Dish Dash Balham

If there was league table for parts of London that are not desperately overcrowded when it comes to deploying the culinary tastebuds, Tottenham would be up there with the leaders. Footie? Well let's not go there. Let's go instead to the heart of Balham, where Dish Dash is open seven days a week for 11am until late.

So it is not without a certain irony that Dish Dash has effectively introduced not one, but three forms of cuisine within its own particular embrace. The mother of all three is none other than Persia, a land to which many of their ingredients are native. Look at almost any cuisine within the Indian, Turkish and Mediterranean regions and you will find more than a hint of the light, subtly spiced, aromatic dishes that contain the telltale signs of Persian influence.

Dish Dash has a twin persona. During the day a relaxed café culture is in vogue, with wild-eyed Mums staggering in after bruising experiences in nearby supermarkets, to emerge some time later revived and restored to humanity. Children are also welcome, but Dish Dash stops short of being a crèche. At lunchtime this is a good place for a light lunch and if you are a workaholic there is free wireless internet access available, as well as re-charging facilities all day.

Years ago Peter Sellers gently satirised the changing lights of Balham as dusk fell, and nobody minded that he was referring to the traffic lights.

In Dish Dash a more subtle change takes place and the most difficult decision you are likely to have to make is whether you will eat the Persian way - choose three or four small dishes to taste all the flavours of the east, and add some naan, or English, choosing one of the big dishes, with naan and a side dish, or Feast from the East, two small dishes, one big dish, a side dish and a naan.

To make matters easier each dish on the menu is assessed for guidance, but of course you can select exactly as you please, and many do.

The cold Mazza offer a colourful selection of Persian dips, eaten with naan, whilst from the mountains of northern Iran come warming dishes of Khoresh, lamb and chicken served with rice chosen from amongst a selection of side dishes that include spicy fried potatoes (battata harra if you want to sound knowledgeable) or Caspian salad with tangy sumac dressing.

Amongst the grilled classics are mahi, fresh fish marinated in honey and mint and served with dill rice, and the much loved, and often abused, shish kebab, those tender chargrilled lamb cubes marinated with onions and lemon. Parties of four can share a Royal Banquet, with hot and cold mazza, keban and khoresh, and a dessert platter to round off the meal.

Dish Dash offers great cocktails, some of them a Persian version of the classics. The wine list has recently been extended, grouped under their physical characteristics, helpfully detailed. Service is enthusiastic and jolly, usually by people who regard waiting as a privilege.