Intelligent design at the Dish

Very intimate dancing. 

The small restaurant seats 45 — and that's if you count the bar stools. As soon as you walk through the door, you're doing the lambada with a perfect stranger.

The tables are shoved so closely together that by the end of the meal, you know the couple sitting next to you are celebrating their 24th wedding anniversary and got hitched after just 17 days.

Once the food arrives at the table, though, everything else falls away, and you're in your own little world. Still, you have to keep in mind that there's no cover — the next table is thisclose — should you want to grab your plate and lick every last drop of the lemon-chive beurre blanc pooling around the rock lobster appetizer ($13.75).

It seems a disservice to call this dish an appetizer. It's magnificent enough to anchor a meal, and some people do order it as an entree, our waiter told us.

The lobster sets the stage for the type of food Executive Chef Mark Watson prepares: thoughtful and layered with complementary flavors and textures.

The sweet, succulent lobster tail wore a crisp coat of panko, Japanese bread crumbs, that made the pan-seared crustacean a perfect play of textures. It was great all by itself. But topped with rich, melted brie and the brightness of diced tomatoes, and dunked into that citrusy butter sauce, well, you haven't tasted anything better.

Tuck a fork into the roasted duck ($23) and prepare for another transcendent experience. First, enjoy the tender dark meat. Take another bite and savor the thick, sweet fig sauce peppered with ancho chile and musky port wine. Another bite uncovers the licoricey twist of star anise scenting the melange of apricot-cranberry-apple conserve.

Meat lovers can't go wrong with the New York steak ($25). It was huge, perfectly grilled and bathed in a mild, brandied demi-glace, and perked up with a topper of crispy shallots. The accompanying roasted garlic mashed potatoes were exquisite — thick, buttery and creamy.

One evening's special — trevally ($32), a meaty fish similar to sea bass — sang with flavor but looked so sadly unappealing. A mangled heap of rock lobster tail lay plopped on top of the grayish filet. A sea of mint-colored wasabi-lime sauce sang with flavor and had enough kick to occasionally bite back. Maybe the sauce should have been poured over the fish? A side of forbidden rice cooked in coconut milk was firm and nutty, and was paired with a smattering of sweet, diced mango. It was practically dessert.

Speaking of, Watson handles the small dessert list ($6.75 each) with the same panache as the entrees. The unusual ginger cream tarte offered a refreshingly light end to a meal. A thick, cookielike crust studded with almonds cradled a mousselike cream that was barely sweet and gently dotted with crystallized ginger.

The chocolate-cookie sundae sounded promising and offered lots of bells and whistles, such as earthy cacao nibs, chocolate chunks and almond praline bits. The ice cream was smooth, although not especially vanilla-beanish, but we caught the chocolate cookie on an off night — it tasted overbaked.

Chocolate lovers should turn instead to the chocolate-espresso torta. A simple, impeccable, bittersweet chocolate ganache filling that immediately melted on the tongue was a smooth foil for the crunchy pâte brisée chocolate crust with a hint of cinnamon.

After dinner and dessert, you probably won't feel that light on your feet — but you still ought to wear those dancing shoes to feast at The Dish.

Review

The Dish Bistro & Wine Bar

3200 E. Speedway, adjacent to The RumRunner wine shop, 326-1714, www.dishbistro.com

Hours: 5-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; until 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

Vegetarian choices: Plenty of seafood offerings and a token vegetarian entree

Family call: Definitely more of a date-night kind of place.

Wine list: Extensive, as you can imagine, since The RumRunner is basically the wine cellar.

Reservations: Recommended — and accepted for bar seating, too.

Dress: Dressy

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