The Dish Restaurant — Restaurant in Mount Pleasant

First time in the store today. The lobby is rather spacious and it takes a minute for a first-timer to catch on to the idea that this is a fancy cafeteria and you have to go to the register to place an order (we saw no signage telling us that, at least). Nobody comes to seat you, and after a while of standing there awkwardly looking around, a first-timer can figure it out (and they had better be able to, because there is no signage and bloody nobody comes to help). My party knew that this was half-price pizza day, as we had seen it on the reader board outside. There was NO SIGNAGE inside the restaurant indicating that it was half-price pizza day, but we were told that we were right when we asked about it. We elected to order for take-out and paid at the register. We were not given a receipt (or a paging puck, which I assume is for inside diners only). After standing around awkwardly for a few minutes, I asked the cashier if this was where we were supposed to be waiting and was told that, no, we were supposed to go down this pathway and there were seats there where we could wait. We did that, and would have earlier if we had been told. And wait we did. It takes time to make a pizza from scratch, after all. The food, by the way, was quite tasty, but nothing to write home about.

What confuses me is all the reviews that rave about the service: There is no service. Dine-in customers are given a paging puck and when it goes off, the customer themselves have to go to the kitchen window to fetch their food. Well, I guess that is service of a sort, so I assume that people are saying that they like themselves. Take-out customers are directed sit on not very comfy wooden chairs and wait until our food is done. As we like ourselves, I suppose the service is fine (but my server was getting kind of snippy, not knowing what was going on and not having been told or having any signage to read. 'Figure it out yourself' is a great business model for an escape room, but not so much for a restaurant).

Finally, and in retrospect, I find it mildly offensive that the cashiers have to have a tip jar at the register. I pay less (looking at the prices on the regular menu) for similar quality food in restaurants that actually DO have service. Pass that savings on to...

I keep waiting to review this place because I feel like we’re missing something. I want to love it more, BUT it just fails to always impress. Let me explain… Service has always been friendly and the food is fresh. We picked up from the drive through after being helped by a very nice gal in the phone, and both people at the window were very kind. We appreciate that and is a rare find. That being said- you want the taste of the food to match the quality of the help and it just has fallen short. The pizza is short on toppings. We’ve tried the chicken bacon ranch twice and a sausage/mushroom/onion that was very skimpy. We don’t even bother with the leftovers because we’ve tried to move some of the toppings to the hot pieces when it’s fresh to enjoy it, and the next day is just cheese to warm up. We all know leftover pizza is what it’s REALLY about. The fish fry was only mediocre and the Rueben sandwich was fair, but only came with a small serving of fries for a large serving price. We understand that a profit has to be made and we pay for a service but when compared with its semi fast food peers, we wanted more from The Dish. We’d like to one day try the weekend buffet, but haven’t been able to make it. Since you order at the counter and serve yourself, you CAN save a little by tipping yourself, but they may still ask with the software at the register when you pay.

The selection is very vast and you will find something to try, but we just want to love the food a bit more. Because we’re suckers for local, small businesses, we will likely keep trying to find something we love someday in the future and hope to update the review with...

Hearing rumors about The Dish on how good it was, I had to go so when my daughter suggested we go for the brunch one day I jumped at the chance.

We we're there more towards lunch time and it wasn't very full but it was busy. The cooks and staff had no problems keeping up with the food on the brunch tables. The staff was also very friendly and helpful, especially since I was using a cane at the time, one of them helped carry my plate for me so I didn't have to struggle.

The food was hot when supposed to be and cool when supposed to be also plentiful. They had all the usuals eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, chicken, waffles, pancakes and omlets. They also has fish, cornbread, mashed potatoes, pot roast, bakery, desserts and more that I can not remember at this time. Of course they have coffee, tea, juice, soda and water.

I loved it all, the food, the staff, the atmosphere, the time spent with my family, not having to cook a big meal and no clean up. All well worth it.

Some months after this I did go again for a pick-up order for breakfast. I ordered I believe the farmer's special. The food was way more than I could eat, it was fresh off the griddle (very hot).

You must remember to ask for condiments they can't guess what you might want other wise you just get the salt & pepper in with the fork and spoon. The toast was pre-buttered thankfully but unfortunately a bit soggy by the time I got to my destination. Other than that it was great and I got 2...