Passenger Trains > Simplified Dining Service/My opinion from the Cap Limit

Posted by request from a different thread. Flames are welcome, but these are simply my own observations and opinions:

Amtrak train #29, The Capitol Limited
Thursday, March 9th to Friday, March 10th

I flew to Washington DC in order to take The Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago for purposes of checking out the new “Simplified Dining Service”, as well as taking a nice train trip across the USA. I transferred in Chicago to train #5, The California Zephyr”, which has not switched over to Simplified Dining Service yet, but is scheduled to change in May.

I have been reading the various railroad and Amtrak bulletin boards on the Internet, as well as reading press releases from Amtrak, and reports from various rail groups around the country that support a national passenger train system. From everything I read prior to taking my trip, the comments about the new food service ranged from being fantastic and would save Amtrak millions of dollars a year, to absolutely horrible and Amtrak is making a huge mistake. So which was it—fantastic or horrible? How could so many people have comments that vary so widely? Well, I was about to experience it first-hand so that I could decide for myself. Up until now, I have not seen anything on the Internet where an Amtrak passenger experienced the new service first-hand, and took photos of the food. So, here it goes:

Shortly after boarding The Capitol Limited and departing DC, the LSA in the dining car announced that she would be coming through the train to hand out dinner reservations and that she would come through the Sleepers first, followed by Coach. Okay, nothing unusual there....so far, so good. Then she said that she will also be taking dinner orders at the same time, and to please check the menus that are in your bedroom (for the Sleeping Cars), or the seat-back pockets (for Coach). I found this a little bit odd to be taking a person’s food order at 4:30 in the afternoon for a dinner reservation that could be as late as 7:30PM. What if a person gets to the dining car for dinner and they feel like eating something else, and not what they ordered at the beginning of the trip several hours ago? Hmmm...not sure I like this. When the LSA from the Diner came to my bedroom, I took at 7PM dinner reservation and gave her my order of “Chicken Parmesan”.

Later in the evening when the call for 7PM dinner reservations came out, I headed down two cars to the Diner. After being seated with a retired couple from Indiana who were on their way home from a trip to Florida, and a man who worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in DC, the waiter came over to our table to take our order. There were regular Amtrak-style menus at the table, but they said the same thing that the xerox copy of the menu said that was in my Sleeping Car. The waiter asked us what we would like, and he took our orders and went back to the center of the car. I found that interesting, because we actually could have ordered anything from the menu that we wanted. There was no “tracking system” to see which passenger was from which car or what their previous order was earlier in the day. I’m guessing that some people probably change their order when dinner time comes around, but I didn't’t see any means for tracking that. Perhaps the pre-order is to help the chef (who is downstairs in the kitchen) prepare a certain amount of food so that he can pace things a little better.

At our table, there was a basket sitting in the middle which contained several packs of salad dressing (several different varieties). There was also a basket of dinner rolls, along with some small packs of butter. The tablecloth was the same as I have always seen in the Dining Car—cloth, and the silverware was “real” silverware, not plastic. There were paper napkins that were rolled around the silverware and held together with a white sticker.

When the salads arrived shortly after we all placed our orders, the first thing I saw were the normal Amtrak-style bowls that are used for salad. I thought to myself that this wan’t what I had read about, as all of the reports I had seen talked of disposable plates, bowls, and cups. But my eyes deceived me---Even though the dishes looked exactly like the Correlle dishes in years past, they were actually made to look identical to the Correlle but they were made of a very durable material, possibly a hard foam or plastic of some type? I was impressed with this, as the appearance of them did not look any different and even though they were disposable, they were very sturdy and strong. The cups for drinks were clear plastic, and they were typical plastic cups---nothing fancy there. If someone ordered coffee, it came in a “to go” cup very similar to those used by Starbucks’s, but these had the Amtrak logo on the side. So everything used for dinner was disposable except for the silverware and the tablecloth.

