travellingcari

More to come when Flickr wants to behave, but in the mean time I leave you the spotless diner leaving Emeryville and heading east:


Train: Eastbound Zephyr
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: August 8

Was glad to find my beloved railroad french toast from the Starlight, but I missed the Caesar salads which aren't on the 2016 Zephyr menu.

GrayAnderson

Did you have a full diner or did you get stuck with the Amcan they occasionally have to sub for a diner?

travellingcari

Flickr isn't behaving, but here's the link to my photos of the dining car. As of this posting it's only dinner day 1 and breakfast day 2, but I'll post lunch and dinner this week. Lunch was same both days, the delicious veggie burger.

trainman74

Current contents of the Pacific Surfliner business class PM snack pack...



Both "Snack du Jour" bags look identical, but one is "savory" (pretzels, cheese sticks, etc.) and one is "sweet" (raisins and other dried fruit pieces).

I was on train 591 (6:50 P.M. departure from San Diego) on a Wednesday, nearly if not fully sold out, and the business class attendant announced a shortage of the snack packs, entreating those who didn't want them not to take them. As far as I could tell, everyone who wanted one did get one.

CMK10

Definitely down hill from what it used to have, artisan chips and salsa, dried fruit etc.

travellingcari

Dinner day 2 is up. THe veggie burger was a close second, but the french toast remains the best

CMK10

Train: 30 (Captitol Limited)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: September 24, Breakfast







The Creole Egg Bowl was actually really good.

Interestingly, despite a scheduled 1:05 PM arrival into DC, there is no lunch service. Instead breakfast ends between 11:30 and Noon though the cafe car stays open until just before arrival.

travellingcari

It looks it!

physioprof

Yeah, looks delicious!!

jackal

On the same train (30, PGH-WAS), I should have taken a picture of my "made to order cage-free omelette," but it was--while edible, if bland--most certainly not an omelette but rather a pre-formed (possibly even reconstituted) egg patty with some cheese.

I should have gotten the pancakes.

SCEflyer

Taste of the offering notwithstanding, the rest of the table setting, paper, plastic, etc. is a sad commentary on what once was. My wife and I spent a good part of last Saturday at the California State Museum in Sacramento. One of the current exhibits is a restored diner from the 1936(?) Super Chief, where every table was set with the china, silverware and crystal of one of the now departed passenger railroads. Any similarity to today's Amtrak diner is purely coincidental.

Every Spring I set off on a long distance rail adventure, and as a result have ridden the entire lengths of the surviving Amtrak LD trains, except the Sunset Ltd., as well as several that have come off. Next time I am heading up to Vancouver or Toronto for another ride on the Canadian.

CMK10

Train: 28 (Empire Builder)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Room
When: October 13, Dinner



If you're departing from Portland, the train does not have a dining car until the train is joined with the rest of the Builder in Spokane. We had a choice of three box dinners: steak, chicken or shrimp. You can also buy food in the cafe car. This was perfectly adequate though.

CMK10

Train: 28 (Empire Builder)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: October 14, Breakfast







Nice to have our dining car. The pancakes are a reliable standby as always even if the bacon was fairly meh.


Train: 28 (Empire Builder)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: October 14, Lunch





Another reliable standby, the burger





Dessert options have gone downhill again especially as there's no ice cream! They were also already out of pumpkin cheesecake. This is the bizarre greek yogurt cheesecake.

Train: 28 (Empire Builder)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: October 14, Dinner





The salad seems to have been enhanced down to a smaller version with fewer vegetables. There were also fewer dressing choices than in years past



I took a chance on the Surf and Turf but it was incredible. A really good steak and a decent crab cake



The Raspberry Tart was also good.

CMK10

Train: 28 (Empire Builder)
Class: Sleeper
Where: Dining Car
When: October 15, Breakfast





This is the best breakfast I've had on Amtrak. Filling and tasty and inventive in a way that they can make work on the train





The mussels were a brave departure for Amtrak but actually decent.

I will note that our train was delayed 5 hours due to a freight derailment and despite an arrival of 8:45 PM into Chicago instead of 3:55 PM there was no additional diner food for sleeper passengers and the cafe car ran low on supplies.

jackal

TBH, I actually prefer the PDX boxed lunch to yet another day of regular diner food. Nothing wrong with most of the food options in the diner, but a little variety is a pleasant surprise, and the caterer that does the boxed lunch for the Builder does a fantastic job with high-quality ingredients.

That said, some of the new dishes coming out on some of the routes are quite interesting, bordering on appealing (I'll pass on the mussels, though). That also said, the two times I've been on a train with special culinary advisory team meals on the menu, they've been either unavailable or sold out or something. I'm also disheartened with the move from good, cooked-on-board or traditionally-plated items to pre-cooked, pre-packaged ones (it wasn't that long ago that we had real slices of cheesecake and not the plastic custard dish ones...).