The Class Act

I applaud the concept of offering real life experience for the community college students who run this restaurant. The dining room is lovely — an extension of the attractive, modern hotel in which it’s located. Our server was friendly and prompt, although not polished. However, the food was horrible. My spouse ordered the Pineapple Ham Steaks. It consisted of slices of mediocre ham piled with odd tasting Edamame and pineapple, covered with a sickly sweet glaze. Wanting something lighter, I ordered two vegetable dishes. The Roasted Asparagus was edible, but very salty and the orange reduction was strange and too sweet. The Moroccan Carrots consisted of small overcooked, over-​salted carrots over a large bowl of Israeli Coucous swimming in a sticky, sickeningly sweet syrup, heavily seasoned with «Moroccan» spices. I have never sent anything back to the kitchen before, but my spouse and I agreed this was truly inedible. Prices were outrageous for the bumbling servers and awful cooking skills. The menu is filled with weird combinations of «creative» fusion type dishes. These students need to learn how to prepare good basic meals and stop trying to impress by concocting strange and inedible food.
(This review was written several months ago and not posted until now. I can only hope the place has improved. I see the menu is still filled with weirdly seasoned items. I love creative fusion cooking, but it has to be based on good cooking skills and a sense of balance and restraint totally lacking at this restaurant.)

We had dinner last night and there were seven of us. The food was very good and the service was as well. Some of the food items were excellent. Price is on the high side. Most of the servers are students at Kirkwood community college.
We were staying at the hotel in which the restaurant is located. We also ate breakfast. Again there were seven of us. The food was not as good at breakfast as it was at dinner. Also, the wait to receive our order was extraordinarily long and the competence of the server was mediocre.

I’m really surprised that I haven’t reviewed The Class Act yet, as it was one of the first places I ate after moving here.
I come from a family that doesn’t cook. So, one of our family traditions was having Thanksgiving dinner at Johnson & Wales, a culinary school where I’m from. Now that my son and I are 1,200 miles from home, we don’t exactly do Thanksgiving with family, but I can at least carry over the culinary school tradition
This Thanksgiving, I opted to order from the regular menu, rather than going for the Thanksgiving prix fixe. I did the prix fixe last year, though. You can’t go wrong either way. Today, I had pan seared pheasant breast in a cognac cream sauce, with tagliatelle, and carrot ribbons. I also had the Italian wedding soup. The only item that I could criticize even a little was the soup. When you’re making a soup with sausage, or meatballs, it’s easy to forget how much salt leaches out of the meat. Other than that, everything was fantastic. The cognac cream sauce was very subtle, but not bland. It worked very well with both the pheasant, and the tagliatelle. I even ate the carrot ribbons, and I never eat vegetables.
I have been here a bunch of times on days other than Thanksgiving, too. Everything has always been very good, for both breakfast and dinner. You’ll encounter the occasional mistake, but nothing like the mistakes I made in college, and the food is always good.

I hate to give a place ³⁄₅ stars that i know is trying really hard to be awesome, but I just didn’t love it.
Drinks: Too strong. Ordered a manhattan, and had to gently sip it. The alcohol flavor was overpowering. You should take the whiskey, but it shouldn’t feel like you are drinking it straight over ice.
Menu: Here is my problem, lack of consistency/​theme. I expect a menu to have a theme, and for all dishes to work together. When I am out with another person, I like to share my entrée, if it doesn’t compliment each other it feels off. What is an antipasto doing in the same column with falafel? Very different cuisines.
Food: Bison meatballs with tagliatelle: sauce was stuck to the pasta, meatballs were dry, it was like I reheated this in the microwave. Granted good tasting leftovers, but not what I would expect. Pan roasted pheasant breast with tagliatelle: Again not impressed, I don’t know why, just wasn’t great.
No it is not bad food, but it is not what I would expect either. The décor is lovely, and the service is good, because of that I would expect higher quality. Maybe I’m confusing Kirkwood with CIA, but ca’mon why can’t it be CIA quality?

