Favorite food on Amtrak?

[Rail Freak]

Cheese Cake!

 

[leemell]

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE!

 

[Cristobal]

The roasted duck w/ orange glaze that I had for dinner last night on the SWC was quite tasty as was the pulled pork sandwich for lunch.

 

[inspiration100]

Are the steaks actually cooked on board? Or how does that work since they are made to your liking?

 

[gswager]

Breakfast- RR French toast

Lunch- Angus burger with everything on it.

Dinner- usually steak.

Dessert- I don't know yet. Can't pick which one! Ice cream is nice, too, if it is not stiff frozen. Otherwise take it to your room and let it sit for about 15 to 30 minutes before it's ready to scoop it up.

 

[gregoryla]

Dinner: Absolute best meal I ever had was soy-glazed duck in the PPC on CS. The salmon is consistently good. Otherwise, I'm fond of the roasted chicken.

Lunch: Veggie burger (but I do wish that they would heat the bun -- some cooks do it, others don't )

Breakfast: Sorry, not much of a breakfast eater. I always get the yogurt and half a grapefruit.

 

[dlagrua]

I think the food in the diner is mediocre at best. Nothing there would really be on the list of things that I crave.

But I did just have an excellent "grilled chicken tandoori ceasar salad" on the acela last weekend.

We've had many meals aboard Amtrak LD trains and also consider the food mediocre. I would compare it to a meal at Applebees or Fridays; not bad but far from gourmet. I didn't live during the Golden Age ". Having cooked and sampled these old recipes,from the book "Dining by Rail", I can tell you that the food back then was nothing short of outstanding. Much of it has a French flair to it but even the Fred Harvey recipes were creative and very flavorful. Reminds us of dining in our favorite upscale French restaurant that we regularly go to in New York City. Obviously that type of food may never be available on Amtrak so in view of this:

The Surf and Turf served on the Autotrain is very good as is the stuffed roasted Chicken.

The cooked to order Steak "The Butchers Cut" on the Capitol Limited is also very good.

We have yet to try the RR French Toast but may do so on next weeks New Orleans trip.

Have yet to sample The Acela First Class menu but the trip to DC from NJ is so short that we haven't opted for it yet.

 

[amamba]

Are the steaks actually cooked on board? Or how does that work since they are made to your liking?

Made to your liking? I requested my steak rare to medium rare - and I was served a well done piece of gristle. Nasty. :angry:

 

[RRrich]

Made to your liking? I requested my steak rare to medium rare - and I was served a well done piece of gristle. Nasty. :angry:

I would have been so very unhappy :angry2:

Personally, I'm not that big on steak - I can buy some nice beef and put it on the grill and make something real nice.

However, if I have to choose between glazed duck and lamb shanks - both dishes you don't see everyday, I would have a dilemma :help:

 

[Kay]

The only food I can remember liking is the black bean burger for lunch.

I never eat breakfast and can't remember the suppers. Maybe the steak, but it wasn't memorable.

 

[TraneMan]

My first trip in '90 on EB, I don't recall for what I had, I think it was eggs and potatoes. Was good!

Our trip last year we had lunch, and day special was Mac and Cheese, and it was the best Mac and Cheese I ever had!!

I don't recall what I had on my 2nd trip in the mid 90's.

 

[JayPea]

For breakfast, it's the veggie omelette with the biscuit and pork sausage. Lunch, I usually go for the Angus burger. For dinner, I will usually go for whatever seafood entree' they might have. I'm not a big steak eater, but the one and only time I've ever had steak on the train (last year on the Texas Eagle), it was very good. I'm diabetic and miss the fresh fruit choice for dessert, but usually indulge in dessert anyway. I'm fortunate enough to have enough control of my diabetes that the occasional indulgence doesn't adversely affect me.

 

[bwitt]

I'll give my vote for the steak for dinner on the westbound EB, eastbound it was alright but not nearly as good as when we were going the other way, and another vote for the chocolate peanut butter pie, chocolate peanut butter ice cream was pretty good too.

 

[SP&S]

Breakfast: Gotta have the RR french toast.

