Inside: Ashley's Restaurant

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Ashley's Restaurant—located inside the Holiday Inn on Lane—is a casual and comfortable eatery that offers a smorgasbord of classic American cuisines capable of satisfying any culinary craving. The restaurant is conveniently located on the north end of OSU's campus, which influences the diverse crowd that includes hotel guests, OSU students and young professionals.

Famous for home-style cuisine with generous portions and diligent service, Ashley's provides an ideal destination for almost any occasion—corporate lunches, a special night out or just an evening out with family or friends.

Right next door, Ashley's Lounge has a full-service bar. Everything that is served in the dining room is also served in the lounge, including dinner on Sunday, which is exclusively served in Ashley's Lounge.

The restaurant's lunch buffet, which features a different theme Monday through Friday, is very popular and reasonably priced, as is the Sunday Brunch.

Food: Ashley's offers an extensive lunch and dinner menu brimming with home-style favorites and classic American dishes. Their entrées include many steak, seafood and chicken dishes, such as: New York strip steak, blackened scallops, seafood linguine and parmesan encrusted chicken. The entrées cost between $12 and $26. In addition, each entrée is served with a loaf of warm bread, while a house salad with red onions, pecans, sun-dried cranberries and mozzarella cheese can be for $4.95.

The appetizers served at Ashley's are pretty common ones, though some have an upscale twist. Some of the appetizer options include wings, chicken fingers, firecracker shrimp and calamari, all ranging in price from $6 to $11.

Ashley's also features a homemade soup du jour and numerous salad and sandwich selections ranging in price from $9 to $14. Some of the salads available are Caesar (with the option to add chicken or salmon), wild berry shrimp salad and the black and bleu chop, which is a freshly tossed salad garnished with pepper, hard-boiled egg, red onion, grape tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese and slices of grilled of blackened top sirloin that are cooked to order.

The sandwich offerings cover the basics – clubs, Reubens, fish, chicken, and black Angus burgers smothered with your choice of toppings.

The lunch menu offers a sandwich combo deal – a half sandwich served with either soup or salad – for $6.95, and the weekday lunch buffet features several different themes, such as stir-fry, pasta and build-your-own burrito days. The buffet costs $9.95. While the lunch menu lacks the upscale entrées available during dinner, it does include many classic dishes ranging from $8 to $10.

The Sunday Brunch at Ashley's is served from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes a variety of breakfast staples, soups, pastas, made-to-order omelettes, a Baker's Table, garden fresh salad and fresh fruit platter for $14.95.

Libations: Beer and wine are served in Ashley's dining room, and the lounge features a full-service wrap-around bar lined with wooden chairs. Drinks are delivered promptly and mixed to perfection by the lounge's inventive and knowledgeable bartenders. There also is a beer cooler behind the bar stocked with many imports and local brews.

Décor: The dining room at Ashley's exudes an elegant air while maintaining its casual ambiance. The buffet table covered in white linen lines one wall, and tables and booths are arranged in a multi-dimensional fashion, which provides a more private and intimate dining experience.

The Lounge is more casual, giving off a business-oriented vibe, since the booths lining the walls are broken-up by wood end-tables adorned with lamps, which produce a well-lit and professional atmosphere. Paintings line the walls along with hanging ornate Romanesque column sculptures.

Service: The staff at Ashley's is prompt, professional, friendly and attentive to detail, especially on slower evenings. They offer good recommendations and descriptions of the dishes and serve your food in a gracious fashion. On busier days, such as during Sunday brunch, they suggest placing a reservation.

Specials: While Ashley's Lounge doesn't feature any happy hour specials, the lunch buffet held on weekdays ($9.95) and Sunday brunch ($14.95) are two of the most popular and cost-efficient specials featured.

Insider's Tip: If you're looking for a little late-night entertainment, a jazz band plays every Tuesday at Ashley's Lounge, and karaoke is hosted on Friday nights.

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