Spot on! Quite a surprise to end up at a hotel with fine dining. Nothing over the top. Great service! Cool waiter that was a culinary student.
Bottom line… The ribeye was grilled perfectly (rare baby) and butter knife material. Awesome salad too.

Bring your partner here for a special night of food at then spend the night at the modern hotel. Fantastic food and service. Students run the operation as part of their college degree.

Beautiful décor, great food, friendly servers, birth student and professional. Eggs Florentine are amazing. Tried cream of dill pickle soup last night. Never heard of it. Quite good! When in Cedar Rapids, don’t miss this place.

Out standing! I grow produce for the Class Act, and I’ve always been impressed when I ‘product sample’. The Potato Leek soup in the fall is heavenly, and the Bison burger is beyond pleasuring for lunch.
Pricing is very appropriate! Comparable to the current Chilli’s and Applebee’s pricing, but has way better food and service!

Wow. Who would have thought such a fab find near the Iowa airport? Excellent service and meal. Had a spectacular salad with grilled salmon filet done to perfection. Started with a smoky tomato bisque. Highly recommended!!!

Very classy! I had a delicious meal here. I actually ate at the bar. The bartender was personable and knowledgeable. I was there around 5:00 so they had a «2 for 1» special on drinks. The beef was so tender and spiced to perfection. The food was so good I decided to try the dessert. I think that anything you order here will be fabulous.
It was a bit confusing to find. It is located in the lobby of the hotel.

What a pleasant surprise to find this 5 star, gourmet restaurant in the suburbs of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We were driving for hours and arrived at the hotel exhausted. The gentleman at the check– in recommended staying at the hotel for dinner and we enjoyed a meal at their student run Class Act. The salmon was the best I’ve had in years; perfection. The unusual sweet potato soup was delicious and the vanilla mousse with salted caramel was superb. The prices are so reasonable and the service was outstanding. Do not miss this special restaurant. Not only is the ambiance lovely, we were able to sit in a lovely booth without a reservation which made us so happy. The name of the restaurant says it all… a Class Act.

My dad and I are at the hotel for a trade show and we stopped in here for dinner. I loved my steak and my salad. My dad found his steak dissatisfactory and mentioned it to the waiter. A few minutes later, both managers came by to apologize, removed the cost of the steak from his tab and thanked us for being honest about our food. That level of service is outstanding and is absolutely the way a restaurant should be run. Kudos to the staff for being prompt, polite and professional. A Class Act indeed. Despite the issue with one of our meals, I still highly recommend this restaurant.

The Class Act is a part of The Hotel at Kirkwood Community College, which specializes in the hospitality and culinary industry. The hotel and restaurant are completely student run, which you would typically think is a bad thing. Not in this case. The students work really hard to perfect their craft and take a lot of pride in their work. The hotel itself is beautiful and I would readily suggest to anyone I know visiting the Cedar Rapids area to stay there. My in-​laws enjoy Sunday breakfast here at least twice a month and I can honestly see why they keep going back.
First of all, there has never been a wait. Big bonus because when we typically go out to eat, finding a table to 5 right away rarely happens. At Class Act, we are always seated right away and presented with complimentary pastries and danishes made by the students who work there. The pastries are professional grade and delicious! I have tried the pumpkin brioche french toast, the Florentine Eggs Benedict and the steel cut oatmeal. All three have been outstanding and just as good if not better than many of the breakfast establishments I frequent. Actually, the Florentine Eggs Benedict is one of my all-​time favorite breakfast items I have ever eaten and it just so happens to be at Class Act.
The students who run the restaurant are friendly and we have always gotten service with a smile. It’s no wonder why my in-​laws go so often, and now why I will happily accompany them. The Class Act indeed is a class act and earns an A+ in my book!

The food is very high quality with great presentation. The environment is a tad stuffy, but mostly just classy. No tax is nice. Service has been a bit hit or miss. Sometimes great, sometimes a bit stuffy. Their burger is great /​just wish they had fries to compliment it.

The Class Act restaurant is truly a class act in Cedar Rapids. It has been one of my special go-​to places over the years because everything is absolutely top notch. The food, drinks, service, environment and even it’s purpose as Kirkwood College’s student run teaching business is amazing. Hotel Kirkwood is part of the same complex and is the best hotel Cedar Rapids.

