City of New Orleans Food was great!

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Midland Valley

Lead Service Attendant
Joined
Feb 14, 2005
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408
Location
Dodge City, Kansas
The wife and I had the privilege of riding the City of New Orleans on Jan 2 from Chicago to Memphis with a roomette. We had dinner at around 8:30 PM. The meal we both had was the Chicken breast, with potatoes, beans and a salad. It was very tasty. We both enjoyed the meal. If this is the wave of the future, I think we can live very well with it. The "china" was plastic however.
 
Thank you so much for the report. I take it that it was preplated? What other entres were offered? Was this served in the diner or sightseer lounge?

Thanks,

Jon Parker
 
We were in a dining car with table cloth. It was preplated food as I understand. There was the special, turkey and dressing with mashed potatoes. The couple across from us had this and it looked very good. There was also a pasta and a beef entree. There was only cheesecake and fruit for dessert. But again, I was really pleased with the whole experience. The waiter was nice but when I asked him if he had been on the train when Arlo Guthrie (whom I would have really liked to have seen and heard him sing City of New Orleans) he said yes, he's nothing but an old hippie trying to relive his glory days. I though that was a little negative, but I kept my comment to myself.
 
Had the same type service on Texas Eagle. No big complaints, except that they seemed to be out of lots of selections, especially fruit, and the plastic formal dishware lessened the atmosphere, especially when served as part of an $18.00 entree.

The burger I had for Lunch was great, the Beef Medallions for Dinner very tender and tasty. Had French Toast twice, YUM.

I commented to Amtrak that although Lunch and Dinner were good, it might be worthwhile to consider a wider selection of non-precooked choices for Breakfast - especially toast and egg dishes. Staffing cuts will sink that idea of course.

One problem is serving the food hot. More emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring selections are uniformly hot (no microwave cold spots), and served HOT.

And I commented that high prices will kill off coach passengers patronage.
 
Well the prices in the Dining Car have always been a tad steep, but you get resturant quality food IMHO and you pay resturant quality prices. Also don't forget here you have a very captive market, if you don't get em in the Dining Car you'll get em in the lounge. You're really just competing with yourself. Now of course there are some people (like myself) that bring their own stashes with them, but there's not much you can do to eliminate that.
 
Considering that "coach" is "economy class" for some people, it seems like a reasonable choice.

Heck, I'm usually in first class, but always bring my own snacks.
 
battalion51 said:
Well the prices in the Dining Car have always been a tad steep, but you get resturant quality food IMHO and you pay resturant quality prices. Also don't forget here you have a very captive market, if you don't get em in the Dining Car you'll get em in the lounge. You're really just competing with yourself. Now of course there are some people (like myself) that bring their own stashes with them, but there's not much you can do to eliminate that.
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The prices in the Dining Car are in line with what you pay at a chain restaurant. The prices in the lounge car are high -- soda pop and chips readily come to mind -- but not as excessive as some make them out to be.

For instance: Dining Car dinner special on #30 (country fried steak), featuring two sides, coffee and dessert (ice cream w/chocolate syrup) ran me $14.50 without tip.

Lounge Car: Cheeseburger (microwaved) on #43 and a "Big Grab"-sized bag of Lay's Potato Chips ran me $7.00 without tip. The burger was comparable in size to one of the Hardee's/Carl Jr.'s "Thickburgers." I had the presence of mind to pack a thermos bottle of coffee. Otherwise, a 10-ounce cup of coffee would have been another $1.75.

Like I said, steep, but in line. Amtrak can't predict lounge/dining car sales in advance, and I'm sure there's some wasteage on trips. I've often wondered why Amtrak didn't simply try to offer a fixed price "meal upgrade" when you booked a trip at Amtrak.com. Just print out another ticket coupon for the meal -- this would not seem to be a Big French Deal.

