Dish-turbingly Good

Above: Roast bone marrow with parsley and capers salad; Boo's pan seared foie gras

Below: Charred to perfection, our US Prime Rib; potatoes roasted in duck fat, it was alright

I rarely venture into Delicious unless I am meeting Crispy for coffee as he happens to live in Dua. I'm still upset that they took away the only dish that I like which was the agedashi tofu with mushrooms. They used to be good about three restaurants ago. When it was just Bangsar and 1 Utama. I spent quite a lot of my weekends there, hanging out with friends and indulging in shoestring fries, decadent death by iced chocolates and abundantly fresh and crisp seafood salad. Now the food quality is too inconsistent to risk when hungry. After many, many months of curiously wondering what they were going to do with the space that occupied the ground floor of Dua Annex, Dish was finally revealed. Dish is the new fine dining concept by Delicious group. It occupies the other half of the delicatessen of Delicious Ingredients. The layout implies casual dining but the menu prices suggest much more. After studying the menu one day with Crispy, I was eager to get the girls to dine here with me. So one Thursday evening, Boolicious, Lyrical Lemongrass, Ciki and I found ourselves sharing a bottle of Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc over a surprisingly good meal.

Lobster omelette in a pool of buttery lobster bisque RM58

If there is one common complaint about Delicious, it would be the bad service. At Dish however, service is excellent! Shockingly so that I nearly fell off my chair. The staff are knowledgeable, attentive and quite sweet really. Even when they insulted me, I'll come to that later. To start, roasted bone marrow, foie gras and foie gras parfait. The bone marrow arrived looking rather impressive, like 3 mini silos filled with buttery goodness. And after you're done eating them, they make great fashion cuff bangles! Only if you are built like a tiny ah lian of course. The marrow was paired with a parsley capers salad which was a delicious contrast of flavours and textures. I was told that it needed a little more salt by LL and Ciki. Meanwhile I was busy tucking into my foie gras parfait on melba toasts and raspberry jam. It was smooth and delicately flavoured. Of course it paled in comparison with Boolicious' pan-seared foie gras which was to die for! But then again, I don't believe I've met a foie gras I didn't like. For mains Ciki had grilled tiger prawns while the rest of us shared a 1.3kg US prime rib with rocket, roast potatoes in duck fat and portobello mushrooms (all RM12) on the side. The tiger prawns were lackluster and the texture was soft which meant that they were not very fresh. We fared better with our prime rib. It was beautifully charred but a little rare for me. LL and Boo like it like that so I ate the bits around the edges which was covered in fat. If you like fat, you've like this. It came with a couple sauces which wasn't necessary because there was already so much flavour in the meat. I did like the truffle butter but the chimichuri sauce was too piquant.

Above: black forrest pavlova with fresh cherries; gorgeous crepe suzette. Below: my crunchy in the middle orecchiette, my only gripe - little more oxtail please.

For dessert we had crepe suzette and black forrest pavlova. Both desserts were equally as good and were devoured very quickly. The crepes were just the right thickness and orange cognac sauce was buttery and gorgeous. The black forrest pavlova was a chocolate meringue topped with bailey's cream and fresh cherries. Light as a feather but full bodied with flavour. We were also offered some petit fours in the form of a dark chocolate truffle and a lemony marshmallow-like candy. The following week I was back again with Danish Pastry & GF. I had told him about how wonderful it was and he insisted on going there for dinner. I wasn't going to turn it down especially when he was buying dinner! This time I ordered the lobster omelette for starters and orecchiette with oxtail stew for mains. The lobster omelette was served in a pool of lobster bisque. The lobster was sweet and springy in the egg. And even more sublime eaten with the flavourful bisque. The only thing was that it was also incredibly rich. When my main course I arrived, I just ate one fifth of it. I basically picked out all the oxtail bits as the pasta was slightly undercooked. One more minute would have been perfect. This was crunchy in the middle. I was told later that "this type of pasta is cooked this way". If I wasn't so full and delirious from the good food I would have felt indignant but I just let it slide. The chef is obviously talented with an ego of a diva to match. Firm with a bit of bite is good but not when it hurts my teeth Mr Chef. Apart from that, I couldn't really fault my second experience at Dish. The menu would be best described as Australian. Its not huge but offer good variety. Expect to pay RM150 per person on average for three courses. The good thing is that wine is very reasonably priced here.

Danish Pastry's pan roasted duck breast with foie gras and some sort of fruit reduction thing. It was nicely done but the flavours did not come together.

Dish - Dua Annex, Jalan Tun Razak. Open for lunch and dinner. Other reviews - Masak-Masak