The Met Dining Room isn't just a student-run restaurant at Toronto Metropolitan University, it's also a kind of secret but totally open to the public place to get one of the most affordable multi-course menus in the city.

Food fans in Toronto wait months for the prix fixe deals that come around at famous restaurants during Winterlicious and Summerlicious, but at Met Dining Room you can actually get similar deals throughout the year.

"We don't have the traditional overheads of a restaurant, so we pass those savings forward to the guest who dines with us," Met Dining Room executive chef Tommy McHugh tells blogTO. "It's our way to say thank you."

A two-course lunch costs just $19, and a three-course lunch costs $23.

Any seasoned diner knows that those prices are below the cost of some single items at fancier restaurants. Whereas at Met you're getting a selection of dishes that could include lobster bisque or baby beets and stracciatella, beef bourguignon or Korean fried chicken burgers or malai kofta, plus apple crumble or a selection of cheeses.

They also don't accept tips, but there's a QR code option where you can make a donation to the program. 100 per cent of those contributions are reinvested back into the program and dining room.

The restaurant is not actually new in Toronto, but its name is relatively new.

It was once known as RU Eats and has existed at TMU in one form or another for decades.

The dining room was renamed when the name of the school was changed from Ryerson to Toronto Metropolitan University.

The restaurant is actually a university class, overseen by a professor who graduated from the program and worked for years in the hospitality industry. Met is by students at the Ted Rogers School of Management studying towards a degree in Hospitality and Tourism.

"We work together to create a fully functioning restaurant, where we set the students up for success, teaching and guiding them through the ins and outs of a restaurant," says McHugh.

"Experiential learning is such a crucial part of the learning process, so we take great pride in our students, and the hands-on, guest-facing experience they are getting."

Three professional chefs guide students who are in the kitchen for the class, and there's also a professor in the dining room overseeing everything.

Other than that, the project is totally student-run with students changing roles weekly, swapping between positions including captain, runner, sommelier, cold line cook, hot line cook and the pastry station.

Menus change every other week, which means all students experience each menu from a front-of-house and back-of-house perspective, which McHugh says is "crucial."

Graduates from the program have gone on to achieve significant success in the hospitality world, not just in Toronto or Canada but also globally.

Over the years, the Met Dining Room has grown larger in size and has also been invested in by the school, which is equipped with tools like iPads, the newest point of sales software, and new crockery, cutlery, glassware and kitchen equipment.

They're not stopping there, though: in the future, they hope to spruce up the dining room and even add a hotel-style bar.

Reservations for the Met Dining Room can be booked on OpenTable or by emailing metdining@torontomu.ca.