 | NARP blogTRAINS: A travel choice Americans want |
» Visit the Official NARP Website
New Amtrak Dining Car Menus: Yum!
Monday, December 17, 2007
As we reported in last week’s Hotline, Amtrak has improved the experience for long-distance train passengers with new, expanded, and varied dining car menus. Last Thursday, the day after they were launched, I had the opportunity to taste the improvements for myself while I rode Silver Star train 91 from Washington, DC to Miami. Other observers online have posted information about the menu offerings and their own experiences. Now, enjoy the photos I took of some of the new selections (dinner, breakfast, and lunch, respectively):
Though Cornish Game Hen has replaced Roast Chicken at dinner, on day two of the new menu chicken was still being served (presumably to use up commissary supplies). The chicken was perfectly seasoned. The short-grain saffron rice was a welcome departure from the usual rice pilaf. The beans, while fresh, were bland and could have used seasoning.
The Tilapia was served with a tomato sauce that my companion said made all the difference with the already-tender fish. The garlic mashed potatoes were also rich and creamy. Notably, she was not charged for a second can of soda.
The vegetable omelette with olives and red peppers was satisfactory (especially as pre-prepared egg dishes go), and the new chicken apple sausage was extremely tender and juicy. While grits are now available again, I still enjoy the shredded potatoes.
Belgian waffle with powdered sugar was the breakfast special on this trip. Alas, table syrup remains the only available topping, with no fruit toppings as one might expect.
The Greek salad with warm grilled chicken was fresh and flavorful. Amtrak has really improved its salad offerings; even the side salads are now based in spinach and dark lettuces, not wilted pieces of iceberg lettuce.
The Key Lime Pie with graham cracker crust has not changed much, but is still a fine product.
The new Red Velvet Cake by Sweet Street is of very high quality, especially with the richness of the cream cheese frosting, the moistness of the cake, and the apparent lack of chemical additives. This is probably one of the best desserts Amtrak has offered, and I understand it is one of many in rotation right now.
Clearly, Amtrak has listened to its passengers’ demands for better dining options (even while reduced staffing means plastic plates and cups continue to prevail on most routes). If Amtrak’s critics are so concerned about the company operating in a business-like manner, they should praise Amtrak for being market-responsive and instituting new service offerings that can drive revenue increases and win favor with the traveling public.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak, food service, silver star,More Yummy Dining Car Food News
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
As a brief follow-up to my last post, it turns out that omelettes (or omelets, in the variant that Amtrak spells it) are no longer pre-prepared. They are now freshly made aboard the train, which should represent a major improvement in most cases. Scrambled eggs, which are newly offered on most routes after a long absence of regular egg dishes, are in fact pre-prepared in bulk.
We had also erroneously reported last week that dining car menu cycles will change every three months. In fact, the actual cycles of the menus between trains will change every six months. The good news is that the various specials offered at each meal may change more frequently. In any case, Amtrak has still scored a winner with its new formal dining offerings. Now they just need to update their web site to show off the commendable menus!
Meanwhile, north of the border, VIA Rail Canada is continuing a Canadian railroading holiday tradition in the dining car, and the Toronto Star is there with good coverage:
When the federal government’s carving knife first scraped VIA’s carcass a quarter-century ago, the plum pudding fell by the trackside for budgetary reasons. Now, with trains back “in” with the public and politicians alike, the tradition is being revived for Christmas week on the stainless steel dining cars of VIA’s transcontinental streamliner, The Canadian.
VIA’s Vancouver director of customer experience, James Kleiner, says the inspiration for the holiday-only dessert came from one of the railway’s Winnipeg chefs, who sent him a Canadian National (CN) cookbook from the 1950s containing the original recipe. “I did my apprenticeship with Canadian Pacific Hotels,” says Kleiner.
...
“I’ll bet there hasn’t been a railway that’s ever made money on its dining cars. But you have to do it and do it well because it’s the one thing, above all, that people expect and remember. You’re helping to create an experience that will last them a lifetime. That’s a challenge and a pleasure. Bringing back the old CN plum pudding is one of those pleasures,” Kleiner says.
