Amtrak Dining and Cafe service 2023 H2

[drdumont]

I think comparing the traditional dining to Denny's is a bit unfair. I would say at least as good as a decent chain restaurant like Longhorn or Outback for the flatiron steak. But Amtrak is variable enough that one's experience might not compare. The chains on land seem to do a better job at consistency.

Comparing FLEX meals to Denny's is an insult to Denny's. FLEX meals are consistently bad.
I am sure someone wasted tons of money on he whole concept. They would have been better with Marie Callender or even Hungry Man dinners.

 

[drdumont]

To each his or her own. It just goes to show that no matter what Amtrak serves, there are going to be people who do not care for it. I am an adventurous eater and I will try anything at least once, if it is something that is eaten and enjoyed somewhere on the planet. I don't like the flex meals and all the associated waste. Yet I eat them, and prefer most of what's offered to bland canned glop...which I could also eat without turning up my nose if there was nothing else offered. I don't expect goumet service from Amtrak but I do wish the western route meals were offered system wide. Part of the problem is how limited their menu must necessarily be, due to space and staffing constraints. Otherwise, carrying a supply of canned goods as an alternative for those who only wish to eat very familiar things would make a lot of sense.

The first leg of our trips is the Eagle. We carry an electric cooler and a Keurig Single cup coffee maker. The FLEX meals are insulting. We've been known to give coffee and snacks to LSAs. Extreme, yes, but at least I can protest with a full stomach.

 

[John Santos]

I have ridden LD trains since 1945 (age 10) and Amtrak LD trains since May, 1971 until 5 months ago, my last, possibly final, trip. The diner service and menus always were exceptional until "Covid" when the world changed for some reason. Flex meals are an abomination to someone paying extra for a sleeper and expecting reasonable diner service, or at least well cooked meals. Then to to be forced to eat TV dinners (Flex) in your room is an insult to those who ride trains because they enjoy casual relaxed travel to their destinations, not needing to arrive there immediately in a sardine can.

Flex started on the LSL (and Crescent, TE, and a few other routes) at least a year or two before Covid. When Covid started, they adopted flex on ALL the LD trains. Over the years, they reduced the atrocious amount of packaging waste in the flex meals, and adjusted the quality some (up and down!) but last time I took the LSL, it was still pretty bad. They re-instated so-called traditional dining on many, but not all, LD trains about 2 years ago (post vaccine) and have promised it (in vague terms) to all LD's, subject to availability of dining cars and staff, which are both still in short supply, so maybe some day, assuming they don't change the policy again before the current policy fully takes effect.

It has always been possible to get your meals served in your room (though I suspect some SCAs are reluctant), but they made it mandatory with the onset of Covid. That policy ended in 2021, at least on most trains, but they often made eating in the dining cars, especially on the Viewliner trains difficult, by not having a dining car or by reserving most of the tables for the crews.

 

[drdumont]

I have ridden LD trains since 1945 (age 10) and Amtrak LD trains since May, 1971 until 5 months ago, my last, possibly final, trip. The diner service and menus always were exceptional until "Covid" when the world changed for some reason. Flex meals are an abomination to someone paying extra for a sleeper and expecting reasonable diner service, or at least well cooked meals. Then to to be forced to eat TV dinners (Flex) in your room is an insult to those who ride trains because they enjoy casual relaxed travel to their destinations, not needing to arrive there immediately in a sardine can.

Your comments are spot on. Paying the exorbitant fees for sleepers and receiving bad microwaved slop (There actually are consumer available nukable food options available to the general public which are superior to the Flex) IS an abomination. AMTRAK appears only capable of making excuses, rather than positive steps. Passing out that abomination and ccalling it edible is somewhat akin to putting lipstick on a pig.
We (my family) ride AMTRAK LD trains by choice. Some folks have no other choice, alas. It is those unfortunates who must suffer along with those of us whose pockets are picked for the privilege of being insulted thus.. Indeed, there are pigs who travel on trains, planes, buses (shudder), and there seems to be no remedy for that.

AMTRAK is, alas, constrained by repressive labor contracts, antiquated workrules and management failures. Why, in the Greatest Country in the World must we put up with this when Europe and even Asia has more advanced rail systems and service?

