No they do provide a different roll in first class.
It's not anything to write home about but it certainly does the job.
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London North Eastern Railway (LNER) First Class service
- Thread starter MidnightFlyer
- Start date
It's not anything to write home about but it certainly does the job.
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Christmas Menu is out and with the exception of some unexplained 'Christmas Ketchup' is not Christmassy at all
11 December to 6 January.
11 December to 6 January.
Butts
Veteran Member
297 Calories so could you manage a second and more importantly should it be offered ?
Discuss223
Member
I don't see why the menu must be reduced to scrooge servings for Christmas, especially for a whole month. Perhaps they need a new rosterer if it's that difficult to juggle holidays. And I have heard the reasoning that services become busier in December, so the menu needs to be simplified, but I don't see why that should mean the current lousy offering that's to be introduced. A hotpot, vegan salad for those who only eat "made without" and a choice of meat sandwiches with some festivities like mince pies thrown in would work and most of that could be offered from the trolley, perfect for busy services. It does feel like LNER essentially use the festive season as an opportunity to save money. Their counterparts CrossCountry and EMR don't do this.
duffield
Established Member
EMR 1st hosts definitely have a more consistently pleasant attitude in my experience, and they are always very quick out of the trap when leaving London, and typically even make a quick refreshment round on leaving Leicester for Nottingham (the last 20-odd minutes of the journey), where LNER would have stopped service much earlier in a similar journey like Kings Cross to Leeds. And some of the LNER staff really do come across as a bit brusque or "can't be bothered".
Merle Haggard
Established Member
I join at Kettering to travel Down and almost always receive attention before Harborough, certainly by Leicester (a few seem to wait until Harborough, and then serve both), and they are always cheerful. Of course, they also check tickets. I did engage in conversation with a T.M. once about the generally friendly atmosphere and the reason she gave was that the on-train teams were all nice people to work with (and a hint that further up the tree that wasn't the case, but there didn't need to be much interaction...). Christmas on E.M.R. is marked (since last Wednesday at least) by festive designs on the paper napkins, everything else unchanged.
Regarding East Coast; I travelled frequently in the dog days of H.S.Ts and 91s.One interesting phenomena seemed to occur on the all-stations York trains, where there was a change of crew (on the Down) at Doncaster. Sometimes, the new crew would meet the old with high fives and hugs but their enthusiasm then evaporated completely, chatting in a group and making no attempt at further service, not even drinks.
Travelling quite recently Up from York on an (admittedly full-ish) weekday afternoon service that originated from Scotland I found a vacant seat at a table for 4; two passengers sat opposite, no-one else my side. My side of the table remained covered by a mound of discarded packaging to KX, and the drinks trolley passed too fast to attract attention. When I finally did so by insistence (3rd pass) the crew seemed to begrudge me even having a coffee and there was certainly no offer of food. My usual experience of East Coast has been joining at the origin, where that situation doesn't arise, and crews in that case have been of a good and friendly standard.
Nice friendly Scottish crew on the 1659 Newcastle to York this evening - crew came through almost immediately to take orders and offer cold drinks - aroma of Rogan Josh is already wafting through as we pass Durham!
duffield
Established Member
Yes, got offered service cheerfully, travelling from Leicester to Nottingham again today even though it's nearly the end of the journey from London.
Full time catering host £28077 advertised on website now.For £17 an hour I can be very professional and courteous, always think of the money.
Butts
Veteran Member
Now if it had been a second bacon roll that would have been something !!
Discuss223
Member
Does anyone know if they plan on introducing a different menu for the York-Newcastle short workings coming in to service as per the December timetable change? I looked at the First Class section of lner.co.uk but couldn't see anything. Thank you, Discuss223.
Scotrail314209
Established Member
I wonder if due to the short journey time these services won’t have catering at all. No First Class menu comes up when I try to book a First Class advance via the LNER app.
I’d imagine if there is any catering it’ll be sandwiches and cold drinks only in First Class, because by the time they get started with a full service it’ll be time to finish up.