This year he received a call from a Winnipeg woman whose father is terminally ill. One last thing he wants is to taste the CN plum pudding again. It has been arranged.
Amtrak officials are known to follow VIA’s customer service practices, and should especially take note of the lore of the plum pudding. Imagine if any item in Amtrak’s dining cars could become such a cherished national tradition that Americans request it on their deathbeds.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak, food service, via rail canada,Dining with Amtrak’s Diner Lite
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Last month, I highlighted offerings from Amtrak’s improved Simplified Dining Service menu, which applies to most long-distance routes. The Lake Shore Limited is not one of them. In September, facing a crunch in Heritage Dining Car availability, Amtrak pressed into service the first of its converted former Amfleet II Lounge cars, now Diner Lite cars. The serving counter area is now flanked by steam tables and a large reefer; the disused smoking lounge was removed in favor of more seating, and a Steward’s office was installed.
I just arrived into Chicago on train 49 from New York, and had the opportunity to sample the Diner Lite offerings for the first time.
As you can see, half of the tables in this car have the view impeded due to misalignment with the windows, while half are properly aligned. The misaligned side is the one with the Steward’s office. As well, the table numbers were hand-written above each table, a very tacky touch.
This is the “good” side; note the far table being used for storage.
Modified serving counter, now diner galley.
Beverages Menu
All-Day Menu
Appetizers Menu
Dinner Entrees Menu, with slightly lower prices and less selection than in regular dining cars.
Dinner service was passable given the limitations of the setup. The spring rolls were prepared surprisingly crunchy, and the Salmon Filet with rice, corn, and beans was served piping hot. However, the salmon was somewhat rubbery and very salty, and could’ve used more diverse seasoning. It was served on a cheaper-looking plastic plate than usual that did not have the Amtrak logo.
Breakfast Menu
Breakfast was of sub-par quality: The Southwestern Omelet was not an omelet at all, but a spongy crescent of egg with a hard layer of cheese congealed on top, with “Southwestern” toppings served on the side in a cup. Everything, from the eggs, to the bland potatoes, to the turkey sausage and even the croissant, were all rubbery and tasted microwaved. If this meal was supposed to be prepared in a convection oven, it certainly was not done properly. I also noted that beverages do not appear on the menu to be included with breakfast as they customarily are (though I was not charged for my coffee and juice).
Amtrak claims that the Diner Lite setup on the Lake Shore is temporary and that Heritage diners will return once the maintenance situation has stabilized. I certainly hope that’s the case. As the only daily train between New York and Chicago, this is supposed to be one of Amtrak’s key routes, but the current level of service does not live up to that expectation. I give Diner Lite service a D for ambiance and a C for food quality.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak, food service, lake shore limited,Dining with Amtrak’s Diner-Lounge (Cross-Country Café)
Friday, January 18, 2008
Yesterday we showed you an objective downgrade in food service on the Lake Shore Limited. Today I arrived into New Orleans on City of New Orleans train 59, featuring the new Cross-Country Café (CCC), which Amtrak is touting as a model improvement in long-distance food service. Amtrak has converted eight Superliner dining cars into Diner-Lounges, the latter seven representing an improvement over the original prototype. These cars are now being evaluated as the sole food service car on the City, which used to have both full diner and sightseer lounge cars.
Amtrak claims that one car is sufficient for lower-volume trains; the City now has a consist of just two coaches and one sleeper, plus additional rooms sold in the crew dormitory car. I found that the load on my train probably represents the upper limit that the CCC can comfortably service, especially with only three employees in the entire car: The Lead Service Attendant (at the service counter), the Dining Room Attendant, and the Chef downstairs (who is empowered with an improved kitchen that far exceeds the pitiful facilities of the Amfleet II Diner-Lite).
Amtrak advertises early boarding in Chicago for dinner service before departure. However, boarding last night did not start until 7:30 PM (30 minutes ahead of departure), and the Diner-Lounge was not open for dinner service until ten minutes after departure.
