I’ve had many meals in Ren Diners since their introduction and have found the meals just as good or better than a first-class airline meal which would be heated in a similar fashion. Granted.....you won’t get that cooked-from-scratch Bacon & Eggs Breakfast (and I miss that too).....but the hot Lunch and Evening Dinners are fine!
It’s usually the railfans still looking for that classic Budd Stainless Steel Streamliner experience who are giving the Ren Diners the mixed reviews. To most others, the meals are just fine.
Having just eaten in one of these diners, here is my take.
First, let me say that I was looking forward to riding on the 'Ren' cars for the first time, and 'sentimentality' for other equipment has nothing to do with my opinions on the 'Rens.'
The dining car was comfortable, nicely appointed, and had real dinnerware. The staff was attentive, friendly and did a great job at all meals.
The food, however, was not that good. In fact, while the coffee was definately better than that served in Amtrak diners, my breakfast was one of the worst meals I've ever had in a dining car.
The omlette was worse than the ones served on Amtrak's Cardinal, and it came with potatoes that were okay, but the portion was tiny. The two pieces of toast that came with the omlette were nothing special, but was the best part of the meal, IMHO.
Lunch was not bad, but then I only had a salad. While it was better than most Amtrak salads, it was small and no roll, bread, or starch of any stripe, came with it.
For dinner, on the advise of a non-dining car crew member, I had the Hungarian chicken instead of the fish. Portions at dinner were small compared to what one gets on Amtrak or The Canadian. The chicken was okay - a somewhat bland boneless, skinless breast that was served on a bed of a paprika rice pilaf that was also blandish, plus there were vegies on the side which tasted better than Amtrak vegies, but that was tough to tell, as the portion was tiny - one small broccoli crown and one small cauliflower crown. An inoffensive, but boring to the tastebuds meal, that satisfied my appetite, but would leave big eaters still hungry. (Maybe that is why it is called 'Hungarian' chicken?
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The preprepared hot meals use to have the starch, the veggie and the protien heated separately, but now they are heated as one and then the whole hot meal is just 'flipped' onto a plate or salad style bowl together and - poof- a gourmet dinning experience. :unsure:
In fact, one crew member I talked to who does not work in the diner told me they left being a server in the diner and switched to a different job because they were too ashamed to face diners with these premade meals.
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The 'Ren' sleepers had issues. My in-room 'couch' had a spring in the seat that was 'sprung,' plus the whole thing felt like it was leaning forward. A fellow passenger asked our SCA if the seats were adjustable due to the feeling that one was sliding off the seat due to its slope and was told that they unfortunately were not, and that more and more seats in the 'Ren' sleepers are doing this as the cars age. With the bed down I had the feeling like I was sliding off towards the floor all night. Due to the unavailability of replacement parts, when things break in these cars it is very difficult and/or expensive to replace things. For example the nice pull down window shade in my room had broken and just like in a number of other rooms it had been replaced with a flimsy cloth curtain held to the window frame with velcro. Also, for some unkown reason when they built these cars they made it so the bathroom light NEVER goes out, which was so annoying at night I finally took the comforter off the upper bunk in my room and wedged it between the bathroom door and the door frame to block the light steaming through. The best unique feature the room has is the ability to lock it. My SCA implored to everyone to make sure they left their room key behind because replacements are basically impossible to come by, short of custom creating new ones. The ensuite toilet in its own little room was a nice feature too.
