The Tutored Chef

I love this place. In all honesty it is not a true five star as good as it gets experience, but for what it is, an insanely discounted gourmet meal prepared by students overseen by chef instructors, I think it’s wonderful. :) Definitely one of those «best kept secrets» of Tampa. Terrific deal. Hours are limited. Service isn’t perfect. The location is a lil hidden. But I always have fun and a GREAT meal when I go. You can order every item on the menu for the price of a SoTa fancy meal out. :) And the dishes are generally EXCELLENT. You can order a la carte or prix fix $ 10 for soup or an app, main dish and dessert. Or do the prix fixe and add on. Go big!!! It’s for the kids!!! :)

This is a tough review to write. It’s not a traditional restaurant review. There is nothing traditional about this place. From the moment I walked in, I had the feeling I was back on the college campus (because it is), but it’s not even a traditional college. It’s the Art Institute.
Currently, they are only open for lunch. Hopefully, they will open back up dinner. Today, I had the 3 course with soup of the day, seared ahi salad, and chocolate moose. On top of that, I ordered a burger. I couldn’t eat there and not try the burger! Because it was so much food, I was only able to eat half the burger (score, meal for later). The soup was good. It was a hearty cream based chicken soup with a well blended mix of flavors. The ahi salad was good, but mostly spinach; an overwhelming amount of spinach. I think it could have benefited from some mixed greens. The ahi was perfectly cooked and seasoned. The chocolate moose was delightful!
I’m saving the best for last, the burger. I’m tempted to enroll in the culinary arts program just to learn how to cook this burger. Is there a word better than amazing, because this burger is deserving of the ultimate descriptive praise. It was magical. The burger was tender, juicy and bursting with flavor. It melted in my mouth. This may be the best burger I’ve ever eaten. I know that is a bold statement, but you have to taste it to believe it. It was out of this world good! The brisket is ground in house to make the patty. All the toppings refresh, and even the bun was fresh and fluffy.
I recommend checking it out, and giving feedback to these future culinary leaders. They really outdid themselves today! Top notch food that’s easy on the wallet.
Order the burger!

I had the 3 course special for $ 10 lunch. The first course, soup of the day was the shrimp, sausage and bean soup. The shrimp was kind of chewy and the soup tasted like pizza sauce. It was a OK soup for me. For the house burger, I ordered well on the beef. When it came out, inside the burger still pink, more like a medium rare. I am not used to eat rare burger but this time it turned out OK. The presentation looked pretty. The fries were quite good. The meat was tender and not dry, plus the burger patty was thick and big! Dessert was the chocolate mousse which was not bad. For the 3 course deal, the soup and dessert were fixed. The main course, customers can choice from 3 kinds of salads or 4 kinds of entrees. I got a seared tuna salad to go. The tuna was seasoned and seared very well. It produced a favorable taste. The veget part was also attractive. The dressing was like ginger, orange juice, mango juice mix. It’s unique and went well with the salad. The 2 fried cream cheese wontons were very tasty. Overall, the food and services were excellent.
This restaurant is part of the cooking school. The menu changes every quarter. It’s wise to call couples days ahead before you show up to make sure they are open.

This is memorable night from The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Tampa. This dinner no doubt is one of the best in the Bay now. The cost is low, the food is great, and we even get Chef Treatment. Tonight dinner is one that closer to my heart. The restaurant or the institute is naming as Tutored Chef and they only serves dinner on Thursday and Friday night from 6 pm to 8 pm. Please call 813−393−5395 for reservation.
The menu has ten items to select. Each item not more than $ 6.95. You also can try their special combination of the ten items from the menu with three to five course meals. The three courses is $ 13.95, four courses is $ 15.95, and five courses is $ 17.95. This is a steal and price buzzer. They are currently serving the spring menu. The summer menu will be start at July. I would encourage the patron go to support them. However, if you want to get the best cooking skill, come after four to six week later when they are familiar with their menu. That is when the food is goooooood. The food and the tip are going to the school. You can tip extra with cash and mention it is for the people who serve you. It is good for the student who serves you.
Tonight we have everything in the menu. The restaurant starts with croûton with herb dip and enhance flavor butter. Then follow by baked empanada with passion fruit and Cajun Spice for opening. We started with grilled asparagus in asparagus purée and bacon bit. This is a well presented dish and it is elegantly presented. The asparagus is well cook and go well with the Canadian type bacon. The second initial entrée is the Egg — it is soft broil fried egg serve over the Mushroom Ragout. When the egg is cut, the egg yolk is spilled over the mushroom. The mushroom is cook with wine sauce. When it mixed with the egg yolk, it has added the flavor. The egg is fried with crust and tasty to eat. The third initial dish is the soup du Jour. The soup is one of the student creations. Creamy soup is served with smoke bacon.
The main dish starts with the lamb — Chilled Grilled Leg of Lamb serve over the Israeli Couscous. It also has the touch of the Chimichurri sauce that makes the grilled lamb more desirable. The second main dish is shrimp — The shrimp is cook with Tarragon Tomato Relish and Chive Oil. It serves over the risotto. The taste is like old bay seasoning for the Maryland Crab. It goes well with the risotto. The third main dish is pork — They are two type pork is served here. Braise Smoked Pork Shanks and Sautéed Pork Tenderloin. These are two different type of preparation. And both are good. It also serves with Potato Gratin, Baby Carrot, and snow peas. It is a balance meal. The fourth main dish is the beef — Slice Grilled Beef is place on top of the croûton and place on top of sweet Onion Marmalade. The onion is sautéed to soft and good for the mixed with the beef.
We close the night with Blueberry financier on blueberry sorbet and blueberry compote. It is pretty muffin cake over blue berry ice cream and syrup. We also have the Chocolate Marquis top with Ice Cream and roasted pistachios. Chocolate is same as mousse.
I was going to post this review for my 200 hundred reviews. But restaurant this good needs to be shared. I am thinking do a UYE on the end of July or begin of the august when the student chefs get familiar with the summer menu.