It can be a little frustrating when they get things wrong, but I think I agree this is a great place to go and I would come back.
The décor is kind of amazing for being sort of in the middle of a bunch of fields and far suburbs of Cedar Rapids. It feels like a downtown hotel.
The entire staff is very young and obsequious, sometimes too much, but that’s how it goes.
I thought my meal of rack of lamb was really terrific. Some others were not so happy, including finding actual string used to tie up the meat. (on some sort of pork dish)
The main problem is all of the service is verrrrrry slow, and the drinks service is unbelievably slow. Like it is super nuts how slow it is getting drinks.
Perhaps if they could speed up the drinks we wouldn’t mind the other slowness!
A group of 6 got in two drink orders and deliveries during a roughly hour and a half.
That was the part that really upset some of us.
They do have some interesting cocktails on the menu, but nothing worth having again.
I found the bathroom, which is very far away from the dining area, and I saw some kid in the bar obviously struggling with receipt paper and mixing drinks. Well, best of luck to him!

We love this restaurant!!! They use locally grown when possible. We have been there for breakfast and dinner. They will do vegan for me which I really appreciate. My hubby and son are carnivores and also love the food. The waitstaff is friendly and knowledgable. We haven’t had anything but great food here!

I liked this place. That it’s run as teaching lab for students is only better. I found the service to be excellent — friendly and prompt, but not intrusive. I had Sunday brunch which is a la carte — order off the menu. My meal was comp’d because of some problems with my hotel room so I ordered more than I usually eat so I could try a few interesting items.
While eggs benedict is really not that interesting, theirs is served on brioche toast. Just one word is needed regarding brioche toast — «I want more.» Ok, that’s 3 words, but you get the picture. The hollandaise was a bit too lemony for my taste but that’s just quibbling because the perfectly cooked egg, salty ham and brioche toast made up for it.
I also tried their biscuits with sausage gravy. The biscuits were sweet cream based, cut in half, then toasted, so they were especially light and airy, and delicious when sopping up the rich sausage gravy. The sausage in the gravy was bland though and I would say that a better quality sausage in that gravy would have have helped immensely but overall it was a very successful dish.

Seriously amazing menu and drinks list!!!
Rather modern shiny spot like eating on a German autobahn jazzed up modern lab.
Pretty n shiny n filled with waitstaff learning the ropes!
Brunch on Saturday at 1230 n we were only guests in dining room. Hmmm not so popular place? Unsure why but posit it is the crazy vibe the students give ?
We ordered cocktails: jalapeño margarita and a cucumber gimlet and it was sooooo long a wait. Couldn’t get waiter to stick around to place order but there were minimum five students hustling to change tablecloths. This is a teaching restaurant. This might charm you for a few minutes till hunger sets in.
Ordered the harvest vegetable soup. I loved it! Velvety yellow but was it cream of mushroom, asparagus, or cheese ??? I don’t care it was delicious!!! Tip staff should tell u what it is.
Main brunch plates we had: angus burger with half salad and I had harvest salad with a six dollar grilled free range chicken breast add on. Oh my the desperation of the cook who destroyed this lovely dish by charing all the juice out and leaving a dry and tough lukewarm thin chicken tender type epic mistake… I cried for what would have tasted awesome if not for too much cooking. Salad was ok.
We felt like we had stumbled in to a set of step ford wives as it was unreal ! Charming kids honest n hardworking !! It’s just uncomfortable after a bit to be surrounded by table changing setting in an empty place.
Do eat here because the food is pretty good. Do enjoy the interesting menu and make allowances for the blips. Nothing was seriously wrong w any of it. Hey this could be your future chef !!

Let me start by saying thank god for this place! I must say I was very impressed with the food and the décor its a very relaxing atmosphere. The ingredients were fresh and there were some interesting combos for ex. there were deep fried pickles on my steak sandwich. And at the end of the meal you are always pleased with the bill thanks to not having to pay tax here!