Pullman Dining Car First Great Western

Excited to find ourselves on a train with Pullman dining , we already had first class tickets . Went to the dining carriage and a lady with far too much fake tan literally ran at us demanding to know if we had a reservation , when we informed her we did not she said we would have to share a table with a couple still eating their lunch despite the carriage not being even half full . We asked if we could come back later and have a table for 2 only to be rudely told no it’s now or never , with still almost 3 hours of the journey left it didn’t make sense so we refused and had sandwiches in the first class carriage instead . I never know why these companies spend millions developing a product to destroy it by having rude uninterested staff work in it If FGW are the slightest bit interested it’s the 1554 from Newton Abbot to London on the 7th May 24

There is little to add to the excellent reviews already posted about this sevice. We finished off few days in London with dinner of the GWR Pullman from Paddington to Cardiff. Excellent food, very well presented and served by the super lovely team headed by long-standing Pullman steward Diane. Can recommend both the Cod and the Coq au Vin mains on the current menu. I also had lunch on the Cardiff to Paddington run recntlyy and can throughly recommend both the Bordeaux Supeieur and the Rhone Blanc Famille Perrin, on the current wine list. Also enjoyed reminiscing with Diane about the South Wales Pullman services back to the 1980's! All GWR need to do now is to put those state of the art kitchens on their Hitachi trains to more us and reintroduce the Great British Breakfast service!

Wonderful, from welcome onto the train to when I got off. Food top quality better than most restaurants I have been to, menu has lots of lovely options. Excellent service, friendly and chatty. Very reasonable considering quality of food. GWR this is the best experience I’ve ever had on a train, thank you for bringing something special to the railways.

Good food and good service. A nice addition to a long journey. Only runs on a couple of services a day.

On day 6 of a 7 day all line rover, I had high expectations that this would be one of the highlights of my little self indulgent trip. And it absolutely was. First class comfort, exceptional food and service which you enjoy with the constantly changing scenery effortlessly speeding by. I ordered the smoked haddock and crab salad (a large serving followed by the steak. I have to say I was hesitant about paying an extra £15 for the piece of rump but it was absolutely worth it. The dauphinois and cubed beetroot were delicious. As for the steak, I asked for it to be cooked medium rare, tending to rare. Fairly specific but it was executed to absolute perfection. Very very impressive. The half bottle of Bordeaux Superieur seemed to have a few more glasses than usual which is why I didn 't make it to a glass of port at the end probably the only disappointment of the experience! I rounded the meal off with cheese, as tempting as the bread and butter pudding sounded, but was told that was fairly heavy. It was a good call. The whole experience was top notch and as others have said I will do it again. I have already recommended this to quite a few friends. It would be great doing this with a few friends heck why not even book out the whole dining carriage?! And taking it a step further, why not book a return trip to Cardiff and get back to Paddington in time to take the night sleeper to Penzance (which I had done on the first day of my 7 day rover . Finally, two call outs must go to 1. GWR for operating this service and delivering it so well and 2. the dining team on board. Others have also mentioned this but they helped make the experience . I was served by Mark (apologies if his name ends with a c someone who seems to love his job and that shows very clearly. Absolutely loved it and will be back to do this again with at least 1 other. Thank you GWR (the only thing I would say you need to improve upon is the Paddington lounge on Platform 1 .