The Culinary Offerings of VIA Rail's "The Canadian"

As you already know, I went on the train trip of a lifetime when I traveled from Vancouver to Toronto on VIA Rail's "The Canadian". Although the overall experience itself was less-than-stellar, the best highlight while travelling on this train was the food. I want to use this post to show off some of the different food options that I had while on "The Canadian". These are mostly going to be vegetarian and fish dishes, with a couple of meat dishes thrown in. As you will see, the presentation of these meals are top-notch.

I will start with the picture at the top of this post. This is VIA Rail's signature triple chocolate cake, which was so rich, dense, and decadent that I would salivate whenever the server would announce that this was on the menu for dinner. The "VIA" in the chocolate sauce was a nice touch as well.

Meals on the train usually start with a soup or salad. I always went with the soup option. In this picture, I cannot remember which soup this was in particular, but options include a vegetable soup, cream of (insert vegetable here), or some other soup that I do not remember.

Here is the grilled salmon with mashed potatoes and vegetables. I think this was the tastiest meal I had on this train trip. The salmon was flavorful, and the potatoes and veggies were tasty as well.

This is the feta cheese omelette with shredded hash browns and an orange slice. The breakfast was good, though I preferred the lunch and dinner options.

I ordered another fish dish. This time it was the trout with roasted potatoes, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes. Also a very tasty dish.

Here is what the beef tenderloin looks like on the train.

This is the vegetarian tofu scramble with some fruit. This was reasonably good, though I wish I had some fish to go with it.

Here is the couscous salad with shrimp skewers. The shrimp was good but I am not a fan of couscous, and I think there was some vinegar dressing on the salad which I did not like. This was the dish where I would say was the one miss on the train.

I had to cleanse the salad taste in my mouth with a chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream.

Here is yet another fillet; this time with pico de gallo and veggies.

I had a falafel sandwich with potato salad, which was a dish I would not expect to have on this train trip, but I enjoyed this dish as well.

Here is the standard beef burger with salad.

I had a caramel cake for dessert, which was divine, and just as good as the chocolate cake.

Finally, here is the potato-roasted cod with mashed potatoes and veggies. I am sure you have noticed a theme.

Also, here is what the vegetarian lasagna looks like.

There were some other dishes that I did not get to take pictures on, including the prime rib. Anyways, I hope you get an idea of the kind of food you would expect to see when you go on VIA Rail's "The Canadian". Hope you enjoy!