Some diners judge an eatery by the quality of the view. By that standard, the GoldStar Dining Room, aka the dining car on the Alaska Railroad, must be one of the finest restaurants on the planet.
When the railroad started its summer schedule in mid-May, a companion joined me for one of the first trips on the Coastal Classic run from Anchorage to Seward. There are two classes of service on this day tour: the less expensive Adventure Class, which is plenty comfortable if you ask me, and the upscale GoldStar Service, with fancier cars including an upstairs viewing deck, commentary from guides ("Here we see Alaska fishermen in their natural habitat"), a cool GoldStar collector's button and maybe a little better angle when the train slows down for wildlife.
But the best reason to opt for the upgrade is that GoldStar passengers get first shot at the dining car. The tickets include the cost of the meals and soft drinks, plus two complimentary adult beverages. Adventure Class folks can also take their meals in the diner, paying separately for them (a prepaid meal voucher is available), but open service follows the call for GoldStar people.
Seating is limited. In case of a really crowded day, you could wind up sharing your table with the nice couple from Boise. That wasn't an issue in mid-May, but might be at peak season.
We took breakfast while rolling through the Turnagain Arm ghost forest near the Twentymile River. The morning began with a well-concocted bloody mary, spicy and brimming with vitamin C, garnished with an olive, a lime slice and two fresh green beans. There is similar bar service in the "grab-and-go" Wilderness Cafe, which offers sandwiches, breakfast burritos, sweet rolls and the like, though the menu and format is supposed to be undergoing revision.
The seating was quite comfortable and the view, of course, was sensational. But eating in a moving vehicle necessarily comes with restrictions. There were only three breakfast plates early in the season and one's choice of eggs was scrambled or scrambled. I went with the Country Starter ($12.99): scrambled eggs, reindeer sausage that was lean but not dry and a biscuit in an agreeably sweet and thyme-tinged sausage gravy. It was quite good, though it might have been better with a stout ale. Alas, Alaska Amber is as dark as the beer gets on the train.
My friend had the stuffed French toast ($11.99), a rich concoction with mild sourdough bread, smooth citrus cream cheese and enough powdered sugar and maple syrup to taste as sweet as a fresh cinnamon roll. The bacon was drier than the sausage I had; given a choice, go with the reindeer.
There was a brief interruption when a sow bear and cubs were spotted and the train slowed down and everyone migrated to the left side of the car. You don't see that at Village Inn.
The railroad's dining car food is managed by ESS Support Services, part of the Compass Group, the largest food service company in the world. They feed throngs from mining camps to remote tourist facilities to prisons, with different fare for different clients, we presume. Some of the cooking is done at their Anchorage kitchen -- the biscuits, for instance, and probably the bacon. Other items are cooked onboard the train, like the scrambled eggs. They seem to have the formula down. Food prepped at the Anchorage kitchen was generally good, though the biscuits came off better than the bacon.
Dinner and lunch are both served starting at 11 a.m. In the case of the Coastal Express that means you lunch or dine en route back to Anchorage from Seward. Sandwiches include a hamburger with Alaska Chip Company Kettle Chips ($13.99) or a club sandwich ($12.99). Pre-packed sandwiches in the grab-and-go are $7, but, as noted, their selections are being revised.
With the Kenai Mountains -- glorious even when their tops touch the clouds -- rolling by outside the big dining car windows, we opted for a full-spread dinner. The pot roast ($16.99) was a masterpiece of the genre. The meat, with a red wine demi sauce, was fabulously tender and didn't contain a whiff of gristle or fat. It came with delectable garlic mashed potatoes and crisp, fresh green beans. (Where did they get those in May?)
The almond-crusted Alaska cod ($17.99), accompanied by rice pilaf, made the trip a full-blown first-class experience almost as grand as the scenery. It was perfectly cooked, flaky but not overdone, and served with a sweet chili sauce that begged to be savored. I enjoyed it with an IPA from Denali Brewing Company in Talkeetna. Bud Light was the only non-Alaskan beer on the train.
We really liked the soup, a creamy salmon chowder and hearty buffalo chili ($4.99 for a cup, $7.99 for a bowl). Chicken and salads are also on the menu along with a vegan creamy tomato penne ($14.99) to which you can add chicken, reindeer sausage or smoked salmon in case the sight of bears brings out the carnivore in you.
What's on the menu doesn't always match up with what's on the train. The yogurt parfait with fresh fruit ($7.99) wasn't available at breakfast on this trip. The apres-dinner desserts ran out before most of the GoldStar clientele had a chance to order anything. Maybe because the early run was still in shake-down mode or because the space limits can cause the attentive staff to run out of any given item on any given day.
What they didn't run out of was ingenuity and willingness to make the customers happy with what they had. With the chocolate cake gone, they managed to get everyone complimentary hot, sugary cookies and cinnamon rolls from Europa Bakery.
The GoldStar Diner rolls with the Denali Star Train to Fairbanks as well as the Coastal Classic to Seward. There is only the Wilderness Cafe on the Glacier Discovery Train from Anchorage to Grandview and no food service on the Hurricane Turn run. The trains are cashless, so bring a credit card.
Goldstar Dining Room
Hours: Daily through Sept. 13
Contact: www.alaskarailroad.com, 800-544-0552, 907-265-2494
Reach Mike Dunham at mdunham@alaskadispatch.com or 257-4332.