This was our first time visiting the restaurant. Prompt service and good food.

was the perfect setting to have a family lunch with great food and be able to visit at our leisure

Considering that the restaurant is part of an active teaching / school program, it was great ! Food quality and prep were excellent. We plan to return.

Food quality and value is excellent. Staff go out of their way to ensure a great meal.

We enjoy the whole experience of the student learning in the culinary field. The food and service was excellent.

Service was great, food was delicious! Students did a great job!

The students do an amazing job - the food is always excellent. So reasonable too

Lunch was very tasty. The cod was cooked to perfection and the desert was visually appealing and tasted great.

We brought friends who had never been here before and they, as well as we, were 'over the top' thrilled with everything!

Beautiful venue to explore a fine dining experience at a very moderate price. The students at the Culinary School are awesome!

Absolutely I would and do recommend Waterleaf. It's extra fun to engage with the students and encourage them. We look forward to the opportunities to schedule our celebrations there.

Waterleaf is a unique experience every time. The service was impeccable the best ever. I have visited the restaurant several times. This is the first time I wasn’t over the moon about the food but the presentation was beautiful. I just thought the flavors/sauces were too strong I prefer more subtle but that’s a matter of taste someone else might find it perfect. I still enjoyed it.

I celebrated a birthday with my family at this luncheon. Each course was excellent as well as a bit unique.
The birthday dessert was personalized by writing her name in chocolate on the plate that was used for a very delicious special dessert.

Service was excellent and food was unique and delicious. I think a little music playing would help the atmosphere.

A great experience...beautiful setting, great service and healthy and delicious food!

We had eaten at the Waterleaf before it became a student run operation. The food and service provided by these young students was exceptional. Also, the value was unbelievable. I will be back.

attentive staff, great value for the money, 3 courses with 2 options for each, ending with a tasting of desserts. And they will pack what you can't finish. Reservations are tricky, since you must be on their mailing list. Reservations disappear quickly since numbers are controlled by number of students enrolled in the program. Get on their list, make reservations as soon as the menus hit the mailbox and figure out dates later. You can always cancel. ( our group never have plans for Thursday ). Looking forward to our next visit.

This is a student run restaurant. The food was very well prepared and plated beautifully, the portions were the right size and very filling. The students were taught the proper way to serve and remove dishes.

The food was delicious and the service was excellent. One of the things I really appreciate about Waterleaf Restaurant is that it is conversation friendly, making it possible and enjoyable to interact with everyone at one's table.

I has the Salmon - it was delicious - moist, juicy and very flavorful. The dessert was absolutely outstanding. The raisin rum dollop of ice cream was very tasty. Our server was efficient and very personable. All in all a great experience.

Excellent service. Good value for money. All four courses were prepared and presented well and in timely fashion. Food was excellent.

We had a wonderful evening. Our server was most welcoming and the food was excellent. The atmosphere was relaxing and quiet. Thank you!

It really is a wonderful restaurant. The school should be very proud of how well educated the students are in every aspect of the restaurant business. I only wish the food and service was as good at some of the best restaurants I have dined at. The managers of area restaurants should dine at Waterleaf to see how a dining experience is suppose to succeed.

Terrific experience! Great service, wonderful presentation and excellent food.

The Waterleaf is a beautiful setting for a lovely meal prepared for and served by the Culinary & Hospitality students.
Tonight I enjoyed a fantastic mushroom soup, the salad was baby greens w/tomatoes, perfectly roasted corn & a chipotle-sherry vinaigrette (just a little kick!)
I was only able to eat 1/2 of the whole trout brought to the table on a bed of confetti rice & spiralized zucchini, topped w/almonds & a lemon caper sauce.
Well I could have eaten all, but had to save room for the beautifully presented Charlotte Russe served w/lemon sorbet & chocolate/white chocolate candies.
Their coffee is very good as well.
Small complaint that the bread was a little dry; but I didn’t really need those carbs & quickly got over it.

