The above photos cover the entire amount of available table seating in the cafe. There is seating for only 11 people and one pull-up spot for a wheelchair. Thus, only 12 people out of the 400+ passenger capacity of a Surfliner trainset can sit and eat in the Cafe at a time. Thus, most passengers will have to take their purchases back to their seat and eat at their seat. This is one of the very few criticisms that we have of the entire Surfliner trainset.

There may not have been a lot of options in the design decision to provide so little cafe table seating. One of the most important decisions in the design of these cars was to be able to carry as many passengers per trainset as possible. During peak ridership times, it is not unusual to have "standing room only" on the previous Amtrak San Diegan trainsets, and ridership is expected to continue to grow. To make best use of the limited dollars at the time to build the new Surfliner trainsets, it was decided that the upper level of the Coach Cafe car should be completely coach seating. Thus, unlike the Amtrak California Cafe Car or the Superliner Sightseer Lounge Cafe Car, there are no non-revenue seats for relaxation and eating on the upper level of the Surfliner Coach Cafe car.

Since all of the Surfliner cars use the same exterior car shell, there are 2 sets of double sliding doors on BOTH sides of the Surfliner Coach Cafe car, just like all the other Surfliner cars. Since there are revenue passengers in the upper level of the Surfliner Coach Cafe car, these doors will be utilized, unlike the doors of the Amtrak California Cafe Car that are seldom used for passenger loading/unloading. Thus, the entire cafe area has to fit not only between the trucks (wheels of the train), but is squeezed further to fit between the 2 sets of double doors.

Due to ADA requirements, there has to be an ADA accessible restroom if food is sold and tables are provided for the consumption of the food purchased. Thus, an ADA accessible restroom had to be incorporated into the design to also fit between the 2 sets of double sliding doors on each side of the car. All that was left was enough room for 2 tables for 4 people, 1 table for 2 people, and 1 table for 1 person plus a wheelchair pull-up location. Hence, the above photographs show ALL of the available table seating in the Surfliner Coach Cafe car.