Amtrak Dining and Cafe Service discussion 2024 H1

[JTN7]

Empire Builder is traditional dining, not flex.

thanks I had hoped that, I was in a roomette and I bid up to a bedroom so looking forward to that experience

 

[como]

I'm not so sure about that. My last cafe car sandwich (on the Northeast Regional) had too much bread and not enough filling, and the bread was on the verge of being stale. The hot sandwiches might be good, except that too many times they are microwaved right in the wrapper, which makes a mess of the meat and turns the bread chewy. I'm also ticked that they haven't returned to bagel for my traditional cafe car breakfast -- bagel and cream cheese, fruit cup, yoghurt and coffee.

The flex meals, if prepared and presented properly, are, in my opinion, perfectly edible and of better quality than the commercial frozen dinner found in the supermarket. Of course, having traditional dining is preferable, but forget about having food freshly cooked on-board to your order. That's been long gone and is never coming back. That's true even in ground-based restaurants outside of the high-end places. Want freshly cooked to order restaurant food? Prepare to spend $50-$100 or more per person for a meal. You think your local diner cooks all its food just for you? Better not go back and take a look at the kitchen!

I agree with your comments on sandwiches in the cafe car. Last week I took the Southwest Chief from La Plata to Chicago and return. I tried the vegan barbeque sandwich as an alternative to the burgers. On the trip to Chicago the attendant opened the wrapper before placing the sandwich in the microwave, the result was much better than Love's, QT, etc. On the return trip it was microwaved in the wrapper with the resulting chewy bread and soggy "meat." Going to Chicago, all the seats on the lower level were open and filled with people. No boxes in the seats and table near the counter. On the return trip the attendant had left boxes in the seat near the counter.

 

[dlagrua]

Our last experience with flex dining was two weeks ago on the Cardinal . We tried the Kofta Kebabs and they were passable at best. On the next meal we tried the Chicken enchiladas and the were so so. The first day to CHI we solved the food problem at Washington DC where we stopped for 50 minutes and went into the terminal and ordered plates from Cava- far better than flex. Amtrak could do far better with flex but IMO they are trying to keep the cost down and you end up getting cheap food thats not very good.

 

[xzperu42]

I was on the Crescent a few days ago and also had the enchiladas. Agree, so so, but at least not horrible. I remember some of the early flex meals (pre covid) going straight into the trash. I’ll be taking the train back to NYP tomorrow. The dining car should be back, but still the same food. Will be interesting to see what they do.

 

[mediaman]

I was on the Crescent a few days ago and also had the enchiladas. Agree, so so, but at least not horrible. I remember some of the early flex meals (pre covid) going straight into the trash. I’ll be taking the train back to NYP tomorrow. The dining car should be back, but still the same food. Will be interesting to see what they do.

I hope you will have an opportunity to give us an update on your return trip on the Crescent

 

[xzperu42]

I’m now on train 20 heading back to New York. The dining car is indeed back!


Crossing Lake Pontchartrain. Proper cutlery is back as well as cloth napkins.

 

[xzperu42]

My Amtrak WiFi is not too good, so I’ll break this into another post. My Sleeping Car Attendant took my order in advance so the kitchen would know what I ordered when I got here. I think they are trying to figure out how to best handle things. Fortunately no grumbling, everyone seems pretty positive.

 

[xzperu42]

As we know, the food is still the same…


but I do appreciate the greatly improved atmosphere.

 

[joelkfla]

My porter took my order in advance so the kitchen would know what I ordered when I got here.

That's been the procedure almost every time with Flex Dining, and they're still doing Flex on the Crescent.

And please don't call them porters, as some consider it demeaning. They're Car Attendants, or more specifically, Sleeping Car Attendants, or SCA's.

 

[Sidney]

That's been the procedure almost every time with Flex Dining, and they're still doing Flex on the Crescent.

And please don't call them porters, as some consider it demeaning. They're Car Attendants, or more specifically, Sleeping Car Attendants, or SCA's.

Beautiful dining car. Like the Lake Shore Limited, still flex. Cafe car food is an improvement

 

[xzperu42]

I can never remember what the proper term is, no offense intended. I have corrected my previous post.

On this train, so far, patrons can sit wherever they wish. Which as it turns out is 1 person per table (4 tables are being utilized so far).

