LNER and Avanti West Coast offer the most amount of free food/drink in 1st. up to full (small) meals and alcohol.

Cross Country, Transpennine Express, East Midlands Railway (only on trains to/from London), First Great Western (Inter city to/from London) also offer free drinks (not alcohol) and snacks.

Transport For Wales offer a paid restaurant quality meal on some Cardiff - Manchester/Holyhead trains.

1st class lounges at various stations are available, they are run by the specific company and only available to people with 1st class tickets for their trains so make sure to add a qualifying journey to your pass in case they ask for it.

Look at the company websites for details on their offerings.

Thank you!

Great, so I can look at www.nationalrail.co.uk whicht train companies are serving the different routes. Or is there any better website?

What about specials like e. g. steam trains which are possible to use with interrail?

Any idea how hotels in UK like it, when you book a room for 2 adults and then bring two small children (2 and 5) extra? (problem is, when you search for 2+2, you most of the time get expensive hotels with two rooms we do not need, as our children sleep in the same bed with us...)

LNER offer the best first class I would say. They’re also the logical choice of operator for London-Edinburgh anyway.

Do a fare search on the LNER website, and you will see the results marked with Dine, Dish, or Deli next to the first class fares for each train. Try to pick a Dine train, for the best meal service (although be warned that they have been known downgrade).

UK first class lounges are pleasant places to wait, and again LNER tend to be fairly decent and refurbished, but none of them are worth a special trip.

With any operator, expect slimmed-down menus at evenings and weekends, and possibly better service on the peak-time flagship services.

I’m not aware of any steam trains you can use with Interrail in the UK. There are some very scenic trips not to miss if you’re passing that way: The Settle-Carlisle line in England, and the West Highland line in Scotland. They’re regular timetabled services with diesel trains and stunning scenery. (Both second class only.)

Thank you. 
Are there different trains on the same route? For example a „dine“ train and later only a „deli“ train?

And how do I know if they serve me food when I only go part of the line? 

The trains are the same (well, the LNER on this route are). It’s just the menu that changes. You can see examples here: https://www.lner.co.uk/first-class-travel/menu/

I think the general rule is that if your journey is more than an hour, you’ll get food. Less than an hour, you might only get drinks. But the hospitality staff don’t check your ticket or ask where you’re travelling to, so they tend to just offer the menu to everyone.

I travelled last week with my first class Eurail pass on LNER and Avanti trains. I was impressed with both, possibly Avanti had the edge, at least on the London to Manchester train I was on.

The LNER meal I had from Edinburgh to Newcastle was also pretty good (lamb rogan josh curry).

I liked the Euston lounge run by Avanti.....great selection of food. I essentially had breakfast there. And lovely staff, who made me welcome.

Can Eurail passholders use the GWR Paddington lounge?

If you ask Eurail, they say it’s not part of the product, so ‘officially’ no.

In reality, I’ve never heard of a Eurail/ Interrail passholder being refused access. It might help to have e seat reservation - I was asked for one at the LNER lounge at King’s Cross recently, but I suspect they would have let me in without one.

Thanks for this.

I will have a genuine GWR reservation for that day, so if they ask, then that should help.

But, your reply did remind me that when I used the Avanti lounge at Euston (twice), they were happy with just seeing the first class pass. But I had a booking anyway.

Scrolling through the added benefits on the railplanner app, it says nothing about the UK; but does note that SJ lounges in key Swedish cities can be accessed, provided you also have a valid SJ booking to show them. That worked out well for me a few days ago for both Stockholm and Malmo (and the Malmo snacks on offfer were effectively a light lunch, with various salads etc). Stockholm lounge also gave me a nice place to hang out when SJ had big technical  issues on Friday, and delays of several hours. 

Thanks again for your quick reply.

Craig

Agree on Avanti having the slight edge of LNER for all around first class experience. Had a sensational Ploughman’s platter and sparkling wine late last year on a train from Glasgow to Birmingham!