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wayman

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Sep 6, 2007
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I'll try to keep the traveloginess to a minimum (not that there was much of it anyway, PHL-ALX), and cut straight to the meat of the post :p

Yesterday's 19 was only barely half capacity in the first coach out of Philadelphia, though we filled up at Wilmington. I had a full choice of dinner reservation times when the LSA came through at 4:15, so I chose 5:00. 4:30 just seemed too early, and 5:00 was just right as it turned out. There were only four tables in use before Washington, as it turned out.

The menu:

menu-1.jpg


There might be more than one menu, but I didn't see the telltale (1), (2), or (3) anywhere on this. Of course I'll let you know if one I see Monday has a different cover and slightly different contents when I see it.

Here are much larger shots of the menu items; I'll link to them rather than post them here because they're huge images so you can read them: new menu, pages 2 and 3 and new menu, page 4

Here's the new salad. It's better quality (non-iceberg, I don't like iceberg) lettuce in a more attractive (still plastic, of course) bowl. A really simple change that still makes for a much more enjoyable salad, in my opinion:

salad.jpg


I splurged and ordered the shrimp cocktail, since this was intentionally a "sample the new menu" dinner. I wound up feeling really, really stuffed by Alexandria, but it was worth it! My experience with shrimp cocktail is that there's not much potential for variety in this dish, such that "how good it is" really comes down to "how much do you like shrimp and cocktail sauce"; I've had a few exceptional shrimp appetizers in my day, but they don't really count as "shrimp cocktail". Amtrak's was par for the course, which is to say that I probably won't spend $6.50 for it again as an appetizer (unless I've got traveling companions who want to share it) but I'm glad I tried it, and someday I might feel like a salad and good appetizer is all I want for dinner, so I'm glad I now have that option. There are four reasonably large, but not jumbo, shrimp:

shrimp.jpg


And now... the star of the meal. I didn't really need to see the menu, but I did read through it (and photograph it) before ordering; with the diner so empty I could afford to take my time. Here's my receipt (note the unshaded shrimp cocktail box; for some reason, that was on a separate receipt). I ordered it prepared rare, both because that's the way I like it and because that's the fullest test of their steak--is the preparation, and the cut of meat, high quality?

order.jpg


And here it is. Now first, a few negative notes: the broccoli. Also, my dining tablemate's green beans (with the tilapia). They were inedibly bad. The broccoli was sort of rubbery and devoid of anything that might be construed as "flavor"; it didn't taste *bad*, it just really didn't taste... at all. But then, vegetables have never been Amtrak's strong suit (they were surprisingly good on the Cardinal's Diner Lite, though), and if any part of the meal has to be the loser, unless I ordered a vegetarian dish I'm ok with it being the vegetable. To be fair and balanced, I should also mention that my tablemate's fish was well-prepared but a little cold for her tastes.

Moving on, the potato. Hot and fluffy, with a slightly--very slightly--crispy jacket. Pretty good, in other words, but not by any means stellar. Still, I've had much, much worse. The entire plate:

steak-1.jpg


And of course... the meat! I was not sure what to expect here, so I was, honestly, expecting a half-inch-thick cut of meat slightly pink somewhere in the center. Pretty low expectations, yes, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Boy was I surprised! This was easily an inch thick, and with a little juice on the plate my expectations suddenly went up. Now, at a good restaurant, I will slice into the center of the cut first, just to see how well it's prepared. Here, I didn't, because my expectations still weren't so high that I wasn't convinced I would discover a somewhat disappointing pinkness. So I went straight for my first bite... and it was rare. All the way to the edge, with a nicely seared outside. Holy cow! Moist, just the correct warmth, great contrast between seared outside and juicy inside. I moved for the center, sliced the cut in half, and... see for yourselves. (It was actually a richer red than the photograph shows; that's the fault of the camera, and I apologize. I'll see if Photoshop can make the color more accurate. It was really and truly rare.) It was gorgeous, through and through, and tasted every bit of it:

steak-2.jpg


Really, my only cause for complaint here--and it's not really a complaint with the steak, per se--is that there was no accompaniment, no sauce. The steak wasn't *quite* good enough to stand completely on its own, but finding such a steak is a remarkably difficult thing. Peter Luger on a good day, or the sort of steakhouse in Texas which has large oil paintings of prize state fair cattle the restaurant has bought and served. Or, for the "southern steak experience", Doe's Eat Place in Little Rock (warning: minimum steak you can order, 2 pounds; yes, minimum, they go up from there). A bordelaise, or a bearnaise, or something would have complemented this well. But it never even crossed my mind to ruin this with the provided A-1--totally unnecessary given how perfectly juicy it was.