Lunch: The best I ever had was a special grilled cheese sandwich - Gruyere, caramelized onion, and apple - best food I've ever had on Amtrak

Dinner: When they have 'em, crabcakes, otherwise the steaks aren't bad at all.

Always consider going with the daily special.

 

[GlobalistPotato]

What exactly is served in the PPC?

And does anyone have an opinion on the food aboard Acela?

 

[Cristian]

What exactly is served in the PPC?

...

The PPC offers a limited choice menu (usually 2 selections for breakfast, 2 for lunch and 2 for dinner) and if the train is full enough it is not uncommon to have it run out of food there.

The menu changes from time to time, here are some of the items I've had there:

Breakfast:

Fresh fruits with Activia yogurt

Breakfast sandwich

(I think there might've been a smoked salmon bagel but not sure)

Lunch

Greek salad

Italian sandwich

Eggplant Parmesan

Dinner

Lamb shank in red wine sauce

Braised beef in chile-ancho sauce

Also, the PPC, unlike the rest of the Amtrak diners has Coke products - including Ginger Ale, as well as a cappuccino/expresso machine.

Here is the current PPC menu:

Northbound: http://www.amtrak.co...r_NB_111710.pdf

Southbound: http://www.amtrak.co...r_SB_111710.pdf

Wine & Cheese tasting menu: http://www.amtrak.co...eese_201103.pdf

Enjoy!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I 2nd the French Toast, but on my last trip they had Pancakes!

At first I wondered how that was possible. Then I found out that it's easy to warm frozen pancakes in microwave ovens.

The coffee. The coffee. The coffee.

Is the worst part of the whole "dining experience" in my view. I've had lots of bad coffee in hotel lobbies all over the country and all over the world, but I feel Amtrak takes the cake when it comes to truly bad brew. Frankly, I've had better canned coffee for Pete's sake.

I think the food in the diner is mediocre at best. Nothing there would really be on the list of things that I crave.

Same here. I never knew you could screw up something as simple as an omelet or a hamburger until I ate Aramark's comical attempts at basic food. The "burger" is just as dry and tasteless as a precooked microwavable meat patty and the "omelet" looks and tastes just like fake egg substitute.

Are the steaks actually cooked on board? Or how does that work since they are made to your liking?

So far as I can tell the cooking requests are just for show. A pointless charade to make the meal look more upscale than it really is. Kind of like the powdered "mashed potatoes" and canned vegetable slop that comes with it.

The only dishes I've enjoyed thus far are the French toast and some sort of chicken and rice dish that only shows up occasionally and doesn't seem to have a specific name. Those dishes are apparently workable within the limitations of the barely functional kitchen they have on board. Everything else, and I mean everything, has been disappointing to me. A few of the frozen desserts are OK, but sometimes they even manage to screw that up. You ask for "plain cheesecake" and the Aramark cook insists on putting some sort of watery orange goop on it anyway. Why?

 

[dlagrua]

The only dishes I've enjoyed thus far are the French toast and some sort of chicken and rice dish that only shows up occasionally and doesn't seem to have a specific name. Those dishes are apparently workable within the limitations of the barely functional kitchen they have on board. Everything else, and I mean everything, has been disappointing to me. A few of the frozen desserts are OK, but sometimes they even manage to screw that up. You ask for "plain cheesecake" and the Aramark cook insists on putting some sort of watery orange goop on it anyway. Why?

Amtrak diners on the Viewliners are all heritage equipment that were built in the 1950's and 1960's. Those "barely functional" kitchens that you refer to were used to cook some very elaborate upscale and fancy cuisine back in the day. As for the Superliners; I've been in those kitchens and they are well equipped and of decent size. All of the equipment is there to cook fine cuisine if they wanted to.

There is no doubt that Amtrak (like the railroads before them) loses quite a bit of money operating a dining car. Dining and cafe cars have never been revenue producers.

What we see today may be an attempt to keep dining car costs in line. In years past, dining cars would have three or four chefs cooking great meals. Today most LD routes have but one chef cooking. Therefore the cuisine must be simple and fast to cook. Amtrak food is still good and the chefs are doing the best with what they have available to them.

