TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Can the Deli menu BE more whittled down?
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London North Eastern Railway (LNER) First Class service
- Thread starter MidnightFlyer
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RailUK Forums
None of them on a weekend as far as I know, bacon roll, frittata or vegan sausage sandwich at best.
hexagon789
Veteran Member
Yes, no Dine services on weekends.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
The frittata is delicious. Could do with maybe a piece of crusty bread or something with it but it really is nice
Thank you both. Don't suppose you know if this is offered all day or just on specific morning trains?
signed
Established Member
The LNER app will display the menu or you can use the following spreadsheet
At weekends it's either dish or deli, menus are on this page https://www.lner.co.uk/first-class-travel/menu/
No harm in asking if they have any bread.
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
Apart from on breakfast services. You used to be able to get a full English on every train. Now it’s exclusively on the six or seven Dine services into London and a pitiful two or three out of London.
The introduction of the three menus was an ingenius way of disguising a cost-cutting downgrade of the menu as an exciting upgrade, something LNER does all too often, like with their ”special festive Christmas menu” and don’t even get me started on ticket “simplification.”
It’s special because it’s crapper than usual. I love how railway companies spin this nonsense.
RailWonderer
Established Member
It’s like GWR Pullman dining. There are clearly more services it would work but they prefer not to have the hassle and just offer it on the minimum number of services so they can say they still offer it. LNER though, increases its first class ticket prices rather than bringing them down or freezing them, so it’s becoming more of a joke. They seem to like keeping first nearly empty as well, which you’d think they’d drop prices a little just to fill it a bit more, but no.
The Pullman doesn’t make any money.
Given that it's still cheaper than Avanti's first class (cheaper than standard premium in some cases?) and first class has, beyond a few early morning services, been very busy in my own experience, I can't see any incentive to do otherwise at the moment.
Very rarely have I been on an LNER service where 1st Class has been "nearly empty", quite the opposite in fact.
duffield
Established Member
1st has always been about 95%+ full when I've joined at Kings Cross, although it's been a lot less occupied joining at other locations at off peak times.
Well 5, actually.
Against that, the daytime Dish menu may not be silver service and (portion size apart) IMO is a superior offer, and 6 days a week.
LNER are in an interesting position in some respects. The "top tier" service (i.e. Dine) is unarguably in a worse state than any equivalent that's been in place since the change to the complimentary offer way back in 2011:
The full breakfast service is now very limited (though the breakfast itself is still excellent, I think the best they've offered since the complimentary breakfast was introduced) and the evening meal services are now very limited in number and only offer one extra menu item. Portion sizes have also shrunk (though quality has generally been maintained) and there's no rotation at all (recall that in early East Coast days there were four menu rotations changing every week).
But the mid-tier (Dish) isn't a bad offering at all and is available seven days per week (in theory) and is far superior to basically any other TOCs first class offering on the weekend. Deli is a bit rubbish as well but isn’t dreadful and I would suggest is better, on a weekend at least, than any other service prior to Covid (recall that before Covid the complimentary offer on a weekend was soft drinks with no hot food at all, breakfast services were a sad croissant or a yoghurt! The Deli bacon roll is a massive upgrade!) that was offered by the various East Coast TOCs.
So the top end is definitely in a decline (and there are the long standing issues with crews being a mixed bag) but the actual base service is perhaps better than it's ever been when you look in the round. It's a shame though that the penny pinching is quite so obvious and ends up devaluing what should be a real selling point to the service because it's very close to being excellent.
RailWonderer
Established Member
That's the only time I've seen LNER first full to be fair, leaving KX in the morning and arriving in the morning before 9AM.
duffield
Established Member
Thinking about it, 1st has also been near 100% full leaving Leeds at teatime, and more than 50% full from York/Newcastle to Newark/Grantham at around that time.
Anyhow I guess we're wandering offtopic from the 1st class service (although how full 1st is will affect what sort of service you're likely to get!)
Well it's worth recalling that prior to 2019 LNER services had either 2.5 or 3 carriages of first class, now that the Azuma fleet is running the majority of services it's basically two carriages (on a 9-car it's about 0.5x2 and one full carriage, on the 10-car it's 0.5x4) on every service. Demand is unlikely to have dipped that much for first class so the consequence is of course that the loadings will increase...
Willie Bee
Member
I often wonder when the meals are actually served, say you were travelling Kings Cross to Newcastle. Do the meals start after certain stations only?
My wife and I travelled First on LNER from York to Newcastle but didn't get anything to eat .. just a single cup of coffee
We are travelling to Aberdeen from Edinburgh shortly, taking the train shown as row 9 on the spreadsheet you mention. It states the dine menu will be in operation. However, When I asked about this (ref post 8577) the replies state that it will actually be the dish or even deli menu, rather than the advertised dine option.
It can vary somewhat depending on crew but generally you'll get full service after Kings Cross, York, Newcastle and Edinburgh (going south the same but including the origin station). Surprising that after York you didn't see any sign of the food trolley though but it really is crew dependent. Obviously you don't normally get multiple bites of the meal service!
In my opinion I suspect you're likely to get Dish, unless something has changed I don't think there are any LNER chefs that go to/from Aberdeen and I think Dine requires chefs.
I've had food not offered until around Northallerton when travelling from Newcastle to York before.
Does that apply to passengers going all the way from London to Aberdeen or Inverness, who possibly would be on board for lunch and supper?
It's proper hit and miss. I've not had food until after York sometimes (though it appeared that they'd done a service on leaving Newcastle as food was coming out of the kitchen) but on another memorable occasion I had my drinks order taken in the platform at Darlington, my food order as the train joined the mainline and my full "LNER" arrived before we reached Northallerton!
Certainly back in the day passengers crossing Edinburgh were given a full run of the catering again (indeed when the menus were rotating they'd try and load the opposite menu rotation so you'd get a different choice of food one side of Edinburgh to the other!) but I've no idea if that's still the case now. I have had another run of catering when I did the evening Stirling service a few years ago so I'd presume they still do it on the Aberdeen and Inverness.
I'd say I've had multiple mains more often than not on non-dine trains. It seems to help to be sitting on your own, being friendly and genuinely quite excited about the food.
signed
Established Member
I got my answer, Sunday 1033 KGX-Leeds is Deli (sadly not Dish)
Can confirm they do this on Aberdeen services - occasionally travelling back from York, I've had 3 "bites" - one leaving York, another after Newcastle crew change, and the (normal) one after Haymarket.
A new LNER first class menu is expected to launch around June 11th.
Source ~ https://x.com/lner/status/1918975561092788343?
Will be nice to have a change - wonder what they'll put on this time?
Source ~ https://x.com/lner/status/1918975561092788343?
@LNER: Around June 11(04/05/2025 11:26)
Will be nice to have a change - wonder what they'll put on this time?
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Just as long as they don't get rid of the frittata at breakfast time, it's delicious
styles
Member
I would like them to add haggis to their 'Full LNER' breakfast.
I think they'd have relative success with some sort of 'classic' British meal like cottage pie, hotpot, if they want to be fancier, wellington.
I think they'd have relative success with some sort of 'classic' British meal like cottage pie, hotpot, if they want to be fancier, wellington.