I didn't really have space for dessert, but what the heck. I was hoping for chocolate cake, but perhaps it's a good thing that wasn't available on this trip. They had cheesecake, red velvet (aka red food coloring) cake, and key lime pie. I've had the cheesecake before, so this time I opted for the key lime. It was... merely acceptable, I'm sorry to report. Now, I'm a bit of a key lime pie fanatic, so my standards may be harsh here. And I admit I was going entirely against my own rules, ordering key lime pie in *January*, in 20-degree weather no less--I'm actually more inclined to have ice cream in this weather, all things considered. So that certainly didn't help matters. But it just wasn't tart enough, not anywhere close. And the meringue was obviously not freshly made; I didn't expect it to be, of course, but it's disappointing just the same. Here it is:

keylime.jpg


And that was dinner! I finished my last few bites of pie and sips of decaf (a mistake on my part, really, what was I thinking? I would have been far, far better at Wii Tennis later that evening if I'd had caffeine! :p ) just after the lights cut out in Washington. I had to pay my bill in the dark, and realized at that moment I'd forgotten to clip my mini-Maglite to my belt before heading forward from coach. (I admit, I love whipping it out to help the crew on the rare occasions I can.) The LSA was extremely friendly throughout the meal (and as she came through the train taking reservations; sometimes they're sort of indifferent as they pass by). On my way out, I passed the chef, shook his hand, and told him what a pleasure it was to have a fine steak on a train again after so many years.

Perhaps I got lucky--a good chef on a good night. But I thought things were a *tremendous* improvement from SDS. If this was a representative experience, Amtrak deserves heaps of praise. I'm really looking forward to breakfast on Monday.
 
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Glad to hear you were overall favorably impressed, at least particularly with the steak and salad. I'll admit I thought the "Diner Lite" Cardinal really had a good thing going on with their vegetables too, though I guess something needed to make up for the lack of salad and rolls.

Thanks for the pics - now I really am hungry!

I'm really close to pulling the trigger on a Crescent trip for June, but I did have one curiosity that I'm pretty sure Jay can answer - Does the Crescent typically serve dinner going into New Orleans? The 733pm arrival time is a little "maybe/maybe not" to me.
 
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I've gotten dinner 3 times this past summer before Hattiesburg (after Meridian) on the southbound Crescent. The train (late) arrived in H'burg around 5pm, 6pm and 6:30pm.
 
Glad to hear you were overall favorably impressed, at least particularly with the steak and salad. I'll admit I thought the "Diner Lite" Cardinal really had a good thing going on with their vegetables too, though I guess something needed to make up for the lack of salad and rolls.
Thanks for the pics - now I really am hungry!

I'm really close to pulling the trigger on a Crescent trip for June, but I did have one curiosity that I'm pretty sure Jay can answer - Does the Crescent typically serve dinner going into New Orleans? The 733pm arrival time is a little "maybe/maybe not" to me.
Yes sir, they do. They usually make one call for dinner before Hattiesburg so they can clean up and get ready to back into UPT. Unless there is something special like Mardi Gras, which is coming up shortly, you will probably not see more than 4 or 5 tables taken and mostly by sleeper passengers. The coach pax have a tendency to wait to get to town to eat or rough it out in the lounge car. At $21 a pop for a steak plus drink,a $5 desert (save the $2 ice cream) and a possible appetizer I can hardly blame them.
 
