Passenger Trains > Dining car Menus, part 2

Since my original post on dining car menus seems to have wandering into a discussion of pricy Philadelphia restaurants, I would like to recap:

1. Amtrak instituted new menus about 10 days ago. These are train-specific and are posted on line. Generally, they seem to be an improvement.

2. By contrast, on #4 leaving LAX Sunday, the on-line menu was not available, but there was something called the "Express Menu" which offered only three items for dinner: burger, pasta, and chicken.

3. Anecdotally I have heard that the same "Express Menu" is now what you get on #59 leaving Chicago.

4. There is obviously a disconnect here between what Amtrak says is available and what they are offering.

If one goes to the AMTRAK website and clicks through to the Dining page, one will find a list of menu displayed -- I note that a sample menu for #4 and #59 is not included in that table of menus, but menus for #3 and #58 are. Actually, they are listed by train name and direction.

So they are not promising those menus on the trains you cited. I think it has to do with departure in relation to prep time and service based on the availability time of the equipment and the departure time.

Many non-moving restaurants and especially clubs have only limited menus such as this for times when their facilities will not be open sufficiently in advance to allow for a full menu.

RevRandy Wrote:
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> If one goes to the AMTRAK website and clicks
> through to the Dining page, one will find a list
> of menu displayed -- I note that a sample menu for
> #4 and #59 is not included in that table of menus,
> but menus for #3 and #58 are. Actually, they are
> listed by train name and direction.
>
> So they are not promising those menus on the
> trains you cited. I think it has to do with
> departure in relation to prep time and service
> based on the availability time of the equipment
> and the departure time.
>

If you go to "routes" and click on the Southwest Chief, you will get "Southwest Chief Menu eastbound", which is the full menu. So I am afraid you are in error: they are in fact promising the full menu for #4. They show different menus for eastbound and westbound (i. e. #3 and #4). Same applies to #59.

Your second point also makes no sense: #4 has left Los Angeles at 6:15pm with full menu for two years now, and before that it left at 6:55pm, with full menu, and before that at 7:30pm, with full menu. Suddenly there is no time to do something that they have been doing for years, often with even less time.


> Many non-moving restaurants and especially clubs
> have only limited menus such as this for times
> when their facilities will not be open
> sufficiently in advance to allow for a full menu.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/12 11:23 by Ptolemy.

Is the "Express Menu" in force on the second night out of LA? That would be the real question; if it is then this is a definite service downgrade and not just a "market adjustment" to the dinner time departure out of LA.

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Ah, we are accessing the same topic from two different cyber paths, and getting two different answers.

I am also not suggesting that the past practice has existed, but only that perhaps things are changing . . . I know from my own experiences in life that often change occurs first, and documentation occurs later (so perhaps what is being served on departure of some trains is changing, but the Website listing lags the reality).

But, as you have pushed me to think about this topic, I need to add some additional comments: when one rides in first-class, one is offered meals included with the room charges. One has paid for the room and the food service is complimentary. Here we are quibbling over whether one will get steak or get a ground beef burger for a certain meal. Now if the change were to be from providing a meal to not providing a meal, that would be an issue!

But the change from one nutritious meal adequate for human sustenance to another nutritious meal adequate for human sustenance (and envied by a majority of the world's population) is cause for concern or consternation only if one lives in a privilege class, a minority of all of humanity. On the eve of Thanksgiving, I suggest that we have larger ethical issues that ought to hold our hearts, minds, and spirit. I don't know about you, but when I give thanks for the food on my plate, I am not naming courses nor specific dishes, but rather giving thanks that I am fed from the bounty of existence.

> 4. There is obviously a disconnect here between
> what Amtrak says is available and what they are
> offering.


Been that way for a long time....and not just pertaining to the dining car menu.

It has been my experience that the "Express Menu" is used when a train is scheduled to arrive at its terminal near a meal time. Last week I rode #20 into New York which is scheduled in at 1:46 pm. The "Express Menu" was used for lunch which started about 11 am and had only one seating.

Web site has not been updated yet.

mundo Wrote:
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> Web site has not been updated yet.


Then why does it have the menus that went into effect last week?

Menu report: Just was on the Nov 22 Texas Eagle San Antonio to Chicago --had the full menu, including crabcakes for beakfast, flank steak or pork tenderloin, and bleu chees salad for lunch, etc.