Eastern Sleeping Car Passengers Pre-Order Meals

[NativeSon5859]

There’s another screen I didn’t save which showed you the items you can pick. Below each item was a description. For breakfast, you don’t have to select anything..it just lists everything they are service. The choices are the same as what’s being offered on the updated menu here...

 

[tgstubbs1]

Nice. Do they provide basic nutritional info (carbs, protein, fat, fiber, sodium, etc)?

 

[PVD]

They have standard nutrition information on the website, of course, it has not been updated to reflect the current choices, so it is useless.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

The disclaimer about gluten free is new since the original October roll out I think.

One of the very few advantages of pre-packaged meals should be guaranteed gluten free meals. It’s so easy if someone just bothers to care.

 

[plane2train]

The pictures in the menu look disgusting. I’m not looking forward to my ride in September. Amtrak needs to get its act together, or people will give up on them.

 

[fdaley]

The pictures in the menu look disgusting. I’m not looking forward to my ride in September. Amtrak needs to get its act together, or people will give up on them.

Yuk. I already have given up on them. Which distresses me greatly, as train travel has been one of the great pleasures of my life. But I just can't pretend that I would enjoy eating this stuff. For the price paid for a sleeper room, it's really an insult.

 

[NativeSon5859]

I just had the shrimp with lobster sauce last night and it was very good. No complaints at all.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

I just had the shrimp with lobster sauce last night and it was very good. No complaints at all.

What was your favorite Amtrak dish before the contemporary meals?

 

[me_little_me]

What was your favorite Amtrak dish before the contemporary meals?

Alpo? Just a guess.

 

[NativeSon5859]

What was your favorite Amtrak dish before the contemporary meals?

My go-to was the land and sea for dinner. Always good. The chilaquiles were really good for lunch and I never had a bad plate of railroad French toast.

I miss the traditional dining, but if this is the way it’s going to be, I can learn to deal with it.

 

[caravanman]

Because I am allergic to garlic and because all the flex meal entrees contain garlic, I was able to special order "special"

Strangely, Penny's reflection does not show up on a mirror either...

 

[Steve4031]

Steak for dinner and pancakes for breakfast. The meatballs and pasta is ok substitute for dinner. I can deal with the breakfast. But lunch is a mess because I don’t like the other meals.

What is the other part of the lobster dish?

 

[me_little_me]

Steak for dinner and pancakes for breakfast. The meatballs and pasta is ok substitute for dinner. I can deal with the breakfast. But lunch is a mess because I don’t like the other meals.

What is the other part of the lobster dish?

Soylent green?

 

[RebelRider]

I just had the shrimp with lobster sauce last night and it was very good. No complaints at all.

Glad to hear it tastes good. Stinks up the whole cafe when microwaved. I can't stand the smell of that dish.

 

[Manny T]

Not sure what good it is to like one dish or another on the flex dining menu. Does that mean on an overnight trip you order it for both dinner and lunch, and then again on the return trip? Eat the same thing 3-4 times on the train?

I mean I have a favorite too on the flex dining menu but so what. I don't look forward to ordering it for dinner and lunch on the CL eastbound and then having it again for dinner westbound. Would prefer a menu where all/most of the selections were acceptable choices. Or as Garrison Keillor used to say about the kids in Lake Wobegone, "where all the children are above average."

 

[nferr]

I just had the shrimp with lobster sauce last night and it was very good. No complaints at all.

I'm on the Capital Limited now. Had the Chicken Marsala and it was fine. Was it the steak? No. But it was nothing like the crying on this forum would have you believe. Just had breakfast, the sausage and egg muffin, blueberry yogurt, orange juice and two cups of coffee. I'm not hungry.

 

[TEREB]

I'm on the Capital Limited now. Had the Chicken Marsala and it was fine. Was it the steak? No. But it was nothing like the crying on this forum would have you believe. Just had breakfast, the sausage and egg muffin, blueberry yogurt, orange juice and two cups of coffee. I'm not hungry.

Was the english muffin toasted at all or was it soggy? I guess wrapped in foil would make it soggy, but I do hope it's been at least toasted.

 

[TEREB]

Soylent green?

Funny, that's how a formal night lobster dinner was described on Princess cruises. It was a lemon arugula risotto that was green.

 

[TEREB]

I just had the shrimp with lobster sauce last night and it was very good. No complaints at all.

