Fifty-one O One

Excellent menu. Excellent execution. Excellent service. Plenty of parking.The pancetta wrapped walleye is outstanding. The roast ed Brussels sprout salad was a great starter. The chocolate-hazelnut dessert was another home run.Will I return? Absolutely yes!

Located on the campus of the Henry Ford Community College, Fifty-one O One is a hidden gem of a restaurant, entirely run by the local culinary school students. Everything is cooked and baked by the chefs-in-training so you can expect little blemishes here and there, but where else can you get Duck Confit for $14 or Surf and Turf for $17 nowadays? I was always interested in going ever since I learned about the restaurant, but their very limited hours (they are only open during the school year for lunch on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and for dinner on Wednesday) prevented me from giving them a try. That changed last Wednesday.We had a reservation for the special Shrimp and Soul Seafood Buffet ($21.95 per person). Parking was a bit of a pain - I guess this place is mostly attended by faculty and other students because we had to call and wait for security to raise the gate to the parking lot. As we walked into the building, we noticed that the restaurant is basically situated to the side of the student commons/cafeteria area. We walked up and found a giant line of people waiting to check in; this was right when they opened at 6PM. This took a while, but after we managed to make it inside, we were directed to the overflow seating outside of the restaurant - it wasn't exactly the classiest of seats; basically just temporary circular fold tables and plastic chairs, with a cheap plastic cover on top of the table. The interior furniture was much better but I guess for these more popular events they have too many people come in. We waited a while for the waitress to get to us as there seemed to be only one or two for the entire restaurant and then finally could go inside to grab food.There were two main lines for food, one to the right with salad and appetizers, and one to the left with the mains. Starting with the right side, which was mostly self service, we had: Spring Mix Salad - Pretty standard green mix with a wide variety of toppings to choose from, including shredded cheese, olives, broccoli, onions, chickpeas, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and a couple of different dressings.Cocktail Shrimp - These were boiled and piled into an attractive ice sculpture, with the shrimp spilling out from the bottom. They were cooked perfectly with the shrimp being served unshelled. They were a bit tricky to peel, but they were deveined well. This came with cocktail sauce and lemon on the side.Macaroni Salad, Cole Slaw, and Potato Salad - All mixed and seasoned well. Soup - The menu listed shellfish clam chowder but instead they had a nice corn chowder with imitation crab.On the left side, where there were students standing behind every dish to serve the food:Cornbread Muffins and Dinner Rolls - The cornbread were very sweet with good cornmeal taste. The rolls were pretty normal in taste and texture, but they looked nicely baked with cornmeal sprinkled on top.Braised Collard Greens - The greens were chopped and stewed until tender with no stringy bits. There was a bit of smokiness and pieces of pork mixed in.Sweet Potato Casserole - This had a nice cinnamony taste with a browned crust on top.Pork Tenderloin - This was thinly sliced and dressed with a peach bbq sauce. It was good to try but kind of dry and tough.Fried Cod - This was beer battered cod with a bit of bitterness. The fish inside was tender and moist.Chicken Breast - Very dry, my least favorite food of the night by far.The last two items were rice pilaf and green beans.In addition, there was a mac & cheese station with mix-ins, including diced tomato, caramelized onion, homemade bacon, broccoli, and imitation crab. The student scoops some precooked, oiled elbow macaroni into a pan, adds the toppings, ladles a cheese roux on top and heats everything up in a skillet. We were told that the bacon is made on site. It's thick cut into cubes so you have sizable chunks of delicious smoky bacon.We found the best part of the meal to be the dessert, served on a table right outside the restaurant (and conveniently located across the entrance from our table). These consisted of a decadent heart shaped white chocolate mousse with raspberry filling, a chocolate mousse with caramel filling, small pecan pie slices, Mississippi mud pie bars, cups of banana pudding, red velvet cupcakes, peach cobbler (served hot), and cheesecake. Everything on this table was delicious and we definitely overindulged. Overall, the food was a bit hit and miss, with the meats being the worst and the desserts being the best. Since this was a buffet rather than their normal service, there were probably some additional consistency issues. Still I think this was a good experience and it made me want to visit again for their standard menu but perhaps not for another buffet.

