Patrons flock here year-round for the healthful, moderately priced menu, handsome dining room and international wine list. The sophisticated venture, now with seven sites in Florida and Atlanta, has been winning awards for its parent company, the casual dining giant Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze).
In this summer heat, we're looking for clean, crisp flavors. Hold the heavy sauces and fried foods, please. It's time to lighten up, so we head to Seasons 52 in Fort Lauderdale's upscale Galleria Mall.
Patrons flock here year-round for the healthful, moderately priced menu, handsome dining room and international wine list. The sophisticated venture, now with seven sites in Florida and Atlanta, has been winning awards for its parent company, the casual dining giant Darden Restaurants (Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze).
Seasons 52's top toque, Clifford Pleau, changes the menu often to incorporate fresh, seasonal ingredients. Roasted corn is big now, for example, delicious on the cob, in a homey risotto or an islandy salsa. Try the roasted corn salad paired with grilled and chilled shrimp on a bed of arugula with a tomatillo salsa verde.
Like everything else at Seasons 52, it's less than 475 calories. Food here is grilled or roasted over open oak-fire grills. There's no frying, and recipes use low-fat or fat-free sour cream, cheeses and evaporated milk. Salt-conscious diners can request dishes without high-sodium sauces or glazes or choose one of three recent, lower-sodium menu additions (less than 480 mg).
One of these, the arugula and chèvre salad, mixes sass and sweetness, offsetting the tartness of the goat cheese with refreshing watermelon slices, ''distracting the palate'' as Pleau likes to say. It works. The salad also boasts jicama, caramelized pineapple and toasted almonds in a cumin-lime vinaigrette, its spiciness subdued by a bit of honey.
Other lower-sodium dishes include chicken scallopini in a honey balsamic sauce and an Atlantic salmon rubbed with spices (cumin, cinnamon, cayenne), topped with a glaze made with lemon, honey and chipotle and roasted on a cedar plank.
It's good, but it's tough to beat the regular cedar-plank salmon (with 849 mg of salt), with a malt-vinegar glaze. It gets a terrific crisp, outer edge, and retains its juiciness after being zapped in a 700-degree oven.
We would come to Seasons just for the flatbreads. There are elaborate versions, like the grilled steak with cremini mushrooms and blue cheese and a new eggplant Parmesan, but our favorite is the simple tomato. The snap-crisp, ultra-thin crust, baked on a stone slab, is layered with juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes, a little roasted garlic purée, nonfat mozzarella and a dusting of basil and Parmesan.
Seasons serves lean meats, like its skewered turkey breast, which gets a flavor boost from a tamarind glaze and sweet mango chutney studded with cranberries. It's served with pearl pasta and steamed spinach.
There's also a vegetarian main plate with grilled yellow and orange peppers, halved plum tomatoes topped with a pesto and olive tapenade, broccoli, a balsamic-roasted onion wedge and cranberry-almond tabbouleh.
The impressive wine list offers 120-plus labels, picked by master sommelier George Miliotes. There are a whopping 70 choices by the glass, including new additions like Greece's Samos Vin Doux dessert wine.
And you must have dessert. At $1.95 each, these nine confections, aptly named ''mini indulgences,'' are served in shot glasses, just the right amount of sweetness to end your meal. Choices range from fresh fruit (about 40 calories) to pecan pie (324), our favorite, but they're all delightful. Fortunately, dessert is a treat in any season.
