a dish-astrous evening

we've been wanting to take our neighbor keith to dinner for a while now - he's been a good friend since we moved to kensington in 2000, and recently he watched our house and taxied us to and from the airport for our dc trip. dish at universal in hillcrest had opened about a week ago so we made reservations and dropped in friday night. slick design, warm colors throughout and the place was bustling. too bustling, it seems, since our indoor reservation turned into an outdoor one - alone in front of universal on a breezy and chilly evening. lesson learned - if they can't accommodate the reservation you made, walk. we didn't, unfortunately.

our server was very friendly however, and my stiff drink (unfortunately named "ambisextrous" something) took the edge off. we put our order in and waited for our appetizers... and waited. eventually they moved us to another table not quite as isolated as the first, where they struggled for the next 10 minutes to get the heat lamp working. we appreciated the effort but at this point things were certainly not off to an auspicious start.

eventually our apps came - decent crab cakes and a tasty mixed greens salad. as i took my first bite a cloud of cigarette smoke enveloped the table from the smokers seated directly next to us at the fire pit. entree-wise, the crusted albacore was perfectly seared but sported a very salty crusting. jay's pork schnitzel was a new entree for us in san diego and measured up to what we had in vienna years ago.

we'd also ordered a potato torta which was MIA. finally our server showed up and we alerted him. it arrived well after our meals were finished and was good but nothing spectacular. he dropped off some dessert menus, then a solid twenty minutes passed as we waited for him to return. needless to say, dessert wasn't ordered.

i know the place just opened, and i'm willing to give it another try, but i was looking forward to experiencing the interior of dish and instead got an unappealing cold evening on the patio. i should note that after asking, we were given the option of waiting half an hour for an indoor table, but my dining companions passed. in any event the place just didn't feel ready for prime time yet.

the outdoor bar and club feels like they're ready though - the bar was filling up as we left with a previously unseen hillcrest mix of hot girls in cocktail dresses and 20-something gay guys. the club hadn't filled yet but the rear dance floor was already kicking to the nearby dj. the club's interior - dark, a bit big - works, but had nothing approaching the wow factor of stingaree, for example (stingaree is run by the same owners). considering the place was built from the ground up, the layout could have been better, with separate areas like the lounge more clearly defined. the modern look employed by the common wash area outside the bathrooms is creative though.

it'll be fun to come back on a warm summer night in a couple of months after the kinks are worked out and hang at the outdoor bar. until then we'll remember our dish-appointing experience with dish-may (sorry, i couldn't resist).