Any restaurant with a “concept” makes me slightly nervous. “Do you understand the concept?” I’ve been asked many times over the years. Sometimes, if the staff are being jollier, it’s merely a “Have you dined with us before?” as a lead-up to explaining that everything is served “family-style”, “in no particular order” or “is made only from things rescued from bins”; in one place, I was allowed my next course only after I’d indicated I’d finished my current one by holding up a specific paper flag on a cocktail stick.
Thankfully, Dai Chi’s only concept is that almost all its dishes come on skewers, Japanese kushiage-style (ie, pub food). That said, most of these skewers are deep-fried and often breadcrumbed, so they’re instead describing the restaurant as a kushikatsu, which is big in Osaka. At Dai Chi, that means you get the likes of a single, top-quality black Iberiko tomato, breadcrumbed, on a skewer, with one meaningful anchovy draped over the top. Please eat it all in one go, chomp, down the hatch, because any attempt to nibble on it will result in some serious mopping of your décolletage. Another notable skewer is a large, breaded eringi mushroom with a solo carabinero on top.
