Santa Rosa Junior College Culinary Cafe - Santa Rosa

458 B St (located in Brickyard Center), Santa Rosa, CA 95401

(707) 576-0279

Parking: street parking and parking lot across the street

Hours: Lunch Wednesday through Friday, by Reservation Only

Last Visited: May 4, 2007

Food: 3 to 4 stars

Atmosphere: 3 stars

Service:2 to 3 stars
Price: $$

Located in Brickyard Center in the culinary center, Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) Culinary Café is a showcase of students’ cooking, baking, and service skills, all done for course credit. The staff is comprised of prospective chefs in order to learn the service aspects of running a restaurant. It’s a great program, and I have enjoyed the few community classes I have added.

For the lunch crowd, SRJC Culinary Café offers a full course meal including soups, salads, entrees, and desserts. The menu typically features seasonal ingredients from local farmers and purveyors of organic produce as well as items from SRJC’s Shone Farm. However, the program requires that you make reservations, even for one, so be sure to call ahead.

Upon arrival, you receive glasses of ice water and various breads in a basket. Sourdough tends to be a standard, but you’ll also find wheat rolls, rye, and more. I especially enjoyed the Cheddar and Jalapeno bread.

- Heirloom tomato salad – Sweet heirloom tomatoes are paired with arugula and dressed lightly in a vinaigrette. It was a simple but lovely combination of vegetables. I’ve had sweeter tomatoes, but it certainly didn’t ruin the experience trying these. $3.50

- Salad of Red Leaf Lettuce with Grapefruit and Avocado – Red leaf lettuce is served with slices of ruby red grapefruit and avocado in a light vinaigrette. The flavoring was nice, but the portion was smaller than usual. $3.50

- Grilled Hawaiian Opah and White Shrimp with Sesame Butter Sauce served with coconut rice and broccoli - Two pieces of opah were grilled to show grill marks and placed on top of coconut infused rice. Three shrimp are butterflied with the tail still on and placed outside of the mound to segment the plate and broccoli is placed between the shrimp. The broccoli and shrimp sit on a pool of sesame butter sauce. Two sweet pickled cucumber slices are placed on top of the opah. The flavors were so sweet and strong. The shrimp and broccoli weren’t overcooked. The broccoli still had a vibrant green about it. The opah was tender and flaky, but one of the pieces had a bit of a muscle on the side which should have been cut away. The dish was beautifully plated, although the cucumber slices could have been smaller since they covered the fish a bit too much. The butter sauce was excellent – rich and creamy and went well with the lightness of the fish. Very good. Not exactly low fat, but I was okay with that. The rice was lovely – loosely broken grains, but the flavor was sumptuous. $9.50

- Grilled Pork Chop with Seasonal Vegetables – A large thick pork chop is grilled so that it is juicy and delicious. I had just eaten a pork chop at John Ash, and in comparison, this was a little less flavorful (and it didn’t have a bug in it), but it had so much more juice. Each bite was moist and delicious. If you compare it with John Ash, it’s less than a third the price with a larger portion, and no bug. The pork chop came with cubes of yellow squash, zucchini, and three tiny yellow sweet potatoes that looked like small pouches. The porkchop itself was topped with a ragout of carrots, onions, and a sweet sauce and plated on a bed of spinach. There was an abundance of food on this plate and the vegetables were mild in flavor. The sweet potatoes were great in flavor too, but since they were small, it was a bit difficult to remove the flesh. A filling platter of juicy pork and tender vegetables. Very good. $9

- Butternut Squash Galette with a Shitake Mushroom and Herb Cream Sauce – This galette was rich with the taste of butter and super flaky. The butternut squash puree was placed in the center of this pastry and served with a cream sauce that had large pieces of shitake mushrooms. I don’t have much recollection of the herb part of the sauce though. The galette was placed atop a mound of sautéed savoy cabbage, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Three roasted artichoke hearts were placed around the plate. The artichoke hearts weren’t as flavorful as I expected them to be, although they were tender. Overall, the galette was very filling and rich, but delicious. $8.50

