Lumière

Lumiere has changed their name to Technique. They are open for lunch and dinner T-​F, and closed on weekends. I miss the old name, but found the food to be improved this visit.
Fried green tomatoes with pecan topping were crisp with a tiny hit of heat, she crab soup was outrageously delicious and crème brûlée had a perfect crust.
Service made our special night even better. J’adore the wonderful French restaurant manager~she is the essence of all that is elegant and lovely.
Cheers~

I would have never believed that this restaurant was part of a culinary school. From start to finish, the entire dining experience was wonderful. We were kindly greeted by the hostess who found our reservation and seated us in no time. Almost immediately, our server came out and introduced herself. She seemed a little nervous, but she was very pleasant and did a great job throughout the evening. Our table was great because we were seated pretty close to the open kitchen which I just loved.
The food, the food, the food! I started with the lobster bisque which I have to honestly say, it was right at the top as some of the best I’ve had. The cornbread they bring out before the meal was also very good. The hub kept eating it and they kept bringing out more. And it’s so cute in the mini cast-​iron skillet. For dinner, the hub had the pot roast. The portion was huge and full of potatoes, veggies and lots of beef. It was delicious. I ordered the fried chicken, as it is my favorite, and it came with mashed potatoes and a veggie. The potatoes were formed in little florets and boy were they good. The chicken was very tasty, not too much breading and very crispy.
I cannot wait to go back. The prices are very reasonable. The atmosphere is very relaxed and when it gets dark outside, they light candles which adds a little romance if you’re on a date.

We live about 5 minutes from Lumiere and I have always been interested in the idea so away we went for a Friday night dinner.
First of all, there’s no signs to find the place. We just drove around the campus to the most well lit office and that was it. They didn’t have my reservation but that was not a problem, we were seated immediately. There’s only about 15 tables in the whole place and it’s a very cozy atmosphere. Students are working either the floor or the kitchen.
The menu is extensive enough. I don’t drink, but L said the wine list was limited if you order by glass. I asked our waiter — an extern who’s already graduated — what she-​crab was. His response was ‘it’s regular crab we make into a soup.’ Okaaaay. We’ll take it.
So, L had the she-​crab soup — and it was delicious by the way, and I had the corn chowder. The hushpuppies were too salty and the soup luke warm but it was good. The Amuse bouche was, well, I’m actually not sure. But it was the best thing we had. Salted cod on toast maybe? I’m not sure. Fantastic though. We also ordered up some pimento cheese which was dang tasty.
For entrees, L had the salmon over wild rice risotto and I had the bourbon glazed ribeye over sweet potato hash. I thought «$ 14 for a ribeye? I’ll take it!» and then when it arrived I thought «I paid too much». It was a very thin piece and looked more like a steak you’d get at Ryans, albeit perfectly cooked. The hash was great though. L ordered the salmon seared, it came out well done. Oh well, they’re students…
For dessert, we ordered the pumpkin cheese cake which was fantastic. Although, and I never thought I’d say this as someone who loves the sauces, it was swimming in an anglaise sauce of sorts. L ordered the crème brûlée. I hate to say it, but it tasted like hard boiled eggs. They over cooked it. We couldn’t finish it, just picked the burnt parts off the top.
Will we go back? Absolutely. I’m interested to see what the next round of students bring. I think it’s a concept worth checking out for yourself. As someone else said, it is an open kitchen but it is very quiet. Everyone is back there just doing their things.

Walking into this restaurant I kind of felt like I was on the set of «Hell’s Kitchen.» The set up was kind of like it. The kitchen was open and the tables were set up so you could see everything that was going on in the kitchen. The whole restaurant was run by the culinary students and you could tell because the server was a little awkward and came by our table every five minutes making sure we were OK. So the service was good! I wish I could say the same for the food.
I thought the food was just OK. My friend and I ordered the fried oysters. The presentation was poor. There were 6 or 8 little fried oysters on a round plate circled around an inedible center piece of greens. The oysters were poor. They were small, tough, not much batter on them, and very fishy in taste, kind of like an overcooked mussel. They looked like mussels, had the texture of mussels, but they called it an oyster. Whatever! Either way, I would not recommend it.
For my entrée I got the scallops with cheddar grits. Again, I was a little turned off by the presentation. It was a large bowl of grits topped with several little scallops. Maybe I’m a snob, but when I order an entrée with the scallops being the star of the entrée I expect good size, meaty scallops. In addition to the scallops being puny, they were not seared like they should have been. I kind of wanted to be like Gordon Ramsey and go yell at the chefs and kick a couple of trash cans, but I refrained. My friend had the lamb, which presented well and was pretty tasty and cooked well.
I know my review was overall on the negative side, but I would be willing to give Lumiere another try.