We've been traveling the Silver Meteor/Star both north and south at least twice a year for more than 12 years, and I've had some pretty good meals.
My favorite lunch was, I believe was a corn chower with shrimp. Just enough spice. When they eliminated the soup and salad option, people on this board suggested the black bean veggie burger. That became my go to lunch.
Dinner was always fish. Their fish was always tasty. Crab cakes was one of my favorites. Salmon, even though often very dry, was still very good.
Dessert, well I have a huge sweet tooth, everything was my favorite.
My next trip will hopefully be in September. I'll be trying the black bean enchiladas and the shrimp with lobster sauce and the blondies. Wish me luck.

 

[dlagrua]

We've sampled four of the menu options and have found them to be terrible. They taste like cheap frozen meals perhaps loaded with preservatives and MSG. On an overnight trip they might be tolerable but on a cross country trip they are sickening. Just imagine eating that awful fodder for two meals for three days! It's disgusting

 

[tgstubbs1]

They should have provided you with the means to find out the sodium content. That is important nutritional information and worth knowing about the food you eat. It would be good to see it here, too, if you find out.

 

[west point]

Too much MSG gives me bad headaches

 

[me_little_me]

Too much MSG gives me bad headaches

Too much bad Amtrak management gives me problems at both ends.

 

[TheCrescent]

The pictures in the menu look disgusting. I’m not looking forward to my ride in September. Amtrak needs to get its act together, or people will give up on them.

The Flexible Dining breakfasts have driven me away. I am Select Plus, from sleeping car rides on the Crescent, but those breakfasts are so awful (little food, bad quality and attitude when being fed) that I am not taking Amtrak again any time soon.

Edited to add: from the pre-ordering screen shots, it looks like you can't select the breakfast items that you want; you just order "1 Breakfast". Part of the frustration with Flexible Dining breakfasts is dealing with ordering it.

Somehow I'm always "wrong". If I go to the cafe car to order it, I'm wrong, because I'm told that I should have ordered it from the sleeping car attendant; and if I ask the sleeping car attendant (who's usually nicer than the cafe car person), I'm still wrong because I'm told that I should have gone to the cafe car to pick it up. And when I'm in the cafe car, I'm wrong when I order, because I'm supposed to wait in an unmarked area, and each item that I order is a source of frustration for the cafe car attendant.

It's just totally frustrating, and for the cr_p food, it's just not worth it. I started bringing my own breakfast (since 1 small meal on the day when the northbound Crescent arrives in NYP around 1pm) is not enough, and then I get irked that I'm paying over $300 for a one-way trip and am literally bringing my own food.

I definitely do not want to bring today's political/social divides into this but I do wonder if part of the attitude/service issues in the cafe cars is due to a resentment of an older white guy, presumably with the means to pay for sleeping car space; am I viewed as "the oppressor"?

 

[crescent-zephyr]

The Flexible Dining breakfasts have driven me away. I am Select Plus, from sleeping car rides on the Crescent, but those breakfasts are so awful (little food, bad quality and attitude when being fed) that I am not taking Amtrak again any time soon.

Edited to add: from the pre-ordering screen shots, it looks like you can't select the breakfast items that you want; you just order "1 Breakfast". Part of the frustration with Flexible Dining breakfasts is dealing with ordering it.

Somehow I'm always "wrong". If I go to the cafe car to order it, I'm wrong, because I'm told that I should have ordered it from the sleeping car attendant; and if I ask the sleeping car attendant (who's usually nicer than the cafe car person), I'm still wrong because I'm told that I should have gone to the cafe car to pick it up. And when I'm in the cafe car, I'm wrong when I order, because I'm supposed to wait in an unmarked area, and each item that I order is a source of frustration for the cafe car attendant.

It's just totally frustrating, and for the cr_p food, it's just not worth it. I started bringing my own breakfast (since 1 small meal on the day when the northbound Crescent arrives in NYP around 1pm) is not enough, and then I get irked that I'm paying over $300 for a one-way trip and am literally bringing my own food.

I definitely do not want to bring today's political/social divides into this but I do wonder if part of the attitude/service issues in the cafe cars is due to a resentment of an older white guy, presumably with the means to pay for sleeping car space; am I viewed as "the oppressor"?

I got that attitude when ordering breakfast as well, not quite as bad as what you described but close to it. I asked a question about an item on the menu and she said “what we have is written on the menu, you tell me what you want” So classy

I’ve also been scolded on a Michigan train for ordering my free bottled water in business class wrong and no joke, the attendant was upset with me when I put the cap back on his pen after signing for my free water. You can’t make it up. Ha.