Dish

I was just visiting Charlotte after a conference was held here. I was shopping at the unique shops in this area. About two pm I was getting hungry and saw several people coming out of nondescript restaurant called Dish. I asked them if it was a good place to eat and they said it was great. They live 40 minutes away and always eat here when there in town. I decided to try it. It was quite busy for the time of day and it was on a Tuesday. The waitress was very attentive and recommended several dishes. We had the fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. I’ve never had them before but they were amazing. I loved the sweet mashed potatoes. If you like a little spice the meatloaf is great. Good sized proportions and really reasonable prices. I would highly recommend the Dish.

Since my last review i have a valid complaint. What has happened to portion sizes? The buffalo chicken breast was the size of 2 silver dollars. I almost sent it back. I didn’t even think they had chicken breasts that small. My friend ordered a wrap of some sort. He said it was small also. Cmon Dish, don’t start scrimping on us now!

Really great service! It’s was super busy but we still got our drinks and apps. quickly. It was definitely loud and hard to hear the person right next to me. The food was delicious, I ordered the lentil meatloaf, but it was unfortunately pretty cold. Would absolutely visit again, the were so many options I wanted to try.

Love the look of this place, adorable retro hipster diner. This is our second time and it’s all 5 star quality home cooking. Fried green tomatoes with prefect ratio of breaking to tomato, light and slightly crispy and full of juicy tomato. The sauce is a horseradish dill sour cream, perfect. Then, chicken and dumplings… Wow! Soft, falling apart chicken, then dumplings were light and the gravy is so delish with a creamy sauce just salt and peppered. Don’t forget the amazing biscuit with orange butter! Ahh! So good!

Great lunch, I had the veggie burrito, wife Cajun meatloaf, kid 1 pimento grilled cheese and kid 2 BLT. Everyone loved theirs. We typically bounce around and try new places, but, they want to go back, everyone even knows what they want. Cool vibe to the place, friendly staff. We’ll be back

My Wife and I have been to Dish at least 20 times. They serve Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. It’s mostly Comfort Food with a Twist, and includes Vegan, and Vegetarian selections. They also have a Full Bar in the back. We haven’t had a bad meal yet. The atmosphere is pleasant, and the staff are friendly, and good at their jobs. The food prices are VERY fair, and the portions are more than enough. You won’t leave hungry.
Some of our favorites for starters are the Fried Green Tomatoes, The Parmesan Potato Poppers, and the Cajun Meatloaf Sliders. My Wife Raves about the Soups, and the Grilled Eggplant Pita. My Personal Favorites are the Chicken and Dumplings, Shrimp and Grits, and the Cajun Meatloaf w/​Mashed Potatoes. They also have a GREAT breakfast in the $ 5 – 6 Dollar Range. Their Bacon ROCKS !
I would recommend this restaurant to anyone that likes good food, and good service, for an affordable price.

We decided to come here last minute for a quick weekend lunch yesterday finally! We were quickly seated by the hostess and greeted by our quirky, nice server. She gave us plenty of time to decide, everything looked good it was hard to choose. I ended up ordering the salmon patties with mac and cheese and the special hashbrown casserole of the day. The bf ordered the chicken and dumplings with a side of the infamous mashed potatoes. The food took forever to come out, my stomach was literally grumbling. But, when it did it was a lot of food. Not as piping hot as I would have liked though. The loved the consistency and size of the salmon patties, there was good seasoning in there as well but, I wish they used fresh salmon instead of canned. Would have made a huge difference. My sides were good, had to add some seasoning to the mac and cheese and the hashbrown casserole was delish. I did not like the deviled egg, it was very bland and hard to eat.
My bf really enjoyed his chicken and dumplings (not bad for 8 bucks) he however, and this is where I docked a star and a half, hated the mashed potatoes. It seems like someone smashed a potato crudely and placed it into the side cup. No seasoning or creamy component, and quite frankly it wasn’t mashed with the proper smooth consistency one looks for in the traditional mashed potatoes. I had to play with it and had to add butter, salt, and pepper myself. Some cream would have been nice but, I didn’t bother and just managed with what I had. Other than that, the biscuits were amazing… dirty little secret: I wanted to order more. I wasn’t a fan of the white pepper gravy, I think I have been spoiled by the Flying Biscuit in this sense.
The dining room makes me want to kick back on the porch with some lemonade. Best part, our bill came out to under $ 20. For all that food, its worth the price. Will be back to try more.