When I finally did get to eat dinner in the CCC, it exceeded my expectations. While the Attendant had sole responsibility for the entire “dining room” half of the car, she was friendly and attentive. The Vegetable Lasagna was by far the best pasta dish I ever had on Amtrak. The large portion was clearly was prepared in a proper manner, with just the right amount of time in the oven, a generous topping of parmesan cheese and cilantro, and a bountiful bed of fresh mixed greens underneath. The latter aspect nearly made up for the fact that there were no complimentary salads or rolls included with dinner. The Riesling by the glass was a welcome feature, and the Red Velvet Cake was a wonderful dessert.
Breakfast was also excellent. The Scrambled Eggs were fluffy, the potatoes were richly seasoned, and the croissant was warm but not gummy. The casing of the chicken apple sausage was a bit hard, but the inside was still juicy.
Lunch was a major disappointment. I had the Memphis BBQ Pizza, which looked good at another table. But mine came out with the outer crust as hard as a rock, literally inedible (I felt like I was going to injure my teeth as I tried to bite into it). Yet, despite the apparent overzealous preparation, the pizza was not even hot. With a butter knife, I worked hard to cut around the crust to eat the rest. The ingredients were tasty, but the preparation was lousy.
I did greatly enjoy the Bread Pudding, which was served at a warmer temperature than the pizza and had a soft filling of spiced apple, bread, and raisins, and a brandy sauce topping.
Also, the Attendant is to be lauded for serving me Canada Dry club soda when virtually no Amtrak LSAs or attendants have been willing to serve me my favorite beverage without requiring me to purchase liquor as well.
Despite my relative approval of the food served in the CCC, it is clear that the Superliner Diner-Lounge does not provide sufficient capacity during peak meal periods, in that the dining room section consumes far more than half of the seating capacity. This leaves just four few booths near the service counter for coach and non-meal passengers to mingle and enjoy lounge facilities (see above photo). I observed such a “crunch” even on this off-peak, midweek train, it seems clear that a second lounge car is needed during heavy travel days. For lunch I was seated with two brothers who were traveling for one of their birthdays and were disappointed that the Sightseer Lounge experience is no more.
There also remain design flaws in both types of seating in the Diner-Lounges; the more traditional booths seem to have too much room between the seats and the tables. While this solves the problem for customers of size who don’t enjoy the tight squeeze in regular dining cars, I think that this design represents overcompensation. I literally had to strain my back or be rude and put my elbows on the table in order to reach my food. The half-moon tables can also be awkward for parties of more than two and detract from sightseeing. Indeed, I observed pax in those seats turning sideways to look out the windows.
Display case in front of the café counter.
I noticed other bugs that need to be corrected. While traveling at track speed north of Hazelhurst, MS, the train hit a rough spot that caused several beverages and at least one plate to fly off the tables in the Diner-Lounge and onto the floor, with many more saved by pax with quick reflexes. I noted that the table surfaces have no traction and that tablecloths are not used in the Diner-Lounges. Tablecloths might very well have prevented this incident.
I also observed a crew member knock over the vase of fake flowers in the middle centerpiece of the half-moon tables; the “flowers” protrude into the aisle from most of these tables. The employee said, “This happens all the time. They should remove these!”
Amtrak is probably making a good-faith effort to improve service along this route without harming the short-term bottom line, but there are major glitches that must be addressed before the concept of a combined food service car can be expanded to other routes. Click here for more photos of the interior of a Diner-Lounge.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: amtrak, city of new orleans, cross-country cafe, food service,©2006 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
» Recent Entries
» Blogroll
» Terms of Service for Comments
You may register to post comments in response to NARP-generated postings on the Blog. By registering you agree 1) that all comments will be relevant to the respective posting and 2) not to post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or that violate any laws. We reserve the right to permanently block postings from any user who does not abide by the above terms. NARP reserves the right to remove, edit, or move any messages for any reason.
» Monthly Archives
