Amtrak Acela Dining

I travel a lot.  Or, at least, I did pre-covid.  About 120 nights a year on the road (for work primarily).  And yet, I have been on a "real train" exactly once before.  Yes, once.  You see, I grew up in a state that literally has no trains (besides the scenic cog railway up in the mountains).  Years ago, the government made the decision to turn all the rails into trails instead - for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling in the winter, running, horseback riding, etc in the summer.  I'll admit, it is a pretty cool program, and having a state filled with extensive trails for public use is great.  But ... it also meant that I had no exposure to trains growing up.

Once I moved to the Bay Area, I spent my first year gawking at the light rail as it went by, while everyone else was annoyed to be stuck at the crossing.  That novelty wore off quickly, and those trains no longer interest me.  But, "real trains", not just local rail, still remained elusive to me.  I took an Amtrak train between New York and Boston about 10 years ago, and remember being pretty much overjoyed at the novel experience, but I also was with seasoned travelers, and sorta just followed along.

Which brings us to present day.  Yes, I am 42 years old, travel a ton, and yet have been on a "real train" exactly once, and this was my first time doing it alone.  I was both excited, and slightly anxious at the same time.  My journey was New York to Washington, DC, and of course I choose the Acela.  

Route: 2263, Acela
Departure: Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station 12:21 PM EDT (scheduled) 1:05pm (actual)
Arrival: Washington Union Station 3:10 PM EDT (scheduled) 4:212 PM (actual)

I started my trip in the new Metropolitan Lounge, which was a very calm and fairly empty space, with snacks, drinks, and some small food items.  I spent far more time there intended, given that the inbound train was delayed due to mechanical issues.  We were also later delayed due to track construction, and the need to use a single track, and thus, go slow-slow-slow.  But besides the delays, it was overall a pleasant experience.  I used the Red Cap service to help me with my bags, since Acela has no bag check, and I had, gulp, 2 roller bags, a back pack, and a duffle with me, and that was a fantastic experience.  They fetched me from the lounge, lead me straight to my train, and I was able to pre-board.  No drama scrambling to find my track, or navigate the escalators with too much stuff.  Highly recommend if you have extra baggage, or limited mobility in any way.  

Onboard, the crew was friendly, and ride relatively smooth, although I did need to adjust a little to seeing the world whirl by, and not get carsick feeling.  The overall experiences was considerably less stress than flying, particularly as getting to New York area airports can be such drama with traffic.  I'd do it again if I ever needed to go a similar distance - even though the train took 3 hours compared to a flight's single hour, it really was so much more chill. 

Drink Lineup.

My ticket included drinks, with a reasonable list of liquor, a few beers, one each of a sparkling, white, red, and rose wine, a seltzer, and even a few cocktails, plus non-alcoholic options of tea, coffee, soft drinks, juices, and even cold brew.  Good name brand products all around.

As we settled in to our seats, we were provided with still water bottles.

Our additional drink orders were taken nearly immediately after we departed the station.  They were served once we stopped at the next, fairly close, stop, Newark.

On the Rocks Old Fashioned.

Yes, it was only 1:30pm, but, hey, they had an old fashioned on the menu, how could I not get it?  Plus, I was ON A REAL TRAIN!  Time to live it up!

I've had other cocktails from On the Rocks before, and this was as good as others.  Very strong booze, but balanced.  Bonus points to Amtrak for serving attractively with a lime garnish and stirrer.  Better than what you'd get freshly made at many bars.  You can buy these at most grocery/liquor stores for $10+. ***+.

Decaf Coffee.

Later in my journey, to go along with dessert, I got a decaf coffee.  The Amtrak staff member serving our car told me they only had instant for decaf, and asked if that was ok.  I said yes.  She then came back to say she'd need to get it from the cafe car, so it would be in a paper cup.  Also ok.  If I had gotten regular, it would have been in a real mug.

I really enjoyed the coffee.  It was served piping hot, and was really quite strong.  No decaf funk, no high acid.  I'm not entirely sure it was decaf in the end, but, it was really really good, and went perfectly with my dessert. ****.

I also had sparkling water, which was S. Pellegrino brand.  Not much to say besides I appreciated having sparkling water as an option, included in my ticket price.

Spring / Summer 2023 Menu.

My menu featured a signature dish from Starr Restaurant group, along with standard Amtrak items.  The lineup was very everyone-friendly, with a fruit & cheese plate for those who just wanted a snack, a actually quite good sounding burrata salad that was very lunch appropriate, a comforting butter chicken, and the heavier Starr dish, black pepper beef.  

Orders were taken once we went through one more stop, and arrived within 10 minutes.  

Since it was lunchtime, the salad was certainly most appropriate, and I do quite like burrata, but the black pepper beef gets rather rave reviews from other travelers, and is their special collaboration with Buddakan, so I went for it, even though kinda heavy for lunch (for me anyway).  Around me, many passengers opted for no meal, one actually ordered from the breakfast menu (I didn't know you could do that!), and the rest all got this dish.  I clearly wasn't the only one who had heard good things about it!  I didn't see any of the other entrees ordered in the entire car.