IMO, the Dining Cars tend to offer better food for the money. This opinion may change when more micromanagement kicks in.
 
sechs said:
Considering that "coach" is "economy class" for some people, it seems like a reasonable choice.
Heck, I'm usually in first class, but always bring my own snacks.
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yes i pack my little cooler full of drinks and carry them with me on the train.sometimes i can find 12 packs of drinks for $2.50 when some store puts them on sale.Warning do not carry outside food or drinks into the dining car or lounge car it is against FDA and amtrak regulations if you do and get caught you will get removed from the food service cars and possibly removed from the train if you repeat this infraction.I have seen several people get booted from the diner and lounge car for doing this.Enjoy them from your coach seat or sleeper room.The health inspectors here write up restaurants if they see food from another restaurant being consumed while they make their inspections.They call it food from an unknown source being consumed.
 
The only exception I'm aware of for this is if you have food for a baby/small child. Most people and the FDA realize that the resturants cannot necessarily cater to the needs of the little people so they should let that slide.
 
You know that is an interesting question. I can say that you definitely can't have your own stuff downstairs and anywhere in the Diner, but the upstairs lounge is curious. One could argue its not technically a Food Service area, but it's a Food Service car though. Any ideas OBS?
 
Introduction of outside food items, including things like baby food, are not permitted into the food service portion of the lounge car (on Superliners, that's the lower level, on Amfleet it is defined as the whole car). The diners, of course, or completely closed to outside food products, including baby and children's items. When working as a sleeping car attendant, I must provide an upstairs order to any passenger who wants dining car service and has small children that eat non-Amtrak food items. The only alternative would be for parents to leave their children in the room, and that's not going to happen! Well, at least, it isn't suppost to happen. I know some LSAs have let parents slip in and serve baby food and other items in the diner, only to be caught by a manager or turned in by someone to management. I've seen a fellow employee receive one of Amtrak's finest union mandated "letters of intent to discipline" over this issue as it deals directly with Amtrak's credibility with the FDA inspectors.

It is important to remind those who may bring infant and childrens items to eat, such as baby food and those prepackaged microwavable todler meal items, cannot be heated by staff using Amtrak equipment. Although many passengers find this to be a "lack of customer service," we've been trained over and over that handling outside food products, including baby food, is an FDA violation and staff are subject to disciplinary action for providing such a "service."
 
On other forums, this issue has been brought up numerous times, and, from reading what various employees have stated, I gather the following:

The *only* FDA rule that applies to "outside food" is that such cannot be stored/heated in food-preparation areas or handled by Amtrak food-service staff. In other words, if you want your personal ham sandwich (or baby formula bottle) heated up in the microwave, you're out of luck. There is *no* FDA rule that specifically prohibits simply bringing in (or consuming) food in the car. Any such rules would simply be Amtrak policy, independent of whatever the FDA has stated.

Also, I was told by another employee that apparently there is an Amtrak rule against outside food in food-service cars, but that this rule does not apply to the upper level of the Sightseer Lounge.
 
I want to think Rob is correct, becuase I do recall seeing someone in the lounge eating some of their personal food while one of the MIA OBS Managers was on board (if I'm remembering the right trip when both occured).
 
madisonwi, THAT sounds rational and reasonable. Keeping unknown foodstuffs out of the Amtrak food prep equipment, and not having any contact with it by Amtrak personnel seems like it would be the limit of FDA regs. I suppose you could make an argument that you don't want it touching tables, too, but seems like the tables are pretty un-hygenic to start with, so I dunno if that argument would fly. With the condition of those tables I'd probably toss out anything that touched it whether I brought it with me or bought it onboard. And of course since a lot, if not most, coach passengers typically do buy at least something in the lounge car and take it back to their seats to eat it, if there's a contamination argument, then you can't let them eat itheir own food n their seats in coach, either.