Yes sir, they do. They usually make one call for dinner before Hattiesburg so they can clean up and get ready to back into UPT. Unless there is something special like Mardi Gras, which is coming up shortly, you will probably not see more than 4 or 5 tables taken and mostly by sleeper passengers. The coach pax have a tendency to wait to get to town to eat or rough it out in the lounge car. At $21 a pop for a steak plus drink,a $5 desert (save the $2 ice cream) and a possible appetizer I can hardly blame them.
Thanks ever so kindly, Jay! There's the dealMAKER! You have just sold Amtrak a pair of tickets - Roomette #4 in Car 1911. You can report to the Baton Rouge Station at your convenience to pick up your commission. I think Wayman might deserve a few kickbacks as well tempting me with the menu and goodies. ;)

Truthfully though, the price of the ticket with accomodations was WAY too good to pass up: a buddy of mine from DC will be travelling with me, so the accomodations means meals for 2. And it seems I've stumbled across another of Amtrak's pricing anamolies with this one: our roomette charge for WAS-NOL is just $135, and it includes 2 dinners, a breakfast and lunch for each of us - that's over $120 in value alone! The VERY odd thing is that the accomodation charge on the very same physical train for a WAS-ATL reservation is $283! It's as if they're putting a steep premium on those riding to ATL in sleeper, but in many ways giving the rooms away for free for those going to ATL!

People often talk about how overnight trains in bedroom aren't competitive in price with air travel, but I think I found an exception here. When we first started fleshing out the trip, we almost didn't check the Cresent assuming it would be way out of line with airfare due to the usually high charges on Viewliner roomettes.

Check this out for the prices for us both:

Airtran: $220-$258, but it takes most of your day on that Monday anyway.

Southwest: $220 for a pair of way too early flights, or $292-$332 for reasonable flights with a transfer - forget the Non-stop: we're talking the $540's.

Delta: $388 is the lowest, Monday is not a "cheap" day for them.

and Amtrak: $372.50 in roomette with my NARP. Factor out the cost of the very real meals (I'd still have to eat on Sunday and Monday even if I wasn't on a conveyance) you get compard to packs of nuts, and the comparative cost drops down to about $250!!!

Add in the intangible of a much more liberal cancellation policy in the event of a change of plans...

Um, can we say NO BRAINER!!!
 
Yes sir, they do. They usually make one call for dinner before Hattiesburg so they can clean up and get ready to back into UPT. Unless there is something special like Mardi Gras, which is coming up shortly, you will probably not see more than 4 or 5 tables taken and mostly by sleeper passengers. The coach pax have a tendency to wait to get to town to eat or rough it out in the lounge car. At $21 a pop for a steak plus drink,a $5 desert (save the $2 ice cream) and a possible appetizer I can hardly blame them.
Thanks ever so kindly, Jay! There's the dealMAKER! You have just sold Amtrak a pair of tickets - Roomette #4 in Car 1911. You can report to the Baton Rouge Station at your convenience to pick up your commission. I think Wayman might deserve a few kickbacks as well tempting me with the menu and goodies. ;)

Truthfully though, the price of the ticket with accomodations was WAY too good to pass up: a buddy of mine from DC will be travelling with me, so the accomodations means meals for 2. And it seems I've stumbled across another of Amtrak's pricing anamolies with this one: our roomette charge for WAS-NOL is just $135, and it includes 2 dinners, a breakfast and lunch for each of us - that's over $120 in value alone! The VERY odd thing is that the accomodation charge on the very same physical train for a WAS-ATL reservation is $283! It's as if they're putting a steep premium on those riding to ATL in sleeper, but in many ways giving the rooms away for free for those going to ATL!

People often talk about how overnight trains in bedroom aren't competitive in price with air travel, but I think I found an exception here. When we first started fleshing out the trip, we almost didn't check the Cresent assuming it would be way out of line with airfare due to the usually high charges on Viewliner roomettes.

Check this out for the prices for us both:

Airtran: $220-$258, but it takes most of your day on that Monday anyway.

Southwest: $220 for a pair of way too early flights, or $292-$332 for reasonable flights with a transfer - forget the Non-stop: we're talking the $540's.

Delta: $388 is the lowest, Monday is not a "cheap" day for them.

and Amtrak: $372.50 in roomette with my NARP. Factor out the cost of the very real meals (I'd still have to eat on Sunday and Monday even if I wasn't on a conveyance) you get compard to packs of nuts, and the comparative cost drops down to about $250!!!

Add in the intangible of a much more liberal cancellation policy in the event of a change of plans...

