CIA Bakery Cafe

The CIA Course Menu is absolutely fantastic! From the perfectly prepared salmon starter to the beautifully crafted appetizers, each dish showcased incredible skill and creativity. Every course was a delight, and the wine pairing elevated the experience even further. Wishing the talented students the best of luck—your hard work and passion truly shine through!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

While staying at The Emma we were looking for a nice new lunch spot and saw the Shrimp and Grits special sign outside and decided to give it a try. We would not have known the cafe was here if we didn't see the sign. The cafe was a delightful change of pace from the other restaurants in the area. The menu is small but everything included I want to try!! The special that day was superb!! We will definitely return!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I'd only ever passed by this place, but today I had a craving for something like a salmon bagel and surprise! I could get a salmon sandwich here. The every bite was DIVINE. So many perfect flavors. A salmon bagel will now never hold a candle to this sandwich at the Savor/CIA bakery. 10/10 will order again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: House Cured Salmon

Fun dining experience! I love that everyone working here is a culinary institute student! Everyone was super friendly. Food was delicious. When you enter, you can go to the bakery counter on the right side of the restaurant, or be seated for a meal on the left. At the bakery counter, there were many options, croissants, scones, empanadas, cookies, tarts, and other desserts. I sat for a meal and had the Quiche du jour, spinach. Loved it. Hope to visit again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The CIA Bakery Cafe is a wonderful pop-up from February to April. Each year, baking and pastry degree students operate the Cafe Monday-Friday from 8:30 am-1:30 pm in the college's Savor restaurant space. The B&P students run all aspects of the Cafe, from table service, savory lunch production, to the amazing pastries, breads, and entremets . The CIA Bakery Cafe is only open for 12 weeks each year. So be sure to visit and grab lunch, along with a side of CIA'S signature pecan diamonds, alfajores, and the cranberry orange scone. Sit on the patio and enjoy the sights at Pearl, or grab a seat inside and watch the students in this fabulous classroom setting.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Croissant, Cookie

We had an amazing experience last night at Savor! Fabian was a great host and every detail was taken care of. I've never seen so much attention to service and presentation of food. He even turned the AC warmer because he saw I was cold (NOBODY does that!). The servers and cooks are all students in their last semester. The food was wonderful and the whole dining experience was world-class. What an amazing boost for San Antonio to have this here - there are only 4 locations in the world! Don't miss this opportunity!

In all our travels and experiencing fine dining , we have never had an experience that would match our amazing evening at Savor. The restaurant was a smaller space than we had anticipated, and we were seated at the table closest to the kitchen. Normally I would not have accepted such a seating but having a premonition ( having read about the culinary school and the training process) I accepted. As part of the restaurant experience we had the best seats in the house. We could not be more grateful in that we got to engage rather regularly throughout the evening with Chef Will, and Sommelier Fabian. Chef Will has a quiet and yet firm approach that I could see the students embraced. His organizational and leadership teaching skills are seen throughout the back kitchen process and plating of food. He was calm and engaged in the stress of teaching students in getting the food out, and yet was seen smiling through out the evening. Sommelier Fabian is outstanding in his knowledge of wines his palet for pairing foods , and his friendly personality making talking about wines a delight. His creation of this seasons menu of a fusion of Italian and Asian flavors works!! I highly recommend the premium wine paring. We were particularly interested in the pairing of the Trivento White Malbec. Our waiter, Jose was appropriately engaging in conversation, knowledgeable about food selections and wine paring, and held pleasant and endearing life stories. In particular with all three of us in medicine and the fact Jose has switched his career from nursing to culinary arts/services, we had wonderful and insightful conversations about the challenges one faces in both medicine and in the restaurant industry. We could hear and feel the passion Jose has for his training and career in the culinary arts. All the food and wine pairing for the Four Course meal were spectacular. Meal sizes are appropriate for fine dining; thus, I’d suggest going with the four course so as to experience the full gamut of flavor. Highlights for us were; The marinated octopus ( incredibly moist meat), carpaccio ( fusion flavor outstanding), black risotto ( asthetic and flavor unmatched), ribeye , lamb, and hamachi ( all WOW), and the purin and cheesecake ( wonderful ending). We are already planning a return trip.

Great pastries!

Fabien and the students were excellent! They were welcoming, friendly and the food was delicious! This was a great experience while we were visiting San Antonio.

It was a fantastic experience from start to finish. Our server, Graysen, was wonderful, present at just the right moments and very helpful with and knowledgeable about the menu. We had exquisitely delicious dishes: the pozole soup; roasted cabbage (a particularly special delight); roasted artichoke risotto (rich but incredible); oysters & tuna (amazing); the Wagyu beef; the lamb; poached pear bread pudding; and the chocolate tres leches cake. The manager, Fabien, oversees the CIA students who staff and run the restaurant. Fabien also gives terrific wine recommendations. I come here often and will return again soon.

Based on a friend’s suggestion I was excited to try this student-run restaurant which is part of the Culinary Institute of America’s training program for aspiring chefs. Overall an excellent experience in a trendy looking restaurant set in San Antonio’s Pearl District. Each of our four courses were well presented, a unique combination of fresh flavors, and tasty, though the dessert was my least favorite. I would also recommend you do the wine pairing even though ours was out of sync with the food. PS: don’t forget to order the bread; a YUMMY part of the meal.

The uniqueness of Savor’s menu is what the Culinarily Institute dining experience is all about. The food is wonderful. The cooks, waiters and servers are in training, so one must be patient as they learn the business, to enjoy an incredible meal. An excellent experience for us.

We just had brunch. Every single pastry was absolutely amazing. We had the French toast, my 11 yr old said it was the BEST ever! I had the pot belly pork egg plate, absolutely delicious . And the coffee and lattes were incredible. Can't wait till the next time! The service was outstanding!

amazingly delicious food as well as 5 star service

We ate here for a date night. We made reservations in advance (highly recommended) as the place is small and seating is very limited. Arrived 15 minutes earlier and we were temporarily seated at the bar as they were still getting tables and staff organized. We were given complimentary drinks which was awesome. Fabian, the host, is absolutely incredible and we made sure everything was perfect. We opted for the four course menu. Each plate was plated beautifully. Lots of different and unique flavors in each dish. At the end of the meal, we were satisfied with what we ate. Overall, you can’t beat the service it’s literally among the best you’ll ever have in your life. You get to experience watching CIA students learn how to operate and cook in a fine dining setting. We learned so much just by being around and seeing how a fine dining restaurant is run which is one reason why you should come here because it’s truly an experience. Oh yeah, the food is pretty damn good too!