Virgin First Class-Breakfasts.

[wijit]

I could do with a quick bit of help, if possible guys.
As a treat for my son I'm booking first class tickets to London at the end of July, I found tickets for myself and my son for £57 on an early service. I just need to know what we would get for this?
Looking at the website (Virgin) it shows the breakfast menu, exactly how much of the food listed would we get? Being a chap who likes to get good value, I'm hoping it isn't a case of choose one but I have no idea.

 

[pinguini]

Are you travelling on a weekday or a weekend? And at what time?

 

[wijit]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply. It would be on a Friday morning, around 7am 8am at the latest.

 

[SS4]

Friday morning you'll probably get a choice between a "full" English and the continental fare of croissants etc. You should also get tea, coffee and juice but sadly no booze . The breakfast fare is not worth going first class for alone

 

[30907]

The full English (or any of the hot alternatives) includes the toast or croissants - sadly not both - and refills of tea/coffee. Service can be slow, but it all arrives eventually. (The hot alternatives are quicker than the "Full English" which is silver-served)

Quantities are adequate (but not up to a good B&B) and quality fine.

 

[Butts]

The full English (or any of the hot alternatives) includes the toast or croissants - sadly not both - and refills of tea/coffee. Service can be slow, but it all arrives eventually. (The hot alternatives are quicker than the "Full English" which is silver-served)

Quantities are adequate (but not up to a good B&B) and quality fine.

Sometimes you get more than one toast run from my experience , don't expect anything like a "buffet style" Breakfast in a Hotel.

Put it this way you could easily fit the whole "Full English" in a large Bap

 

[wijit]

Thank you very much chaps. I opted to not do the 1st outbound and will upgrade on the return on Saturday evening, even though that it just snacky things. As Mrs wijit sorted a very nice hotel for the Friday night (which is costing ME 40 quid for breakfast-go figure!) I feel the other 40 would be better spent on other treats with many wheels for son!
You are, as ever, an incredible source of information. Thank you.

 

[bb21]

Virgin breakfast - not worth it. That is my verdict.

To answer your question, you can only choose one thing from the menu. If you order the fruit salad then you cannot order salmon and scrambled eggs as well.

Portions are small and service can be painstakingly slow. I remember being on one of them at New Street, and balancing a fried egg on top of a toast as I was alighting at Milton Keynes. Although thankfully they are not all as bad as that.

 

[sonic2009]

Virgin breakfast - not worth it. That is my verdict.

To answer your question, you can only choose one thing from the menu. If you order the fruit salad then you cannot order salmon and scrambled eggs as well.

Portions are small and service can be painstakingly slow. I remember being on one of them at New Street, and balancing a fried egg on top of a toast as I was alighting at Milton Keynes. Although thankfully they are not all as bad as that.

Was this the time where we were served just before Wolverton and getting off at Milton Keynes?

 

[gordonthemoron]

full english is rather small although the quality is good, black pudding is excellent. Service is best in coach K

 

[headshot119]

This was the full English I was served recently on board a Scottish Bound Pendolino.

 

[Robinson]

full english is rather small although the quality is good, black pudding is excellent. Service is best in coach K

Damn, I'm in coach H for my next VT journey - on the 0930 off Euston to Glasgow in July.

Wish they'd install an East Coast-style seat selector

 

[gordonthemoron]

@headshot119, where's your fried egg? I should point out that that photo is nearly life size, well perhaps 60% life size

 

[headshot119]

@gordonthemoron, I don't like egg so I didn't ask for one, I suppose the addition of an egg would make it look a little more substantial

 

[Yew]

No beans? Thats a silly choice from virgin, cheap and filling, making it look bigger

 

[gordonthemoron]

@gordonthemoron, I don't like egg so I didn't ask for one, I suppose the addition of an egg would make it look a little more substantial

since they hide the potato cake under the egg, probably not

 

[Butts]

@gordonthemoron, I don't like egg so I didn't ask for one, I suppose the addition of an egg would make it look a little more substantial

As I mentioned earlier it would fit inside a large bap quite easily(with or without an egg )
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Damn, I'm in coach H for my next VT journey - on the 0930 off Euston to Glasgow in July.

Wish they'd install an East Coast-style seat selector

Adopt "Self Selection" as a lot of us do - ie sit wherever you like in an unreserved seat.

I've never had this queried by a Guard even on a "Beggars 1st"

 

[aylesbury]

I think its good value well cooked and a reasonable portion of food add the toast and coffee and its worth going firstclass.