Um, can we say NO BRAINER!!!
I'll take a quart of Breyer's Cherry Vanilla thank you...our room to Atlanta was $70. Now that's three meals for two people; wait a minute~ they're paying us to ride plus the AGR hounds would love your find. Good riding and don't be surprised if the train is wonderfully near empty leaving Atlanta southbound and out of New Orleans northbound. The #11 car is next to the baggage car so you'll have the added bonus of the train whistle. Room #4 is a good pick; you only have to walk through the #10 car (also a sleeper) to get to the diner.
 
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Forgot about your Ice Cream jones!!! mmm, Breyer's - good stuff!!! We'll need it in June!

Actually, we're skipping #20 for the trip back and taking #58 to CHI for a couple of days, then returning on #30 to the DC area. This two phase trip was originally supposed to have a flight to MSP for a couple of days, then a daylong ride on the Builder in coach to CHI, then back. That was until I stumbled upon the room rate for the CONO which changed our tune! Still holding out for a few days on that one though in hopes a $143 full bedroom opens up!

All told though, if we do this all in Roomette, we'll be getting 3 nights of sleeper travel for only $344, including up to 10 meals! That reminds me - Lunch is served on the CONO out of NOL?!?
 
Does anyone know if I can hope to have food similar to this on the Capitol and Lake Shore Limiteds? I know I'll have to pay for it on the Lake Shore but... *shrugs*

By the way, sleeper fare covers the salad, the entree, the desert, and soft drinks, right? Anything else? Appetizers?
 
Does anyone know if I can hope to have food similar to this on the Capitol and Lake Shore Limiteds? I know I'll have to pay for it on the Lake Shore but... *shrugs*
By the way, sleeper fare covers the salad, the entree, the desert, and soft drinks, right? Anything else? Appetizers?
You should find similar food on the Capitol Limited which uses the same menus as the Crescent. On the LSL, which does not run with a dining car, you may find some of the same things but you will also see some differences. Especially when it comes to things like cooked on board food, like the steak and the omlettes which they can't do on the LSL.

And appetizers are not included on either train, otherwise everything else that you listed is included in the sleeper fare.
 
That reminds me - Lunch is served on the CONO out of NOL?!?
Last I knew, no, lunch was not served out of NOL on the CONO.
Well with the Cross Country Cafe there is supposed to be continuous service. Anybody know for sure?
That's true, I forgot about the CCC and was thinking of my last trip when there was a diner. Even then though I'm not sure if lunch would be included with a 1:45 departure time. In other words, one might be able to buy lunch, but I don't know if it would be free to those in a sleeper.
 
That reminds me - Lunch is served on the CONO out of NOL?!?
Last I knew, no, lunch was not served out of NOL on the CONO.
Well with the Cross Country Cafe there is supposed to be continuous service. Anybody know for sure?
That's true, I forgot about the CCC and was thinking of my last trip when there was a diner. Even then though I'm not sure if lunch would be included with a 1:45 departure time. In other words, one might be able to buy lunch, but I don't know if it would be free to those in a sleeper.
I get on in Hammond and would not expect lunch so I didn't ask. If your times hold up at 3 p.m. for lunch and the car is ready for service soon after the tickets are lifted leaving NOUPT I don't see any reason why they can't do sleeper pax. Maybe they could pre-board like the LSL?
 
That reminds me - Lunch is served on the CONO out of NOL?!?
Last I knew, no, lunch was not served out of NOL on the CONO.
Well with the Cross Country Cafe there is supposed to be continuous service. Anybody know for sure?
That's true, I forgot about the CCC and was thinking of my last trip when there was a diner. Even then though I'm not sure if lunch would be included with a 1:45 departure time. In other words, one might be able to buy lunch, but I don't know if it would be free to those in a sleeper.
I get on in Hammond and would not expect lunch so I didn't ask. If your times hold up at 3 p.m. for lunch and the car is ready for service soon after the tickets are lifted leaving NOUPT I don't see any reason why they can't do sleeper pax. Maybe they could pre-board like the LSL?
Lunch is not served in the Cross Country Cafe for sleeping car passengers out of New Orleans, however the all day menu is available immediately for anyone who wants to order appetizers, hamburgers, pizza, etc. The dining and lounge side of the car are open for service.
 
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