Menu on the SWC

[AlanB]

My wife and I just got off the Silver Meteor from PHL to WPB today. While other things on our train caused us to complain to Amtrak upon arrival, the dining room food/service was a very, very welcome dining experience. 1-We had the flat iron steak, baked potatoe and fresh string beans for dinner last night......in a word..........OUTSTANDING... 2-French toast with sausage patties for breakfast, again..........OUTSTANDING..........3-Cheddar cheese burgers with bacon for lunch today............OUTSTANDING..........
The service was outstanding and the wait staff was beyond friendly, compared to the horrendous attitudes of the rest of the crew.

Would you like to elaborate on the bad aspects?

 

[TVRM610]

What about the french toast?

I don't know the answer, but I have had the french toast pre-SDS, during SDS, and now with this new SDS menu and I have never been able to tell the difference. Its good old amtrak french toast.

Now with that said, the omelet is obviously cooked to order and looks amazing (my seat mate made me very jealous by ordering this!) much better than the SDS menu.

Not sure what to call the new menu, Revised SDS? When I think SDS, I don't think steak, so I don't like using that term, but I know that it's still SDS, just a revised and greatly improved form.

Well SDS is more than just a menu, in fact the "menu" grew out of the requirements imposed by SDS. When Amtrak cut the crew sizes in the dining cars, they had no choice but to come up with that first menu.

True.. but so much has improved overall about SDS. Cloth napkins, some food items cooked to order, real wine glasses. There really isn't huge differenced between SDS and the good ole fashioned amtrak cars. The only thing I'm still wanting to see is real coffee cups, after that I will be fully satisfied (they haven't had real glasses for years even before SDS). I can deal with the plastic plates (if they look as good as they do) and the paper table cloths.

Could we not call this SDS+? haha, joking of course. Just saying we are much better now in my opinion.

 

[AlanB]

What about the french toast?

I don't know the answer, but I have had the french toast pre-SDS, during SDS, and now with this new SDS menu and I have never been able to tell the difference. Its good old amtrak french toast.

Now with that said, the omelet is obviously cooked to order and looks amazing (my seat mate made me very jealous by ordering this!) much better than the SDS menu.

Not sure what to call the new menu, Revised SDS? When I think SDS, I don't think steak, so I don't like using that term, but I know that it's still SDS, just a revised and greatly improved form.

Well SDS is more than just a menu, in fact the "menu" grew out of the requirements imposed by SDS. When Amtrak cut the crew sizes in the dining cars, they had no choice but to come up with that first menu.

True.. but so much has improved overall about SDS. Cloth napkins, some food items cooked to order, real wine glasses. There really isn't huge differenced between SDS and the good ole fashioned amtrak cars. The only thing I'm still wanting to see is real coffee cups, after that I will be fully satisfied (they haven't had real glasses for years even before SDS). I can deal with the plastic plates (if they look as good as they do) and the paper table cloths.

Could we not call this SDS+? haha, joking of course. Just saying we are much better now in my opinion.

I sorry, but I have to disagree, there is still a huge difference between SDS as it is now and the good ole fashioned Amtrak cars. It may not be a difference that you as a passenger might easily notice, even though it does impact you considerably. That difference is the loss of two people on the service crew, which results in slower service and the diner being unable to accomodate 1/2 the number of patrons that it used to accomodate. This results in coach passengers not even being able to get a reservation for diner on busy trains, and forces sleeping car patrons to accept dinner seating times past 9:00 PM.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

They use paper tableclothes? I haven't been on a non-Autotrain sleeper in a while.

 

[The Metropolitan]

They do use "paper tablecloths" but that term can be very misleading.

We're not talking about a Brown Kraft Paper like you might see at a more down to earth Seafood house (think crabs or crawfish), but instead a woven white fibercloth that is similar in weave to a dustcloth - giving the appearance of linen from a distance, but showing its economy on closer inspection.

Mr FSS's Haagen Das container photo on the first page of this thread shows the tablecloth.

 

[TVRM610]

I see your point Alan, I personally think that the service times are more the lack of motivation/cooperation of some crew rather than SDS. When I rode the Capitol this summer there was one LSA, one server and one (assuming) chef. The whole diner was full for lunch and service was very quick. To me, this was proof that it could be done it just usually is not (the day before, a half full diner on the crescent took twice as long to serve breakfast with the same # of crew).