This place is really great. One night after leaving school with a friend (both culinary students) we decided we wanted some soul food. So the place that got great reviews was Dish, I’m not a huge fan of these southern restaurants popping up all over Charlotte but hey, we’re in the south, what can you do? So Dish caught our eye and as we walked into the little yellow building we were brought straight back to grandmas Alabama kitchen, where the food is fresh, southern and fattening. We started with the fried green tomatoes (how could you not? My fave) and they were so good. The horseradish sauce that came with it complimented the tomatoes very well. I ordered the chicken and dumplings (one of the more expensive things on the menu and it’s still under 10 bucks, love that!). I paired the dumplings with Mac and cheese, and it comes with a biscuit and a deviled egg (hello). My friend got the country fried steak, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and a biscuit with egg.
The biscuits were amazing. Hard and buttery on the outside but fluffy and flavorful on the inside. Amazing. Really!
The egg was your traditional deviled egg, pretty good and a nice add on.
The dumplings were amazing, tasted like the ones my grandma make (wish they would add veggies to it)
The country fried steak was great and her two sides were awesome (carb overload but so worth it)
They have almost anything you could want from a southern kitchen, and the sides list has every southern food you can think of. On the back of the menu is sandwiches and even those looked awesome (want to try the chicken pesto). All In all I give the service, food and ambiance 4 stars. For the price, the portions are great, and the food was pretty good but could use some seasoning, other than that this place is awesome.

Maybe we caught them on a bad day when the stove and microwaves weren’t working.
Ice cold food. I must give 2 thumbs down unless I can borrow yours. Let me single out the gravy on the brick meatloaf as looking like a gloppy congealed massive wobbling blob. Disgusting.
The server was very apologetic of the fiasco and we understood her embarrassment.
I’m summoning Gordon Ramsey on their behalf! They should seriously be ashamed of themselves for attempting to serve this cold mess.
We walked out after the quick taste and we will never, ever, ever go back.

As all of my other reviews go, this was another excursion for my girlfriend and I about twenty minutes away from UNC Charlotte. I had really spent hours looking for places to try, giving myself some rigorous criteria involving price, type of food, and really just looking to see if the menu was appealing. I found many places that looked somewhat interesting, but something told me to continue searching.
As she was about to get off work, I came upon Dish’s entry on Unilocal,and of course I went straight to their menu. The deal with this place is that it is a southern restaurant, and incredibly homey. I work at The Whiskey Jar in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, a place where I believe southern food is exemplified, and thus I know my way around the type of food (even if I am a vegetarian).
When we arrived, the place was naturally lit, and it looked like someone’s one-​story house had been opened up so that it was one large room (with a landing up some stairs), and there were things hanging on the walls everywhere. Just like the Whiskey Jar, there were things hanging on the wall everywhere, so that the place began to resemble a museum! The tables, however, were set up simply, alluding to the fact that people should come here to focus on their food, not worry about other things that do not seem to matter. People were running around and really looked like they were working hard, which, to me, is always a great sign. We were seated almost immediately, and our server came right around.
Because this seemed to be such a great find, and even though we usually do things on a budget, I was convinced that we needed to order an appetizer, and the fried green tomatoes (a staple of the summer menu at the Whiskey Jar) called our name. The only thing that we were skeptical about was the heat of the sauce, but our server helped us through deciding what was best. They came out promptly and tasted great. You cannot go wrong with something hot, fresh, and crispy!
I was so interested in the veggie loaf sandwich, and my girlfriend was interested in their veggie burrito, and of course we immediately made up our minds to order them. When my veggie loaf sandwich came out, I could not believe how thick of a piece it was. It looked ready to eat, and I jumped right in (I really do not think I stopped until I was done). This is by far the best veggie-​patty like food I have ever had, especially because of the spices, and my girlfriend agrees. Her burrito was prepared perfectly, and although she could not finish it all, she did later that night (commenting how burritos are normally not the best to eat leftover, but this one certainly was worth it).
Drawing on my experience with southern food from the Whiskey Jar, as well as being raised on the stuff (especially sweet potato pie, I knew that their vanilla bourbon sweet potato pie was also something I had to try, no matter how full I was; I knew this before I even came in the place! When it came out, it had walnuts on top, so my girlfriend could not indulge as much as me, but she tried some of it that did not have nuts on it, and enjoyed it so much that she risked another bite. Needless to say, this pie did not stick around long. It was another level than my mom’s own, but she is insistent on imitating it.
One thing I would like to note is that you should tell your server everything at once, because they may not get back to you for a while, running around as much as they do. This is not necessarily a problem to me, as I know the service at the Whiskey Jar is the same way, because it is a small place and thus has a limited number of staff at times. Again, anyone who is halfway understanding, or is not in such a rush, should be perfectly fine at this place! I recommend trying it if you are in the area, or even if you want to go somewhere out of the way like we did!
I do apologize for not having any pictures of the food, but it did not stick around long at all!

