For those of you on here who asked me to post my experience with Amtrak's new Simplified Dining Service (SDS) system in the dining cars during my cross-country trip last week, here's the meal-by-meal rundown:



Dinner 18MAR06 (Train 29, The Capitol Limited)

I was seated in 2nd of 3 coaches. The coach attendant walked through the
train to take reservations between Rockville and Harper's Ferry. By the
time she enters the 2nd coach, she only has 2 seats left at 7:15 PM, and 4
seats left at 8:00 PM. They run out of seats just as she gets to my seat,
and I'm not even halfway through the coach section of the train. She
pencils me and the person next to me in for 8:30, as she mentions possibly
being able to coax the dining car staff into having an 8:30 seating given
the three coaches on tonight's train.

Around 8 PM, I walk through coaches trying to find the coach attendant, to
see if they did or did not open up another seating for dinner in the diner.
She cannot be found, so I ask the other coach attendant. The other coach
attendant tells me my coach attendant is actually IN the diner, and that I
should check there.

Train departs the Cumberland smoke stop at 8:10 PM. An announcement is made
for "last call for dinner in the diner." Myself and the passenger sitting
next to me in coach go there. As we enter the car, a dining car employee
(not my coach attendant) was overheard bad-mouthing the new SDS system to
other crew. We are seated, and our coach attendant takes our order.
Seatmate and I order Ravioli. We are asked to sit on the same side of the
table, because others were expected to be seated at our table as well, but
no one else was assigned our table.

The salad was good, no real difference than in the past--the dressing is
pre-packaged now but I like packaged dressing. Bread was okay, but not as
fresh as in the past--a little soggy. This actually happened a couple times
with the bread throughout the trip, but not always. Ravioli was a little
different in past. I recall there being mixed fruits (cut string beans and
carrots steamed), but those have been replaced by a choice of carrots or
broccoli. I ordered the broccoli. Broccoli was extremely tender, which I
personally liked. Ravioli was tougher than in the past, but the sauce was
good. Plastic plates were noticeable, but definitely several cuts above
disposable plastic plates you'd find in a supermarket. Flatware now has the
Amtrak logo on it, which seemed classy. My seatmate also commented
similarly about food-tough ravioli, soft broccoli.

Long time passes before we get attendant's attention again to order dessert
(20 minutes or so). We order dessert, which was the last food served in the
diner for the entire dinner period (9:15 PM or so). Dessert ordered was
cheesecake with whipped cream and strawberry topping. Not bad, no big
difference than in the past--and it was pretty good in the past just like
now. My dining car/coach attendant was very courteous and professional when
we had her attention.

Another dining car attendant came by and calculated bill with calculator at
table. $16.50. I gave $20 and left the change on the table, the staff
appeared heavily burdened despite only a few tables being occupied.

Breakfast 19MAR06 (Train 29, the Capitol Limited)

Announcement made shortly after 6:30 AM EST that the car was open for
business. I went around 8:00 AM EST/7:00 AM CST. Was seated promptly next
to a woman and her daughter traveling on the way back to Iowa from
Washington. Ordered the Bob Evans Breakfast Scramble. I thought it tasted
pretty good, though I had never had one before the trip so I had nothing to
compare it to. I really liked how I could have cut fruit, eggs/meat
scrambled, and french toast all together in one meal. I also ordered some
orange juice. The juice was fine, but the new SDS plastic glass for the OJ
(which I saw on later trains as being used to serve wine) is a lot smaller,
meaning I got a lot less OJ than in the past. I didn't care as I had
changed into a sleeper during the night and did not thus have to pay for the
meal, but if I were a coach passenger paying for a serving of orange juice
that small, I would care. I was waited on by the same person who introduced
herself as my coach attendant earlier in the trip. Only a couple tables
used in the diner at a time, same as with dinner last night.

Dinner 19MAR06 (Train 21, the Texas Eagle)

Made my reservation around 4 PM for the 7:15 PM seating. Went to the lounge
car at 7:10, and around 7:15, peeked into the diner to see what was going
on. The LSA said he didn't call 7:15 yet but could seat me. He knew who I
was, by name, just from seeing I was a party of one and sitting alone-which
I thought was pretty impressive.

Ended up being seated with a single female traveler
(Flint-Chicago-Longview-Houston), and two brothers traveling to San Antonio,
one from Chicago and the other from I believe it was New York. I ordered
the Chicken Parmesan, which comes with mashed potato. The salad was good as
always. The mashed potato was also good, but the chicken parmesean wasn't a
big hit--the chicken was tough, but I think it was more that the cut of
chicken was very thick for the sauce, and that if the chicken were thinner,
and spread out over more of the plate with the sauce on top, it would've
tasted better. I ordered the chocolate cake for dessert. It was very rich,
and very delicious. As on the Capitol Limited, sometimes it would take a
long time to get the server's attention, but the two servers seemed very
cheery and created a great atmosphere in the car--when you did have their
attention, you got great service.

