Last week, a couple of girlfriends and I fancied a chilled Friday night dinner. Being in London, there is obviously a million choices, but we had a few caveats to help whittle down the masses. We were feeling lazy and tired after a long week of filming, so wanted to stay an Uber-able distance from Chelsea. And we didn’t want to be gushed over by over-zealous waiters. And we wanted to be at least healthy-ish without taking all the fun out of food. I am gluten-free and Mimi is vegetarian (sort of. Kind of fair-weather vegetarian, but we’ll go with it for now), so finding places that still put emphasis on taste can be tricky. So we wittled our selection down to a few and booked a spot in Squirrel.
Squirrell is a super-cute restaurant designed so you feel like you’re in a treehouse. The wooden staircase loops up onto a mezanine level, all the lights are hung from the ceiling in acorns, and there’s references to Squirrells throughout the dining experience – things like the watering hole and grazing area.
Being Friday night, we fancied a drink. Sophie had gluten-free beer, I had red wine, and Mimi was hungover.
Squirrel has a regular menu – salads, smoothies, hot dishes etc, but also seasonal specials on the board. What’s nice is that all the allergens are listed, and you’re free to mix ‘n’ match ingredients, or even start from scratch and build your own dish. Sort of like a posh version of Chopp’d or Tossed.
We lounged in our little table, nestled at the back of the upstairs bit, and munched our way through an unfeasibly large amount of food. By the time the desert menus were wafted in our faces, we really ought to have refused on the basis of fullness, but it looked too yummy to refuse. We got a load of protein balls and gluten free brownies, and then squirreled them all away. Quite literally.
To be in with a chance of being crowned top Squirrel-er, drop into the eatery and start squirreling through the stash of delicious, fresh and seasonal ingredients on offer from the 21-foot long fallen oak tree service counter. Once you’re content with your creation, simply post it to social media and be sure to tag @wearesquirrel using the hashtag #MyMealisTheNuts. A winner will be chosen on the last day of every month, entitling them to free lunches in store for an entire week!
Olivia x
