After enjoying and enduring countless restaurants, it is with utmost certainty that I can avow that chain eateries usually do not measure up to the stand-alones. Cookie-cutter recipes, slapdash service, laughable decor and unimaginative cuisine mar the horizon of the chain-restaurant landscape. But what happens when a chain stands up to the shame and mockery of the Ruby Olive Lobster Bees that fail to raise the cuisine bar?
Alas, a beacon of hope bobs on the choppy seas of bogus restaurants in the form of Seasons 52. Warm-roasted olives in citrus, herbs and olive oil. Duck wing lollipops, Korean gochujang red-chili glaze with sesame seeds. Cedar-planked salmon, dill mustard sauce, grilled lemon. These are not the dishes that everybody looks forward to only on Fridays. Rather, Seasons 52 shatters the mold that good food, done well with attention to granular details, can’t be found in operations that, say, cross state lines and whose numbers are plentiful.
Here are seven things you may not know about Seasons 52:
- Every dish on the menu is less than 475 calories!
- A master sommelier is at the helm of the Seasons 52 wine list. Yeah, there really are only 250 that wear the title. Seasons 52 has one!
- The Chef’s Suggestions on the menu changes—you guessed it!—52 times a year. And the menu changes with each season. See what they did there? Seasons. 52. Seasons 52.
- There is a cocktail made with strawberry-infused Prairie organic vodka, agave nectar and fresh basil—and you have to try it.
- Dessert “shots” are brimming with flavor but have the opposite effect of most last courses; the bookend to the meal feels good rather than weighty.
- The server gave me his business card on the way out. Classy.
- $5 small plates are available for sunset happy hour.
Eating at Seasons 52 does what a gratifying restaurant experience should do; food should make you feel good. The result? Less guilt, rad vibes and the feeling that you didn’t just come from the food court. Visit and ask for Blair. How do I know? He gave me his card.
Find Seasons 52 at 160 N. Gulph Road in King of Prussia; phone: (610) 992-1152.
- Photos: Jim Berman
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