Yes, just yes…
The chicken and dumplings deliver every time! It’s my favorite go to dish and it’s exactly like my grandma used to make (if she was raised in the south). The meatloaf is a hard one to pass up as well. This place also has one of the best chicken fried steaks around with the authentic sawmill gravy.
The service is prompt and courteous, they bring out the food pretty fast! The prices are very reasonable and you leave feeling fulfilled and wanting to come back.
It’s good southern cookin’ y’all!

In Charlotte for a conference. Asked the woman at the front desk of the hotel, «Where would you recommend as a restaurant to get local tastes or something authentically southern?»
She says,“My favorite restaurant is Vietnamese.“
Bahahahaha! I said,“So how about your second choice?“
She directed to this place called The Dish. Said it was authentic southern cooking and there was an episode of Diners, Drive-​ins & Dives a few years ago where this place was featured. You’ve now peaked my interest…
This place is not fancy but food was great! The waitress was a bit impatient as there were three of us in the party, asked a lot of questions and we wee not really in a hurry anyways.
Started off with appetizers of Fried Green Tomatoes and Potato Poppers. They Fried Tomatoes were good, as expected, and the Poppers were very different. Potato Poppers = deep fried mashed potato balls.
Our dinners were very good! I chose a Cajun Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and collard greens. There was a bottle of pepper vinegar that was suggested for my greens. It was a bit spicy, but different, and right up my alley!
Other meals chosen with the party was Chicken and Dumplings and Shrimp and Grits. Both of them looked good too!
All entrées served with a deviled egg and biscuit. You could get 3 more deviled eggs if you choose them as one of your sides!
Was a good meal,!

