what's up with CONO meals

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Having been on six Cardinal trips we are quite familiar with the convection oven heat and eat food. What we found is that one food service person may be very good at reheating the breakfast lunch, dinner foods while another is very bad. On one trip we had the breakfast omelet which tasted dry and rubbery while on others they were moist, soft, very good and enjoyable. I guess a good meal depends on a precise length of time reheating it.Overheat and the food is hard and dry.. If the reheating is done right the food is actually OK, just not as good as what you get in a full dining car. As for the CONO; the food service person probably needs more training. Just about everyone that I have spoken with rates the food as lousy. Get those reports into customer service and change might be possible.
 
dlagrua said:
Having been on six Cardinal trips we are quite familiar with the convection oven heat and eat food. What we found is that one food service person may be very good at reheating the breakfast lunch, dinner foods while another is very bad. On one trip we had the breakfast omelet which tasted dry and rubbery while on others they were moist, soft, very good and enjoyable. I guess a good meal depends on a precise length of time reheating it.Overheat and the food is hard and dry.. If the reheating is done right the food is actually OK, just not as good as what you get in a full dining car. As for the CONO; the food service person probably needs more training. Just about everyone that I have spoken with rates the food as lousy. Get those reports into customer service and change might be possible.
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The Chef in the galley makes the difference in my experience. Very good to excellent food on the Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, The Crescent, but on the Southwest Chief: disappointment at most of the meals I ordered. The chicken entree was so dry it was close to being inedible
 
Best Amtrak meal I ever had was on the CONO. The chef brought his own spices and had catfish cooked perfectly out of New Orleans (his home town). It was wonderful. On another trip the diner/lounge brought her own spices from the West Indies. Best Bloody Mary I've ever had. I'm sure both were taking a risk by not having the 'approved' bland stuff usually offered, but Amtrak needs more employees that show some initiative and are proud of their job.
 
Palmland said:
Best Amtrak meal I ever had was on the CONO. The chef brought his own spices and had catfish cooked perfectly out of New Orleans (his home town). It was wonderful. On another trip the diner/lounge brought her own spices from the West Indies. Best Bloody Mary I've ever had. I'm sure both were taking a risk by not having the 'approved' bland stuff usually offered, but Amtrak needs more employees that show some initiative and are proud of their job.
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100% agree that showing such initiative leads to guest satisfaction!

I don't want those great employees putting their job positions in jeopardy by doing so, however.
 
Not at all. Just having clear specifications of what is in the dish without unlisted changes so that people who have allergies can decide what they can safely order.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
Not at all. Just having clear specifications of what is in the dish without unlisted changes so that people who have allergies can decide what they can safely order.
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When was the last time that you were in a restaurant where they provided a list of ingredients on all their menu items? In some of the restaurants that we dine at, the servers barely speak English and if you asked, they probably couldn't even tell you. Point is that you never know the ingredients in restaurant food unless you are able to communicate that you are allergic to a specific ingredient like Garlic or MSG. .
 
Actually, almost every restaurant I eat at (and I eat out once or twice a day) can either provide me a list, or send out someone who will discuss my allergy and either reccomend a dish, or agree to make it without the offending ingredient.
 
Green Maned Lion said:
Actually, almost every restaurant I eat at (and I eat out once or twice a day) can either provide me a list, or send out someone who will discuss my allergy and either reccomend a dish, or agree to make it without the offending ingredient.
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I think that's the answer. The one with an allergy has some responsibility to let the restaurant/chef know of any allergy. Same would be true on Amtrak. A 'creative' chef would then just serve up the usual bland food.
 
Palmland said:
Green Maned Lion said:
Actually, almost every restaurant I eat at (and I eat out once or twice a day) can either provide me a list, or send out someone who will discuss my allergy and either reccomend a dish, or agree to make it without the offending ingredient.
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I think that's the answer. The one with an allergy has some responsibility to let the restaurant/chef know of any allergy. Same would be true on Amtrak. A 'creative' chef would then just serve up the usual bland food.
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Yeah that sounds pretty reasonable to me as well. The responsibility for alerting the staff about allergies is on the customer. The responsibility for tracking ingredients is on the restaurant. The main problem on Amtrak is that almost nothing is made on board anymore so withholding individual ingredients is difficult if not impossible.
 
Rode the City of New Orleans this weekend. We departed on Friday afternoon from NOLA. We had a dinner reservation for the second seating (5:45) and when we were seated, we were told that one of the dinner options (the beef bourguignon, which we wanted) was gone.



Really?



The second seating, before 6 PM?



The cafe car was more than half empty and they were *already* out of one of the entrees?



Our LSA was gracious enough to get a microwave pizza from the other side (at no cost - as a substitution), and I had the Mediterranean chicken which was OK, but not great.



Perhaps Amtrak should revise the stocking of meals on that train.



Very disappointed. The food service has deteriorated every time I've ridden it, and that's four times in the last 3 years.
 
George K said:
Rode the City of New Orleans this weekend. We departed on Friday afternoon from NOLA. We had a dinner reservation for the second seating (5:45) and when we were seated, we were told that one of the dinner options (the beef bourguignon, which we wanted) was gone.



Really?



The second seating, before 6 PM?



The cafe car was more than half empty and they were *already* out of one of the entrees?



Our LSA was gracious enough to get a microwave pizza from the other side (at no cost - as a substitution), and I had the Mediterranean chicken which was OK, but not great.



Perhaps Amtrak should revise the stocking of meals on that train.



Very disappointed. The food service has deteriorated every time I've ridden it, and that's four times in the last 3 years.
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When I rode on the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles to Chicago, before the end of the dinner service that first night out of Los Angeles, the diner had run out of small bottles of a white wine.
 
I had the same problem on the Coast Starlight. I ordered a double Jack Daniels while departing LAUS and wiped out their entire stock for the rest of the trip (according to what I was told). No wonder it's so difficult for Amtrak F&B to make a profit (or even break even) when they can't even stock high margin nonperishable products.
 
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Palmland said:
Best Amtrak meal I ever had was on the CONO. The chef brought his own spices and had catfish cooked perfectly out of New Orleans (his home town). It was wonderful. On another trip the diner/lounge brought her own spices from the West Indies. Best Bloody Mary I've ever had. I'm sure both were taking a risk by not having the 'approved' bland stuff usually offered, but Amtrak needs more employees that show some initiative and are proud of their job.
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Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum
 
PVD asked about the stocking of the Diner in his post.

I'm not current on all of the the location of Commissaries, but I do know that the meals that the CONO,Sunset,Crescent (and Texas Eagle) leave their originating Station with, have to last for the entire roundtrip of the train.

Hence #20,#58,#1 and #22 tend to "run out" of many items before completing their runs.

However,I've often boarded LD Trains at their originating points ( mostly in Chicago) where the Diner was "out" of items during the first meal served.LSAs have told me the Commissary either only gave them a small number of items or even None! Like all things Amtrak YMMV.
 
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tommylicious said:
I've refused to ride this train ever since Amtrak brought in the prison food.
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Rumor is one more step down and the CONO menu will be bread and water. I just looked at the Federal Bureau of Prisons Menu online. The food has also been cheapened in the last couple of years but it does look similar to what is served on the CONO. Maybe they hired an Amtrak food service manager to get ideas.
 
Don't know who's being serious and who's joking, but doesn't Aramark act as commissary for Amtrak, and don't they also service correctional facilities? Maybe they get the orders mixed up sometimes.
 

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