Dish Dash - Slap Dash

I dearly wanted Quantum of Solace to be incredible. But it wasn't. It was merely a poor man's Chinatown with Daniel Craig and Judy Dench left to carry what turned out to be a pretty flimsy film. It's always a shame when high expectations aren't met. It's like pricking a balloon. One moment you're riding high, hoping for the best. The next it's burst and your realise that your expectations were artificially high in the first place.

We love Balham to bits. Gazette, Paddfield, Tagine, The BBC, Harrisons, The Exhbit, Cattle Grid, The Fat Deli, Trinity Stores, Holy Cow, etc. are all brilliant in their own ways. We're regulars at all of them but for some reason had never been to Dish Dash. It's Balham's answer to Persian food and has been talked of quite highly by a number of close friends. So on a bleak january evening we pottered along to check it out.

Despite being almost empty at prime time on Wednesday the staff were friendly and very helpful throughout. We were guided through the menu and ordered a collection of starters including an excellent hot aubergine paste, some perfectly cooked squid rings and hummous accompanied by a tower of village bread that looked like a witches hat! The aubergine was terrific - smoky, earthy and extremely moreish, reminding us of our trip to Korfez in Istanbul. The squid was amazing. Top marks for that one and the hummous was hummous. At this stage we were feeling excited about our kebabs. It's a bit like when you watch the opening sequence to a Bond film. It always gets you all revved up and you hope the rest of the film lives up to it.

Sadly, things went downhill rather rapidly. My lamb shish was criminally overcooked. I don't want to be rude but it was terrible. And just to show that it wasn't a fluke, they nuked Cowie's delicate fish kebab as well! Whoops! It was a real shame. I rarely get to eat kebabs so I was very disappointed. I've since spoken to a few people who have had similar experiences. If only they had told me in advance. Surely kebabs are not that hard to cook?

Our advice would be to go along for a nice glass of wine and some fantastic meze dishes and then save yourself for a kebab at the Kebab Kitchen if you are still feeling peckish.