Review: GWR’s Pullman Dining – the last proper meal on Britain’s railways

This is our review of Great Western Railway’s Pullman Dining service from Plymouth (in my case) to London Paddington.

I arrived in Plymouth on Great Western Railway’s Night Riviera Sleeper very early – before 6am – and spent the entire morning sightseeing, which is very interesting if you are into all things maritime. I reviewed the Night Riviera Sleeper here and reviewed the Paddington First Class Lounge here.

GWR had booked me on the Pullman Dining train back to London. Tickets for both trips were provided by GWR for review purposes.

What is Pullman Dining?

Pullman Dining is virtually the only restaurant-style (and restaurant-priced) meal left on the standard UK rail network.

The only thing that comes close, if you don’t count the Caledonian Sleeper, is the Premier Service offered by Transport for Wales on trains between Cardiff and Holyhead and Cardiff and Manchester. I might put this on my list for next year!

Pullman Dining operates Monday to Friday on six trains:

• 13.03 Paddington to Plymouth
• 19.04 Paddington to Plymouth
• 17.48 Paddington to Swansea
• 13.15 Plymouth to Paddington
• 18.16 Plymouth to Paddington
• 12.23 Swansea to Paddington

First Class passengers can book a seat to dine up to one hour before departure. Standard Class passengers can eat if space is available – you are effectively getting a free upgrade to a First Class seat along with your meal!

The cost is £38 for a two course meal and £46 for three courses.

My Pullman Dining experience

I was booked on the 13.15 from Plymouth. The Pullman Dining car was part of First Class, at the front of the train.

The train started its trip in Plymouth and was ready for boarding a bit ahead of time. I was advised to sit in First Class until the dining coach was ready, at which point the staff would call us over. This happened roughly 15 minutes after the train had departed.

The Pullman Dining coach is half kitchen and half normal First Class seating, but with the tables set for eating.

On the day I travelled there were four tables set for one person and two for four people. I had a reservation but some passengers did not and had decided spontaneously to dine when they discovered seats were available.

The staff told me that they can do up to 20 covers per train, using the next First Class coach for spillover if necessary. The staff also mentioned that Taunton is the last stop for diners to come on board on this service, although the GWR website says Exeter St Davids. If you are travelling from London you must board no later than Reading.

This was my table:

This is a table set for four but only used by a couple:

The table cover is simple but well done with a white paper table cloth. The journey between Plymouth and Exeter is especially scenic and sitting at a laid out table awaiting good food was quite a treat.

Here is the menu for my journey – click to enlarge. There were three starters, four mains and two desserts on offer plus a selection of regional cheeses. Besides the wine list there were also spirits such as Tarquin’s Handcrafted Cornish Gin for £8 and a number of soft drinks. Bottled water is complimentary.

I took a shot of the galley with the skilled chef at its helm, skilled not only at cooking but balancing too!

The meal started with complimentary warm bread rolls of different varieties. For my starter I had Sumac roasted pumpkin with pomegranate, hummus and coconut yoghurt. It was delicious and looked appetizing too.

For my main I chose prime 6oz Oxfordshire fillet steak (£15 additional cost) cooked ‘well done’. It came with parsley butter, beef fat chip, tenderstem broccoli and cabbage and peppercorn sauce and, with mine, Dijon mustard. The broccoli was a bit soft but the steak was perfect and overall it was very tasty.

As dessert I had apple and blackberry crumble. The hot custard was hand-poured by the waiter and I like my crumble ‘drowned’!

The meal finished off with complimentary tea and a mint chocolate:

Conclusion

I had a really enjoyable journey from Plymouth to Paddington and arrived feeling very content. The food was very good quality, and with two courses at £38 and three courses at £46 I thought it was fairly priced, although my steak came with a £15 surcharge.

It is definitely something worth trying if you are heading to or from the West Country. For anyone used to regular First Class catering on the long-haul British rail network, it’s a revelation and I would definitely do this again. Give it a go whilst you can.