So we carry our comfort supplies, try to reward thoes AMTRAK employees (and they are legion) who try to make our journeys pleasant as they can, and hound our bought and paid for politicians for needed changes. It's about all we can do.

 

[Asher]

I recognize that some people paint with a very broad brush. I have tried to make it clear that my criticism of Amtrak dining car food is limited to flex meals, contemporary meals or whatever name it goes by. I think that Amtrak traditional dining as it existed on my last long-distance trip in 2019 and for years prior has been generally great so once you survive the flex maybe gauntlet and proceed west from Chicago or New Orleans you are in good shape.

Maybe that’s where the saying ” Go west young man “ comes from

 

[crescent-zephyr]

To each his or her own. It just goes to show that no matter what Amtrak serves, there are going to be people who do not care for it.

Not really. There are very few complaints about the traditional dining on the routes that it has returned on.

Now the minimum price for a meal has gone way up for coach passengers, and if they are still doing the pre-packaged desserts for lunch that's a cheap move. But over all the food is good.

For a few years ( around 2013) some of the food was truly excellent - with the chef inspired entrees. Some of the best food I've ever had on trains including private car runs!

 

[drdumont]

Maybe that’s where the saying ” Go west young man “ comes from

Alas, the Crescent is still FLEX garbage. An insult to what was once a very proud rain, and I believe the last to fall under AMTRAK. But even after that, the dining experience was superior.

 

[MARC Rider]

Flex started on the LSL (and Crescent, TE, and a few other routes) at least a year or two before Covid.

Not the Texas Eagle. There was traditional dining on a trip I took in October 2019. The Capitol Limited and Cardinal had flex at that point. I'm not sure when the Silvers and the Crescents got downgraded, but the Lakeshore Limited was the first to receive the treatment.

By the way, there were some duds with traditional dining back in the "good old days." I had a "Special" which was supposed to be a braised beef on the Southwest Chief in 2015 in which the beef was clearly undercooked for its cut, but the veggies were overcooked and cried out. The beef was dried out too, undercooked and dried out, kind of weird. But the breakfast was good, and I had a nice steak on the return trip.

 

[Rasputin]

Not the Texas Eagle. There was traditional dining on a trip I took in October 2019. The Capitol Limited and Cardinal had flex at that point. I'm not sure when the Silvers and the Crescents got downgraded, but the Lakeshore Limited was the first to receive the treatment.

We had traditional dining on the Crescent between DC and New Orleans in May 2019. It is the only time so far that we have had meals prepared in one of the new dining cars in the manner for which those cars were built. The food was excellent.

I can remember thinking at the time, this is great. We can visit relatives in DC every year or so and then take the Crescent to New Orleans.
About a year later, the meal service on the Crescent was trashed and those thoughts went out the window as well.

 

[Bob Dylan]

We had traditional dining on the Crescent between DC and New Orleans in May 2019. It is the only time so far that we have had meals prepared in one of the new dining cars in the manner for which those cars were built. The food were excellent.

I can remember thinking at the time, this is great. We can visit relatives in DC every year or so and then take the Crescent to New Orleans.
About a year later, the meal service on the Crescent was trashed and those thoughts went out the window as well.

And then Amtrak agreed to the current Terrible Schedule and all remnants of the Grand Southern Crescent were History!

 

[TEREB]

For a few years ( around 2013) some of the food was truly excellent - with the chef inspired entrees. Some of the best food I've ever had on trains including private car runs!

I traveled the Meteor and the Star quite often in 2012 and 2013 and I can honestly say I enjoyed every meal except one. We were very late coming into Hollywood and dinner was offered. Only chicken was available. It was terrible.

 

[Sidney]

Not the Texas Eagle. There was traditional dining on a trip I took in October 2019. The Capitol Limited and Cardinal had flex at that point. I'm not sure when the Silvers and the Crescents got downgraded, but the Lakeshore Limited was the first to receive the treatment.

By the way, there were some duds with traditional dining back in the "good old days." I had a "Special" which was supposed to be a braised beef on the Southwest Chief in 2015 in which the beef was clearly undercooked for its cut, but the veggies were overcooked and cried out. The beef was dried out too, undercooked and dried out, kind of weird. But the breakfast was good, and I had a nice steak on the return trip.

