favourite onboard catering offer

[RPI]

Yes, this may well be true, but when I last used the restaurant car on one of only two trains between Plymouth and Paddington that still offers this facility, there was not an empty seat remaining in there! Although this may be an isloated incident, does it help to prove that there is still demand for a high-quality (albeit pricey) full dining facility served in a relaxed and unhurried manner?
The "evening meal" served on Virgin Trains is just incomparable to a full restaurant, and I fear that this is what we will end up with on East Coast - crap food served as quickly as possible.

The two remaining Pullmans do quite well apparently! (up and down)

 

[route101]

Yes I think VT 1st are really good-friendly service and complimentary booze much appreciated after long day or week away with work! Although portion sizes less now-is there no on-board chefs on VT on the Evening Services.

What was the Intercity West Coast 1st Class service like in the late 80's and early 90's-was it silver service-better meals or same as VT-remember travelling in Standard as a child in those days and enjoying the burgers served from the buffet and even some of the sandwiches but the coffee was really good!

As for stations St. Pancras Champagne Bar has to be the best watching the Eurostars come in and out and also the Sir John Betjeman is good place to have relaxing drink.

In contrast KGX is not good-was there last week and there was nowhere to sit down and have lunch while waiting for train!


Has there ever been catering on Northern Trains-trolley service obviously-as there are some really long journeys there!

The XC catering should be brought up to standard of VT as it isn't good at all!

Does anyone recall a Burger King at Preston Station.

Also the bars and eating optionsat Manchester Piccadilly are good.

There is a Trolley on the Carlisle to Settle linebut its not Northern who provide it.
VTs hot brekkie has been downsized .
My fave is EC s Bacon Sarnie.

 

[yorksrob]

I must however compliment many tocs on there choice of qualitty booz these days, fabby!

I find this to be the case for East Anglia (Adnams), South Eastern (spitfire ale) and the local offering on Great Western (can't remember what it's called but it was decent) and of course Grand Central(old peculiar I think).

Unfortunately for most of the rest the choice of beer is generic and uninspiring.

 

[bnm]

On train, it would have to be the fillet steak on the FGW Pullmans.

At the station it would be the (now withdrawn) steak and stilton pasty from 'The Pasty Shop' outlets.

They still had them in Birmingham 11 days ago hock: Give me a Traditional Cornish Large anyday

Ooo really? The staff in The Pasty Shop outlet at Bristol Temples Meads told me the Steak and Stilton was withdrawn. Perhaps they meant it was just this outlet that had ceased stocking it. Time for a one-man campaign to get the Steak and Stilton back in Bristol. Off to send an email to SSP this very instance....

 

[scotsman]

SRPS Railtours - Free staff meals!

 

[bnm]

The two remaining Pullmans do quite well apparently! (up and down)

Four. Two up (1200, 1255 ex PLY) and two down (1803, 1903 ex PAD).

 

[Blindtraveler]

thanks to ainsworth74 for sharing the delights of EC's first class menue with us, i suppose its an improvement on the standard trollie. With trains getting shorter and with posters on another thread talking about limmited space for buffet etc on new Bi-mode iep, i wonder if the future of on train dining, with regards to hot snacks and full meals is cooking off train, making use of many redundant station buildings, bringing on board on hot trollies and serving? It would work I think - order your full English when boarding at Edinburgh, get your meal at newcastle. Thoughts?

This and this are the current menus in first class on XC (they rotate them every week). From what I'm told it's microwaved gruel and not particularly nice gruel at that.

 

[EltonRoad]

Four. Two up (1200, 1255 ex PLY) and two down (1803, 1903 ex PAD).

It's a good service. I used the 1903 from Pad recently, with a standard class ticket. Had to queue outside the restaurant car(s), and got the last seat. Food was excellent quality, bill came to about £30.

From what I was hearing the two evening services remain after a lot of affluent businessmen from the south west complained to FGW. The two lunchtime services are essentially positioning moves for the catering crew who are based in Plymouth.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Ooo really? The staff in The Pasty Shop outlet at Bristol Temples Meads told me the Steak and Stilton was withdrawn. Perhaps they meant it was just this outlet that had ceased stocking it. Time for a one-man campaign to get the Steak and Stilton back in Bristol. Off to send an email to SSP this very instance....

Think it was the 19th when I had one in Birmingham, maybe they just couldn't be bothered explaining otherwise as to why they didn't have them... for the record, it took me University-Bromsgrove on a 170 to eat, dunno why that's of any relevance. They had a new'un last night at the Pasty Shop at Euston - Sausage and Mash! Very nice too

 

[Bomber]

In the late 90's I occasionally had to travel from Preston to London at short notice, this was when you could still get a cheap return, £25, after I think it was 9.30. Coming back I was sometimes getting the return from Euston at around 4.30 onwards.
The trains were always full with no seats in second class, so I just used to head straight for the dining car, pay about £10 for an excellent meal, choice of steak with all the trimmings, or a fish dish or the cheapie, pasta.
Always excellent and it helped to pass the time, and you had a comfy seat.
Those were the days.....

