No wall-to-wall coverage of the Taste of Hartford perhaps, but I’ve got nothing better to do than to enjoy three-course prix fixe dinners in some of the Capital City’s best restaurants for just $20.10. So a fine weekday evening finds me back at Dish Bar & Grill, where a few adventurous souls have elected to dine outside.
Inside, the joint is jumping.
The Parker House rolls for which Dish is justifiably famous are flying out of the oven.
Plenty of people order the market fruits salad with wild arugula, aged goat cheese, Vermont maple syrup and aged Banyuls vinegar. But we don’t. We order the salt and pepper calamari served with a housemade green goddess dipping sauce, and the dish is simply perfect.
We also order the chilled local corn soup with pan-seared bay scallop and cascabel chile, and it couldn’t be lovelier. It also proves to be surprisingly well-stocked with beautifully caramelized pieces of scallop.
There are five main courses from which to choose—all tempting. We can try only two. So sayonara to whole wheat spaghetti with crispy prosciutto, English peas and mint in a Parmesan broth; au revoir to an heirloom tomato pie with basil pesto and housemade ricotta; and hasta la vista to crispy Statler chicken breast with butter-braised radish, toasted couscous and parsley sauce. Not that each entrée doesn’t seriously pique our curiosity. But we can’t resist roasted salmon with Sea Island red peas, summer squash, tomato broth and a garlic scape pesto served over mashed potatoes.
Nor can we pass up grilled flat iron steak topped with avocado, pickled red onion, cilantro, roasted garlic and tomato.
There are three desserts, so one of them must remain untested. That one is the shoofly pie made with blackstrap molasses and sour cream ice cream. But we still dip into the Deep South for a red velvet bread pudding served with cream cheese ice cream, coconut sauce and candied pecan.
And we revisit an old favorite in Dish’s deconstructed chocolate cream pie with vanilla whipped cream and Graham cracker soil.
I close with a picture taken a couple of weeks earlier of a pork dish from the regular menu.
With such unusual fare, Dish’s unpredictability is part of its allure. But the one thing you can predict is a good meal.
Dish Bar & Grill, 900 Main Street, Hartford, 860-249-3474
dishbarandgrill.com