Matt B. and I just had our 13th wedding anniversary a couple weeks ago, and we celebrated with a…read morenice but low-key Monday date night at SQIRL. I'd been a couple of times for lunch (and was never that bothered by the moldy jam scandal, probably because I'm gross), but our dinner experience was much more memorable.
SQIRL has its limitations as a high-end dining destination, namely the space configuration of a popular sidewalk bakery/cafe. I reserved a table for two on the covered patio (very easily, through Resy), but it wasn't apparent when I booked that that was the best of the three options (the others being indoor counter and sidewalk). We could have switched when we arrived, but the patio seemed best for a special anniversary dinner. It wasn't romantic, exactly, but it had its charms.
Service was excellent, and definitely elevated the sense of occasion. I regret not writing down our waiter's name, she was great and deserves her props (for management, if you're reading: she worked 9/14 and had a cool voice). Warm, helpful, and attentive throughout the meal. Timing was a little off. We ordered a bunch of food and our smaller dishes came out at a good, leisurely pace. Then we got our pasta and two entrées all at once. Didn't love that.
SQIRL recently came into a full liquor license, which I believe is why they do dinner now. We took advantage with a round of cocktails. I loved the Sorrel Sour, a fresh, herby drink made with Aquavit and Vago Espadin mezcal. Matt's NSO 18 was lovely too, a strong stirred cocktail with Ardberg 10 year Scotch and Aquavit. We had wine by the glass with the rest of our dinner, maybe a white and two reds, roughly matched to what we were eating.
The food was truly delicious. We started with the Weiser melon--bold to charge $16 for two slim wedges of melon, but they were superb. Sweet, juicy, ripe melon glazed in syrup made from melon seed milk, then sprinkled with a bit of thyme. The aguachile was excellent, shima aji and Tokyo turnip with passion fruit juice, habanero, fig leaf oil, and a quenelle of fermented green mango and galangal. The cheese course was satisfying, Italian blue buffalo and Oglenshield cheese from the UK, served with red walnuts, cara caramel marmalade, hapa honeycomb, and a thick, crusty slab of house bread.
My favorite dish of the night was the one I ate alone, my husband not interested in anything called "sqimps." These were Pacific Coast squid filled with shrimp chorizo, lacquered in aminos and grilled over bincho, accompanied by lime, dill, shaved nixtamalized fennel, and California saffron aioli. Unique, outstanding, a real Signature Dish. You have to get it. The agnolotti was also a winner, beet-striped packets of pasta with smoked beet filling in a rich ricotta whey butter sauce perked up with dill.
We shared the steak and the chicken for our entrées, both stellar. The steak was a Snake River Farms Denver steak, cooked a tender medium rare, with a many day oxtail demi-glace sauce, salsa verde seca, and braised cippolini onions. The chicken, a SQIRL bestseller, was a koji-cured jidori half chicken with bagna cauda, braised Swiss chard panzanella, and charred lemon. Juicy and flavorful, a fancy dinner-worthy chicken.
For dessert, we had sticky toffee madeleines, a warm chocolate chip cookie, and burnt milk ice cream. Kind of a spread at the end of a big dinner, but what the hell. The madeleines were decadently good, with a blood orange butterscotch and Seville marmalade crème fraîche ice cream. The warm chocolate chip cookie came with a cup of Straus milk, and the burnt milk ice cream was probably redundant, but we (maybe I) finished it with no regrets. There was a candle in our madeleines and we got a giant pate de fruits with our check. I forget what flavor--that detail lost to my third glass of wine--but I remember it being tasty.
This was a wonderful dinner, with top tier food and drink and very good service. I'd recommend SQIRL for a fun night out, with friends or your favorite date. Bonus points if you don't have to share your sqimps.