The Food Fight restaurant opened inside the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus in 2011, shortly after the building did, as a fine-dining restaurant, but soon became more laid back.

It never exactly caught on, and after its nearly two-year pandemic closure, the restaurant group did a dining room remodel. As part of its reboot in April 2022, it began the happy hour, weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m.

Glasses of wine are half off, so are three of the restaurant’s six signature cocktails and eight food items, including three sandwiches. There are also $2 cans of the strangely named Montucky Cold Snacks lager.

The butternut squash falafel ($11/$5.50 happy hour), served as an appetizer without pita, was a fresh take on this Mediterranean staple, made with roasted squash and garbanzo beans. It was dense and better than most traditional falafel, especially since it was served on a plate with a tangy lemon tahini and apple chutney.

The smash burger ($7 at happy hour) is one of the restaurant’s most popular items. It’s a good-quality, tender, quarter-pound patty with American cheese, grilled onion, lettuce, tomato and special sauce on a thin, toasted potato bun with sesame seeds. The burger isn’t real big, so an extra patty ($4) might be a good idea if you’re hungry.

The squash melt ($8 at happy hour), meanwhile, is a real treat and plenty filling with slices of squash, spicy braised greens and smoked Gouda, prepared like a grilled cheese sandwich on perfectly grilled, buttery Madison Sourdough bread. It came on a dangerously hot plate with curry aioli on the side.

Both the burger and the sandwich are served with fries or greens. The fries were long and looked amazing, but weren’t. It’s unusual to encounter fries that aren’t worth eating.

The greens were another disappointment, an odd tangle of shoots that might serve as an accent or garnish someplace else. They looked elegant, were lightly dressed, and tasted healthier than your average salad.

I asked my server about the microgreens, and she went back to ask. We learned that they were a “wintry mix of pea shoots and beet shoots.”

Steenbock’s is notable for the breadth of healthy choices on its menu. Unfortunately, none of the interesting entrée salads show up on the happy hour menu. But on an earlier lunch visit, I had the roasted beet salad ($15), where ample beets were combined with macerated figs, pickled onion and baby kale. Greek yogurt was hiding beneath the top layer of greens, which was bizarre, but worked. Pepita granola was a nice touch, and the salad was perfectly tossed in a red wine vinaigrette. With so many great flavors, it was easily the most inventive salad I’ve had.

My friend ordered the farmers salad ($10) and liked that it had beauty heart radish, regular radish, carrot and cucumber, but was put off by the amount of microgreens among the leaf lettuce. They looked elegant, but he complained they were hard to eat with their long stems.

The potato leek soup ($10 bowl/$6 cup) was tricked out with goat cheese, truffle vinaigrette and chives. Another friend, who often orders it, was reluctant to let me try hers because she said it wasn’t as well-seasoned as usual. I had my own cup on a follow-up visit and found it wouldn’t have tasted like much without the extra enhancements.

Salmon poke ($12) was another starter with an unusual twist in that it was served in an edible bowl-shaped rice cracker. It had no rice, but the marinated raw salmon, papaya, mango, Napa cabbage, thinly sliced jalapeno, spicy soy dressing and cilantro all went together well.

For dessert, don’t pass up the strawberry schaum torte ($8), which according to a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is of German origin and can be traced back to the 1870s in Wisconsin. The light, crispy meringue was complemented by whipped cream and macerated berries — pure delight.

If you pick one cocktail from the happy hour menu, go with the citrus sting ($6 at happy hour) over the highly concentrated cranberry daiquiri ($6 at happy hour). The former has local State Line vodka, honey syrup, lemon juice and ginger beer with a chewy lemon candy floating on top. It was served on the rocks.

The restaurant space is in two narrow areas, not exactly a dining room, just carved out of the sleek university building. Blonde wood tables, orange and tan midcentury modern chairs, and pop music give the environment a clean, contemporary feel. Service was exemplary.

Jordan Bright, a managing partner for Food Fight, said he’s thrilled by the reception the revamped Steenbock’s has received and is excited for next year, when the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences building is completed next door and bound to bring more new energy.

Even now, it’s a good idea to make a reservation. Steenbock’s is having a moment. Finally.