I have food allergies which makes it trying some time when I go out. However here, the chef came out, took the time to ask me about my allergies then came up with some of the best options for me to have. I loved it!

Excellent value for the food. Different and interest blends of ingredients which were unexpected and delicious! Super friendly service. Great experience.

Students at COD do a fantastic job serving well prepared food in a beautiful setting. OK it’s a beautiful setting when the weather is fine. It was still nice during an ice storm.

Surprisingly the bread was a little dry, this has never happened before & I have been going to the student run events for the last few years.
The cauliflower soup was very, very good.
The salad w/roasted mushrooms & champagne vinaigrette was really nice.
Salmon was served on a bed of spinach & wild rice w/an orange & fennel relish-excellent.
I was full & took the dessert home. It was very rich & satisfying. Oh my!

So happy I didn’t let the weather keep me away.
Great value for a an excellent experience.

This restaurant is a student run restaurant where they are learning how to run an upscale restaurant. They do a very.good job in providing a classic meal. The food is very well prepared and delicious. Service can be slow but this is part of the learning curve.

This was the Pacific Northwest lunch program. Everything was excellent again from the Lentil Soup, the Arugula Salad, the Planked Salmon to a very special Desert. It was a very artistically invented and presented version of "Black Forest Cake" with additional decorative items that I can't describe, the best ever.

I typically give food a deservedly "Outstanding" rating. This time, only "good" for the following reasons.

Negatives:
1) The Yukon Potatoes were literally swimming in butter or some other ingredient.
2) The lentil soup was somewhat on the bland side and the cup wasn't even half filled.
3) The vegetables were somewhat "oily" or overdone with butter.

Positives:
The plank salmon was excellent - tasty and cooked to perfection
Bread was very tasty
Dessert was outstanding as usual.

Such a cool experience. I can’t believe they don’t have lines out the door. I will definitely go again and again!

The ambience was superb - quiet, immaculate, relaxed.
The service was effective, knowledgeable, efficient, well-timed.
The food was adventurous, but that was expected since the menu varies according to whatever the teachers are teaching the culinary students.

I had been there once previously, following a tour of the MAC. To celebrate the birthday of a dear friend, I suggested this place, where she had never been. It was a successful celebration!

Just duplicate comments from experience written about Luncheon on September 12, 2018

This is a student run restaurant that is used for College of DuPage culinary arts training of future chefs. The dinners followed a central plains theme and the food was typical of midwestern fare. Future dinners will follow other regional themes. Service was ok as the servers were learning how to work in a restaurant.

We went for the American South menu. Staff and students are always very polite and attentive. For this menu the Soup and Entre were very good but the Salad was just ok. We had to wait awhile for the entre but the staff was very apologetic and the catfish dish was worth the wait.

This student experience offers pretty good food for unbelievable prices. You also get to help these Culinary students hone their skills.

I was very impressed with the ambiance and the professional staff. I felt like I was at a 4 star restaurant but reasonable in price. I loved the presentation of the food and that the food was exceptional. The whole meal was very good but that dessert was outstanding! Will plan to come again in Feb. I felt lucky to get this reservation for a birthday lunch for 6. They are all booked to the end of the semester!

We have visited this restaurant many times before, both when it was still independent and now under the COD student program. This was our first lunch during this new Fall Semester. The theme was "American South". Each one of us took a different selection from the menu for all three courses, all were excellent, including the desert. This was probably the best experience of the many meals we have had at Waterleaf, even though they are always excellent. We have made reservations for all four luncheon themes this semester and also for the four dinners coming up during the Fall 2018 "International Cuisine gastronomical trip around the world".
We know this is wishful thinking, but it would be great if this place would be open year around, including holidays and weekends.
PS: This time around service was "a little slow" because of shortage of student servers, it was still good and we didn't mind enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.

Great experience. Would recommend making it easier to view the menus and dates available. Would also like the opportunity to have weekend times available. Otherwise a great experience.