled from Miami to Newark. As for being able to stomach Amtrak food, I once had to eat pancakes and rice every meal for three whole weeks so Amtrak food is practically gourmet compared to that.
 
As long as it's not liver or gelatin salad, I'll eat it. Let's put it this way...it beats C-rations in the army in the 70's!
 
While the variety does tend to get long in the tooth after a few consecutive days, as long as the Amtrak Meals keep coming that means I'm still on a train :)
 
Four meals on one run. The Cap from Chicago to DC in February 2007. (Actually, I had just come off a trip from Montana on the Builder -- 3 meals, so the whole trip as actually 7 meals, but 4 on one train.) We had a massive delay caused by weather (and every freight train between Chicago and Toledo being stranded with no legal crews), We left Chicago 2 hours late, having been served dinner in the station, we were routed through Detroit and had breakfast around Toledo. Then a lunch between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and finally an Amstew dinner from the emergency rations (free for all, even the coach passengers) as we went over the Sand Patch Grade. Arrival in Washington was 10:30 PM. They even held #66 for me so I could get to Baltimore, although I'm sure the passengers on #66 weren't thrilled about that. My baggage came through the next day.
 
I thought the wording of the poll was rather cynical - though I suspect the choice of words was intended to be tongue-in-cheek... but w/re the food: clearly not up to the class of some of the better trains of the world, but quite edible. I agree that after a couple days one doesn't need the menu to order: one knows what's there and probably has had everything at least once. ... one possible out for this would be for Amtrak to offer a daily special - something that they have a limited quantity of, so that they sell out and have not left overs, ie, dollars down the drain... maybe a chicken masala one night, a chicken pot pie another, a stroganoff another etc.... and to allow for the maximum flexibility, not even consider printing them up on a menu - but like a lot of restaurants, simply have a handwritten notice at the entrance to the dinning car: Tonight's special is.... . but as Hiawatha notes: if I'm eating AmMeals: that must mean that I'm on a train :)
 
Long Trips Like Some of Us are Known to Take (are you there traveler?? ^_^ ) have the Effect of Making the Same Old Same Old Menu in the Diner Reason to Skip Some Meals as was Said!

I Think the Standardization of the Menus on Amtrak is an Overall Minus, but Understand the Need to Cut the Losses on Food Service Cars since the Budget Hawk "Experts" in Congress have Gone after a Mosquiuto (Amtrak) with Atomic Missles! (Congressional Hearings and Press Releases! :help: )
I think that a) the greater standardization of Amtrak menus has improved the over-all quality of food in the dining car, while simultaneously b) making it more tiresome to have the same meals again and again on a long trip. That being said, I thought that the chili and kung pao chicken lunch entrees we enjoyed on the last time we were on #8 were a welcome (and surprisingly spicy) change.

but as Hiawatha notes: if I'm eating AmMeals: that must mean that I'm on a train :)
And that makes up for a lot, in my eye (and gullet).

My personal record is 14 straight meals on Amtrak -- Houston - LA - Portland - St. Paul. I skipped breakfast in LA, and got an extra lunch on the Empire Builder, delayed by derailment and bustitution. No Amstew, thank God.
 
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The chicken Kiev, BITD, was pretty good, I thought. I was disappointed when they dropped it. The veggie burger is very good.
 
I like enough of the food that I can have a decent variety for a couple of days. Also, I'm one of those people that can eat leftovers five days in a row, so even if I had the steak every night, I wouldn't mind. As long as I like something, I can eat it for a week.
 
I want to say 5 or 6 is my max. The Builder involved 5 meals once. EB, I think I've done

SWC: B-L-D-B-L

Cap: D-B

So...maybe 7. I know WB I usually end up with lunch in Chicago on a layover, which triggers a break in sequence due to time of day. The one time I was late enough into CHI for lunch, I also missed my connection and so had a meal courtesy of Amtrak but not on Amtrak.

The only way I could arguably break this up and trigger anything bigger would be to either add dinner on the SWC EB or manage a connection from the Starlight to/from something.

I say "forever" on food, but that is exclusively in reference to the diner, and there the only risk would be monotony IMHO. Let's just say there's a reason there's 24 MREs in the set.
 
I love there food. I like the pizza...
Pizza? On Amtrak? I've never seen this - unless you're counting microwaved DiGiorno pizzas from the cafe cars, which doesn't really qualify as "their" pizza.

And in general, I would agree that sitting on a train for several days doing nothing but eating in the diner does give one a "thick stomach", and a thick everything else too. I think Amtrak needs a "workout car" on its long distance trains!
 
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I love there food. I like the pizza...
Pizza? On Amtrak? I've never seen this - unless you're counting microwaved DiGiorno pizzas from the cafe cars, which doesn't really qualify as "their" pizza.
If I recall a time or 2 in the past there was Pizza on the Adult side of the Diner Menu, but I never had it; so I don't know if it was similar to the Lounge Pizza or something better.
 
Longest was CHI-SEA via 4-14 with 9 meals. I am counting on continuous as no break for full outside meals:

4 D BLD

14 LD BLD,

If you count the meals on a full trip over the course of a little over 2 weeks it was 24 meals, which was same trip: SEA-LAX-NOL-CHI-LAX-SEA via 11-2-58-4-14

11 LD BLD

2 (old schedule) LD BLD BL

58 DB

4 D BLD

14 LD BLD
 
I love there food. I like the pizza...
Pizza? On Amtrak? I've never seen this - unless you're counting microwaved DiGiorno pizzas from the cafe cars, which doesn't really qualify as "their" pizza.
If I recall a time or 2 in the past there was Pizza on the Adult side of the Diner Menu, but I never had it; so I don't know if it was similar to the Lounge Pizza or something better.
I had it a Couple of Times, it was the Same Pizza that's on the Kids Menu and "wasn't anything to Write Home about", sort of like the Frozen Stuff from the Grocery Store! But it did Give Diners Another Choice @ Lunch! I understand the Pizza on the Trains is Better Now, its been a Couple of Years since I had the Cafe Pizza???
 
I thought the wording of the poll was rather cynical - though I suspect the choice of words was intended to be tongue-in-cheek...
*VERY* tounge-in-cheek, I've been practically raised on Aramark foodstuffs... they did my high school, two colleges, and there have been several times where I'd sit down in the dining commons with a dish and ponder how similar the flavor profiles were to Amtrak's food. It is one of the reasons I try and cook as many recipies as I can from scratch, variety and customization.

One thing I always swear I will never order (yet I do end up ordering sometimes) is the half-chicken. I have never had one of those things that wasn't cooked to death and underseasoned. I always keep dreaming that one of these days I'll get on a train that has a fresh batch but I really should give up. I'm sentimental because it was the first diner meal I ever had (it was dry, overdone and underseasoned then too) and I keep ordering it... I need to learn my lesson and stick with the steak.

Fish on Amtrak is not something I try very often. At least they have plenty of shanks laying around at Aramark, there's some variety for you... veal shank, lamb shank, beef shank, I'm holding out for goat shank on next year's menus.
 
You left off the Turkey Shank Micah!! (And the Chicken is the Default Meal for Many People in the Amtrak Diners! ^_^ )
 
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