‘Would you like port with that?’, asked our host while serving cheese and biscuits to round off our three-course lunch.
Outside the window, the stunning beauty of Devon’s rugged coastline came into view as we sped past Dawlish.
Having tucked into mains of sirloin steak and seabass while enjoying an earlier vista of the Wiltshire White Horse, it was lunch with the most scenic of backdrops.
Great Western Railway’s Pullman dining service is arguably the most luxurious experience on the day-to-day UK rail network – but reasonable value, too.
Carriages tables are properly-laid with cloths, crockery and crystal glasses, and the wine is kept on ice.
Our hosts, who had previous experience working on cruise ships and in restaurants run by chefs including Marco Pierre White and Gary Rhodes, provided friendly, efficient service.
Although GWR Pullman dining cars only run on a handful of services between Paddington, the West Country and South Wales, anyone with a valid ticket for that particular train – first or standard class – can dine, although first class passengers can book in advance and have priority.
If you bought an advance standard class fare, the price of £37 for two courses and £44 for three courses counts as a bargain since there is no need to pay a first-class upgrade to sit in the dining car. Wine is from a very reasonable £17 per bottle.
I sampled the Pullman while ‘rail-testing’ first class train travel across the country to compare what’s available – sometimes for less than the price of a standard class walk-on fare if booking ahead.
The Pullman is one of just two restaurant services still in existence.
The second is provided by Transport for Wales for first class passengers on selected journeys through picturesque countryside between Cardiff and Holyhead, and from South Wales through rolling hills along the Anglo-Welsh border to Manchester.
Trying out the service on a return trip to Cardiff, full Welsh and vegetarian breakfasts costing £10.50 each were nicely cooked, accompanied by toast and pastries, and washed down with fruit juice and cappuccinos.
Returning north, a three-course meal is available for £24.95, or £40 with a bottle of house wine, and most dishes had a Welsh twist.
Smoked haddock, cheddar cheese and leek fishcake was sizeable and flavoursome, while butternut squash and sweet potato soup was hearty and thick. Our mains of salmon fettuccine in a creamy white wine, spinach and pea sauce, with a whole salmon fillet on top, were pleasantly-filling.
Other dishes on TfW’s menu included Carmarthen ham bruschetta and smoked haddock to start; Welsh ribeye steak and traditional Welsh vegetarian-cheesy Glamorgan sausages with chive mash completed the main courses.
The dessert menu boasted rich ‘melt in the mouth’ chocolate fondant pudding and ‘indulgent’ cheesecake with berry compote.
Although no other formal restaurant services operate, first class passengers are well-catered for with meals and drinks included in the price on numerous long-distance routes.
Topping the bill for complimentary food and drink are Avanti West Coast and London North Eastern Railway – both offering hot and cold food, hot and soft drinks and, from lunchtime onwards, beers, wines and spirits.
All Avanti’s Pendolino trains offer a range of cooked breakfasts in the mornings and meals later in the day, such as braised British beef, an Indian ‘grazing platter’ and cheeseboard.
Desserts, at their most luxurious, extended to chocolate sponge pudding with clotted cream.
En route to Scotland on a morning breakfast train, the full English and scrambled egg and salmon options were neatly presented and, to make up for a slight delay to our mains, we were kept happy with an extra round of toast.
LNER’s early morning trains provide full breakfasts (breakfast rolls on shorter journeys) cooked to order. At lunch and dinner time, hot dishes extend to sausage and mash in red wine jus, a lamb rogan josh curry and pearl barley mushroom risotto.
Meals are rounded off with a choice of cheese platter or salted caramel mousse pot.
There are also lighter hot and cold dishes during the late mornings, afternoons and late evenings.
Trying out a short, early morning journey to London with LNER, a neatly-plated and perfectly-cooked full English arrived with plenty of time to enjoy tucking in, and my coffee cup was refilled frequently.
The more spacious first-class seats provide a proper chance to enjoy the scenery as you travel – and both routes offer stunning views.
On the East Coast route through Northumberland, the tracks pass along clifftops and over tall viaducts, while the West Coast main line clings to the hillside above Cumbria’s picturesque Lune Valley, used as a practice route by RAF fighter jets.
‘If you hear the sound of a plane, your natural inclination is to look up but quite often they’re down below us,’ our Avanti host advises.
Competing with both companies between northern England and Scotland, TransPennine Express (TPE) has recently upgraded its complimentary first class offering on trains between Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The company’s West Coast Kitchen provides a range of cooked breakfasts and hot meals, and also includes snacks, hot and cold drinks, plus alcohol from lunchtime.
