Best bets in the cafe car?

[smurfmom]

I ordered the chicken strips. They were microwaved and awful. But both the hotdog and cheese burger were very good.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'd say my current fav is well.. Nothing.. It changes every time..

Wow, my favorite is Nothing as well. Except mine never changes. Ever. :lol:

 

[ScottC4746]

So last month, I was riding coach on a sold-out Silver Star, and about 5 PM, I was up in the cafe car, getting a drink when I heard the announcement that there were no more reservations in the diner available for coach passengers. Fortunately, I was still in line, so when it was my turn, I ordered a pizza with the bottle of wine. The pizza was perfectly edible, but it was just a basic supermarket style frozen pizza.

This got me thinking about what the cafe car has to offer, as I will be riding the Palmetto next month from Savannah to Baltimore, and will thus be on the train for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and won't be in a position to bring any of my own food aboard. I've never had much more than a drink, or a bagel when I use the cafe car, the few times I've had lunch, I buy the Hebrew National hot dog, which is quite good if you can get the cafe attendant to toast the bun instead of microwaving it. When I was hanging out in the cafe car of the star on the northbound trip waiting for lunch in the diner (I had a sleeper for that segment), I saw a guy eating the Hamburger, and it looked pretty good, actually. Who knows how it tasted.

So I'd like to know what your favorite (or unfavorite) cafe car items are, and what you would eat if you were riding the Palmetto during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Anyway, it's a shame that they don't have enough diners to put some on the longer day train runs (like the Palmetto, the Carolinian, Vermonter, Pennsylvanian, etc.

My experiance has been on Pacific Surfliner: Avoid anything hot with cheese including pizza. After they heat it up, it all turns into a gooey mess. Don't get me wrong, I love gooey cheese, but it sticks to the wrapper and either peels a layer of paper off and stays on the food or pulls all the cheese off sticking to the wrapper leaving no cheese on the food. What a mess.

 

[Old MM]

My kids love the train burgers and hot dogs...personally I don't get the appeal and they are both picky eaters normally. It's just the magic of it being train food

 

[Henry Kisor]

Take a look at the sell-by dates on the sandwich wrappers. They may astonish you. On an Illinois Lincoln Service train in March I had a sandwich whose wrapper was stamped with a date in September. Some Amfood is a triumph of the embalmer's art.

 

[OBS]

Take a look at the sell-by dates on the sandwich wrappers. They may astonish you. On an Illinois Lincoln Service train in March I had a sandwich whose wrapper was stamped with a date in September. Some Amfood is a triumph of the embalmer's art.

Henry, I did some looking around at work...some food products, including sandwiches, are bought frozen. These dates you saw are expiration dates for the frozen products. Once they are thawed and issued to train, they are marked with second expiration date which is used for freshness and stock rotation purposes...

 

[Peter KG6LSE]

I rather enjoy the burgers in the bar car ( SSL )

If you are on a LD . and tend to eat from the bar car often .. get the pizza ASAP . its often gone by the end of the trip .

most of my LD trips are darn near the full route . so I often get a pizza for lunch the first day on the train .

Peter

 

[fillyjonk]

More of a snack than a full meal, but the cheese-and-crackers combination (I don't know if it's still offered, or if it's on every train) is pretty good. Especially if you plan ahead and carry an apple from home to eat with your cheese and crackers.

The cup of oatmeal - from the morning choices - is pretty good too.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Take a look at the sell-by dates on the sandwich wrappers. They may astonish you. On an Illinois Lincoln Service train in March I had a sandwich whose wrapper was stamped with a date in September. Some Amfood is a triumph of the embalmer's art.

Henry, I did some looking around at work...some food products, including sandwiches, are bought frozen. These dates you saw are expiration dates for the frozen products. Once they are thawed and issued to train, they are marked with second expiration date which is used for freshness and stock rotation purposes...

Nothing sounds fresher or more delicious to my ear than a "frozen sandwich." :wacko:

 

[OBS]

More of a snack than a full meal, but the cheese-and-crackers combination (I don't know if it's still offered, or if it's on every train) is pretty good. Especially if you plan ahead and carry an apple from home to eat with your cheese and crackers.

The cup of oatmeal - from the morning choices - is pretty good too.

The cheese and cracker combo, at least in the NEC, has changed drastically in both offering and price. And not for the better in either category.

 

[VentureForth]

As I have already mentioned in this thread, my favorite thing in the cafe car is the door leading to the diner!

...It was just regular airline rubber chicken, but the cafe attendant had heated it just right and the Swiss Cheese was melted perfect. Wanna know something else, the second one was just as good!

This is precisely why the cafe car attendant is a union worker making $20+/hr plus tips.

 

[oregon pioneer]

Locally-funded trains (like the Cascades, the Surfliner, and possibly also the Downeaster) may have local items because they are not run by Amtrak. The Cascades is funded by the Oregon and Washington DOTs, and it has Ivar's clam chowder, and very good salads. I plan on taking the Palmetto in a couple of years, and I appreciate the tip about its not having a dining car: we will stock up on deli food in Baltimore before boarding.

 

[MARC Rider]

I'm back from my Palmetto trek, and here's my report:

For lunch, I bought carryout at Papillote, a French carryout place in downtown Savannah. The recommended their tartine, and open face sandwich, which worked OK, but but maybe they should have put the special sauce in a container and let me put it on when I ate it, as the bread was a bit soggy after an overnight in my hotel roof fridge and a morning sitting on the overhead rack. The air conditioning in the train was blasting pretty well, so things kept fairly well, although, as it turned out, Maybe I should have saved the tartine for dinner.