 

[Grannie_Roz]

On the CZ's menu, many of the dinner choices come with a "vegetable medley". Can someone tell me what veggies are in it and are they mushy, soft or crunchy?

 

[frugalist]

On the CZ's menu, many of the dinner choices come with a "vegetable medley". Can someone tell me what veggies are in it and are they mushy, soft or crunchy?

Could it be that by "vegetable medley" they mean that one of the dining car staff comes by and sings a medley of the following songs?

Mashed Potatoes by Dee Dee Sharp

Sweet Pea by Tommy Roe

Green Onions by Booker T & The M.G.'s

String Bean by B.B. King

Give Peas A Chance by John Lennon

We Got The Beet by The Go-Go's

 

[Grannie_Roz]

On the CZ's menu, many of the dinner choices come with a "vegetable medley". Can someone tell me what veggies are in it and are they mushy, soft or crunchy?

Could it be that by "vegetable medley" they mean that one of the dining car staff comes by and sings a medley of the following songs?

Mashed Potatoes by Dee Dee Sharp

Sweet Pea by Tommy Roe

Green Onions by Booker T & The M.G.'s

String Bean by B.B. King

Give Peas A Chance by John Lennon

We Got The Beet by The Go-Go's

Too funny

 

[eagle628]

On the CZ's menu, many of the dinner choices come with a "vegetable medley". Can someone tell me what veggies are in it and are they mushy, soft or crunchy?

Can't say anything about the CZ, but on the Silver Meteor this spring I had the "vegetable medley" (it may not have actually been called that, but it was certainly a medley of vegetables) with chicken (which was extremely good), and the vegetables were broccoli, carrots, potatoes(?)...um...I think there onions and something else, too, but the only ones I'm sure of are the carrots and broccoli...in any case, I thought it was good (except the broccoli, but I don't like broccoli anyway), the carrots were a bit crunchy but everything else was well cooked and tasted like proper vegetables.

 

[AlanB]

I 2nd the French Toast, but on my last trip they had Pancakes!

At first I wondered how that was possible. Then I found out that it's easy to warm frozen pancakes in microwave ovens.

If only Amtrak actually had a microwave oven to use.

The pancakes are heated in a convection oven; not a microwave.

The coffee. The coffee. The coffee.

Is the worst part of the whole "dining experience" in my view. I've had lots of bad coffee in hotel lobbies all over the country and all over the world, but I feel Amtrak takes the cake when it comes to truly bad brew. Frankly, I've had better canned coffee for Pete's sake.

The coffee used to be better before they went to the current automated machines, however Amtrak's coffee is still far from the worst. One of my clients is a coffee roaster, so I get the good stuff from him, but I've sampled many of his blends and there are some not so good. However, the worst coffee that I've ever had is served at a little bagle place in LA's Union Station. I can pretty much drink anything and that was the worst ever, and the first time I ever threw away a full cup of coffee. It was undrinkable.

The honor for the second worst goes to Starbucks. I won't even go into one anymore. Burnt coffee just isn't my style.

Are the steaks actually cooked on board? Or how does that work since they are made to your liking?

So far as I can tell the cooking requests are just for show. A pointless charade to make the meal look more upscale than it really is. Kind of like the powdered "mashed potatoes" and canned vegetable slop that comes with it.

It all comes down to the chef. Get the wrong one and it is for show. Get the right one and you'll get what you ordered.

 

[Ryan]

All the meals on the Acela that I've had are first rate.

Of course, the free booze might be clouding my judgement.

(I'm assuming that you were asking about first class - I've never had anything from the cafe).

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I like breakfast on the Empire Builder when raison bread is served.

My favorite dessert is peanut butter chocolate cake.

Salmon is my favorite dinner entree, mainly because I am allergic to garlic and most of the time all the entrees, except salmon, contain garlic. Amtrak does a pretty good job with their salmon and I would order it often even if I had other options, but not every night. :lol:

The salmon for dinner is pretty darn tastee. My understanding is that it is not precooked. Now if they would just do the same for the vegies, they would be edible. Ice cream for dessert.

For lunch, I'd have to say the vegie burger is the best option, as I'm often disappointed when I order other things.

Breakfast, its the omelette with cheese and vegies, biscuit and turkey sausage.