My Beloved and I are taking the Coast Starlight tomorrow for a seven hour trip from Portland to Klamath Falls for a little Crater Lake vacation. Has anybody eaten on this route? What from the menu would you recommend? What on the menu should we totally avoid?
Either no one rides the rails any more…or I’m the only one left who hasn’t been told to avoid Amtrak food at all cost. 
I’ve had perfectly decent food on Amtrak, although I haven’t done so in the past 3 years (Sorry Amtrak, but Megabus has insane prices).
The train I usually take is the Southwest Chief, and as far as I know all the long distance trains feature the same menu. They did have specials, which were generally very good and often specific to that route, like “Southwest” specials on the Chief.
Looking at the menus offered, you can’t go wrong with the herb-roasted chicken.
Ran out of edit time. I would tend to avoid the hamburger as it is too well-done for my taste, and you can’t seem to ever get them to make it medium. I’ve had good fish and mediocre fish, but that has more to do with the inadvisability of eating fish away from the oceans.
Do you have a roomette, or are you in steerage?
Just coach.
Took the train from Chicago to Portland, and then a smaller train up to Seattle (I don’t know the names of trains*). Loved the food, and we always just asked our server what was good. If they’d wax poetic about the stuffed pork loin with mango chutney, then we’d try that.
I think if you ride Coach, you have to work to make reservations in the dining car. Make sure you talk to a steward right when you get on about how to get on the reservation list.
And it wasn’t cheap, but our memories are worth it. And that’s where we met and chatted with some wonderful people. Including a cadre of Amish rail-riders…
*just like names of subdivisions don’t stick in my head: “No, we live in ShadyOakVale, not ShadyMapleValley!” “Can you give me some cross streets? Or an address?” “ShadyOakVale, y’know? across from ShadierOakKnoll!”
We took Amtrak from Portland to MSP last October and thought the food was good. They do actually have name chefs (Tom Douglas of Seattle fame, for one) who serve as an advisory board for the menus. We spent some 40 hours each way and all the meals were above average for a mass transit kitchen.
Sure you want to gush that much?
I mention it because meals in the sleepers are included, and if you get a decent deal on one on a long trip, it works out pretty well.
They start at the front of the train in the sleeper cars, and work their way back. So I’ve been stuck with one “take it or leave it” time, or even missed getting a seating at all on a particularly crowded train.
Yeah, that’s one thing - you get seated four to a table, so you get randomly assigned table-mates. Which can be either annoying, or a pleasant surprise.
It’s been years since I’ve taken that route, so I can’t recommend specifics, but I remember being happy with the food. Recently, I’ve taken the autotrain, where I’ve been pleased enough with the food. It’s better than airline food I’ve had, back when airlines still served food, better than low-end chain restaurants like Friendly’s. Better than most conference or convention and other mass-produced food I’ve had.
What I like best about the dining car is the chance to meet new people in the randomly-assigned seating. Some have been wonderful folks. A few grumpy duds, and some who start out grumpy but become talkative later.
Yeah, that didn’t sound glowing, I guess. The food wasn’t akin to sitting down in a really good restaurant, but for a small kitchen serving a lot of people, they did a good job.
My husband & I rode the Southwest Chief (LA --> Albuquerque --> Kansas City --> Chicago) last month and had 2 lunches and 2 dinners on the trip. We felt the meals were a cut or two above the chain sit-down restaurants, if a bit on the pricey side (captive audience)
We boarded at 2, and by the time they got to our seat the only reservations available we for 7:30. Will report back with review after dinner.
How many cars from the back of the train were you? By the time 7:30 rolls around, they might have run out on a few dishes.
We were stuck in the last car, thus the 7:30 reservation. By the time we got there they were out of baked potatoes, and their signature steak wasn’t available, so we went for the available substitutions…and were damnhappy we did so. My Beloved had the crab cakes and said they were excellent, and since she’s from the east coast I’m willing to take her word for it. I ordered the beef ribs, and got a half-rack of the meatiest, tenderest and tastiest ribs I’ve had in many years. It may turn out that the best meal we get on this vacation came from Amtrak. 
I only ate once on an Amtrak train (Boston-Chicago), the “Lake Shore Limited”. It was breakfast-excellent food…and the pancakes were served with real maple syrup.
From BBC’s Sherlock:
StG
Well, we took Amtrak back to home base today-this time we did lunch. My Beloved had the mac and cheese(baked properly, with grated romano on top), and she says it was well worth the 11 bucks. I decided to try the Chipotle Black Bean & Corn Veggie Burger for $9.50, and it was delicious.
I hope the weather was nice. The part of that trip from Eugene to Kfalls and back is beautiful.