I got the cheese and cracker tray for a snack. Bad news, as it now consists of only 3 small pieces of cheese, a few crackers and some dried fruit. And the cheeses weren't anything special.

Finally, about the time we were pulling into Richmond (about 5PM), I started to get hungry again, so I went back to the cafe to get something. Well, they were out of everything except for the veggie burger and the "wings" were were more like "better living through chemistry" vaguely "Buffalo" flavored chicken nuggets. I made the mistake of getting the "wings" becuase I was under the mistaken impression that they were actual chicken wings, such as I've eaten before in the cafe car. Messy, but edible. I also got the little Sabra Hummus with pretzel chips, which is actually pretty good.

I'm a little concerned about this, as this isn't the first time I've been to a cafe car when they've run out of food. I would think that Amtrak is missing a chance to make some money by letting things run out long before the end of a run, and about meal time. The same thing also happens with the southbound Vermonter about the time you get to New Haven, which is also dinner time. Given that this stuff is prefab food, surely there should be a way that Amtrak could have some in storage in strategically located intermediate stops for restocking. The other idea would be to outcsource food service to a national chain that has facilities along the way, and where strategic restocking could take place.

 

[VentureForth]

...Like at a huge stop such as RVR!

Send a letter to Amtrak & call their customer service.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

Most of my riding tends to be in the Cascades corridor and as someone mentioned it has a menu that is completely different (a few things carry over) than the "national cafe menu". So I usually get the clam chowder, tim's potato chips and drink for lunch or dinner and the breakfast sandwich and coffee for breakfast.

Sometimes I change it up and get the teriyaki bowl. I tend to get stuck in a rut so I really haven't tried the other stuff the bistro offers.

As for the national cafe car menu there isn't anything that really stands out as being bad in my taste. The only bad experience I had was on the Maple Leaf out of Toronto while still on the Canadian, since its technically a VIA train, the cafe was stocked with VIA food items with what seemed to be an abbreviated menu. In short they didn't have much but I was hungry so I settled for coffee and a veggie pack thing.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

I always enjoy Amtrak hot dog. I dunno why its probably a generic brand hot dog but I do enjoy it.

 

[Henry Kisor]

Take a look at the sell-by dates on the sandwich wrappers. They may astonish you. On an Illinois Lincoln Service train in March I had a sandwich whose wrapper was stamped with a date in September. Some Amfood is a triumph of the embalmer's art.

Henry, I did some looking around at work...some food products, including sandwiches, are bought frozen. These dates you saw are expiration dates for the frozen products. Once they are thawed and issued to train, they are marked with second expiration date which is used for freshness and stock rotation purposes...

Thank you! I was right: those sandwiches ARE a triumph of the embalmer's art! (Funeral directors often keep the dear departed on ice while waiting for the ground to thaw.)

 

[dlagrua]

On the short trips to DC I use the cafe car. On LD trips we are always in the sleeper cars so we eat in the dining cars. On the Acela I go for the Starbuck's Cafe Mocha but it may be available on the Regionals as well. I try to avoid the cafe car food preferring to bring aboard a sandwich or a boxed dinner when I board.

 

[Pat Harper]

Finally, about the time we were pulling into Richmond (about 5PM), I started to get hungry again, so I went back to the cafe to get something. Well, they were out of everything except for the veggie burger and the "wings" were were more like "better living through chemistry" vaguely "Buffalo" flavored chicken nuggets.

We got on the NE Regional at RVR headed for WAS, went to the snack bar, and they were out of bagels! Now RVR is the starting point for this NE Regional train. How could they have been out of bagels? I wonder if it was an oversight on the part of the operator.

 

[AlanB]

Finally, about the time we were pulling into Richmond (about 5PM), I started to get hungry again, so I went back to the cafe to get something. Well, they were out of everything except for the veggie burger and the "wings" were were more like "better living through chemistry" vaguely "Buffalo" flavored chicken nuggets.

We got on the NE Regional at RVR headed for WAS, went to the snack bar, and they were out of bagels! Now RVR is the starting point for this NE Regional train. How could they have been out of bagels? I wonder if it was an oversight on the part of the operator.

I'm not positive about this, but I don't believe that Richmond has a commissary to restock the train. Therefore it had to carry all the food from DC the day before. So it is possible that either they had a run on bagels on the trip down, someone underestimated how many would be needed, or perhaps the commissary in DC simply ran out at the time that consist came through going south.

 

[OBS]

Finally, about the time we were pulling into Richmond (about 5PM), I started to get hungry again, so I went back to the cafe to get something. Well, they were out of everything except for the veggie burger and the "wings" were were more like "better living through chemistry" vaguely "Buffalo" flavored chicken nuggets.

We got on the NE Regional at RVR headed for WAS, went to the snack bar, and they were out of bagels! Now RVR is the starting point for this NE Regional train. How could they have been out of bagels? I wonder if it was an oversight on the part of the operator.

I'm not positive about this, but I don't believe that Richmond has a commissary to restock the train. Therefore it had to carry all the food from DC the day before. So it is possible that either they had a run on bagels on the trip down, someone underestimated how many would be needed, or perhaps the commissary in DC simply ran out at the time that consist came through going south.

Because the bagels are a "perishable" item that is discarded at end of day/trip, Only enough are purchased/issued to cover the starting supply of each train from originating commissary. Thus none are available to be ordered "down the road" and when they are gone, they are gone.