As a fellow Unilocaler put it, Lumiere is a bit like a laboratory experiment, with us patrons as the participants. Here, the culinary students of Le Cordon Bleu get to practice their skills in an actual restaurant setting. Luckily for us, the participants, the benefit of being participants is that we get to dine out at a very nice restaurant, with great food, for very reasonable prices. By ‘reasonable’, I mean that our total bill was less than we’ve paid per person at many other fine dining establishments. It’s a symbiotic relationship that works out well for everyone involved.
The ambiance at Lumiere is actually quite nice. One thing that I actually liked a lot was the open view into the kitchen. My wife and I were lucky enough to be seated at the table closest to the kitchen, so we got to see all aspects of the meal. The students were surprisingly calm in the kitchen. The chef instructor certainly kept things moving smoothly, but we didn’t see her having to ‘crack the whip’ on the students until later in the evening.
The food we had was actually quite lovely. For starters my wife had the crab cake — which was well cooked, with lots of crab and very little filler. It could have been a bit crispier on the top and bottom, but was very good. I had the sweet potato fritters, which were also quite good, but served a bit cold (more on that later). The fritters were light and fluffy, with a great sweet potato flavor. The only thing I didn’t understand was the apple sauce, which was good, but didn’t quite ‘fit’ with the plate. I wasn’t sure what to do with it.
For our main courses, my wife had an amazing lamb chop (in fact, it was three lamb chops). They were cooked perfectly, with a great flavor. On top of that, the accompanying sides were amazing — mashed butternut squash with a fig demi-​glacé (which was an absolutely amazing paring with the lamb). I ordered the brown sugar and bourbon marinade rib-​eye steak. Despite it being a thinner steak, it was cooked perfectly medium-​rare. The sauce was lovely, and the rib-​eye didn’t have huge fat pockets (which many do). Overall, I liked my wife’s lamb dish a bit better, but I was quite happy with the steak.
For dessert, my wife had the trio of sorbets, which were very rich in flavor and smooth in texture. I had the chocolate dome with coffee mousse inside. I have to say that it was about the best dessert I’ve ever had out in my life. I’m usually not a big dessert person, especially chocolate, but this was simply incredible.
Overall, my wife and I loved our dinner out at Lumiere. If I were simply rating the food, I’d give it a solid 4 (quite impressive seeing as though it is prepared by students). But, with the incredible prices, I have to bump it up to a 5-​star experience. The only misstep was the service, which was sub-​par at best. Our first course sat for too long after being prepared, our waiter was difficult to track down. But, that didn’t add up to much in an otherwise wonderful evening. We will definitely be returning in the future.

Lumière is like a laboratory disguised as a fine dining restaurant where the students of Le Cordon Bleu can practice their culinary arts on regular customers and charge very reasonable prices for fancy dishes ($ 10 – 14 for entrees, $ 3 – 4 for dessert, etc.).
Ambience really is like your regular very nice restaurant — with an open kitchen in the front. I liked too that they sat us in chairs that faced the kitchen — obviously knowing most customers are probably interested in seeing the kitchen in action. However it’s nothing like Top Chef or Hell’s Kitchen where everyone is running around frantically. On the contrary, it looked to be pretty laid back and calm. The senior students apparently work in the kitchen, while other students are servers — another cool thing they do is not accept gratuity for themselves but instead all tips are donated to a scholarship fund.
For apps, we decided to share the «Crispy fried oysters w/​remoulade, and cucumber & baby tomato salad» ($ 5.75) — our server was kind enough to split the order on separate plates which was nice. However, didn’t care too much for the oysters — they were fishy tasting and very chewy.
For entrees, our server recommended the pan-​fried trout & grilled lamb chops. I got the latter. I liked the flavor of the lamb chops but it was a little too fatty for me. My dish also came with a creamy orzo (ok), roasted peppers & green beans (good), and a provencal sauce which had a peculiar taste I didn’t care for. Presentation was really nice though, and I can’t help but like the price ($ 12.95). My friend got the seared sea scallops w/​leeks & fennel, and white cheddar grits ($ 13.95). I tried her scallops & grits and thought they tasted really good.
For dessert, our server said his favorite was the lemon marscapone cheesecake but we decided to get the chocolate dome filled with chocolate mousse, drizzled with hazelnut crème anglaise ($ 3.25) — our server did say that was one of the more popular desserts. Good choice — the taste almost reminded of a frozen Hostess Ho-​Ho :) Loved it.
Twice during our meal, we also got a nice «compliments of the chef» surprise. The first was a delicious «chicken liver mousse w/​currant & port wine reduction on a crostini» — borrowing words from other reviews I’d read, that was heaven in my mouth. Another surprise came with our bill — tiny bite-​size «passionfruit mousse on a biscuit». That was heaven part 2 :)
Overall decided to give a «4» rating mostly b/​c I like the concept of a training school restaurant, service was very good, nice food presentation, and great prices. And I’m all about supporting good education :) Definitely check out the menu on their website — it does change seasonally. And lunch prices are even better! I’m also curious about their «Grand Buffet» which is $ 16.95 for lunch, and $ 25.95 for dinner (3^rd Fridays of the month). I’ll definitely come back next season.