Gourmet Room at HCC

The Gourmet Room is a small-​scale lunch or dinner experience put on by the culinary, hospitality, and restaurant management students at Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry Campus.
I was able to visit for the French cuisine dinner service. Our meal began with a wedge salad with bleu cheese bacon vinaigrette and vichyssoise, which is a cold potato soup. I don’t eat salad so I can’t attest to the taste, but the presentation was nice. The vichyssoise wasn’t my thing (cold soup. who does that?) but the flavor wasn’t bad. The main course was coq au vin, a chicken dish braised in wine. It came with mushrooms, onions, and small potatoes. The chicken was excellent! It was very well prepared and you didn’t even need a knife to cut it. My favorite part was definitely the dessert. This was my first time trying crème brûlée and it was delicious! It was topped with the largest blackberry I’ve ever seen. I only wish it had been bigger so I could eat more! The students made sure our water glasses were always full and frequently checked to make sure we were enjoying our meal. We probably annoyed them with all of our questions, but they kept a smile and remained professional and courteous the whole night.
I think this was a great experience at an unbeatable price. The proceeds from the Gourmet Room benefit student scholarship funds, so you can not only enjoy a delicious meal but also feel good while you’re doing it!

Each week coming to HCC’S Gourmet Room is like taking a plane and going to another country — France, Greece, China, Spain to name a few. Check it out here —
I ventured to France on my visit, and it was a great experience. Our first course was Chilled Potato Soup (Vichyssoise). The 2^nd course was a Romaine Lettuce Wedge Salad with a homemade salad dressing, and our entrée was chicken with mushrooms and wine sauce (Coq Au Vin). Dessert is also included, and was a Crème brûlée. The flavors of everything were remarkable. I did think that chilled potato soup was not my thing.
We had great service from all directions. They made sure it was definitely memorable. The setting was nice with local artist paintings.
The only con was the volume of the room. It was so loud. Also, there are no substitutions for whatever is served, but that is understandable.
This experience can’t be beat. It is also $ 7 for everything, what?! YES!!!

Hillsborough Community College Culinary School «Gourmet Room» is getting it name with beautiful and sensual dining. This is the perfect academic and restaurant to close my 300^th series review. Thanks to students and teacher who serve the good food. If you like to know the website to joint in, please go to Grace H review.
We have a pleasure to celebrate a friend be late birthday here. The setting is nice with beautiful art on the wall. It is a table cloth serving if you want to have a nice diner with your love one with very good cost. I would encourage put more tip money in the plate to support the scholarship for the school since they are not for profit. Come and try out their food since each week is different country until their semester ended of their serving.
Tonight we have the Greek theme since I miss the season opener last week. The first course is the Greek Salad and The Lentil Soup. The Greek salad is a classic dish in many Greek restaurant. I like the pita bread on top of the salad. It is crispy and top with few pieces of sea salt. The lentil soup is garnish with spinach. The flavor has a twist mixture of the fragrant of food.
The main course is the Pork Tenderloin serves with Orzo Pasta. The orzo pasta shape like rice cook with olive oil tomato with a bit basil leave. The pork tenderloin is seasoned and baked in oven. The exterior was well salt and the seasoning that went into the meat. Then it is sliced and served to the customer.
My favorite is the dessert. Tonight it end with Baklava. I have eat many of baklava and never like it because many of them are sitting too long or wrap in the plastic before it serve. The different of this baklava is freshly prepared with crispy layers of crush. The infill of nuts are crispy and perfect to enjoy.
They still have four weeks left before the semester run out. Come and try the good cooking and support the students.

A wonderful weekly adventure in culinary arts prepared by HCC aspiring chefs. The room is quite loud and needs cushioning,.but the food and company (especially if you’re here with me) is fantastic. Set menu. Prix fixe. See Boon for more info.

The Gourmet Room, located on the Dale Mabry Campus, in the Humanities Building in room DHUM 118, is a fine dining restaurant experience run by the Culinary, Hospitality and Restaurant Management students. This week the menu was «vive la france». Prix fix dinner offered bread and butter, potato soup, salad, chicken in wine and crème brulee. All for $ 7 including tax. We left tips for the student waitresses because they did such a good job serving us. The food were delicious. The room was well decorated with soft background music. It was a pleasant experience. Good meal+good friends= fun time!
Check out gourmet room’s website
for the future menu and make reservation by e mail. They only accept cash (or check, I am not sure), no credit card. If you would take the leftover home, bring your own container/​topperware. They don’t have box. They start sitting and serving at 7 pm for dinner. Don’t be late, give yourself plenty of time to locate the room and find parking spot. By 8 pm, you will be done with dinner, pay the check and on your way out.