 

[sheff1]

To answer your question, you can only choose one thing from the menu. If you order the fruit salad then you cannot order salmon and scrambled eggs as well.

Unbelievable ! (or maybe not .. this is the Virgin Experience after all).

Thank goodness MML/EMT and GNER did not adopt such a parsimonious attitude when I was a regular user of their breakfast trains.

 

[Hellfire]

Experienced Virgin Breakfast this week, don't usually travel in 1st but train fully booked.

On the 0656 Preston to Euston, 1st was about 66% full. Main catering crew don't board until Preston and by the time the breakfast arrived it was 0830, just 36 minutes from arrival.

Tea, coffee and orange juice came round twice before toast finally appeared and it was another 40 minutes before the full English. Those ordering bacon and sausage rolls did a little better as these came out first.

As others have said, the serving portions are pretty mean. If you are travelling 1st anyway I suppose it's a bonus but certainly not worth it if you are just travelling for the breakfast.

I have memories of breakfast on the Golden Hind back in the eighties which made the Virgin offering look pretty poor.

 

[sheff1]

I have memories of breakfast on the Golden Hind back in the eighties which made the Virgin offering look pretty poor.

You've just reminded me of the breakfasts on the up Cleethorpes - Kings Cross via Lincoln in the late 70s. 80p a time, including unlimited toast, if memory serves.

 

[Butts]

You've just reminded me of the breakfasts on the up Cleethorpes - Kings Cross via Lincoln in the late 70s. 80p a time, including unlimited toast, if memory serves.

This is what happens when "Free Catering" rears it's head on the Network.

EMT and FGW still have paid for versions that are more akin to the standards of yesteryear

 

[grid56126]

My own experience in First class on Virgin has been fairly mixed and to be honest I have mostly put it down to the staff. The best service, including quality and quantity has been when the staff have been friendly and attentive. I have had a couple of trips (Manchester) that have been howlers and on one of these occasions I was offered a bacon or sausage roll and that was it. I asked if there was a "proper" breakfast available to which I received a large "tut" and of course everyone else who had ordered a roll was now aware that there was actually a choice and as you can imagine I got some dirty looks.

I wasn't paying (not a freebie either, full fare ticket paid for by a company I was visiting) but if I had have been I would probably have taken it further.

Compare that to the last time I came back from Glasgow about 6 months back and I could hardly walk when I got off the train at Euston. Both sets of crews were as attentive as you could want and made it perfectly clear that we could help ourselves to cold stuff off of the trolley and they did plenty of tea/coffee and stuff of the trolley at decent intervals. The hot meal was a bit naff, but that's a lot to do with my lack anything green / healthy and my colleagues were very happy with it.

I did to the 07.45 from Paddington to Penzance a couple of times recently (freebies / compensation for an "incident" I was involved in) and I coughed up for a full breakfast on both trips and the staff were brilliant and the food, although not cheap was top quality, good portions and well presented with no rush, plenty of toast top ups and crockery cups left to be refilled without hassle. Top marks for FGW on a really good product.

Grid

 

[calc7]

Service on Virgin is certainly better "against the flow" - not unusual to get offers of seconds, extra rounds of drinks etc. on the empty morning northbounds and even emptier evening southbounds. These are also the ones with the bargain Advance 1STs too, even at short notice!

 

[skyetraveller]

I spent three years commuting several times a week from Lancaster to the Midlands or London, followed by a few more years of more irregular travelling on the same route. In my experience the Glasgow, Carlisle and Preston based crews are far better at the breakfast service than any others on the route, with Carlisle head and shoulders above all.
Before the change to the VHF timetable, my morning trains were always crewed by Carlisle depot and it was the norm for coffee/juice/toast to be served immediately on departure from Lancaster and full breakfast to have arrived well before Preston (15 minutes). There seemed to be a pride in getting everyone served before the next stop, even if it was only a few minutes. There was a tea/coffee run immediately after every stop and frequent "more toast?" visits. Even with the modest portions on the full breakfast offering, I got very fat during this period!
Each crew member seemed to be allocated an external door to which they returned approaching each stop, they would count the number of passengers joining and report this to the Service Manager. I guess he/she then reported this to the chef to help with preparing roughly the right quantities of each breakfast choice. I've never seen this done by other crews.
Last time I travelled "against the flow" on the 0538 out of Euston, service was very haphazard and we were finally served the full breakfast somewhere around Stafford!