For our salads, passengers simply picked the flavor of dressing they wanted from the basket on the table and then poured it onto their salads. I suppose this saves time by having the passenger do it instead of the waiter spending time putting dressing on salads half the night! The salads and the rolls were fine, and the usual variety of sodas were available. But then dinner arrived....this is where my optimism shifted more toward the negative. As you can see from the picture of the “Chicken Parmesan”, it’s definitely nothing fancy. It consisted of a boneless, skinless, chicken breast that had some sort of marinara sauce poured on top and a small packet of grated Parmesan cheese on the side. It came with a choice of any of the following two items: baked potato, mashed potatoes, rice pilaf, broccoli, or “tonight’s vegetable” which I think were carrots. I chose broccoli and rice pilaf. My tablemates chose the Braised Beef with baked potato and broccoli. Chicken Fried Steak was “This Evening’s Special”. When I started to eat the chicken, the first thing I noticed was that it was very “rubbery” which made it somewhat difficult to chew. It tasted like a low-quality TV dinner that was popped in the microwave a little too long. I don’t know if this was heated in a microwave or a convection oven as Amtrak says it is (more on that later), but it’s consistency was that of an overcooked microwave meal. I couldn’t eat the whole thing because the edges were just to “rubbery” and not appetizing at all. The marinara sauce on top of the chicken was okay---nothing that would make a person say, “Wow, this is good!”. It tasted like a generic-brand canned sauce that needed some spices added to it. The broccoli that came with the dinner was, unfortunately, horrible. It wasn’t so much the taste that made it bad, but it was, again, the consistency of it. It too appeared to have been cooked too long in a microwave oven. Again, I don’t know how the meals were heated/prepared on this train, but it sure seemed like a “micro-meal” to me as well as my tablemates. The only food item that actually tasted good and had a nice consistency to it was the rice pilaf. There was nothing unappetizing with the rice, and it had just the right amount of seasonings in it, and it was pleasant to eat...unlike the chicken and broccoli!

I asked the people I was sitting with how their meals were, and the three of them sort of looked up and went “Eh”, indicating it was just okay and nothing great. The retired couple had traveled on Amtrak before, and they didn’t think that this meal was a good as in the past. I told them of the new changes, and they were not happy at hearing this news. The gentleman from DC said he travels this train frequently to visit his girlfriend, and he noticed in the last few weeks that the food has gone downhill. Some comments from them on their dinners were, “lukewarm”, “full of fat”, and they also did not eat much of the broccoli due to it being very “rubbery”.

One thing I noticed while eating dinner that seemed like a major change in the “feel” of the Dining Car was that there was no “hustle and bustle” at the center of the car where the Amtrak employees are usually busy getting food, or soup, or making salads, or picking up orders, or anything like that. I’ve become accustomed to eating in the Dining Car and having a “busy” feel to it, with the employees working hard to make things go right. But not this time....the car was unusually quiet and there wasn’t any of the running around that usually happens. As a matter of fact, the three people working the upper level of the Dining Car didn’t have much to do unless they were bringing food or clearing a table. In between doing that, they just sat down at an empty table and waited for something to do. It didn’t feel comfortable to me, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m used to the usual Dining Car activity or it’s just plain boring now. I did feel a little bad for our waiter when he was sitting down with nothing to do—he looked bored as did the other staff.

When we finished our meals and it was time for dessert, none of us ordered anything except for the woman across from me. She ordered the “New York Style Cheesecake”. When it arrived, the three of us saw it and said out loud “Wow—that looks really good!”. The waitress who brought her the cheesecake told us that we really should have some because they’ve got PLENTY of it to go around. So she just automatically went and got three more plates of the cheesecake and brought it over to us. That was nice of her---we didn’t expect that. She also poured the strawberry dressing on it and squirted a large amount of whipped cream on top! I have no complaints about the dessert—it was very good. I did not hear complaints from other passengers about dessert either. I think Amtrak has figured out the dishes, the salads, and the desserts very well---but the main meal, I have to give it “two thumbs way down” as it really was just awful.

There was an Amtrak employee on-board this train (the entire distance from DC to Chicago) whose job title was something very similar to “Assistant Superintendent of Food Services”. I probably have his exact job title wrong, but I know he was the assistant superintendent of something food related, and he was on our train to monitor and report on this new “Simplified Dining Service”. Almost every passenger on the train knew he was a person of importance in Amtrak, as he made sure people knew this. He was very pompous and arrogant, yet I did not see him do anything the entire trip except occasionally sit in the Dining Car and look out the window. I never saw him taking notes, or asking passengers questions as to how the food was, or doing ANYTHING proactive to report back to management how things are going. I made small talk with a few passengers on the train, and they had very similar things to say about him. One story was quite interesting.....a woman who boarded in DC in the Coach section of the train wanted to upgrade to a Sleeping Car. She is a senior citizen who has ridden Amtrak many times, and she knows how to get a “deal” on a bedroom by upgrading once you’re on board. She approached the man with the fancy job title, and to summarize her experience with him, he was not able to help her and said that “maybe” she could get an upgrade by Pittsburgh---well after 1AM with our current status (a few hours late). She told him that there was plenty of room in the sleepers and that she frequently upgrades, and he still did not seem to understand this. He also was not willing to go approach someone (such as the Conductor) to assist her in getting into the Sleeping Car. Granted, this man does not work a train regularly, but being a member of Amtrak management he should still know what customer service means, and that if he can’t help her then he should---at the minimum---tell her that he will go get someone who CAN help her! The woman ended up using her cell phone and calling 1-800-USA-RAIL from the train to speak with a reservations agent. The agent she spoke with said that between the two Sleeping Cars, there were **11** rooms available on our train. After talking with Amtrak on her cell phone, the woman found the Conductor and was able to immediately upgrade to a sleeper. Lots of help the assistant superintendent was. But he was even more useless at breakfast.....

