During our fun and delicious visit to “the other CIA” – The Culinary Institute of America – we went to have lunch at this restaurant. The first place we tried out for a small breakfast (a.k.a. dessert), Apple Pie Bakery Café was quite good (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/apple-pie-bakery-cafe/ ), but we needed real food after walking around on their campus tour. It is in the same building as the Café, on one end of the building.
The inside was nice and spacious, with green carpet that somehow shined with flickers of golden yellow. With high ceiling and large windows allowing floods of natural light, the dining area looked even bigger. They also had a space for private dining, which is always a good thing to have. The interior had clean lines and color scheme, with antique-style chandelier. Great relaxing atmosphere.
We got a table by the window, close to their kitchen. The kitchen is not in sight from the dining area by the windows, you need to walk over to the dining area away from the inside of the restaurant. When I tried to peak from the window-side dining area, the Maître d’Instructor came over with a smile and told me to go take a look. So I walked over and got a quick but a good look at all the chefs and chefs-to-be at work. So cool!
Just as all the other restaurants here at the CIA, all the staffs are the actual students, and instructors helping them to do their best. Once we got our orders in a staff brought some bread. They looked and smelled soooo good… And it tasted even better! It was fluffy like clouds, had some sweetness to it. Little Rock salt on top of the bread highlighted the sweet flavor. And the butter is REAL butter! It was so good that we finished them all super fast! Our server offered us more bread, which was awesome. Thank you!
For appetizer, we ordered PEI Mussels ($10) with Saffron Cream, Chorizo, Roasted Sweet Peppers, Sunchokes, and Jalapeño Jam Crostini. Since it was an appetizer item, I expected this dish to be rather small in portion, but it was nice and big! It was enough to share among the three of us, in fact, this could have been someone’s main dish.
Mussels were large and fresh, great flavor and soft, not fishy at all. Chorizo was meaty with perfect amount of spice! It was quite delicious, we all enjoyed this dish. And the price point was awesome, who knew we could have this high quality dish with lots of mussels for $10???!!!
The first main dish of our choice was Sautéed Duck Breast ($22) with Spring Squash Purée, Braised Baby Leeks, Herbed Potatoes, and Cherry-Port Sauce. It had nice chewy texture without being too chewy. Cherry sauce had a nice acidic flavor that goes perfectly against sweet flavor of the meat. High quality ingredients, carefully cooked and prepared.
The second main dish was Roasted Lamb Chops ($24) with Carolina Griddle Cake, Spring Vegetables, and Lamb Jus.
Lamb was cooked medium rare, but more towards rare to keep the flavor of the meat. If you are not fan of rare meat, you need to ask them to cook to medium or medium-well, as this is what we received when we asked for medium-rare. It had good flavor, especially the sauce. Carolina cake is made with rice and cornmeal. Interesting flavor with nice combination of spices.
The last main dish was Pan-Seared Striped Bass ($19) with Chanterelle, Fava Bean Purée, Roasted Potatoes, Bacon, and Thyme Jus. The bass was flaky and juicy, with perfect amount of salty flavor. The green purée was nice and mild, went great with the fish. Potato was cooked perfectly, soft without losing its texture.
After having such pleasant and delicious food. we decided to get a couple of desserts to share. The first one was Buttermilk Panna Cotta ($10) with Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote, Oat Crumble, and Strawberry Sorbet. When it came to the table, we were surprised by the size of the plate, it was huge! But then, as soon as we put a spoon to it, we realized it was really shallow, so the portion overall was not that big. The panna cotta was velvety and tasty, just melt in your mouth. The strawberry sorbet was packed with real strawberry flavor, the strong flavor went great with the mild, smooth flavor of panna cotta.
The second dessert was Lemon-Blueberry Napoleon ($10) with Crispy Phyllo, and Local Wildflower-Honey Ice Cream. It was a bit hard to eat, with the way it was constructed. The phyllo was a bit too hard, so, when we tried to cut into it, the beautiful layers got all squished before phyllo giving out and break off. But the flavor itself was great, sweet custard and acidic berry were great match, enhancing and support each other’s flavor. Ice cream had really nice honey, it was excellent!
Getting a reservation to this restaurant (or any other restaurant) is highly recommended, as they are very popular foodie destination. At the time of reservation, the staff asked if we were there to celebrate any special event or anniversary, which was kind of interesting, but then it all came clear at the end of our meal. They brought out super cute complimentary sweets! How very considerate of them! It was fruity gummy type, paired with chocolate truffles.
We enjoyed our desserts and complimentary sweets with Small Press Pot Coffee ($6) to share. The small pot is enough for 2–3 cups of coffee. It had the aroma of real coffee beans, rich and delicious! Really nice coffee!
It was a very pleasant lunch, the student server took a really good care of us, he was friendly, professional and courteous. It was interesting and kind of fun to watch Maître d’Instructor watching everyone like a hawk and make sure the student staffs are doing their job right, and doing it well, keeping everyone on point. I think our server gave us a great and thoughtful service. I am glad we got to experience this restaurant with great American food and service! hooray to the CIA students and professors!
American Bounty Restaurant – 1946 Campus Dr, Hyde Park, NY 12538