We were pretty impressed with The Tutored Chef. Their hours are currently 6−8pm and they are located just behind Raymond James Stadium at the Culinary Institute of America. My husband and I wanted to taste a lot of things, so we ordered 6 dishes to share.
We started off with the soft boiled fried egg over a mushroom ragout. Outstanding. Our favorite dish of the evening. Excellent flavors and seasoned perfectly.
We then ordered the barbecue chicken pizza. Not bad. The crust was nice and crunchy on the outside with the inside being nice and soft. It was off kilter on the crust to toppings ratio – a lot of dough and not much substance on top.
Next came the lamb. It came perfectly prepared at medium rare with a nice crust on it. The Israeli couscous was good. The baby carrots were undercooked, but overall, the flavors with the demi glacé were on point.
The seared sea scallop came next. This was our least favorite dish of the night. The scallop had a burned taste to it, even though it was not burnt. It was perfectly cooked. The purees that accompanied it were bitter and did not blend well with the scallop. This is the only dish we would not order again.
The beouf bourginon was next. OMG. Outstanding. The beef was tender and the pan drippings turned into a gravy were ridiculous. The potato purée was perfect and so creamy. My husband and I only eat meat when we go out to dinner, as we try to abide by a plant based diet. However, I COULD EAT TWO BOWLS OF THIS AMAZINGNESS.
The strawberry panna cotta with strawberry sorbet was last. Tangy, tart, and a nice palate cleanse to the end of a meal.
Overall we were very impressed.
6 dishes, 2 sodas, $ 28!?! Such a steal of a deal!

Not often I give a 5 star rating to a restaurant. This place is incredible! Student chefs in their 6^th semester get to prepare fancy food to people at this restaurant. Opens at 6:00pm, and only has about 15 tables. 5 course meal for 18 bucks!

The food is amazing! Sitting in the restaurant is a great experience! You can see the students cooking the food you are eating! Delicious, great service and very reasonable costs!

This is probably the best kept secret in Tampa Bay (but its ridiculously hard to find their hours).
Located by Ray Jay, the Tutored Chef is part of the Art Institute Culinary School.
On the dinner menu they have the following:
Appetizer
Soup de jour
Pizza of the day
5 entrees
2 desserts
For $ 14 you can choose a combo of any 3. For $ 16, a combo of 4. For $ 18 a combo of 5.
Go with the 5. The portions are small, more of a tasting than an actual full portion, but where they lack in size they more than make up for in presentation and flavor.
The menu changes with the semester and I am looking forward to trying it again very soon.

Why 4 stars? Because only inconsistent hours hold it back from 5.
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Quality eats, at student prices. Nothing about your experience feels like you’re enjoying a high-​end meal… until you place some food in your mouth. It’s definitely a strange thing to be sitting on the 2^nd story dining room of the Art Institute, in a very bright, naturally lit setting –but your mouth says you’re at a dimly lit, romantic institution. My steak should have been over $ 20, but it was about $ 8.
The ratio of employees: customers was hilarious. We were the first to arrive and there was about 20 hosts/​servers just waiting to help us. While we waited for our food and while we ate, they all just stood near the door… waiting to host or serve someone.
This is a very unique experience that everyone should try out at least once, but the problem is that the hours are all over the map. The best thing to do is to try and call ahead to find out when they will be open. Other than that, there’s no telling.

After waiting way too long between visits I finally returned to the Tutored Chef, a student-​run restaurant at the Culinary Arts Institute in Tampa. The highly skilled chefs-​in-​training don’t disappoint whether it is perfectly seasoning a Caesar salad, cooking scallops that are tender and tasty or creating a flourless chocolate torte that defies description. With prices that range from $ 3-​$ 5 for lunch there is no better meal and no better deal around. I put away every bite of a beautiful serving of shrimp, scallops, sauteed spinach and polenta priced at five bucks. The only hitch is that hours vary according to when classes are in session, are limited to weekdays and no alcohol is served. But now through late September make sure to try the lunch or dinner menu, 11:30 a.m. — 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays or 5:30 — 8:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. Call 813−393−5395 for reservations and to confirm days and hours of operation.

Eating gourmet on a student budget, it doesn’t get better than that for me. The food is excellent, but the best part are the students and the staff who work hard at creating an innovative and personable approach each and every time I go there.
I highly recommend this place.

This is part of the Art Institute in Tampa. Menu changes quarterly. Limited hours. Gourmet food at reasonable prices.