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Dish challenges Japanese-restaurant stereotypes. The menu aims beyond the usual rolls and raw concoctions, offering innovative combinations like the Spicy Crunch, a bowl of thin, crispy-fried wonton strips topped with a small mound of tuna or salmon tartar, spicy sauce, and red and black tobiko. The rock shrimp are inspired: tender, delicately battered nuggets of the crustacean in a clingy, sweet-tangy sauce. And specialty rolls, like the fried-crab-and-spicy-tuna Monster Roll, which arrives on a bed of shredded snow crab, are worth exploring, too. Presentation veers toward drama rather than the traditional minimal aesthetic—both the Dynamite appetizer of baked scallops, shrimp, and mushrooms and the fried ice cream come accompanied by a theatrical plume of flaming rock salt. Comfortably chic, the restaurant offers generous booths and a softly lit interior decorated with works by neighborhood artists. If the weather cooperates, the best seat in the house is out in the garden where an international clientele freely smokes and drinks sake in front of a tasteful, stacked-stone waterfall. More Golden Gate than Verrazano, Dish is an adventure worth finding. — Raquel Pelzel

Thu.—Fri., happy hour reigns from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

DJ
Thu.—Sat., you can dine to the din of a live D.J. from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. 

Valet Parking
Thu.—Sat., Dish offers complimentary valet parking.
 

Rock shrimp, $9; spicy crunch, $9; monster roll, $14; fried ice cream, $8