Thursday, October 8, 2009

Dining at the Texas Culinary Academy

Hidden away between The Domain and Burnet Road is the Texas Culinary Academy, which boasts two restaurants. We visited the more formal of the two, Ventana, for dinner a couple of weeks ago. The restaurant is staffed by students in both the front of the house and in the kitchen.


Students heading home

The healthy-looking herb garden


It's an official Cordon Bleu school


Appetizer: chicken kabob with quinoa

Appetizer: Catfish beignets

Salad with fried goat cheese

Salad with pickled onions

Snapper

My shrimp linguine - prepared at tableside!

Gnocchi with spinach and mushrooms

The menu is prix fixe at 2, 3 or 4 courses, so it's a lot of food for a pretty good price. We were happy with the food and it was interesting to try something new. The building that houses the restaurants is the same building where the classrooms are, so you can walk around and get a sense of what it would be like to be a student. There's also a store for supplies, and a large window display of decorated cakes with varying degrees of absurdly ornate icing.

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