Discuss223
Member
I'd hope they'd be able to serve the Deli menu at least, as most of that is served direct from the trolley. They don't need much encouragement to slimline the service offered e.g. the "Festive" menu etc.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
- Joined
- 28 Feb 2011
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- 10,544
Is it just me getting an empty page when you click on the festive menu on the website? I was trying to find out exactly what's on it as I'm now doing a journey with lner in first from Edinburgh to the cross Saturday the 14th and basically needed to decide how substantial or otherwise my packed lunch needs to be
I know I'll get a decent amount of tea and coffee and probably a semi-decent quantity of wine or whisky but in terms of food to soak this up with....
I know I'll get a decent amount of tea and coffee and probably a semi-decent quantity of wine or whisky but in terms of food to soak this up with....
Not an empty page for me - try this link - https://www.lner.co.uk/globalassets/christmas-menu-2024-fc.pdf
Hot buttered (after I'd buttered them) crumpets on the 18:02 York to King's Cross today. Made a change from the rest of the variations on sandwich that are on the Deli Menu. Plus other people had them on my last Deli train, and they smelled nice when the host walked past me with them. Got given a choice between Lurpak and Flora, also jam (which I didn't expect because it's not on the menu). Chose Lurpak
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Egg Centric
Established Member
*Lurpak Spreadable and Flora
It's not quite as egregious as the "orange juice" which is at least still an orange juice of sorts (rather than an orange juice drink) - just a slightly watered down one. At least it doesn't have sweetener in it. The apple juice is fine.
And of course by using pepsi they have no sweetener free (yet sweet) soft drinks other than the above. I usually cannot drink booze on my LNER journeys and stick to the tea / sparkling water so this isn't a big deal but if I wanted coke and whisky I'd be fuming.
These penny pinching ingredients give a poor impression though. I also find it amusing boasting about warburtons crumpets - it's like boasting about hovis bread!
Blindtraveler
Established Member
- Joined
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- Messages
- 10,544
To be fair, the warburtons crumpets are some of the best out there, but nonetheless I agree
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Completely agree.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Christmas Ketchup has me howling
Egg Centric
Established Member
Christmas Ketchup has me howling
It means instead of red tomatos they're rudolf's red nose tomatoes, and instead of spirit vinegar it's spirit of xmas past vinegar. Also it's ten times the price and has an expiry date of boxing day.
Strat-tastic
Established Member
Sprout ketchup, more like 
Why on earth would you ask for seconds? Would you ask for two starters, or two main courses in a restaurant, for example?
If you’re brazen enough to do so, the answer will depend on the person serving you, and whether they like you or not. However it seems a strange question to ask, and an even stranger one to consider “the greatest outstanding issue” regarding LNER first class.
I strongly suspect “can I have seconds” is a question the vast majority of LNER first class passengers would never dream of asking in the first place, the answer to which will vary, and won’t trouble the organisation either way.
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In a restaurant, you'd be paying for what you've ordered. If you're going to pay for two of the same course, I have no doubt they'd serve it to you!
Of course they would. But that isn’t quite what we’re discussing in the context of LNER, because the catering offering specifically isn’t linked to the fare paid. It’s more like paying for a tasting menu/set menu in a restaurant and then asking for doubles on one of the courses.
I realise there’s no perfect comparison, and that people will try and justify why it’s acceptable to ask for more, how it’s utterly outrageous if they aren’t given it etc., so I won’t derail the thread by continuing debate it. I’ll simply observe that I’d personally be embarrassed to do so, and I’d worry I was putting the staff member concerned into an awkward position.
I don’t work for LNER, but it I was the member of staff giving out the food, I’d also deny any such request on principle!
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Egg Centric
Established Member
(An earlier version of this post was deleted but I assume it was because of missing the context of what I'm responding to)
A better analogy is airport lounges imo. They're generally unlimited food/booze. That's what first class is competing with.
(Having said that I've never personally asked for more on a train - I usually say no thank you to more than tea and juice - but my relative lack of usage of the facilities ought to be @Butts 's gain imo! )
At a two Michelin star restaurant near Milan I visited, the selection of bread was replenished if finished. I've also been offered more of a couple of courses at a one Michelin star restaurant in Vienna.
I can understand denying it because you think that there may not be enough, but I don't understand the principle.
I've had enough LNER journeys where food has been unavailable or there's been none left of any of the options I can eat. That doesn't get anything more than a brief apology and shrug of the shoulders.