 

[voyagerdude220]

VTs hot brekkie has been downsized .

What does it consist of now? I travelled on a breakfast Pendo towards the start of last month, and found the breakfast to now feature a small delicious black pudding, alongside the usual Bacon, Sausage, Tomato, Egg (scrambled in my case) and potato rosti- I thought the black pudding gave it a very nice edge.

As for my favourte catering offer..

Has to be by a long stretch.. the WAG!

I must admit I put off trying the WAG for several months, due to me not seeing £59 single between Cardiff and Crewe/Chester as worth it, but having sampled it in January IIRC, I've certainly changed my mind!

Everything from the Pate, to the fantastic stuffed chicken with Panceta, and the finishing apple pie went down a treat.

Even though it was far more expensive for the ticket (mostly down to the fact the WAG is the only train i've come across which you can't use a 16-25 railcard on an advance first ticket ) , I feel that it beats my 2nd place WSMR food offering. Third place would be Virgin- Certainly ok, but no where near as good as previously seen. Having said that, the current 'rolls' are extremely good, and noticeably filling for a sandwich- take note Cross Country!

As for the worst.. Cross Country by a considerable distance! It's only because they compete against VT on the Birmingham to Edinburgh services, that I ever use them.. I also find the way they try to 'hide' the food (i.e. don't usually offer it- you've got to specifically ask for it) very annoying.

This Monday, I bought a considerably expensive Virgin FC ticket for the Super Duper Voyager for the first time since the prices for FC on VT rocketed on the Birmingham to Scotland services a few years back, (£84 ish V £37.95 on Cross Country) and must say that I found the VT 221 to be extremely nice, far more superior to the Cross Country one, despite their only being myself and one other passenger almost all the way from Edinburgh to Birmingham! So much so, that I'd definately consider the ultra expensive VT option again in the future, if I fancied a longer run on a XC 220/ VT 221.

 

[ian13]

I highly recommend cream tea at Barnstaple station... (although you might have to deal with pacers to get there!)

 

[Blindtraveler]

is the pain worth the gain my friend? if so can see all the paser bshers all heading your way!

I highly recommend cream tea at Barnstaple station... (although you might have to deal with pacers to get there!)

 

[RPI]

Four. Two up (1200, 1255 ex PLY) and two down (1803, 1903 ex PAD).

Sorry, my post was a little unclear, meant 2 up 2 down (I work those trains sometimes!)

 

[ApAp]

I find this to be the case for East Anglia (Adnams), South Eastern (spitfire ale) and the local offering on Great Western (can't remember what it's called but it was decent) and of course Grand Central(old peculiar I think).

Unfortunately for most of the rest the choice of beer is generic and uninspiring.

I remember GNER used to do a guest ale until around 2004. They usually only stocked 4 bottles on the train unless you asked them to order more to be collected at an intermediate stop. So if you were going NCL-KGX you could ask them to phone ahead to York.

The guest ales at one point used to change quite regularly then it slowed down and then disappeared around about when the Mallard rollout began. I asked and they cited lack of demand - but as they were never promoted they never really stood a chance.

Each guest ale was a lesser known beer from a brewery on the GNER route. I discovered a few interesting ales this way.

As for the restaurant, I do miss the frequency of the restaurant compared to the GNER days (at one point you could just pick a random train and there'd be good odds it'd have a restaurant, now I have to check catering in advance). Presentation has also gone downhill since NXEC took over and the only thing EC did to reverse that was to remove that ugly water holder (actually I thought it was nice to have a bottle of water waiting for you in first class but they had no place in the restaurant).

GNER used proper table cloths, attractive crockery and of course the glasses with the GNER crest. The food and service on East Coast is still good, but presentation could be improved.

I advise everyone to sample an East Coast restaurant before they go and give EC your feedback about how good catering enhances your experience. As well as dropping them an email there's that SMS feedback service advertised in most carriages - remember you need the 3 letter code at the start of the message to identify the train.
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Sorry, my post was a little unclear, meant 2 up 2 down (I work those trains sometimes!)

I've heard very good things about the FGW restaurant, I just need a good excuse to try it.

Will FGW be the last UK rail operator to run a restaurant after EC give up?

Just think if the last government hadn't turned the franchise bids on the ECML into the highest bidder and instead focussed on quality Christopher Garnett would not have overbid and GNER might still be around today. Hard to believe they repeated the same franchising mistake with NXEC, they never stood a chance at surviving with the payments they needed to make.