** Pimento Cheese on Pita Bread Points Appetizer. ⁵⁄₅.
Requested Cold. Housemade with diced pimento and pickled jalapenos. SUPERB! The best thing that I ate all night. They should market this stuff. It is what «I» would make IF «I» went to the effort of grinding sharp cheddar cheese through a meat grinder. Their pimento cheese was so good when we had our company Christmas lunch at Dish, that we almost fought over the stuff. It was equally as good tonight. Good Job!
** Pot Roast: ³⁄₅.
Okay, tasty, a little fatty. I was expecting a larger portion for $ 13.
** Mashed Potatoes w/​Gravy. 3.5÷5.
They left the skin on, which I like. This paired well the meat, but I would like to be able to choose my own sides, thank you.
** Collard Greens. ⁴⁄₅.
Good, sweet, rustic. Well done. The pot likker was delicious, but I didn’t stumble across any pieces of ham hocks. (Can one be a collard green snob? Maybe, I am. LOL)
** Biscuit. ³⁄₅.
Who puts honey on the «outside» of a biscuit? It just makes the darned thing sticky and messy. Everyone knows, well not the people at Dish — but everyone else, knows that butter and honey go on the INSIDE of a biscuit. You’re welcome.
** Deviled Egg. ¹⁄₅.
A pitiful example of one of my favorite egg dishes. Cold and lacking in any taste whatsoever. No love or attention was put into this food item. Lowe’s Supermarket has MUCH better deviled eggs in their deli. My mother made better deviled eggs… and so do I, there’s no comparison.
** Bloody Mary. ³⁄₅.
Tasty and spicy, but the glass was about 80% ice to monetize the drink. Those Bastids.
** Service? ¹⁄₅. (see below)
The maitre’d gave me lip about wanting to sit at a booth, in a basically empty (5 p.m.) restaurant — not a good start. If I’m paying $ 30+ dollars for a meal, I sit where I like, thank you.
I had a passive/​aggressive waitress that I damn near wanted to strangle by evening’s end. She didn’t tell me the specials, because she probably didn’t know what they were. Another blue haired hipster waitress at an adjacent table didn’t know what they were either, when a foursome of diners asked — and THAT waitress was far better than the one that I endured.
My waitress actually gave me grief about not ordering dessert, when I had already had an appetizer, a mixed drink, and an entrée. She gave me grief about bringing a to go box for the remains of my pimento cheese app.
What REALLY ticked me off was when I was ready to leave. Said waitress took my credit card… and then she didn’t return for what seemed an eternity. When I looked around, she was taking other people’s orders, wrapping silverware, busing tables, delivering to go boxes, etc., with no apparent hurry to bring back my ticket to sign… so I could get the heck out of Dodge. She seemed to be trying to do everything at once, which resulted in her doing everything haphazardly.
After a good fifteen to twenty minutes of waiting, I was ready to YELL from frustration. No, seriously, I almost lost it. A nice meal was basically ruined by a disorganized waitress.
In summary: The food is good. Some food items are priced a little too high. The pot roast was $ 13, which was effing ridiculous considering the portion was not «that» large. (I think that they charged me for the entire cut of roast.) The service pretty much sucks. The acoustics are terribly LOUD when the restaurant if full. All of the waitstaff are wannabe hipsters. Parking is difficult. I have no intention of going back again anytime soon, unless someone else wants to go there.
I should have went to Baoding or Bistro La Bön or Midwood Smokehouse or Good Food on Montford. {sigh} Maybe, next time.

There are a handful of restaurants in Charlotte that I can’t believe I’ve never been to. (Like South 21. I drive by that place at least twice a day and have seen the Guy Fierie show at least 5 times. How have I never been there?!) Dish was one such place until last week…
Upon review of the menu I was totally overwhelmed by all the tasty sounding options. BLTs! Cajun Meatloaf! Quesadillas! Curry Chicken Salad! All the amazing sides caught my eye in the end and I decided to go with a true southern classic, the «veggie plate.» I selected smoky limas (my favorite), mac & cheese (delish), collards (sweet and savory) and green beans (above average but put to shame by the other 3). As if all that wasn’t enough, the veggie plate is accompanied by a biscuit and deviled egg. I gave my egg away — I don’t do hard boiled eggs, bleh — but can speak to the biscuit which was one of the best I’ve ever had, lightly coated with honey.
Everything my friends ordered looked equally tasty and fresh. Service was spot on, friendly and attentive. Prices are super affordable. All in all, Dish is a great little spot that is sure to be on my lunch rotation from here on out. I just can’t believe it took me this long to discover it!

Excellent home cooking, huge portions and great prices. Wish they had fried okra. We do lunch here a lot.
Staff is very friendly & make you feel at home.

