Food For Thought | T-Swirl Crêpe

Keep your eyes peeled or you might miss it — nestled on Murray Avenue in the beautiful neighborhood of Squirrel Hill is a quaint Japanese crepe shop, T-Swirl Crêpe. Models of crepes and dainty string lights adorn the windows, making the shop feel very cozy. The inside has an equally welcoming ambiance with dark wood throughout, although there is currently no indoor seating available.

Right off the bat, the menu impressed me with the variety of available options. The shop offers many different types of sweet or savory crepes, along with build-your-own crepes, tea and gelato. After some deliberation, I chose the Blueberry NY Cheesecake Crepe and the Teriyaki Chicken Crepe, in order to assess both sides of the savory and sweet spectrum. After ordering, the wait was about 20 minutes, but they came out fresh and hot.

I started with the dessert crepe. Some dessert crepes are available in both the mini and regular sizes, but others, such as this one, are only available in one size.

It comes with two pocky sticks inside. I decided to eat one immediately and leave one in for the crunch. If you want to uphold the structural integrity of your crepe, though, remove both sticks and eat them separately. The presence of the pocky just makes eating the crepe a little inconvenient. From my first bite, it wasn’t as sweet as expected — the crepe itself was somewhat bland. The dough is more of a blanket to the contents rather than a part of it, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The first bite doesn’t yield a lot of the whipped cream cheese and gelato filling. But upon reaching the filling at the bottom, it tastes delicious. It has a Greek yogurt-like flavor that really complements the blueberries.

The blueberries definitely steal the show — crisp, tart and sweet. They are scattered evenly all throughout the crepe. The menu promises a “blueberry reduction” inside, though, which isn’t very present. However, the blueberries compensate for this missing factor.

Despite being objectively good, nothing about it really screams “cheesecake.” If anything, its flavor is more reminiscent of blueberry yogurt. In hindsight, other options such as the Lychee Romantic or the Chocolate Nut Party may prove to be more viable.

The Teriyaki Chicken, at first glance, is humongous. It overflows with chicken, spinach, egg and more. The chef also presents the toppings very aesthetically.

If you have never tried a savory crepe before, you may be a little nervous about the mix of flavors. Like I mentioned previously, the crepe holds little flavor by itself. In this case, though, the lack of sweetness helps the crepe. But it might be interesting to try the contrast between a sweet crepe and the savory filling.

The Teriyaki Chicken crepe isn’t comparable to a chicken sandwich or teriyaki chicken by itself, but is still satisfactory.

The first bite is filled with chicken, which I saw the employees’ grill fresh while preparing the order. It boasts a nice texture and flavorful seasoning. The pancake-like shell holds plenty of chicken so there is some in every bite. The teriyaki sauce — the namesake and the binder — complements the other flavors well with its savory and tangy flavor. The only issue is that there is not more of it. The carrots give a nice crunch to the crepe as well.

Despite being content overall with the crepe, I still felt hesitant. For one, the taste was not as “fresh” as expected, especially with the inclusion of the spinach. Even though it didn’t give the desired freshness, the spinach still added some value to the combination of ingredients by making it less dense. The egg also made a bad addition due to its lack of flavor and general mushiness. While mushiness is to be expected of an egg, it conflicted with the other textures present. These faults don’t make the crepe irredeemable, they just make it less impressive overall.

The only thing I haven’t covered yet is price. Two crepes is rather costly. The Teriyaki Chicken costs $10.75 and the Blueberry NY Cheesecake costs $9.75, which, when combined with the tax and tip, adds up to nearly $30. Despite their fair size, some may still consider the price too steep for the actual product.

As for the crepes themselves, there’s not much else to say. They are about what you could expect from any other crepe. If you’re really craving something sweet, this might be the place for you. If you’re looking for something savory or cheap, you might want to see what else Squirrel Hill has to offer.