Steve Allen at Dish, Dua Annexe, Jalan Tun Razak, KL

Dish, Revitalised...

One of Chef Steve Allen's signature dishes

I've eaten in Delicious plenty of times, but never at Dish but when I heard that they had a new chef with incredible credentials helming the kitchen, I was raring to go! In fact, this week I spoke to a few other bloggers and everyone is excited to visit Dish and try out the food by the new chef.

Chef Steve Allen hails from UK and was formerly the head chef at Gordon Ramsay's at Claridges, London. Impressed yet?  Wait til you try his food... trust me when I say it's FABULOUS! His cooking style is modern (casual) British - he hopes to serve good food at more affordable prices. Most of the items on Dish's current menu are Chef Steve's creation, with the exception of a couple of old ones which have been retained.

Restaurant Interior

Relaxed atmosphere

DISH stands for Delicious Ingredients Steak House but I agree with Sean that you do not need to have steak here to have a great meal (though they do serve a good steak here). Chef Steve tells me that he is still tweaking the menu, and will be putting up more of his new creations in future (something to look forward to!). If you want to check out the current menu with prices, click here. He will also be revamping the menu at Delicious which will be launched in mid May.

Dish offers a 2-course set lunch for RM65++ or 3-courses for RM75++. The best thing is ... it is available everyday including weekends! The set lunch menu changes every 2 weeks and can also be viewed from their website. I will be returning to Dish to try this soon.

Since we went on a Friday afternoon, it was fairly quiet in the restaurant. Service was attentive, our glasses were never empty and plates were cleared as soon as we finished our meal and new plates/cutlery replaced quickly.

We started our meal with some complimentary eggplant fritters, which were crispy and light. The bread was served with a garlic herb butter and balsamic-olive dip, but we reminded ourselves to go easy on the bread.

Eggplant fritters

Complimentary bread and dips

And the complimentary food keeps coming, not that we're complaining. Next up is the amuse bouche of watermelon served with goat's cheese, pine nuts and balsamic vinegar. This was a great combination, sweet-salty with a play on textures.

Amuse bouche

*Please note that the dishes served to us was in tasting portions, whereas the prices indicated next to each dish is for the full portion.

The ballotine of foie gras with smoked duck (RM46) was definitely my favorite dish of the afternoon. Usually my preferred method of preparation for foie is pan fried, but this was realllllllyyyyyyy good. Smooth and rich (not grainy like some other places) which was paired nicely with the spiced pineapples. Oh and the toasted brioche was lovely, soft on the inside and crisp on the outside. I wish I could bake like that!

Forget butter and bread, foie and brioche is the way to go!

One of Chef Steve's signature dishes is the sauteed scallops served with cauliflower puree, turkey bacon and almond crumbs (RM48). The fresh scallops which have been seasoned with curry powder salt were perfectly cooked, and was sandwiched between some green apple slices. The cauliflower "popcorn" and apple vinegar caramel prettified this dish. This starter is a winner in my eyes. To read more about dish, you can check out Michael Saxon's article on Malaysian Insider.

The turkey bacon and almond crumbs gives this some texture

Apple and scallops = great combo.

They have a barramundi ceviche in their a la carte menu, but we sampled the salmon ceviche from the set lunch menu. Firstly I love the vibrant colours, red, orange and green, happy colours which makes me want to instantly eat it. When it was served, the server mentioned chilli and I looked at him puzzlingly, thinking those are pomegranates and not chilli! Turns out he meant that it was a chilli-basil dressing which certainly lifted the flavours of this dish.

Again, play on texture which the addition of pomegranates

The salt baked cod (RM69) was a dish that got us ooh-ing and aah-ing. Served on a wooden block along with the salt crust (made from a mixture of flour, egg and salt) and confit lemon, the steam was still emanating from the fish when the salt crust was lifted. By now, our server was aware that I would snap all my food photos, so he paused to let me take some photos of the fish, before lifting the fish out from the salt crust and placing it on a plate on top of some red pepper and lemon sauce and some grilled vegetables.

The black cod, which has been cooked for 40 minute was absolutely delicious. It was so fresh and the meat was sweet and flaky as it should be, that it did not really need any other accompaniments - it was excellent on its own.

Love this shot - steamy

Flaky baby

Served with its salt crust (which cannot be eaten) for the wow effect

Delicious black cod

We SHOULD BE full by now, but it's amazing when the food is fantastic, you always find space in your tummy to have even more! Since DISH is a steakhouse, we sampled one of their steaks too. There is a choice of 2 breeds here - Australian Black Angus 150 day grain fed or Australian Wagyu beef Marbling 5 or 7. For cuts, there are tenderloin, striploin, rib eye and optimum prime rib. There is a board which lists out all the cuts available, along with their weight and prices.

I love it whenever steak is served to me on a board... looks very appealing to me. We had the Australian Black Angus striploin which was chargrilled to medium rare perfection and served with truffle beef jus and Bernaise sauce. I've taken to eating steak just with a sprinkle of salt so that I could taste the beefy flavours when I bite and chew. It was served with triple cooked chips (so addictive!) and an avocado, tomato, pine nut, and Parmesan chopped salad (yum!) (RM18 each).

There is always room for more good food ;)

This was roughly 300g of meat, shared between two persons.

Our server cuts up the meat for us while we just sit back and enjoy our meat!

Medium rare

YUM

Four kinds of mustard

Dish Steak Menu

Desserts are all Chef Steve's creations as well. It was interesting to learn that he had formal training as a pastry chef and was head pastry chef for 2 years at Claridges. At the moment, there are 5 dessert choices (RM21 each).

We tried the strawberry mousse served with granita and jelly and olive oil ice cream, which Hubby likened to a posh version of Angel Delight that he used to have as a child - "it brings back memories of my childhood", he says. I felt that this was a refreshing dessert which could be easily finished by 1 person alone.  It is certainly good that they use Korean strawberries (which I like as they are not sour like the Cameron Highland ones) that are in season at the moment.

Pretty from any angle

The caramel chocolate delice served with lime ice cream and raspberries was right up my street. Chocolate is one of my favorite things and the rich, smooth and creamy chocolate was a delight. The rich chocolate was nicely complemented by the tart lime ice cream and raspberries. This would be ideal for sharing.

Love the caramel chocolate - so decadent!

Refreshing lime ice cream

Petit fours of passion fruit marshmallow and chocolate truffles

Photo opportunity with Chef Steve Allen

Verdict: I love the food here and will be returning soon to try their set lunch offering to see how it fares against my current fav Sage. Sunday Roast may be in the works too.

To read about the set lunch, please click here. 

Full set of photos available to view here.

Pork-free.

Opening times: Lunch 12.00 - 2.30pm, Dinner 6.00 - 11.00pm.

Parking: RM5 flat rate.

Location: Dish, Dua Residency, Lot 1.1, Ground Floor, Dua Annexe, No. 211 Jalan Tun Razak, 50450 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2164 1286

GPS Coordinates: 3.156971, 101.720803

Website: http://dishfinedining.com/

*Many thanks to Steve Allen for sparing some time to talk to us.