 

[user 14106]

Nice to see the diner back on the Crescent. This is now the largest amount of VL2 diners ever in circulation since the cars were delivered.

 

[zephyr17]

Nice to see the diner back on the Crescent. This is now the largest amount of VL2 diners ever in circulation since the cars were delivered.

I think they are now on every train that had them pre-Flex. The Card never did, although I understand it the plan had been to get them before the advent of Anderson.

 

[user 14106]

The Diners were never on the Star before COVID - it was doing the Amfleet 2 lounge deal - they basically quietly flip flopped the Crescent and Star during COVID. And it only came to the Lake Shore with the introduction of flex (known as "Fresh cotemporary" at the time.) They have never been assigned to more than 3 routes at any one time before now.

 

[joelkfla]

The Diners were never on the Star before COVID - it was doing the Amfleet 2 lounge deal - they basically quietly flip flopped the Crescent and Star during COVID. And it only came to the Lake Shore with the introduction of flex (known as "Fresh cotemporary" at the time.) They have never been assigned to more than 3 routes at any one time before now.

IIRC, the Silver Star did have a diner in the past, until Amtrak initiated that "experiment" to completely eliminate dining on it.

ETA: Confirmed - Timetable Effective JANUARY 13, 2014

 

[jis]

IIRC, the Silver Star did have a diner in the past, until Amtrak initiated that "experiment" to completely eliminate dining on it.

You are correct. It lost its Diner when Amtrak chose not to run its Heritage Diners through legally required expensive periodic overhaul and parked them instead, thus running short of Diner entirely removing Diner service and reduced fares of Sleeper service to reflect the same. Of course they sold the entire thing as yet another best thing since sliced bread but the train earned the monicker of “The Silver Starvation”. The Crescent never had that done to it.

 

[cassie225]

Crescent diner looks very nice- thanks for the pictures. I might think about riding to ATL on it.

 

[joelkfla]

Diner is now back out of NYP also. Witness 19(03):

 

[xzperu42]

Crescent diner looks very nice- thanks for the pictures. I might think about riding to ATL on it.

The dining car itself is very nice and one or two flex meals is sort of OK, but doing a round trip from New York to New Orleans (I’m still on the train back to NYP… in VA now) is more Flex than anyone can take!

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

The dining car itself is very nice and one or two flex meals is sort of OK, but doing a round trip from New York to New Orleans (I’m still on the train back to NYP… in VA now) is more Flex than anyone can take!

Agreed, it’s a disgrace especially for the outrageous prices they now charge. I’ll say it again Subway would be better and I’m no fan of subway but at least it’s a couple steps up from grocery store freezer meals .

 

[xzperu42]

Agreed, it’s a disgrace especially for the outrageous prices they now charge. I’ll say it again Subway would be better and I’m no fan of subway but at least it’s a couple steps up from grocery store freezer meals .

I’d kill for a Subway sandwich about now!

 

[MccfamschoolMom]

I’d kill for a Subway sandwich about now!

Maybe it's just my local Subway, but I always get a gassy tummy after eating Subway, no matter how bland the sandwich is. As to "grocery store freezer meals = Flex dining", supermarket freezer meals usually don't make me gassy, so maybe I'll survive Flex dining on the Texas Eagle this fall, especially since it'll be for a far shorter duration than a roundtrip on one of the other Flex dining routes.

 

[xzperu42]

The Cafe car attendant let me order lunch from her (complimentary) rather than Flex, so I thought that was nice.

 

[user 14106]

IIRC, the Silver Star did have a diner in the past, until Amtrak initiated that "experiment" to completely eliminate dining on it.

ETA: Confirmed - Timetable Effective JANUARY 13, 2014
View attachment 36813
View attachment 36814

Let me correct my comments to clarify it was the Viewliner II diners I was specifically referring to. I believe the "Starvation" experiment began while they were still running Heritage dining cars. The Star never had a VIEWLINER dining car until the pandemic. The primary point is that this is the first time the VL2 diners have been running on four different routes with this many circulating.

 

[fillyjonk]

As we know, the food is still the same…

View attachment 36808
but I do appreciate the greatly improved atmosphere.

ah, womp womp..I saw your earlier photos (but didn't see that traditional dining wasn't back) and was hoping to see better food than what I get on the poor neglected eastern leg of the TE, this is the exact same breakfast I ate coming back home last week.