- Grilled Beef Sirloin with Garlic and Parsley and a Red Wine Reduction Sauce – Of all the dishes I have tried here, this is probably the best I have ever had. Five pieces of sirloin strips top roasted potatoes and are accompanied by carrots and snow peas. The sirloin was succulent and juicy, and the wine reduction sauce was full bodied, but not heavy. The vegetables were flavorful and not overcooked. Delicious and prepared with care, this was the perfect entrée to enjoy. $9.50

- Pacific Oyster Stew – Pacific oysters are stewed with onions, potatoes, cream, and Tabasco. The stew was warm, but not quite hot enough. About three or four oysters were included in my bowl. Fresh seafood flavor, but more of a soup and less of a stew. $8.50

- Sauteed Pork Loin in a Red Wine Sauce with Red Wine Poached Pears – Two pork loin chops are served leaned against a large mass of mashed potatoes, and a medley of carrots and zucchini. The pork was fairly juicy, but just a touch overdone. The mound of mashed potatoes was good, but perhaps too overwhelming in size. The sauce was ladled underneath everything and although the flavors were fine, this was just an okay dish. $8.50

- Sauteed Hawaiian Ahi Tuna, White Shrimp and Calamari in a Fennel and Bread Crumb Crust – Served with couscous, zucchini, and roasted carrots, this was a nice dish, though not quite what I expected. I thought that the tuna would be seared, but it turned out to be rather dark in color and the fish was shaped into a small cake. The shrimp and calamari had been lightly battered and fried. The couscous was a bit bland and somewhat lumpy, but the vegetables had fresh flavor. I thought the overall dish was just okay, but it was nicely presented as the couscous had been cooked in a mold and the other items placed in a visually pleasing manner. $9.50

- Hazelnut Pavlova with Citrus Compote and Vanilla Ice Cream - I asked the server what a pavlova was, and after going back to the bakery, he returned to tell me it was basically a meringue. The sweetness of the pavlova is light at first, with each bite becoming sweeter. The puff pastry that accompanies the dessert is perfect and light, and the citrus compote and vanilla ice cream go well with it. Hazelnuts are sprinkled all around. I preferred the puff pastry to the pavlova. $3.50

- Baked Apple Puff with Lychee Sorbet and Tropical Fruits – A puff is filled with apple and served warm with a small scoop of lychee sorbet and a medley of chopped tropical fruits including kiwi and mango. The fruits weren’t quite sweet enough and I would have preferred more lychee sorbet or even sorbet alone. Okay. $3.50

- Chocolate Hazelnut Pear Torte – I enjoyed the torte which had a cake like texture. For whatever reason, the torte seemed to look like there was banana in it, but that wasn’t on the ingredient list. The pear was noticeable, and the hazelnut wasn’t overpowering. It tasted very homemade and had a nice flavor, but I wouldn’t boast about this dessert. Good. $3.50

- Mini Chocolate Fudge Cake with Toffee Swirl Ice Cream – The fudge cake was rich and moist, full of flavor. It was topped with chocolate chunks and roughly chopped pieces of toffee not to mention the ice cream. Presentation was okay, and the flavor was quite good, though the toffee chunks were just the right size to get stuck in my teeth. The frosting on the fudge cake was a bit much for me, but would be perfect for chocolate lovers. $3.50

- Glazed Deep Chocolate Poundcake with Chocolate Candy Ribbons and Strawberry Sauce - The poundcake was flavorful and rich. The chocolate candy ribbons were made from a combination of white and milk chocolate and placed on top of the slice of cake standing upright. Strawberry sauce surrounded the cake. Good. $3.50

Service was only fair. The hostess is fine, but the servers, who are studying to be chefs really don’t cater to the needs of the customer. This is definitely where more work is needed. For example, after ordering the entrée, the waiter left the menus with us. He didn’t come by to check on us very frequently, and seemed a bit haphazard in style. If you can let go of the service, you’ll have a much better experience. Enjoy the food, and from the main dining room, look at the mirror above the kitchen to watch the dishes being plated. That’s good entertainment right there. Service during the visits as a whole vary, so just be patient and keep expectations low.

The restaurant bakery is open in the morning for coffee treats and other delightful items featured in the glass case. Be sure to check it out. The fish is always wonderful. It’s fabulous both in flavor and pricing, and they offer a discount to senior citizens. Support your local school.