The next morning the Dining Car opened at 6AM. I went into the diner right at 6AM on the dot, and all of the Dining Car staff were there and ready to serve. I sat down at the table with the woman I described a short time ago, who upgraded to the Sleeping Car after getting on in DC. She ordered “Railroad French Toast” which came with scrambled eggs (with cheese and sausage mixed in), juice, and coffee. The tableware was the same as dinner---real utensils, plastic juice cups, “to go” coffee cups, very good paper plates, and white table linen. I ordered the “Western Omelet”. Things really went downhill at breakfast, through no fault of the Dining Car staff. They were simply working with what they were given. When the food arrived at our table, the first thing we both noticed was that it did not look very appealing to eat. As you can see, the turkey sausage looked very unappealing, the scrambled eggs looked “mushy”, my omelet looked like a frozen breakfast that could be purchased in a grocery store and then microwaved, and the other items looked marginal. Nothing at breakfast jumped out as appearing really good---it all looked pathetic. As my tablemate and I began to eat our food, we both stopped eating after the first bite. She said to me, “Is you food cold too”? I told her yes, my food was not only cold, but it also had parts that were warm and other parts that were very hot. She checked her food and found the same thing. We called the waitress over to our table and told her of the problem. She apologized and picked up our plates to take them back to the kitchen and said, “I’ll have him put these in the microwave for a few more minutes”. This surprised me as I thought Amtrak said they were NOT going to cook food in microwaves, but rather, they would heat the food in convection ovens. I should note that while all of this was going on, there was the Amtrak employee with the big job title sitting at a table by himself in the Dining Car. The Dining Car was again very quiet, and not busy like it usually is, so he could clearly hear us telling the waitress of our problems with breakfast. Yet he did nothing---he just kept staring out the window. I felt that he should have at least taken notes, or gone down and talked with the chef to see what happened, or approached us to ask what happened, or something! But this was the norm during this trip.....I never saw him actually DO anything. As I made small talk throughout the day with other passengers, they also wondered why this man was on our train since nobody ever saw him actually work or try to get input from passengers. Maybe his job dictates that he does nothing and just sit and watch, but I doubt it.

When our food arrived the second time, it was plenty hot! The only problem was, things were now half-hard and overcooked or just very rubbery. The potatoes that were with my meal were hard and rubbery on the outside, and soft and mushy on the inside. And the turkey sausage? Well, decide for yourself by looking at the pictures. All I can say is, yes, it tasted like you would imagine. I did not eat the croissant as it was very greasy and stale. The bowl of mixed fruit that came with the Railroad French Toast was described in the menu as, “refreshing mix of cantaloupe, honeydew, orange, pineapple, and seedless red grapes”. I did not have the fruit but my tablemate did. She said the taste was not “refreshing”, but instead was a little stale as if it had been opened the night before and then sat in the refrigerator overnight and then served in the morning. By appearance, I must say that it sure looks that way. I asked the waitress who confirmed that it’s not freshly sliced fruit, but instead is just canned fruit. So, neither of us finished our breakfast—not because we weren’t hungry—but because the taste and consistency were downright awful. As noted with dinner, Amtrak has a couple of things down pretty good, namely, the high quality disposable dishes, the silverware, and the coffee. But as far as the main meal goes, I think I would rather have a “McBreakfast” instead of what was served in the Dining Car. And just as at dinner the night before, at breakfast I felt a little sorry for the crew in the Dining Car because there simply wasn’t as much to do other than take the breakfast order, get the juice and coffee, bring the food, and clear the table and get it ready for the next group of people. It’s not that much to do and creates a lot of down time for them.