Flex food was introduced in June 2018 on the Capitol and Lake Shore Limited. It expanded to all the Eastern trains in October 2019. This was pre Covid. By April 2020 every train went to flex because of the pandemic. A year later the Western trains returned to traditional with the exception of the Texas Eagle. Traditional dining has returned on the Silver trains in the past year.

Six trains are still flex and there is no set date to return to traditional. As has been said many times this is an insult to passengers paying quite a bit of money for sleeper accommodations. Flex ranges from awful to adequate. Adequate is a poor excuse for sleeper passengers who deserve a cooked to order meal,certainly one of the highlights of any long distance train.

Blame Anderson and Mica for the biggest blunder in Amtrak’s history.

 

[MarkInAustin]

I understand that full dining is more labor intensive. Therefore I assume full dining on eastern LD trains will be indefinitely postponed.

Meanwhile it seems that there should be no impediment to upgrading the Flex food to the level of the best prepackaged frozen meals found in every super market. What am I missing here? Lack of freezer capacity?

 

[MARC Rider]

sleeper passengers who deserve a cooked to order meal, certainly one of the highlights of any long distance train.

Even in traditional dining most of the meals are pre-cooked. They're just better quality than flex and presented as in a proper restaurant. By the way, I've had supermarket frozen dinners, and I think the flex meals are a bit better quality.

At one time even Amtrak did cook the food on the trains. When did they switch to having a vendor provide pre-cooked meals?

 

[MarkInAustin]

Even in traditional dining most of the meals are pre-cooked. They're just better quality than flex and presented as in a proper restaurant. By the way, I've had supermarket frozen dinners, and I think the flex meals are a bit better quality.

At one time even Amtrak did cook the food on the trains. When did they switch to having a vendor provide pre-cooked meals?

I stipulated "best" prepackaged because [I agree that] Flex is better than much that is offered on the freezer aisle. I think the best prepackaged meals I have been served by my daughter who doesn't cook are much better than the average frozen dinners, but I do not know which brands she favors. And I think they were much better than Flex.

I would like to read other opinions as to how Flex itself can be improved.

 

[user 14106]

Even in traditional dining most of the meals are pre-cooked. They're just better quality than flex and presented as in a proper restaurant. By the way, I've had supermarket frozen dinners, and I think the flex meals are a bit better quality.

At one time even Amtrak did cook the food on the trains. When did they switch to having a vendor provide pre-cooked meals?

Actually there are important differences though. Traditional dining meals do have some pre cooked components but the important difference is even the precooked items are delivered in bulk and the individual meal itself is portioned assembled and final prepared on board. This is different from an individual ready to serve airline/flex style meal where the vendor does all the work and you get a complete meal ready to serve. They are not getting individually proportioned cooked meals ready to go. This is one reason why flex meals were actually more expensive as far as the commissary food costs than the ingredients for traditional dining.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Even in traditional dining most of the meals are pre-cooked.

That depends on your definition of pre-cooked. In most commercial restaurants, lots of food arrives pre-cooked or pre-prepared to some extent. You could argue that both the cafe car burger and the dining car burgers are "pre-cooked" since neither arrive as raw ground beed. But in the dining car, the patty is placed on a grill, the cheese can then be added or not, bacon can then be added or not, the buns can be "toasted" on the grill, and the chef can assemble the burger with fresh lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle on a plate- just like a restaurant would. That's a totally different definition of pre-cooked than plopping the entire pre-assembled burger in a microwave and then placing that, packaging and all, into a cardboard tray.

At one time even Amtrak did cook the food on the trains. When did they switch to having a vendor provide pre-cooked meals?

In the early 90's as a kid I remember the Amtrak kids meals being basically TV dinners. Do you count them?

I know the major change was when "Simplified Dining" was introduced in like 2006 - that's when you couldn't get Scrambled Eggs you ordered the "Bob Evans Breakfast Scramble" and you also couldn't get steaks. Amtrak realized the chefs were capable of cooking some items to order so they slowly brought back items like the scambled eggs, steaks, etc.

