American Bounty Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Hyde Park

Our conclusion is that dining here is an exercise in academic charity. Guests are helping students learn basic skills they don't yet seem to know, let alone have mastered. It's just surprising that the supervising chefs don't pay attention to what's leaving the kitchen...or, apparently, even try their own recipes.

We did a large family dinner here, so we sampled a lot of dishes. The main takeaway for us was that the food is very inconsistent. Anything from the grill station (such as the steak) turned out pretty well, was nicely presented, and was prepared with skill. Most of the desserts were also interesting and competently executed. In terms of the rest of the food, though, that's where the kudos run dry.

In my wife's case, the ingredients used in the braised pork shank just didn't work together -- and it was presented without much art, more like a heap of pulled pork than an actual shank -- so she never finished that dish. My own lamb duo was comically bad, with dry, chewy slices of leg of lamb (ordered medium rare, but far from that) over smoked lamb shoulder that was so strongly seasoned with smoky BBQ sauce that I couldn't detect any other flavors. In addition to being poorly executed, the lamb duo flavor combinations clashed glaringly -- so I sent it back. I also tried the beef dumpling soup, and despite the broth being quite savory, both the beef and the dumplings were so tough they were inedible. My sister had the eggplant schnitzel, which was too salty for her, with spätzle that was undercooked and far too chewy. Overall, a pretty disappointing percentage of the food served to us (half the main courses that were ordered) missed the mark for achieving basic competence...let alone offering the culinary flare we expected from CIA.

The highlight for us was our server -- who was attentive, efficient, and competent. She did address the shortcomings we identified with helpful solutions. It was also nice that Chaos Theory red was available by the glass.

The next day, our same group tried Bocuse just down the hall for lunch, and that experience was far inferior in every way. So in contrast American Bounty did offer interesting and tasty options with superior service. But overall, CIA restaurants are just not something we'll likely...

First of all, the food and service would be considered average to poor anywhere else; but come on folks. This is where we are training the next generation of culinary experts, for crying out loud. The school is backed by some of the best in the industry: Marriott and Hilton. You would honestly think that you are in for a real treat. Don't waste your time at this place. Seriously.

Beautiful campus. Wonderful approach across a courtyard from the parking garage. Terrific "grand" entry point followed by an institutional grand hallway to the entrance....the magnificent and acclaimed AMERICAN BOUNTY. Then it was ALL down hill from there.

Terrible greeting at the door (non-plus), wimpy service. Wait until you hear this, four separate servers asked for a pepper mill, two were reminded more than once that we still had not seen one. Someone finally brought one to the table just before dessert. Over cooked fish, tough steak with too much sauce. If this is the "next generation", better get your eating out experiences done now, it aint getting any better with this crowd. Please take a look at the photo of the dessert. What exactly is that? Disgusting is what it is.

Asked to see a manager or someone with whom we could relate our concern. Once, twice...twenty minutes. Oh, the same process as the pepper mill. No one has heard of it, or in a fine dining restaurant where we train the best of the best, there isn't one.

Never saw anyone that night, but got the business card of someone that we could follow up with. Left messages the following day and the day after that. Never got a response. And for all of this terribleness and lack of concern, they charge regular fine dining prices. Our dinner for four was $250 with tip.

Did you know that that students at the CIA protested against the administration on 23 April 2013 (we were there last week). They are complaining that the school has dropped their standards.

Now everything makes sense. Don't go....and don't be impressed by anyone who was trained there. Let the experience of dining out do the talking. Boy...

During our fun and delicious visit to The Culinary Institute of America, we went to have lunch at this restaurant. We got a table by the window, close to their kitchen. When I tried to peak at the kitchen from afar, the Maître d’Instructor came over with a smile and told me to go take a closer 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.

For appetizer, we ordered PEI Musselsto share. 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. And it was quite delicious, really nice start of our lunch...

For main, we ordered Sautéed Duck Breast, Roasted Lamb Chops, and Pan-Seared Striped Bass. The lamb was more rare than medium-rare, a bit too rare for me...other than that, everything else was tasty, high quality, and carefully prepared. We enjoyed them all.

We also had Buttermilk Panna Cotta and Lemon-Blueberry Napoleon for desserts. The Napoleon was hard to eat, 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 of both desserts were excellent.

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...