Hot meals of Jerk Chicken, Cauliflower and Lentil Dhal, Pea, Mint and Asparagus Risotto or Creamy Haggis Penne are served using recyclable plates and bowls made from bamboo, in an unusual touch.
Elsewhere, TPE’s first class provides a more limited offer of complimentary food but still has hot, cold and alcoholic drinks free of charge.
The level of complimentaries drops slightly on other inter-city routes, with no free alcohol, but meals including breakfast rolls and panninis, sandwiches, snacks and plentiful drinks are still available.
These firms include CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway and Hull Trains.
Handing out packs of deliciously moist velvet chocolate cake on a CrossCountry train from Manchester to Bristol, our host jokes: ‘It’s calorie free at 125mph, because the calories can’t catch you.’
CrossCountry’s food menu includes hot breakfast rolls and caprese and pesto panninis, along with several sandwich options.
The operator’s advance first class tickets can be among the most pricey but limited numbers of upgrades are available via the Seatfrog upgrade auction app from just £5 depending on journey length.
Hull Trains, which recently upgraded to a new fleet of carriages, ensures first class travellers are fed and watered to and from the capital with breakfast rolls on morning trains, then sandwiches later on, accompanied by hot drinks, crisps and biscuits.
East Midlands Railway’s offer includes complimentary sandwiches and salads and plentiful sweet treats on the snack trolley.
GWR’s first class passengers can enjoy sandwiches, snacks – with welcome healthy options such as olives and nuts – and drinks which include alcohol at teatime.
Transport for Wales offers tea and coffee – served on china, in a nice touch – and limited snacks free of charge but there are lighter hot and cold meals for a fee, if you don’t fancy the full restaurant menu.
Greater Anglia only provides hot and cold drinks, sweet and savoury snacks, although its longest journey is around 90 minutes.
And Scotrail’s offer is limited to hot drinks and shortbread but its on-the-day upgrade fee aboard its long-distance routes are very low at £15.
On-the-day first class fares are generally expensive unless at weekends and by using Seatfrog, an online auction app now available for many lines.
But booking first class in advance, even on long-distance routes, is often the same as a standard class walk-on fare and sometimes as little as £5 or £10 more than the standard advance fare.
This makes it good value for money, considering you have better seats, more space and the food and drink options – which these days extend to veggie and vegan food – providing a much more relaxing experience than driving.
Much of the food and drink is locally-sourced, from companies based in the areas served by each train company.
On a recent trip to Edinburgh, my family and I paid an extra £10 each to travel first class on LNER, compared with standard class advance fares – well worth the money.
Menus and food availability correct at time of journeys but subject to seasonal change.
Creating a menu for train passengers is far from simple, according to the catering boss of one of Britain’s main long-distance rail operators.
Market research, customer feedback – and a degree of trial and error – are all involved in creating the offering served to passengers.
Added to that is the challenge of keeping ahead of current trends and changes, such as better awareness of allergies, dietary requirements and the growth of vegetarianism and veganism.
Lastly, there are the practicalities of what can be cooked in a galley while speeding through the country at 125mph.
Richard Judge, head of customer experience at East Coast Main Line operator LNER, who joined the company five years ago and has a 30-year background in hospitality including 10 years as a chef, said: ‘I had this opinion, it’s serving food on a train. It can’t be anywhere near as difficult as catering at the Burj Al Arab (one of Dubai’s top hotels) or putting food on a plane, but in fact it’s not that simple.
‘At the moment, we have four onboard menus. We’ve always had a particular challenge because we are a long-distance route and you have trains leaving London at 9 or 10am, when most customers have had breakfast but it’s too early for lunch.
‘The train then doesn’t arrive at Edinburgh until mid-afternoon, so it is lunchtime for people joining later in the journey.’
Mr Judge said that creating a sufficiently varied menu that ‘caters for a spectrum of requirements is a challenge for us’. He added: ‘Healthy eating, too, is much more important for customers than 10-15 years ago.’
Practicalities within the train are that the chef must work in the narrow galley kitchen preparing food for sometimes over 200 first class passengers during a single journey.
LNER employs 90 train chefs, who work on certain trains providing the highest-specification food, typically those departing in the early mornings, at lunchtimes and early evening.
‘We try to cook as much as we can onboard. Although the galley is narrow, on our new Azuma trains, it is specially-designed to allow the chefs to work efficiently, Mr Judge said.
Mr Judge said LNER revises its menu every six months – and includes special seasonal menus, such as for the Edinburgh festival. It also uses food sourced from local suppliers close to its route, where possible.
As well as first class catering, Mr Judge said the menu in standard class is regularly updated – and a long way from the much-derided ‘soggy sandwiches’ caricature of the British Rail days.
‘We want to keep passengers coming back again and again,’ he said.