A 5-star restaurant without 5 star prices. I've been wanting to try Fifty-One O One for years, and finally had the opportunity. It's a hidden gem that the local community should definitely take advantage of. The menu is very fancy with premium ingredients and exquisite plating, but extremely reasonable pricing. For $9.99, I ordered the butternut squash tortellini with the "ham and eggs" starter. Another member of my party ordered the rib-eye with mushroom tart, and the third ordered the 5101 sausage pizza. A bread basket was offered immediately, and came with some delicious pretzel bread rolls, white bread slices, and mini muffins. The starters, which are part of the "Veggies & More" section of the menu, are very fancy. The "ham and eggs" dish was peppered grits topped with pork belly and an eggs and "maple pan drippings." It was a delicious and interesting combination but quite filling. I was told that the mushroom tart was extremely delicious, especially the crust. It also looked very pretty on the plate.The butternut squash tortellini was a beautiful dish, though small but that was fine since the starter was so filling. The creamy center of the tortellini was sweet and divine, but the bacon, almonds and dates in the plating provided a nice contrast in textures and flavors that worked well with the dish. My dining companion thought the ribeye could have used a more robust sauce. I was told that the 5101 pizza was quite good as well.Perhaps my favorite part of the meal was dessert - a warm chocolate lava cake served with port wine ice cream. The cacao flavor was intense and dark, just the way I like it. And they only charged $3.95 for dessert. The alcohol prices here are also quite reasonable (craft beers for $4.75). Service was excellent, but be prepared for a lengthier meal. Wait time for food preparation might be a bit longer than you're used to, but it's worth the wait.

Extremely impressive cuisine for extremely low prices. Like other student-run restaurants in the area, what you have here is an opportunity to eat like a king for a pauper's price, really.I love supporting people who are working hard to educate themselves and working to secure a better future for themselves and their families, and do it so well. Here is just another fine example of people getting this accomplished. The front-of-house students are welcoming, hard-working, knowledgable, and friendly, and the folks in the kitchen (also students, I believe) are hitting with extra base power on just about every single thing they send out of the kitchen...it's marvelously impressive.Don't believe me? You can hardly go wrong on a menu wherein the highest priced items are merely $12.95, and that's for a *wonderful* rack of lamb chops and a wood-grilled eye of ribeye (which I've seen, and looks wonderful, but have not eaten myself...*yet*). For a mere $9.95, you can have a sablefish dish that will rock your stinking *socks off*, or for $10.95 you can have a confit of duck dish that will bring a tear of joy to your eye.Oh, but that's not all: with your pittance-of-a-price entree, you'll get your choice of either soup, salad, or veg, included in the price, and the fish chowder I've had has been outstanding.Hungry for dessert? Sure you are...for $3.95, we *all* are. While the desserts may not be in the same stratospheric heights that the entrees are in, they're still well worth the price, and you can see, and taste, the quality all the way around.I am not much of a drinker, but several choices of both are available at both lunch and dinner. Service has been very highly regarded each time I've been there. Like I said: they're working hard.It is incredibly easy to support an institution like this. If you're in the area, and even if you're not, make plans to go here and enjoy yourself for lunch on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for lunch, as well as Wednesday nights for dinner! Same menu all the time, but it's a very nice, properly extensive, and high-end menu, expertly prepared. What a *great place* to eat lunch if you're a Ford employee nearby, honestly.Just go. I do not know how you could be disappointed.

Amazing place!! The food is spectacular and the assistance and kindness of the workers are somehow even better. Id highly recommend their lamb, and salads!

I work at the college, but rarely get over to the restaurant. A couple of weeks ago I met up with a retired colleague and ate there. The food is prepared by the culinary dept students so I wasn't sure what to expect... I was really surprised. The food was excellent. We had a kale and quinoa salad, NY Strip "Rossini", Chicken (halal) Alfredo fettuccine and two desserts.

Excellent! High quality dining at crazy cheap prices (it is a student ran restaurants, so expect a few bumps, but WOW, the quality is amazing). GO HERE whenever you can! It is amazing!!!