Where All Trains of Thought Turn to Dining

While savvy regulars still rush to the lavish oyster bar in New York City’s Grand Central Station, few railroad dining spots in America are famed for either comfort or cuisine.

The opposite is true in Europe. Railroad buffets--the word that’s used to cover everything from cafeterias to fancy restaurants--are popular gathering places for residents as well as travelers. Like the trains, they are at the heart of life in village and city.

Many of the top railroad restaurants are family owned and operated. They offer home cooking at fair prices. In the Austrian lake town of Zell am See, I have enjoyed savory schnitzels and crisp salads, thanks to the talented Family Herrmann.

Their dining room is rich with fresh flowers and amber lamps. I dined there first when I was traveling on a Eurailpass. I returned two springs later when exploring the Grossglockner region by car.

Perhaps the grandest of the European station dining rooms is Le Train Bleu at Paris’ Gare de Lyon, where a palatial restaurant of belle epoque decor seems to float above the clanking reality of trains to Lyon and the south.

The gilt mirrors, ornate sculptures and vaulted ceilings are worth a visit, whether you dine there or not.

I was, in fact, between meals and trains, but I settled into a corner of the bar and observed the Parisian scene. Because of the egalitarian facts of train life, even this visual feast of a restaurant is not pretentious.

Over years of travel I rate the food at Swiss railway buffets as consistently good and plentiful. Even the cog-wheel train up the rugged Eiger ends with dining to match the Alpine view.

In the Swiss capital of Bern, a medieval masterwork of arcades, walls and towers, the station boasts a dozen places to eat.

You can get tasty made-to-order sandwiches at the Baguette deli near the tracks. You can relax over sausages and the fried, grated potatoes-- rosti --at a beer stube called the Brasserie. Cheese fondue is popular in the Taverna. The spiffy cafeteria called Trans-Express is open 24 hours a day.

Or you can go to the top floor and dine in quiet comfort at the Galerie restaurant or its Grill, both favored by as many locals as travelers.

Traditional fare is offered, including a Bernese vegetable platter and the veal-in-cream dish called Emince de veau Zurichsoise. An old-fashioned wall rack holds 30 newspapers, although none was in English.

The Galerie Restaurant has dark paneled walls and white silk curtains. Upholstered banquettes and well-spaced tables are decked with linen and crystal.

Bernese families gather there for graduation celebrations and retirement dinners. You can pick out the travelers by the odd valise that rests discreetly under a table.

The Galerie goes whole hog over special food events to entice its regulars. Once I was in Bern when posters proclaimed white asparagus season; another time it was a salute to the cuisine of British Columbia.

When I was there last month they were having a watermelon ( wassermelonen ) festival. The menu offered watermelon as an appetizer, in salads, as part of the main course and as dessert, either sliced or in sorbet.

A center table was heaped with pale-pink melons. I asked our waiter, Nikola, where the melons were from.

“From 6 o’clock,” he replied, glancing at his watch. As it was only 5:30, I had time to rephrase my question.

“And where were they grown?”

“Yugoslavia and Italy and Spain,” he said.

A Swiss friend had told me that one of the regulars at the Galerie had dined there every week for 57 years.

When I asked the manager about this story, he smiled.

“That is Mr. Fritz Kach,” he said. “Yes, he is still faithful. We treat him to a birthday dinner each June. This year he will be 105.”

What better testimonial for the Bern railroad buffet?