There are two other menus on the spring/summer rotation, which of course I knew from my research.  One features dishes from The Continental Mid-town (another well reviewed dish, chilled sesame noodles) and Pizzeria Stella (lasagna) instead of the Buddakan collab, along with the fruit & cheese plate or a baked salmon lattice that I was really interested in, as it comes wrapped in puff pastry and served with bearnaise, and the other menu has a flagship dish from Adrian restaurant (baked manicotti), along with kofta kebabs, chilled shrimp, or the fruit & cheese plate again.  The last menu wasn't interesting to me, but I would have been happy with the other one too, but I was happy enough with the menu we wound up with.

Meal Tray.

Our trays all included a wam roll with butter (although the breakfast guy had a croissant instead!), salt (no pepper?), our entree choice, and the "rotating dessert", which was a crème brûlée like pot, plus a cloth napkin with cutlery.  

Buddakan Restaurant: Black Pepper Beef

"Wok tossed tenderloin, Chinese crullers, and finger chilis in a black pepper sauce."

I'll start by saying this isn't what I'd normally order.  For lunch, and for playing it "safe" in terms of subpar food on a flight/train, I'd get the burrata salad, no question.  And I do like beef, but, if I'm at a restaurant, chances are much higher that I get seafood.  I probably eat beef only a few times a month.  

This dish comes from their Buddakan collaboration.  At the restaurant, this dish is on the menu featuring rib eye rather than tenderloin, and comes with a crispy bird's nest instead of crullers, and costs $40.  I knew not to expect something at that restaurant level, but I was incredibly impressed when I tasted it, even with the knowledge that many people praise it and high expectations.

The dish was relatively attractively presented, with 9 cubes of steak, 3 hunks of the cruller, onions and peppers in the middle.  It was heavily sauced, but not drowning, no excess in the plate, but every piece well saturated.

I took my first bite of the beef.  Well, huh.  It was tender.  Not chewy.  Well trimmed, no fatty bits.  Restaurant quality.  How ... how did they heat up beef so well on a train?  I was very pleased with the preparation, and seeming quality, of the beef.  ***+.

The sauce was quite flavorful and savory.  It went very well with the beef.  While I found it odd that my tray only came with salt and no pepper, I truly didn't need any, as the beef was crusted in it.  ***+.

The onions and pepper were soft and well cooked.  I would have loved even more onion, as I just really like beef and onions together.  

And finally, the crullers.  They were a bit soft from being warmed up and coated with sauce, but still had a light crunch, and helped soak up the rest of the dish.  I think it would be nicer to have them come on the side, so they would be really crisp, and I could dunk myself, but perhaps that wouldn't work as well with the Amtrak heating mechanism.  I was very pleased to see the crullers rather than standard rice filler, but I can imagine some people finding this dish lacking in a substantial carb and heft.  For me though, this was perfect.

Overall, this was quite good, far better than airline meals, and set a high bar for me for future train travel!  ***+, maybe **** particularly given that it was train food.

Roll, Dessert.

The roll was a simple white dinner roll.  Not sourdough.  Pleasantly warm.  Not really restaurant or fresh bakery quality, but far better than what I normally get on flights.  ***.

And then, dessert!  I'll admit that I was a bit let down to see a pudding, not because I don't like pudding, as I actually adore it, but, because I'd had a ridiculous amount of pudding that week.  My office in New York has 3 daily housemade puddings (they are so lucky!), and I couldn't not have the decadent chocolate tartufo at least every other day, plus they had a lovely lemon yogurt mousse and a truly stunning apple pie cobbler triffle, that I kept rotating between for my dinner desserts.  Oh, and a different office cafe had coconut rice pudding one day, our team dinner at Golden Diner two days prior also featured coconut rice pudding (pistachio and orange version) , and when I got takeout from Thai Diner the night before I opted for banana rum pudding  ... let's just say, I was starting to be a little sick of pudding.

This pudding pot appeared to sorta be crème brûlée, but, with a top that was never bruleed.  I recognized these, as I've had something similar from the grocery store in Paris.  But you really are supposed to torch the top of these, so it was a fairly odd choice on Amtrak's part.  At least they did seem to freshly sprinkle it with the caramelized pearl sugar.  

The pudding was ok - a thick set pudding, fairly creamy, but a slightly separated consistency.  Not very sweet in the base, but obviously plenty sweet with the sugar on top.  It didn't have any particular flavor, no strong vanilla or anything.  The sugar on top was a bit crunchy.

So, overall, fine, but really only **+.   If it had been torched, and more like crème brûlée, it certainly would have gotten at least another half star, or if they had just accepted it as pudding, and put a dollop of whipped cream and a little fresh fruit or compote on it, it too would have gotten a higher score, but as served, it was just a pudding.