Dining on LSL

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Jim G.

Service Attendant
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
243
Location
Lincoln, Illinois
I'd appreciate some info on dining options (roomette) on the Lake Shore Limited #49 westbound from New York Penn to Chicago. The Amtrak site was incomplete and other sites were 4/5 yrs. old. Thanks you.
 
If you have looked at the menu on line for the LSL, you'll see only one page of it. This has been a problem for several weeks now, and no one at Amtrak seems to be aware of it. OTOH, if you look at a menu on one train, you're pretty much looking at menu on all of them. Try calling up the Empire Builder menu which was recently rectified by the good IT folks at Amtrak.com.
 
The Capitol Limited menu may be very similar, if not the same, as what is offered on the LSL.

https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/160/906/Capitol-Limted-Dining-Car-Menu-1115.pdf

Café/Lounge food cost is not included in the cost of your roomette.

If you prefer, instead of taking your meals in the Dining car your TA-S will take your meal order and bring it to your roomette.

Dining car meals are included with the cost of your roomette. So dining car meals are in effect pre-paid and not 'free'.

Side dishes, non-alcoholic beverages, and desert are also included.

You're not restricted to just one beverage. I usually have coffee and orange juice with breakfast. Sometimes I have milk too.

I tip my server based on the service and the $$ value of the meal.

Some people tip on a flat rate - say $3 for breakfast or lunch and $5 for dinner.

Unlike regular restaurant servers, servers on Amtrak trains get paid a much higher wage thanks to the railroad unions.

Meal times vary somewhat by train route but:

Breakfast - 6:30 am to 10 am

Lunch - 11:30 am - 3 pm

Dinner - 5 pm - 9:30 pm.

https://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1248539615772
 
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Even though there are menus listed for each train, every LD train has the same menu. So if you don't see all 6 pages listed for the LSL, just look at the menu for the CZ or SWC or SM or ...!

Sleeping car passengers have meals in the Dining Car included. This includes for breakfast an entree, side of meat (bacon or sausage) and beverage. (Juice is included for all diners.) For lunch and dinner, it includes an entree, side salad (upon request), roll, non-alcoholic beverage and desert. Lounge/café purchases are not included in the "included meals"! (Example: you want a cheeseburger with chips and a soda for lunch. If you order a meal of those items for lunch in the Dining Car, it's included and you pay $-0-. If you order those same things from the lounge/café, it is not included and you must pay $xx!)
 
It seems "Page 2" of the menu is missing from most of the individual train sites. Perhaps Amtrak is in the middle of the much rumored/speculated major "overhaul" of the Long Distance Dining Car food service. Only menu left where I found the Amtrak Steak was the Coast Starlight.
 
It seems "Page 2" of the menu is missing from most of the individual train sites. Perhaps Amtrak is in the middle of the much rumored/speculated major "overhaul" of the Long Distance Dining Car food service. Only menu left where I found the Amtrak Steak was the Coast Starlight.
That's hilarious. Good bye Steak Island™? What will the Amtrak food fans rally behind now? The precooked burgers? The overcooked pasta? The emergency rations?

dintymoore.jpg
 
It seems "Page 2" of the menu is missing from most of the individual train sites. Perhaps Amtrak is in the middle of the much rumored/speculated major "overhaul" of the Long Distance Dining Car food service. Only menu left where I found the Amtrak Steak was the Coast Starlight.
I found the steak on the Capitol Limited's menu earlier today and just now. And checking others now - CZ, EB, SM, and SWC.

The menus missing the 2nd page are: Crescent, LSL, SL, TE. I'm going to notify them of these 4.
 
It's annoying that some glitch has prevented page 2 on some Amtrak menus from being posted.

However for the LSL this should not be a problem, since the menu for the Capitol Ltd is the same and page 2 of that menu is posted here: https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/160/906/Capitol-Limted-Dining-Car-Menu-1115.pdf

Without being able to compare the two menus I'm not going to SWEAR that they are identical, but I think they are, and page 1 appears to be the same for both. Amtrak just changes the cover.

More to the point, I took the CL CHI-WAS and the LSL NYP-CHI last month and I remember similar menus. I had steak for dinner on the CL and the crab-shrimp cakes for dinner on the LSL. Breakfast for me is always continental. I hope this helps.
 