I sure did miss the rush of activity in the diner and the feel of everything. But this changed when I got off in Chicago and transferred to The California Zephyr. Wow---what a difference! I’m glad I was able to compare the two types of service back-to-back like this. The Dining Car service on the Zephyr has not changed yet (but will in May), and the food is great without all of the problems that “Simplified Dining Service” brings. If Amtrak follows through with plans to change all but two long-distance trains to this new meal service, they either have to figure out a way to “get it right”, or not do it at all.

---

---

#1) "Western Omelette"

#2) "Railroad French Toast"

---

---

Do yourself and the rest of us Amtrak riders a favor - write up your comments as you did here - and submit to Amtrak's Corporate offices. Send a copy to David Hughes' attention and the other to Customer Service/Dining Services. I would definitely send them these comments, very balanced and fair assessment you made here. Very interesting regarding the onboard dining manager who did absolutely nothing the entire trip.

Sounds like people were pretty cool on the trip with this manager - as I would have approached him and said - "what exactly do you do here on the train - the food is horrible - are you taking notes on this and getting customer feedback." If this was actually his role...

I was thinking the same thing. While I appreciate hearing about this, Amtrak really needs to hear it. I hope to take the Starlight later this year, and I really want to enjoy the meals. I always have in the past.

Bryce

Great report! Thanks for sharing.

While I am not noted as being a long distance passenger train advocate, I do believe that ones that run should provide a reasonable level of passenger amenities. Man, that food just looked plain bad!

Turkey sausage? What happened to good old pork and beef? I feel like someone is pushing his ideas on what others should be eating for health. If you think about it, turkey sausage is a silly concept.

If you look at the variety of tasty and attractive frozen foods available at the supermarket, you would think that Amtrak could chose meals that would be appealing and palatable rather than come out rubbery, not evenly heated, etc. That Chicken Parmesan plate makes me feel like barfing, and the breakfast plates don't look any better.

One thought on breakfast - why not a breakfast buffet like what you get at an express type motel? Coffee and other hot drinks, juices, milk, cereal, pastries, fruit - what else you you need? Maybe add a station with the cook preparing eggs to order along with trays of bacon, sausage and hash browns (grits in South). What would be the drawback of that breakfast approach?

Turkey sausage has been on menu for years, nothing new.

Some folks can not tell the differance.

Soviet Dining Service?
...Lorenzo

As my mother would say to me....shut up and eat, there is a starving kid someplace that would love that stuff.........Remember, their goel is to chase customers away and shut Amtrak down. Ron G

Bad food abounds in the US public transportation system. Ever have a great meal while waiting to change planes in some hub airport? I would liken the review of meals on AMTRAK to the reviews given by my father-in-law of his retirement dining facility...bad. One factor that is like the retirement community, the train bound passenger has been waiting since the last meal for the next one. Hence the perhaps hyper critical food reviews. Not to say the new simple meal plan is not just reheated plastic food, it is. Those pictures tell the real story.

Just a suggestion but here is how I have handled the uneven food service on AMTRAK for years...I bring my own! A little cooler filled with my favorite picnic foods and spirits and I'm good to go. BTW this excellent grub costs a fraction of what AMTRAK would charge me for their most mediocre fare.

Come to think of it the only really good "government" food I've ever had was a lunch one time in the U.S. Senate dinning room. Hm-mm.

dhart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bad food abounds in the US public transportation
> system. Ever have a great meal while waiting to
> change planes in some hub airport?

Yes, I once had a wonderful chicken/wild rice soup in the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport.

But getting back on topic, I've had several good meals on Amtrak trains. But they have been few and far between.

> Just a suggestion but here is how I have handled
> the uneven food service on AMTRAK for years...I
> bring my own! A little cooler filled with my
> favorite picnic foods and spirits and I'm good to
> go. BTW this excellent grub costs a fraction of
> what AMTRAK would charge me for their most
> mediocre fare.
>
Sadly, I agree with your suggestion. Alternatively, one can eat before boarding or after alighting the train. When I rode the Pennsylvanian in February, I had lunch at a sandwhich shop in Harrisburg. Although it was not fancy, it was better than anything served in the cafe car.

When taking trains which would arrive in Chicago in the morning, I would wait until getting into Chicago for breakfast. I don't know if it is still there, but there is a great place for breakfast, the Jackson Street Grille near Union Station.

All in all, I'm saddened to read Smitty's report. Hopefully, the bugs will be worked out soon and Amtrak patrons can enjoy decent meals.

