A Dish of a new place

It’s the same Dish all right. Makati’s popular party place has moved to Quezon City, but it still offers the fun and innovative dining and entertainment service it has come to be known for.

However, with the move to the ABS-CBN Compound, it brings with it a number of changes that keeps the old popular Makati party place abreast with the times.

For one, the new Dish will feature more cutting-edge artists. Says Dish co-owner Philip Cu Unjieng, there will be more acoustic and alternative artists at the new place.

"Long before people knew who Paolo Santos was, I was already presenting him at Dish at the Power Plant," says Cu Unjieng. "That was two years ago. Only a number of people showed up to see him sing. After he broke through last year, whenever we announce Paolo Santos, we’re packed. Hopefully, we want to do the same thing with so many new alternative artists, like Kichie Nadal. If we were still in Makati, I doubt whether we would have a turnout for Kichie. But here in Quezon City, the crowd is much more open-minded. They aren’t as conservative as the Makati crowd."

Apart from the music, the big change at the new Dish is that it is a smoking establishment. It’s a plus-point for many club goers who couldn’t puff on a fag at the restaurant-bar’s old address in Makati City. Non-smokers have an elevated area away from the stage where they can enjoy the music, but on a really crowded night, the boundaries simply disappear. Dish can seat 310 guests comfortably, but when the big bands show up, it has managed to sit around 500 people.

Says Carlo Dela Concepcion, Dish’s chef, on a really busy night, like during a recent Side A gig, the crowd spilled over to the back of the place.

"A lot of people were standing around near the kitchen door, and my staff had a hard time navigating the floor," says Dela Concepcion.

Another plus for the new Dish is its location. Since it is just a few doors away from the ABS-CBN studios, it isn’t surprising for the stars to come out and hang out on their breaks.

"Sometimes, you’d see Jericho Rosales sitting at a table near the stage, sometimes it would be John Prats," says Cu Unjieng. "One night, all the Viva Hot Babes decided to unwind here before going home, and chef Carlo kept coming out of the kitchen just to have a peek at them."

"Hey, anything with the Viva Hot Babes," kids Carlo.

And although chef Carlo is the spitting image of Dish co-owner EJ Litton, they are not related.

"For a time, people kept asking me whether EJ was my father," says Dela Concepcion. "When EJ heard that, he just laughed. Like EJ could have a son as old as me. It was a novelty people liked back then."

Food wise, the big change in Dish is that there is now a centralized kitchen. Unlike at the old Dish where seven restaurants were operating together, chef Carlo has full command of the kitchen. The new setup has systematized food service so that orders at any table are served more or less at the same time.

"At the old Dish, the restaurants with more orders took some time to serve their food, while those with few orders could easily dish out their orders," says Cu Unjieng. "If you were dining in a group, it was difficult for everybody to be eating at the same time. That’s why sometimes the pizza and pasta orders came out quicker than the items from the Filipino and Japanese restaurants, which had more orders."

"With the new centralized kitchen, chef Carlo more or less can time everything so that orders are served on schedule," he adds.

And like the entertainment Dish offers, the food at the new Dish is guided by the same vision of fun and innovation.

"We told chef Carlo that he innovate on the food he has to offer," says Cu Unjieng. "He can do what he wants with the dishes, so long as they remain familiar to the diners."

A glance through the appetizer list shows a number of staples, as well as unusual choices. One innovative appetizer is the spicy tuna napoleon, a different way of presenting tuna sashimi for foodies who aren’t into raw fish. The tuna is chopped into bits and dressed with a spicy mayonnaise and served on crispy lumpia wrapper squares. The ebi balls are another gourmet bar chow. Prawn chunks are shaped into balls like your usual croquetas. However, they are rolled onto shredded lumpia wrappers for an unusual coating. Deep-fried and served on a platter, many diners mistake them to be a novel serving of potato strings until they take a bite into them.

There’s also the crispy bagoong. Diners have a choice between the usual bagoong for their kare-kare and chef Carlo’s take on bagoong. The bagoong is drained until dry and then fried to a crisp. The texture adds something more to an order of kare-kare.

Then there are the cocktails, for what is a bar without its drinks list. Some of the more unusual drinks are named after many of Dish’s friends. Guess who is the personality behind Celine’s Cosmo Special (five drinks for the price of four at P500), Tony’s Choc-nut Martini and Tess’ Sweet Tinola Martini? Guess you’ll have to drop by at Dish and ask.

Those are just Dish’s daily offerings. Currently ongoing is a special lunch promotion of rice bowls. Priced at P95, it comes with a glass of free iced tea. The rice bowls offer a hefty serving of rice topped with a number of viands. Choices include braised beef, qingdao spareribs, lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork, bulgogi, oyakudon, katsudon, mixed seafood tempura and chicken teriyaki.

Many would think of Dish as the last place for lunch. But lunchtime service is quick and quiet. "The studios are busy at this of the day, so there isn’t much of a crowd here yet," says Cu Unjieng. "If they are looking for some place cool and cozy, Dish is it."

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Dish QC is at the ground floor of ELJ Communications Center, ABS-CBN Compound, Eugenio Lopez Ave., Quezon City. It is open Mondays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. For inquiries, call 413-0603 and 413-0609.