I also have not seen the new SDS seating times in practice, the LSA's are always seating people just like always telling people to come x time or x time, not two tables at 5:15, two tables at 5:30 or however that plan goes. So I see very little problems with the current dining car. Perhaps its worse on other trains though. If I had seen what you have seen, I would probably agree with you.

 

[AlanB]

I see your point Alan, I personally think that the service times are more the lack of motivation/cooperation of some crew rather than SDS. When I rode the Capitol this summer there was one LSA, one server and one (assuming) chef. The whole diner was full for lunch and service was very quick. To me, this was proof that it could be done it just usually is not (the day before, a half full diner on the crescent took twice as long to serve breakfast with the same # of crew).

I'm at a loss to figure out how they could pull that one off. I surely wouldn't want to run a resturant with 20 tables and only one waiter. The general rule is one waiter for 5 to 6 tables, if you want to provide good service. And that's before adding the complexities of working in a moving resturant.

Question, did they only do one seating? They used to be able to do three pre-SDS. And did they seat en-mass? Or was it still staggard a bit.

I also have not seen the new SDS seating times in practice, the LSA's are always seating people just like always telling people to come x time or x time, not two tables at 5:15, two tables at 5:30 or however that plan goes. So I see very little problems with the current dining car. Perhaps its worse on other trains though. If I had seen what you have seen, I would probably agree with you.

I've noted many crews that seem to have made up their own rules regarding the seating plan. A few that were better, meaning that they actually seated more people than the plans call for, some that at least got the same amount of people through the diner (even though service suffered a bit), and a few that got less through the dining car than called for. The later of course resulting in less revenue for Amtrak, and in one case several upset sleeping car passengers who didn't want dinner starting at 10:00 PM.

 

[TVRM610]

I see your point Alan, I personally think that the service times are more the lack of motivation/cooperation of some crew rather than SDS. When I rode the Capitol this summer there was one LSA, one server and one (assuming) chef. The whole diner was full for lunch and service was very quick. To me, this was proof that it could be done it just usually is not (the day before, a half full diner on the crescent took twice as long to serve breakfast with the same # of crew).

I'm at a loss to figure out how they could pull that one off. I surely wouldn't want to run a resturant with 20 tables and only one waiter. The general rule is one waiter for 5 to 6 tables, if you want to provide good service. And that's before adding the complexities of working in a moving resturant.

Question, did they only do one seating? They used to be able to do three pre-SDS. And did they seat en-mass? Or was it still staggard a bit.

I also have not seen the new SDS seating times in practice, the LSA's are always seating people just like always telling people to come x time or x time, not two tables at 5:15, two tables at 5:30 or however that plan goes. So I see very little problems with the current dining car. Perhaps its worse on other trains though. If I had seen what you have seen, I would probably agree with you.

I've noted many crews that seem to have made up their own rules regarding the seating plan. A few that were better, meaning that they actually seated more people than the plans call for, some that at least got the same amount of people through the diner (even though service suffered a bit), and a few that got less through the dining car than called for. The later of course resulting in less revenue for Amtrak, and in one case several upset sleeping car passengers who didn't want dinner starting at 10:00 PM.

Well it was really two servers since the LSA was waiting half the tables in addition to performing LSA tasks, she was great. They only did one seating for lunch, but this was into WAS and we were close to on-time, so they don't usually do more than one seating anyway.

They had a mass call for lunch, but it was a bit staggered as people came in table by table, it filled up fairly quick though.

I should also say that I'm of course all-for a full crew on the diner. But I'm glad to see that Amtrak has improved SDS to this point. Of course if your not seating sleeper passengers till 10 something is wrong, for goodness sake everyone on the train should be able to be seated by 10! I haven't ridden any of the Westward trains since SDS, the more crowded trains like that may be effected much more than these in the east (LSL, Capitol, Crescent).

 

[sechs]

I've found that, after the holiday rush, they'll cut one of the folks from the dining car staff. Most of the time, this doesn't seem to be a problem.