It seems more likely that Amtrak is simply trying to keep a captive audience of "if you want to eat here, you gotta buy here". I can certainly agree to that for the diner (baby formula or Rx foods that Amtrak can't supply, being an exception as far as I'm concerned), but I have a real problem with that policy in the lounge, since, in the first place, you don't have to be eating to sit there. Now yes, with the high costs involved in running food service on a train, the stuff they sell there has to be relatively expensive to avoid operating at a huge loss. But some folks simply can't afford it, and they ought to be able to bring their own stuff and consume it. Seems kind of petty to keep them out of the lounge car, and also seems like it would make more of a mess of the coaches. And on a long distance train, that, in turn, means less enjoyment for succeeding passengers that have to sit in those seats. Anyway, that's my $.02's worth

I was irked, last week, when a conductor or AC told somebody (NOT me) he'd have to go back to his coach seat to eat whatever it was the guy had brought to the lounge car to eat. Especially since the entire lounge car had a total of three occupied tables (including the conductor or AC), and all the rest were completely empty.
 
Well I think that stems from the confusion over whether it's allowed or not. If Rob is right than there are a lot of uninformed people wearing a uniform enforcing it. My other thought that occured to me is that if it is an FDA violation to have baby food, or whatever in the Food Service cars, what about all the resturants that allow it? I mean technically there are numerous businesses that should be getting written up for this sort of thing, what about them?
 
Let's just settle this once and for all.

Where's the FDA CFR reference?

The logical assumption here is that if a FDA regulation concerning foodstuffs on passenger trains exists, it would have to be somewhere in the CFR.
 
I'll settle this now! Consuming personal food in the lounge car and dining car is prohibited due to Amtrak policy! I am sure there are some misinformed employees. But the "policy" is what it is, and passengers will have to deal with it whether they like it or not! Some employees will be lax and let it go, and others will enforce it. If a manager is on the train, then it falls on them. The conductor can have a say regarding this too, as they are in charge of the train and its operation!

The FDA rule states personal food is not to be stored, heated, or consumed within the food service area of the car. This means no baby formulas warmed in microwaves or convection ovens, or other passenger and employee meals stored in the frig or freezer. And yes I have seen plenty of violations on the part of employees with their own food as well as passengers. I have to admit I have given passengers hot water for things such as "Cup of Noodles" among other things. Hope this clears it up as I don't really see why this is such a big deal with so many passengers and people in other industries. It is either a yes or no at the time the customer asks for what they want! "So what" if they did it last time! Deal with it if they don't this time! This is the case eveywhere not just at Amtrak. OBS...
 
Midland Valley said:
The wife and I had the privilege of riding the City of New Orleans on Jan 2 from Chicago to Memphis with a roomette. We had dinner at around 8:30 PM. The meal we both had was the Chicken breast, with potatoes, beans and a salad. It was very tasty. We both enjoyed the meal. If this is the wave of the future, I think we can live very well with it. The "china" was plastic however.
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This was similar to my experience (while on vacation) on the "Cascades" service between Vancouver and SEA. I thought is was well presented and summed it up as "this" will be the wave of the future for food service on Amtrak systemwide! And "trainboy" agreed with me immediately. OBS...
 
OBS,

From what I hear the Capital and the Sunset will be getting these meals very soon. We're lucky this will be the food service of the future and not hopsital Style Food. Thank You OBS for settling the food Lounge Food Service debate.
 
But if you have food in the same type of package that amtrak sells in the lounge car they will have a hard time catching you.Example pepsi cans are the same everywhere and so are bags of potato chips.On the empire builder i have went into the stations at St paul,Minot or Havre and bought snacks out of the vending machines and carried them back on the train and enjoyed them.Havre has great ice cream and St paul has almost any kind of snack that you would want including sandwiches and milk.Also the stations in Washington DC Boston,Newyork and Chicago have good food courts.I like the popcorn at Chicago union station.I always carry a box on the train.

How i save money

Large hershey bar 99 cents at our target $2.75 at the movies

20 0z drink $1.09 at target $3.00 at the movies

popcorn medium bag 99 cents at target $4.00 at the movies

Cookies at target food ave 3 for $1.09

hotdog and coke at target food ave $2.00 try to get a coke and hotdog at the movies or on amtrak for 2 bucks!
 
Oh by the way i work at target so i know the prices.Ours is not a super target but i can get enough snacks and food to keep me fed on the train.
 
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