 

[user 14106]

That depends on your definition of pre-cooked. In most commercial restaurants, lots of food arrives pre-cooked or pre-prepared to some extent. You could argue that both the cafe car burger and the dining car burgers are "pre-cooked" since neither arrive as raw ground beed. But in the dining car, the patty is placed on a grill, the cheese can then be added or not, bacon can then be added or not, the buns can be "toasted" on the grill, and the chef can assemble the burger with fresh lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle on a plate- just like a restaurant would.

Pre cooked vs. completely pre prepared and ready to serve. The traditional dining chicken and fish meat are both pre cooked in a central kitchen (utilizing the sous vide method of cooking) and delivered to the train still in the sealed package. However those are then heated and finished on board and then the meal is assembled and plated (with the risotto, sauces, etc) which are entirely separate. With a ready to serve meal like flexible dining or the cafe car items that is all done in advance and you have a complete meal in a package.

 

[nferr]

I understand that full dining is more labor intensive. Therefore I assume full dining on eastern LD trains will be indefinitely postponed.

Meanwhile it seems that there should be no impediment to upgrading the Flex food to the level of the best prepackaged frozen meals found in every super market. What am I missing here? Lack of freezer capacity?

Traditional dining is back on the Silvers so that statement is incorrect. Amtrak is just dragging their feet on bringing it back to the other Eastern overnights.

 

[Willbridge]

Even in traditional dining most of the meals are pre-cooked. They're just better quality than flex and presented as in a proper restaurant. By the way, I've had supermarket frozen dinners, and I think the flex meals are a bit better quality.

At one time even Amtrak did cook the food on the trains. When did they switch to having a vendor provide pre-cooked meals?

In 1992 when a travel agency printed a facsimile of an Amtrak menu, I think they were still preparing meals on board. I've attached a copy of it.

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

That's a totally different definition of pre-cooked than plopping the entire pre-assembled burger in a microwave and then placing that, packaging and all, into a cardboard tray.

That's how both the White Castle cheeseburgers and the Angus cheeseburger were prepared (nuked in the packaging) in the Cafe car on the Missouri River Runner last week. The hubby's White Castle cheeseburgers were OK (similar to the frozen ones at the supermarket that we microwave at home), but the Angus cheeseburger was pretty awful (edible, but on the level of dollar-store frozen sandwiches at best).

 

[MARC Rider]

That's how both the White Castle cheeseburgers and the Angus cheeseburger were prepared (nuked in the packaging) in the Cafe car on the Missouri River Runner last week. The hubby's White Castle cheeseburgers were OK (similar to the frozen ones at the supermarket that we microwave at home), but the Angus cheeseburger was pretty awful (edible, but on the level of dollar-store frozen sandwiches at best).

Sometimes the cafe car attendant (on the Northeast Regional, at least) will take the burger or hot dog out of the package and nuke it separately on a plate. Then they'll toast the bun. (At least one of the microwaves is also a convection oven or toaster.) I've also occasionally gotten my bagels toasted, back when they had bagels, an item they should retore to the menu.

 

[01piglet_patinas]

I stipulated "best" prepackaged because [I agree that] Flex is better than much that is offered on the freezer aisle. I think the best prepackaged meals I have been served by my daughter who doesn't cook are much better than the average frozen dinners, but I do not know which brands she favors. And I think they were much better than Flex.

I would like to read other opinions as to how Flex itself can be improved.

The salad is too small and basic only ingredients - add a larger bowl and additional vegetables

 

[crescent-zephyr]

I stipulated "best" prepackaged because [I agree that] Flex is better than much that is offered on the freezer aisle. I think the best prepackaged meals I have been served by my daughter who doesn't cook are much better than the average frozen dinners, but I do not know which brands she favors. And I think they were much better than Flex.

Amy's Frozen foods are much better tasting (my opinion) and also much healthier (fact) - Amtrak at one time would offer an Amy's meal as the Healthy / Vegan option I think.

I would like to read other opinions as to how Flex itself can be improved.

For lunch and dinner they should offer a good quality entree salad as an option. Would also be really easy to offer a turkey club sandwich - something that is more like regular food and less like the discount aisle in the frozen foods section.

 

[Maglev]

Flex started on the LSL (and Crescent, TE, and a few other routes) at least a year or two before Covid.

When I rode the Broadway Limited in 1994 from Chicago to Greensburg, we had the equivalent of Flex Dining. Amtrak has a long history of trying to shed dining service.