You're not restricted to just one beverage. I usually have coffee and orange juice with breakfast. Sometimes I have milk too.
Can you order/request a second soda during a meal, now too?
In the past when traveling Sleeper I've never had trouble ordering a second can, usually for the road.
Careful,the nickel and dime Bean Counters @ 60 Mass and the mica-managers up the street will hold hearings as to why Amtrak Sleeping Car Passengers are being wined and dined like Royalty!
 
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I wonder what would happen if you asked for a second meal, declaring you were still hungry? I was offered a second meal on Acela last month when the attendant asked me how I liked the chicken I ordered and I told him it was fine but I thought the portions were very small. I really was surprised when he offered me another full meal. The portions served on the Acela really do seem much smaller than anything you get in the regular dining car.

I'm still surprised about the unlimited alcohol policy in Acela First Class. I watched several Brooks Bros. Business Suit types attempt to drink the price of their ticket between PVD and NYP. Even in my youth I could never bolt drinks down like that and then be able to stand up and walk...........
 
You're not restricted to just one beverage. I usually have coffee and orange juice with breakfast. Sometimes I have milk too.
Can you order/request a second soda during a meal, now too?
In the past when traveling Sleeper I've never had trouble ordering a second can, usually for the road.
Careful,the nickel and dime Bean Counters @ 60 Mass and the mica-managers up the street will hold hearings as to why Amtrak Sleeping Car Passengers are being wined and dined like Royalty!
Those nickel and dimers at 60 Mass have put it in writing that one is allowed two soft beverages at no cost IF in Sleeping Accommodations..

I wonder what would happen if you asked for a second meal, declaring you were still hungry? I was offered a second meal on Acela last month when the attendant asked me how I liked the chicken I ordered and I told him it was fine but I thought the portions were very small. I really was surprised when he offered me another full meal. The portions served on the Acela really do seem much smaller than anything you get in the regular dining car.

I'm still surprised about the unlimited alcohol policy in Acela First Class. I watched several Brooks Bros. Business Suit types attempt to drink the price of their ticket between PVD and NYP. Even in my youth I could never bolt drinks down like that and then be able to stand up and walk...........
If you were going just between PVD and NYP then you're in all terms entitled to one meal. If you go past NYP a second meal is calling you. Unless you were on 2173 or 2175.. I have been on 2173 plenty of times and it doesn't really fill up at NYP like others do. So I would guess 2175 is the same way. In which case you can get away with that.
 
If you want a second meal in a DINING car, you will pay for it. In First Class, it is more up to discretion of the attendant and meal/passenger counts. In FC, you can have 40 pax and NO one eats and you can have 40 pax and everyone eats. Thus sometimes there is plenty of leftover cooked food and sometimes not...
 
If you want a second meal in a DINING car, you will pay for it. In First Class, it is more up to discretion of the attendant and meal/passenger counts. In FC, you can have 40 pax and NO one eats and you can have 40 pax and everyone eats. Thus sometimes there is plenty of leftover cooked food and sometimes not...
Do they actually cook the food on Acela or is this just a typo? ;)
 
In FC it is not cooked but rather heated. The food is prepared at the airport catering kitchens in the 3 base cities and transported to the commissaries. Strictly heat and eat.

However, at end of day, all food that was heated is trashed. That is why an attendant may be willing to serve extra meal if (s)he knows it will go to waste anyway...
 
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Just came off the lsl on Sunday. We left nyp 40 minutes late, holding for passengers on the late # 20. They opened the diner early, right on departure from nyp. I normally wait for dinner after Albany, but changed it up opting for an earlier dinner , watching the semi frozen Hudson river and her barge and freighter traffic.

We pulled diner # 8505, a Budd built diner purchased by the northern Pacific in 1957. The menu was a typical Amtrak nationwide food fare. Steak, veggietarian, chicken and sea food. The services was great and food want bad either. Later that night I headed for the lounge for a night cap. The diner stopped me at the kitchen and offered to make my drink right their. A nice touch. I think last call call for the dinner was 9 pm. We arrived in Chicago on time . a good trip , great equipment and friendly staff.

Oh how I' ll miss those old Budds.
 
In the past when traveling Sleeper I've never had trouble ordering a second can, usually for the road.
Careful,the nickel and dime Bean Counters @ 60 Mass and the mica-managers up the street will hold hearings as to why Amtrak Sleeping Car Passengers are being wined and dined like Royalty!
Those nickel and dimers at 60 Mass have put it in writing that one is allowed two soft beverages at no cost IF in Sleeping Accommodations..
The same nickel and dimers that said there were no more AGR blackout days? :giggle:
 
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