Dave

dhart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...Come to think of it the only really good
> "government" food I've ever had was a lunch one
> time in the U.S. Senate dinning room. Hm-mm.
-----------------------------------------------------------
The U.S.Senate dining facilities are a short walk from Union Station, serve excellent variety and quality food at deeply-discounted taxpayer-subsidized prices, breakfast, lunch and dinner and anyone can eat there.
Current menus can be found on the online newspaper "Roll Call" at,
http://www.rollcall.com/dining/senate_menu.html

From the U.S.Senate website:
"Dining Areas in the Senate Buildings
You will find several places to eat in the Senate Office Buildings during your visit. The following restaurants are open to the public:
* Russell Carry-Out – Open 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday (located in the Russell Building Basement, NW corner). Call 202-224-8083 for more information.
* Dirksen North Servery – Open 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Friday (located in the Dirksen Building Basement, NW corner). Call 202-224-2263 for more information.
* Dirksen South Buffet – Open 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, Monday through Friday (located in the Dirksen Basement, South Side). Call 202-224-4249 for more information.
* Dirksen South Convenience – Open from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday (located in the Dirksen Basement South). Call 202-228-2810 for more information.
* The Hart Senate Chef – Open 8:00 AM to 6:30 PM, Monday through Friday (located in the Dirksen/Hart Ground Floor Connecting Corridor). Call 202-224-4587 for more information."

Maybe Congress would be willing to provide meal service to Amtrak trains and subsidise the cost.

I wonder if it breaks even? If it does not, maybe we can close some of the offices to save money. After all thats what they are telling Amtrak to do.

Great pictures. Great Report. In all honesty the food served on those dishes looks horrible. I guess the choices are:
1) Have dinner from the Cafe car (if they still have such white elephants on a LDT)
2) Bring a brown bag dinner.

If this is the best Amtrak can do with the Diners, then just forget the whole thing and put another cafe car and deal with microwave entrees. I wonder if Amtrak would put a few microwaves through out the train and let people heat up their own frozen meals ? Its better and cheaper than the pathetic stuff being passed off as dinner.

dhart Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just a suggestion but here is how I have handled
> the uneven food service on AMTRAK for years...I
> bring my own! A little cooler filled with my
> favorite picnic foods and spirits and I'm good to
> go.


You got me thinking about bringing a cooler with a six-pack of Coronas with me for Monday's trip on the Starlate!

Someone earlier mentioned something to the effect of meals in our transportation system. If you think what you see in the photos above is bad, then please continue reading this post. In 2002, I was on the Southwest Chief in Albuquerque and the train was sitting at the station during the service stop. I walked across the street to the Greyhound Terminal and picked up some Chicken Fingers and a BBQ Pork Rib Sandwich. If I remember correctly, the chicken fingers were absolutely "bland" and I didn't even finish the sandwich as I took one bite into it and it was actually CRUNCHY!!! In 2003, at another Greyhound terminal, this time in Cleveland (This occurred thanks to Amtrak cancelling my train due to Hurricane Isabel), I had an absoultely disgusting chicken sandwich and fries for lunch. These examples would make the food in the pix in this thread look like cuisine! Bad food does exist in avenues outside of Amtrak.

Saturday's Wall Street Journal carries a "heart warming' and FAVORABLE aeticle lamenting the upcoming loss of traditional dining service. If you have access to the Journal's subscription site (thanks boss?), this one is worth a read. Otherwise, here is a brief passage:

BRYAN, OHIO – A truck zooms past us as we lumber by fields of corn stubble. But we diehard rail passengers haven't paid 4½ times the bargain one-way airfare from New York to Chicago to cover the same distance in 18 hours instead of two because we care about speed.

I boarded the Lake Shore Limited Tuesday in New York to eat a steak that is about to disappear: a strip steak grilled by a chef in a railroad kitchen and served on a china plate. In the heyday of train travel, the diners provided passengers with a taste of the high life, and even today, a few trains still serve satisfying, even classy, meals. My breakfast Wednesday morning was fresh-cooked and delicious.........Here....somewhere west of Albany, N.Y., loving the spectacle of Alex serving the entire diner by himself with the grace of an ice dancer.

Tall and lanky, he swoops down the narrow center aisle with a large tray loaded with braised lamb shanks, seared catfish blackened in the Cajun manner or rotisserie chicken, all of them garnished with two vegetables. When he reaches his destination table, he pirouettes, lowering the tray in a smooth spiral until it lands lightly, and serves each person dinner, in a quadruple lutz of spinning download.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114443037869220198.html

All I can say is I hope, and I'm serious on this, I hope if it works, good, if not, go back with the "old school" way of servinc passengers!

Just two words: Cat barf!

Just look at that Bob Evans Scramble. Yuck!

I couldn't even finish eating it on the #29 I was so disgusted.