Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip – Part 5: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner in the Dining Car and Parlour Car
If you like looking at pictures of food, this post is just for you. First things first, you need a reservation for lunch and dinner in the dining car and the parlour car. Both restaurants are in adjoining cars and serve different meals. You need to make a reservation otherwise you will not be able to eat at either restaurant. The Amtrak attendant will walk through the parlour and sleeping cars and make reservations for everyone.
The dining car has 16-18 tables while the parlour car has only 8 tables (so the parlour car reservations fill up faster).
Here is the menu for the dining car, divided into each meal. Lunch and dinner come with a dessert and beverage. Alcohol costs extra. For each meal, I always tipped $5, since the price of the meals is included in the cost of the Amtrak ticket. Breakfast does not require a reservation, just show up when you get hungry.
When you sit down at a table, they will hand you a receipt. Just sign your name on the bottom and list your room and train car number.
Lunch 1: bread roll with butter, salad with many dressing options, ginger ale, cooked chicken on mashed potatoes, and orange sherbet for dessert. Chicken was excellent, salad was excellent, bread roll was pretty good, and sherbet was sour. Good meal!
Dinner 1: salad with many dressing options, tender short-rib with couscous rice and green beans, hot tea and vanilla ice cream for dessert. Salad was excellent, short-rib was amazing, couscous was great, green beans meh, and ice cream was more like a vanilla milkshake. Very good dinner.
My travel companion, Victor, had a salmon salad and a bread roll. He really liked the salad. For dessert, he had a chocolate bunt cake which was exceptional!
Breakfast 1: hot oatmeal, croissant, Greek yogurt, 2 slices of orange, a slice of grapefruit, and hot tea. The oatmeal was meh, croissant was great, yogurt was great and the fruit was kind of sour. Pretty good breakfast.
Victor had an omelet, biscuit, and potato wedges along with hot tea and orange juice. He thought the food was really good.
Lunch 2: chicken Caesar salad, bread roll, hot tea, and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. This was an overall great meal, I loved the dessert!
Dinner 2: repeat of dinner 1 above with a small salad, bread roll, short-rib with couscous and green beans, and chocolate bunt cake for dessert. I loved it yesterday and I loved it again tonight. Short-ribs are awesome!
If you have any questions regarding meals, please leave a question below. I will write a final blog post tomorrow morning/afternoon summarizing my thoughts on the whole Amtrak journey. Stay tuned!
Long-distance train travel with private rooms and pampered dining in old Canadian Pacific Pullman cars were fabulous in the old days on the now-departed Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico and it’s good to let your readers know about their joys. But it has to be said that a five-day post on a two-day trip is jumping the shark.
No it doesn’t have to be said. Troll disrespecting.
@Eusticetilley – I disagree – I’ve been enjoying the posts.
Fun read, Grant! Thanks for the report. Now I know I have to try a long-distance train trip. :)
Good morning MJ, I’m glad I was able to inspire you to look into taking a long distance train ride.
Haha told you the food was good, and that the desserts were very calorie dense! Way better than airplane food :)
I was very impressed by the food in general. I like that they have a few options and that all of them taste very good. I really enjoyed the desserts :)
Grant,
Great post, I have a couple things to add.
We went from SD all the way up to Vancouver(same price). The train trip between Seattle and Vancouver is absolutely beautiful. Pro tip – try to stay overnight in Seattle on the way up as you have to take a bus to cross the border going north which drops you at the terminal in Vancouver quite late at night. Also there was complimentary wine tasting on our trip(maybe you will cover later). The wine was good and included snacks as well as some stories about the particular producers.
When we boarded in LA they brought mini bottles of sparkling wine to each cabin. One of the other nice elements of train travel is if it is busy you have to sit with other people at meals(if it’s just the two persons) so you meet some interesting people.
Thanks for the posts!
Great advice James, yes, I saw you could do YVR-SEA and then SEA-LAX (Coast Starlight) and then LAX-SAN (Pacific Surfliner). That sounds like an interesting ride. They stopped free wine tasting on Coast Starlight, but offer 3 glasses of various wines for $7.50/person. I did not participate in the tastings, but a few other passengers did and they liked the wines. Yes, during breakfast and lunch, we sat with other couples. Great conversations ensued and laughter was shared. What other Amtrak journeys have you been on?
That was my first long distance Amtrak trip. I have of course done way too many EWR-ZFV trips as part of MRs on UA. It would be fun to go cross country.
Yes it would be fun to go across the country, but the Amtrak zone based chart makes it pricey. It’s too bad their chart isn’t distance based like the British Airways chart.
If your dinner was at 12:15PM (according to the dinner reservation slip), then when was lunch?
They use the same forms for lunch and dinner reservations. Sorry for the confusion.
Can you order as much food as you want? Such as breakfast with getting 2-3 sides? Or possibly get 2 entrees like on cruises?
I believe it is only 1 meal per person. If you want more food, you will have to pay for it. The prices are not great, but you don’t really have many options.
Hi – just came upon your post – my daughter and I are planning a cross country train trip next year. She will be 12 so she pays the child rate. We are thinking of getting a roomette which includes meals. Do you know if she will only be able to choose from the child’s menu? Thank you! Great posts!
She can order off the adults menu as well. Have a great trip.
You can’t eat in your room? As don’t like dining with strangers?
You might be able to get your food to go or you can pay for food in the snack car and take that back to your room. Meeting other passengers is fun though.
Your car attendant will bring your meals to you if you so request. Tip the attendant per meal, or factor that service in when you (I hope) tip the attendant at the end of the trip.
Cash tips are always appropriate in the dining car; the usual is $2.00 per person (US) at breakfast and lunch, and $3.00 at dinner, again more if some special service is performed.
(And no, I’m not a car attendant or waiter, nor am I related to one…)
Good tipping advice, thank you Don. I am overdue for my next Amtrak trip :)
Is there any difference between dining in the parlor car vs dining car?
I believe the menus differ between the dining car and parlor car. There is also more seating in the dining car than the parlor car.