Squares Skewers Squires in Diner Taste-Off!

Diner Stars Awarded: ****
Regular Restaurant Stars: * and a half

Hope you're hungry, because this second (and final, for now) dispatch in Mama H and Mama V's Diner Adventures is full of tasty food talk.

Squares met Squires, and geometry bested the country gent.

You will see from the photo above that we had to bring Mistress L and Master K along this time. And this was the less-than-promising construction zone site that greeted us. However, having the babies along allowed us to order a blueberry muffin for them to share, and right off the bat Squares delivered. (quick sidebar here - to our dismay, we discovered the real name of the place is "Square Diner" - but we've decided to ignore that inconvenient fact. What's more, the establishment is clearly rectangular in shape.)

Back to that muffin. It was delivered warm, split in two on individual plates, and most importantly for us moms, it came very quickly. Oh, and it was delectable. Chock full of blueberries and moist. We were relieved, because we also had received our milkshakes, and the babies had turned into shake-hogging crazies, so that muffin allowed us a few sips of our own.

Unlike Squires, the Squares shakes came in plastic "glasses" (boo). However, they were a bit tastier. I tasted Mama H's and I must say the vanilla was a bit overwhelming. My chocolate was spot-on.

Our service was pleasant and efficient. The interior of the place is like an adorable '50s diner. The outside, not so much (as you can see). We sat outside because it was a pretty day, and 1950s step-up interiors aren't exactly made for the Stokke and Bugaboo combo. Although this meant we had to order over the sound of a jackhammer, this is the background music for our downtown New York lives!

Our Squires fly returned for a visit as we dug into our blueberry pancakes and egg sandwich. But we forgave the fly, since we were seated in his natural habitat. The pancakes were the highlight of the morning: a generous stack of big, fluffy flappers, festooned with oversize plump blueberries inside and out! We had discovered on the breakfast menu (served only 6-11 am, tsk tsk) that one could procure REAL maple syrup for an extra dollar, and this was the best buck we spent.

Mama H decided we needed a comparator for the french fries we'd had at Squires. It was 9:30 am, so we went for home fries. This was the low point. They were typical, and a tad cold, but the sauteed onion helped a bit with the lack of flavor.

The morning match-up for the Squires grilled cheese was our bacon-egg-and-cheese (you must pronounce this quickly, as a single word) on a roll. When we realized that it was REAL American cheese (with no surcharge) and not that McMuffin mystery cheese from Squires, we were relieved. It was a hit. Mama H declared, "They didn't mess it up."

We rolled our babies home with happy bellies. I only wish we'd been out drinking the night before, to justify all the carb/fat therapy we had. So what did we learn? You both can - and can't! - judge a diner by its cover. Squires was mostly as feared; Squares was an unpolished gem that I will return to again.