New dining options (flex dining) effective October 1, 2019

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Winecliff Station said:
I thought the City of New Orleans had been doing some jazz-club style theme with their menu.... at leas that was what the menus led me to believe. It seemed like it would be the most affected by the change.
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The city went from a regular diner to a real CCC car which had some local dishes, back to the ccc car as a traditional diner, than they kept the ccc but dropped the chef and kept 1 server to serve very poor quality pre-made dishes. The change to contemporary dining is a plus for that train imho. But until I taste the new dishes I can’t reallt say for sure. They can’t be worse though.
 
Rail Freak said:
???
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Sorry I'll try to say that a bit more clearly. The City of New Orleans was the first train to lose it's full dining car, unless you count the Cardinal.

Here's the current City of New Orleans menu which is all pre-prepared food, but served in the traditional dining car style, with table service. - https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...s-Southbound-Tran-59-Dining-Car-Menu-1017.pdf

Prior to that, the City of New Orleans operated a traditional full dining car service, in a physical CCC car (the way Texas Eagle does now.)

At the introduction of the CCC cars, the Texas Eagle and the City of New Orleans both had a specific CCC car menu and service that didn't last long... here's a link to a review that includes the full written menu of the original CCC cars -
http://www.trainweb.org/chris/nod.html

And before that the City of New Orleans operated a full dining car.
 
This will be version 4 of contemporary dining if my count is right. Version one was all chilled meals and a breakfast box that had all sugary stuff. Version two added the one hot braised short ribs meal, version three they dumped the breakfast box and went continental style, and switched up the dinner entrees to mostly hot. And now this is the fourth. And I think around version two they dropped the short lived amenity kits.
 
I wonder if they will be smart enough to serve the Asian Noodle Bowl as a hot meal..... I can just see the vegetarian passengers complaining that someone forgot to heat their dinner, then when learning it is supposed to be cold, requesting it be heated anyway (at least that is what I would do) which may cause problems with timing of service. This will be even worse for room service passengers. I know, probably a minor petty thing to bring up but I can't be the only one who doesn't care for cold noodles.
 
Winecliff Station said:
I wonder if they will be smart enough to serve the Asian Noodle Bowl as a hot meal..... I can just see the vegetarian passengers complaining that someone forgot to heat their dinner, then when learning it is supposed to be cold, requesting it be heated anyway (at least that is what I would do) which may cause problems with timing of service. This will be even worse for room service passengers. I know, probably a minor petty thing to bring up but I can't be the only one who doesn't care for cold noodles.
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Heating up the cold noodles didn't seem to be an option last February when we had them (because they were out of everything else by 7 PM).
 
I run into that sort of thing with boiled shrimp.

I like my shrimp HOT ... not cold. But, for some reason, most places seem to think boiled shrimp should be cold and served on ice. They look at you funny if you ask to have them served hot and, more often than not, tell you they are not available hot - but they will serve fried ones hot.
 
This latest update looks very promising! I may be torching some points this Winter on a Norman OK to West Palm Beach run and now can look forward to the Cap and Meteor service. I do have to wonder what the improved linens are all about...Hello Kitty sheets and towls perhaps...:p:D
 
lordsigma said:
This will be version 4 of contemporary dining if my count is right. Version one was all chilled meals and a breakfast box that had all sugary stuff. Version two added the one hot braised short ribs meal, version three they dumped the breakfast box and went continental style, and switched up the dinner entrees to mostly hot. And now this is the fourth. And I think around version two they dropped the short lived amenity kits.
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Well, when this started, they did say it is a work in progress and they would evaluate reactions and costs. You may see additional tweaks.
 
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Thirdrail7 said:
Well, when they did say it is a work in progress and they would evaluate reactions and costs. You may see additional tweaks.
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I will admit they are moving in the right direction. But I'm curious how this will work... if you are still forced into certain time slots I'm not sure what is gained. If you really have more freedom of when you can eat your meals, and where you can eat your meals that's a positive.
 
MODERATOR NOTE: Please keep this discussion on the topic of Amtrak dining cars and the upcoming October 1st change.

Thanks
 
crescent-zephyr said:
Sorry I'll try to say that a bit more clearly. The City of New Orleans was the first train to lose it's full dining car, unless you count the Cardinal.

Here's the current City of New Orleans menu which is all pre-prepared food, but served in the traditional dining car style, with table service. - https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...s-Southbound-Tran-59-Dining-Car-Menu-1017.pdf

Prior to that, the City of New Orleans operated a traditional full dining car service, in a physical CCC car (the way Texas Eagle does now.)

At the introduction of the CCC cars, the Texas Eagle and the City of New Orleans both had a specific CCC car menu and service that didn't last long... here's a link to a review that includes the full written menu of the original CCC cars -
http://www.trainweb.org/chris/nod.html

And before that the City of New Orleans operated a full dining car.
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When the CONY first abandoned its dining car (well, no, it retained the car but now served sandwiches etc in it), I was disappointed to see that Amtrak didn't have the brains to offer a muffaleta or po'boy. No reference in the menu to the most famous food city in N. Amer. Sigh! Plus the meals were not nearly as good as they had been. So yes, this is an upgrade for that line.
 

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