Lake Ashton Grille

Lake Ashton Grille is classy.

The ceiling is almost high enough to have clouds. Servers are in black and white. Each table has a candle and the view is great.

Lake Ashton is a gated community large enough to be a small town on Thompson Nursery Road, the northern border of Lake Wales on the way to U.S. 27, with a guard at the gate.

When it was last reviewed, four years ago, you could not wear jeans in the dining room in the evenings. Jeans are OK now, but shorts are out.

Specials are called "Attractions." There were three a couple of weeks ago. There were four four years ago. Five desserts have gone down to three. Prices have gone up a few cents to a few dollars.

That's progress.

Our server doubled as bartender. Or the bartender doubled as our server. We almost got the feeling of playing second fiddle to a martini.

There are no special appetizers. There used to be.

We started with French onion soup, $5.25 for a crock of super soup, almost impossible to eat neatly thanks to a strong lid of stretchy cheese. Keep at it. The beefy soup is delicious without the too-frequent hint of salt.

Manhattan clam chowder, the soup of the day, had the taste of clams in a pleasant, red, tomato-y broth with plenty of vegetables.

Three warm rolls with butter roses went well with the soups and unexciting salad.

Tuna Sashimi ($9.75) tasted like it had been in a freezer a long time. Nicely cooked to a bright red, it lacked the texture you expect from a nice piece of raw fish.

The $9.50 price of a shrimp cocktail seemed a little high ... until I tasted it. Six three-bite, perfectly cleaned and cooked shrimp hung on a glass garnished with a piece of romaine and just enough bitey sauce to be interesting.

Turning to entrees, "Attraction I" looked interesting - Duck with Cherry Sauce for $17.95.

Skin-on scallops of duck breast, cooked until still pink, surrounded a mound of mashed potatoes. Cherry sauce added flavor to the duck but couldn't do anything about the chewy texture of some slices.

Potatoes had been mashed, not whipped, so there was more fine flavor than you get in a white cloud of potato fluff.

Broccoli, the only vegetable, retained some texture … just enough to be good.

Steak Au Poivre comes 6-ounce for $16.95 and 12-ounce for $27.95 on a crouton to get the sauce and juices. Smooth peppercorn sauce has a touch of brandy and a bit of bite. My wife's filet had been cooked medium rare, just as she asked for it, and the tender meat modified some of the spice in the sauce to make it a great combination.

Seafood Absolute is named after the vodka in the sauce for pasta ($20.95) and includes lobster meat (claws), scallops and shrimp with penne pasta.

Salmon would have been preferable to the chewy lobster and overcooked scallops. The pasta and sauce were great, though.

A big slab of prime rib feels primitive. A Queen Cut costs $15.95. The King Cut goes up to $20.05. Mine was cooked medium rare, as ordered, and had just enough chew to be masculine. Au Jus and horseradish sauce were not needed to make the beef good.

I have long had the feeling that cooking potatoes in foil was an idea invented by the foil manufacturers. Full metal jacket does nothing for the potato.

Dessert plates are nicely painted and the cakes, though old friends, are still delicious … especially the Florida orange ($4.95)

A problem found in a health inspection on Oct. 6 was fixed by the follow-up on Dec. 9. The latest inspection found no violations, not even minor ones.

A few things they can do to improve are:

Add a little imagination to the salad.

Garnish the entrees.

Cook the seafood less in the pasta dish or substitute salmon for the lobster.

Get the potatoes out of foil.

The restaurant is still a fine place to dine but not as fine as it was four years ago.

Lake Ashton Grille earns four stars down a half star.

Trent Rowe can be reached at 802-7512 or Trent.Rowe@TheLedger.com. Check out his food blog at aquickbite.blogs.theledger.com.