Breakfast 20MAR06 (Train 21, the Texas Eagle)

Had the Western Omelet, with pork sausage patties. Sausage was identical,
if not even richer, than old under the old dining system--and that's pretty
good. Omelet was okay-nothing to write home about, but not bad. I did not
recall omelets on the old menu, so nothing to really compare to other than
Dad's home cooking (which is a tall order!). I think my vote may be
influenced by the fact that I don't particularly like peppers, which it had
a lot of, but oh well. It wasn't bad. Had both O.J. and milk with it. The
hash browns were good.

Lunch 20MAR06 (Train 21, the Texas Eagle)

Had the Angus Cheeseburger. Lots of meat. Not a lot of anything else. No
lettuce, no tomato, no onions, etc. Others around me at table didn't seem
to appreciate it, but I usually am indifferent as to whether or not there is
lettuce or tomato. They did have pickles, and I am a pickle fiend, so that
was good. I personally found the burger to be good. Not spectacular, but
not McDonalds. However, I can see where people who don't like it could make
a point. They should at least offer lettuce and tomato, keep them in a
fridge, and if people request it, put it on the sandwich. But that's for
other people, not me. I thought it was pretty good.

Dinner 20MAR06 (Train 21, the Texas Eagle)

Had the Cheese Tortellini. It was alright, nothing to write home about, but
not bad.

I should point out that the Texas Eagle (19MAR06)'s dining car staff, Gerard
and I think the other guy's name was J.R. or something, were the best I have
had in 120+ trips on Amtrak.

Breakfast 21MAR06 (Train 1, the Sunset Limited)

Had the Railroad French Toast for breakfast. Taste was good--no real
noticeable difference over the french toast of old. Breakfast sausage
patties were as great as they always have been. Service was fine, though
the dining car attendant began to raise her voice at another passenger at my
table, who was from Australia and couldn't easily understand the difference
between sausage patties and links. This attendant was courteous at other
times, so it appeared that was an isolated incident.

I did order a milk with breakfast, and it was obvious it had been frozen,
because it still had some bits of ice still in it. The milk itself tasted
good, so even though it was frozen, I honestly wouldn't have been able to
tell the difference had the milk been allowed to defrost a little while
longer before serving.

Lunch 21MAR06 (Train 1, the Sunset Limited)

Had the pizza. Pizza was good, had lots of toppings, and was a good size.
Had milk again to go with it, only a little ice in the milk this time.

Dinner 21MAR06 (Train 1, the Sunset Limited)

Tonight I decided to go for the gold and get the braised beef. While many
have complained about this being a poor substitute for the steaks of the
past, I thought it was actually pretty good--the best dinner out of all the
ones I had by far. I found it to be really, really tender, and thus easy to
cut. Other passengers who have been at my table for various dinner periods
throughout the trip also found this to be the most tender beef they have
ever had, and even praised the meal for it. Mashed potatoes weren't bad
either. No complaints here. One person at my table heard a rumor they were
going to bring back the steaks, and he was looking forward to that if it
were true, but the SDS braised beef, for a beef dinner, appears to be pretty
good.

Breakfast 22MAR06 (Train 1, the Sunset Limited)

Had the Southwestern Quiche, which is both a breakfast and a lunch menu
item. Came with a croissant and breakfast potatoes. The croissant was
fresh and hot, and so soft it was hard to cut to put butter in, but that's a
good thing! I had the pre-SDS quiche, and didn't taste too much of a
difference. The person sitting across from me had the French toast, and
said he wouldn't have realized it was pre-cooked if he hadn't been told.
Milk had barely any ice in it this morning. All in all not a bad breakfast!

Overall:

As a frequent Amtrak passenger, I would say the difference between the
previous full-service dining and Simplified Dining Service is small, but
there. If the old dining service, on a scale of 1 to 10, was an 8.5, this
would be about a 7. Many of the items I could not taste a difference
between (quiche, salads, French toast, breakfast sausage, etc.). Others,
like the cheeseburger, and the icy milk, could be made vastly better with a
few simple, low-or-no-cost modifications-pre-cut, refrigerated lettuce and
tomato, storing milk in the fridge and not the freezer, that kind of stuff.
Other meals, like the braised beef, were pretty good, just vastly different
than the meals they replaced. I could tell Amtrak was doing their best with
plastic plates and disposable tablecloths, they are definitely a cut above
the plastic plates you'd find at a barbecue, but the cups really look cheap,
and may want to be re-considered (even if it's still plastic, maybe some
higher-quality, and larger sizes). The crews, while smaller, were still, in
most cases, great-especially the crew of the Texas Eagle leaving Chicago
19MAR06, and Vinnie on the Sunset Limited. Even my coach
attendant-turned-dining car staff on the Capitol Limited, was very courteous
and professional.

I hope that, if Amtrak must make the SDS program permanent, they closely
monitor it, and continuously improve it. As mentioned earlier, it appeared
that some big improvements could be made with some simple changes.
Hopefully these simple changes could be done sooner, rather than later. If
the program, after modifications, is successful, hopefully it will allow
Amtrak to expand lower-cost SDS full dining service to some of the longer
trains which currently only have cafe service (i.e. the Cardinal, Palmetto,
Vermonter, Carolinian, Adirondack, Maple Leaf, Pennsylvanian, etc.), where
it would be a big improvement over what they have now.