WASHINGTON — Amtrak has introduced a new Café menu on its Northeast Corridor and long-distance trains, featuring more menu options, new hot meals, and more vegan offerings.
The new menu debuted Wednesday, Aug. 17.
At the same time, the company is reducing prices for sandwiches and salads on Acela and Northeast Regional trains by 50 cents to $1.50; prices have remained the same for a majority of food and beverage items.
New items include a Bialy egg sandwich on the breakfast menu; a smoked turkey and haverti sandwich; a vegan Asian noodle bowl, and a blue corn vegan tamale. New beverages include pomegranate juice and new hot and iced coffee selections.
“Making changes to our menu based on customer feedback reflects Amtrak’s commitment to enhancing their travel experience, as passengers know we are listening to their requests for improvement,” Amtrak Vice President Operations & Customer Services Robert Jordan said in a press release. “In this time of rising costs, we are proud to offer our customers high-quality items on our menu at reduced prices.”
Full menus and more information are available at this page at the Amtrak website.
I live more than 100 miles from NYC now but at one time I lived in the Bronx, and I don’t know what a Bialy is. I think my wife made something once that she called Stromboli. As I remember the dog loved my portion.
The National, NEC and Cafe Acela menus are all different. NEC and Cafe Acela are more expensive than National.
How many people more than 100 miles from NY know what a Bialy is?
How many people more than 100 miles from South Philadelphia know what a stromboli is?
Amtrak still refuses to provide coach riders nationwide and business class as well with anything approaching what this press release calls an entree. Although never as good as cooked to order meal, frozen for reheating food can now be quite passable—see the Acela First offering. Even the deplorable Fresh and Contemporary eastern diner options are vast improvements over this menu of horrible microwave burgers and breakfast sandwiches touted here.
Could Amtrak finally offer a choice of two or three actual hot entrees (main course with vegetable/starch sides) to non sleeper riders? They keep “improving” the cafe car menus by adding more of the same sandwich fare.
I just spent two mostly very nice days Chicago to Portland on the Empire Builder in a sleeper and thus had access to proper meals. But the coach essentially all sandwich lounge offering was really quite bad.
An offer to coach customers on a two-day journey of an eastern diner “Fresh and Contemporary”plated omelet breakfast entree and a lunch/dinner entree like the F&C braised beef would have really calmed the waters with the disappointment shown at every meal by coach passengers when they were (politely) asked to leave the diner.
This announcement is a huge disappointment. Truly a new breakfast sandwich is no substitute for a properly plated meal, even one heated in a microwave.
But above all this highlights the imperative to get coach riders back into the diners. The railroads including Amtrak always did that. This must be a first goal in the restaffing of on board service positions.
Amen, I could not agree more!
Pancakes as were made in the late 1990s with pure unadulterated maple syrup should be restored to the breakfast menu in dining cars.
Now, if they’d just provide more in the menu for people who need to be gluten-free and people who need to be lactose (milk)-free, then they’d have really done something. Vegan is a very easy modification.
Vegan includes lactose-free, as best as I understand.