Amtrak dining and cafe service

[cocojacoby]

Amtrak has some new "Traditional Dining Menus" posted:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...routes/Long-Distance-Dining-Car-Menu-0621.pdf
P.S. Why change New York Cheesecake to Philadelphia Cheesecake???

 

[OBS]

Amtrak has some new "Traditional Dining Menus" posted:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...routes/Long-Distance-Dining-Car-Menu-0621.pdf
P.S. Why change New York Cheesecake to Philadelphia Cheesecake???

They probably get marketing money and/ or discounts from Philadelphia brand for featuring it.

 

[Sidney]

Wow! Impressed..and you still get a free alcholic drink? Booked for September. Sadly,the Eastern trains,CONO and the TE are stuck with flex dining.

It's like night and day. Good food is essential on an Amtrak journey. Notice no prices are quoted. I guess for the near future only sleeper pax can utilize the diner

 

[chrsjrcj]

Amtrak has some new "Traditional Dining Menus" posted:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...routes/Long-Distance-Dining-Car-Menu-0621.pdf
P.S. Why change New York Cheesecake to Philadelphia Cheesecake???

Chili and grilled cheese added to lunch menu will make my mother happy, but I'm sure many will be sad to see the veggie burger and mussels go.

Dinner looks mostly the same, although if you want the equivalent of the land & sea combo you have to forgo the salad as an appetizer. Honestly looks like a lot food anyway.

As long as my burger is there for lunch, I am happy. Will be interesting to see what changes they come up with for the east coast trains (eventually).

 

[Sidney]

The Mussels were gone before Covid and replaced by ribs,which were also good. Would be nice to have them on the lunch menu,but just to have this essential part of the Amtrak experience return is good news.

 

[user 14106]

As you’ll notice - June 23rd is the return date - as announced Friday by RPA.

 

[Cal]

Amtrak has some new "Traditional Dining Menus" posted:

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...routes/Long-Distance-Dining-Car-Menu-0621.pdf
P.S. Why change New York Cheesecake to Philadelphia Cheesecake???

Well, I'm glad to see there have not been too many cuts. Definitely a smaller menu than a few years ago, but doable. I was surprised to see a three course dinner. I'm also glad I'll be able to order my steak.

Now can we just get this implemented on Eastern LD routes?

 

[Cal]

Also, I am curious. If they are bringing back China, are they still going to have the paper menus? Bring back the actual menus!\

Edit/Adding on:

This is a screenshot of the Amtrak traditional dining page. Looks good, but not sure if this is how they will actually be presented in operations.

 

[jis]

So now we know for sure that the Texas Eagle will have Flex Menu between Chicago and San Antonio for the time being, and Traditional Dining will be available only between San Antonio and Los Angeles.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Also, I am curious. If they are bringing back China, are they still going to have the paper menus? Bring back the actual menus!\

Edit/Adding on:

This is a screenshot of the Amtrak traditional dining page. Looks good, but not sure if this is how they will actually be presented in operations.
View attachment 22747

I’ve heard from a reliable source that the desserts, at least the cheesecake & carrot cake, will be whole cakes sliced for serving rather than prepackaged slices.

 

[Cal]

I’ve heard from a reliable source that the desserts, at least the cheesecake & carrot cake, will be whole cakes sliced for serving rather than prepackaged slices.

Where would they be made?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Where would they be made?

I don’t know.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

Interesting new menu choices. I’m a bit concerned that every dinner entree has a sauce and different side dish. What if you want chicken but no mushroom gravy for example? Can I get salmon with a baked potato like I could before?

I’m sure it will vary from crew to crew anyways.

Also seems strange not to have the veggie burger.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I noticed that the steak no longer says cooked to order and none of the items has the FDA cooking advisory next to it. The Chef Inspired items were never cooked to order and still tasted good but this would appear to be a downgrade from traditional dining service we used to know.

 

[user 14106]

The fda advisory is on there the same way it is on auto train and they cook the steak to order on auto train. It’s listed off to the side instead of attached to each item.

 

[user 14106]

Additionally the omlettes will clearly be made on board with the multiple choices for toppings.

 

[joelkfla]

Where would they be made?

If they're supplied by Aramark, I would expect they'll baked in a factory, and quite possibly pre-frozen and thawed the day of serving.

 

[IndyLions]

Promising!

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

P.S. Why change New York Cheesecake to Philadelphia Cheesecake???

Especially since those of us boarding in PHL won’t have it!

This menu looks good to me. Very good, considering I’m not planning to leave the East Coast for a long time and will not pay ridiculous sleeper prices to ride around the east and have flex meals.

If the western trains get this decent food, and even real china, and the eastern ones are stuck with flex meals forever, I don’t want to hear any more about how we easterners are privileged elites!

 

[zephyr17]

If they're supplied by Aramark, I would expect they'll baked in a factory, and quite possibly pre-frozen and thawed the day of serving.

Likely bulk purchased by Aramark, not made by them.

Hope it'll be as good as the sliced cheesecake they had before. The individual cheesecake "tarts" they had after that were too sweet for my taste, not enough cheesecake tang.

Just happy traditional dining is returning. Especially like the dinner appetizer choices instead of just a salad, which were usually pretty lousy salads.

 

[jis]

As always, only a few of the items appear to be slated to be cooked to order, which is fine AFAIAC.

 

[Mailliw]

This is great news, but coach passengers should be allowed to advance purchase meal plans.

 

[jebr]

This is great news, but coach passengers should be allowed to advance purchase meal plans.

And/or increase the options available from the cafe car. Ever since I've started traveling on Amtrak the western LD trains have had a quite poor cafe car menu, espeically if you're traveling over multiple meal times. The dining car (with semi-reasonable prices) helped that somewhat - at least you could get something beyond very basic convenience store food. Adding a few options for fresh salads/sandwiches would help a lot, along with some sort of fresh-ish fruit option (even a mixed fruit cup would be appreciated!)

 

[RRrich]

Used to be that the menu on LD trains changed every meal ('cept maybe breakfast} & day - making meals much more interesting

 

[zephyr17]

Used to be that the menu on LD trains changed every meal ('cept maybe breakfast} & day - making meals much more interesting

That was a long, long time ago.