Man I wish Unilocal allows us to give half stars (are you listening Unilocal corp?) but I would give Dish 3.5 stars. I have been wanting to go to Dish for years and today I finally got the opportunity. We came in for lunch and there was an amplitude of seating available. We are some hungry folks and ordered quite a bit of stuff. Here’s the low down:
Apps:
Fried Green Tomatoes — I’m a big fan of fried green tomatoes and these were just a-​ok. A bit sour than what I would like but the horseradish sauce really balanced it out.
Entrees:
Chicken & Dumplings: My favorite out of the 3 entrees that we tried. It tasted very homey; just like how grandma would make it. I wished it had a bit of veggies in it (like carrots and celery chunks). If it did, it would be on point.
Country Fried Steak: Not the best that I’ve had but it was pretty good. The gravy made the dish and the mashed potatoes that accompanied the dish still had potato skins in it (kudos point!).
Shrimp & Grits: My least favorite out of the 3. I love myself some shrimp and grits and someone was just off. The grits taste bland and not very creamy. I always finish my food (and I wasn’t able to) so I was a bit disappointed.
All entrees came with a deviled egg (yum) and a biscuit (even yummier!). Some of the entrees came with side dishes and we tried the mac & cheese and collard greens. They tasted alright; nothing to write home about.
Would I come again? Maybe when Charlotte runs out of option for southern food and I doubt that will happen anytime soon. While the food tasted good, it was nothing special and we all know that Charlotte has a lot more to offer.

Re-​review!!! Once again an amazing experience at this quaint little restaurant! I enjoyed the grilled pimento cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup! My boyfriend enjoyed the Cajun meatloaf sandwich with a fried egg and ghost pepper cheese, like he does every single time. Our bill was less than $ 20 for this amazing meal. Jessie C waited on us, like he has many times, he has a genuine smile on his face! You can feel like he loves interacting with people and is always patient with our menu questions! We will continue to return and encourage other Unilocalers to do the same.
Side note: they also have local artist pieces of work hanging on the walls, these are for sell, make sure you browse at them!

So, Dish has been on my list for years, almost as long as 10 years, and I finally made it this past weekend. And, to be honest, I only wanted to go there for the Chicken and Dumplings, which SO many people have raved about it.
So, we stopped in Saturday afternoon and were seated inside on the upper level. I was a little surprised at how casual and laid back the place was. I guess I am not sure what I expected.
Needless to say I asked if I could get a cup of Chicken and Dumplings, no, only comes in a bowl, bummer. Knowing it was heavy I was hesitate to order an entire bowl. After being persuaded, and reminded this was the reason I came, I ordered the Chicken and Dumplings with Lima Beans. My friend ordered the Fried Egg and Bason sandwich, and asked for it on a croissant, which we found out was a $ 1.50 up charge. Didn’t realize that until the bill came.
Needless to say while we waited for our food we hit the Bloody Mary Bar… which I am not too sure I would call it a bar. On a high rise table they had celery salt, worsterchire, tabasco, and a few other seasonings and a ice box with celery, olives and onions. No bacon, shrimp, or anything other fun Bloody Mary bar treats. The Bloody Marys were good though, and only $ 5.00.
Our food arrived quickly which was nice. My meal came with a biscuit and deviled egg, which I would not bother to add as they weren’t that great. My biscuit was hard so I just dove in the Chicken and Dumplings, which was great. The chicken was so moist and the dumplings were really good. It was worth it for that bowl! The Egg and Bacon sadwich got great reviews as well and their croissants are homemade so my friend loved.
Overall, I am glad I made a visit to Dish, but not sure I would rush back or keep this on my go to list, especially in the Midwood area with so many other great options around.

BF and I came here for a late lunch at 1:00pm. This place was recommended by a coworker for yummy southern comfort food, and apparently was also featured on Diners, Drive ins, and Dives.
The restaurant seemed pretty packed when we got there but luckily we were seated right away. We ordered fried green tomatoes ($ 5.19), chicken & dumplings ($ 8.29), and the flank steaK ($ 10). All entrees were under $ 10 which was pretty cool, very affordable.
Food was alright. BF and I weren’t too fond of the horseradish sauce for the fried green tomatoes though. The chicken and dumplings is very similar to arroz caldo, which is a popular Filipino porridge dish, but the steak was pretty yums. Mac n cheese was great too.
Decent place overall but not sure I’d come back if I were to travel back to Charlotte.

This was my first meal after I stepped off of the plane from Baltimore. Great southern breakfast! I got the Carolina Country Breakfast and was so glad I did because everything was good. The grits, biscuit covered in honey, perfectly cooked eggs, bacon and gravy were the best combination for a comfort food meal. Only thing I would say is less gravy next time. The amount was like a cup of chowder! Very yummy and filling!