Obica Mozzarella Bar – New York
“For the aesthetics, it's kinda awful – I mean you're eating in the lobby of the IBM building…which to me, would suck.”
“Everything was super fresh, the atrium is gorgeous and peaceful, the food was quick and delicious.”
“I was disappointed to see that they didn't have burrata on the menu, though perhaps that could change…”
Obica Mozzarella Bar – New York
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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It felt like San Francisco today – a nice fall cool day with breeze, and to make it even more perfect, I got to eat a nice sit down lunch at Obika. The lighting was ample and good and the place had such a relaxed atmosphere.
My friend initially walked by the IBM building and spotted Obika as a lunch spot – the place seemed clean and the concept of a mozzarella bar was new and exciting.
We started off with the mozzarella tasting, which came with three handmade pieces of cheese: aestum, pontina and smoked. The cheese came a bed of spinach and tomatoes – the light one was creamy and good, but the smoked was a bit too smoky for my taste. For main entree, I had a huge plate of fusili with light pesto and lots of parmesan cheese. With all the cheese, I started to feel full, but even so that didnt stop me from ordering the dessert tasting and a cafe latte. The dessert tasting came with ricotta mousse with honey, tiramisu and chocolate torte. The tiramisu was so creamy and sweet – and was definitely my favorite out of the three.
I loved how casual this place was and how clean it looked. A perfect spot for a power lunch in midtown east! What a cool place – they even ™ed Mozzarella Bar®
We were wandering the mid-town area and wanted a light lunch. The hubby remembered "That Mozzarella Bar" he wanted to try. Not being one to say no to fresh mozzarella cheese, I said Sure!!
We ate at the counter of the mozzarella bar. Seating was tight as I was right next to the cash register, but the staff was very friendly and accommodating.
We had:
Butternut Squash Soup with Goat Cheese – it was served lukewarm (not sure if that was intentional) and relatively flavorless. The hubby and I added balsamic vinegar to pump up the flavor – we failed miserably
Mozzarella Sampler – one piece of fresh mozzarella – needed salt but was tasty; and smoked mozzarella – tasted okay if a bit too salty
Eggplant Caponata – I really enjoyed this, it had the right mix of tang and salt. The hubby didn't like that there were beans in it – he is a bit of a caponata snob.
They were also out of burrata which was disappointing.
For a mozzarella bar, we expected better mozzarella.
Went here for lunch (Take out) with a work friend. It's a kiosk inside an atrium next to Niketown. Yummo! I had a pannini with prosciutto crudo, fresh mozzarella, arugula and Olive Oil. Somewhat pricey but the ingredients make it worthwhile. My sandwich was so fresh and tasty. I would go back in a heartbeat.
Not quite a true restaurant sort of situated in the lobby courtyard of a building but the mozz sampler was delicious. How could you go wrong with a mozzarella focused restaurant? You can't.
I'm not a mozzarella connoisseur so maybe I'm not the best person to review this. I saw this place across from a client's office and was intrigued enough to walk by.
One of the people working there was nice and explained the different cheeses and sandwiches to me. So I decided to try the $9 sampler which included smoked and fresh mozzarella, some arugula, a nice amount of bread, two split olives and two split cherry tomatoes.
It was pretty nice. $9 was a pit pricey for the amount of food I got, but you could tell the quality of the cheese was there.
The simple menu lets the ingredients speak for themselves. As this is a mozzarella bar, I recommend ordering anything with one of the three types of mozzarella: fresh buffalo mozzarella, smoked buffalo mozzarella, or the deliciously creamy burrata – this is the real thing, not the "fake" cream-filled stuff you find in other places. Amazing, light flavor, great texture, and served perfectly with cold-pressed olive oil with your choice of accompaniments such as Italian meats, grilled veggies with pesto, or caponata. They also have yummy-looking sandwiches, or salads and pasta, but I prefer to enjoy it on its own. Perfect for a light lunch, and I love the floor the floor to ceiling windows and skylight, making it a great place to hang out on a beautiful day.
OK, I'm docking a star because they don't have a cozy setting (the lobby of the office building is a bit off putting), proper tables, serve after 5, or offer wine. When these things start happening it will be perfect. For a light lunch with a friend, this is great. I got the burrata which comes with a light "salad", and ordered a bread basket–yes, perhaps this should come gratis, but it's a trendy Italian mozzarella bar in midtown new york for cryin' out loud. The burrata was heaven in a cup, yes a CUP. the cheese was so pliant, it wasn't even a ball of cheese with the typical gooey burrata center–maybe they serve just the center here? but it was delicious and heavenly. I'm practically drooling on my keyboard now. If they could just get a cute little winebar setting, I might stop in every night on my way home.
Cheeeese. And no, I'm not taking a photo.
Stopped in here for lunch today (quite by accident) but it was so good! I had the bleu cheese salad with apple and walnuts over spinach with fresh buffala mozzarella, and an iced tea.
Obika has this awesome policy where you can add fresh mozzarella to your salad for $7. This made my normally $13 salad cost $20, but it was so worth it to try the fresh stuff. I have to say, even the bleu cheese had an incredible flavor to it and was awesomely fresh. The mozzarella came from large clear containers that resembled the live lobster containers at the supermarket. You can point to a particular ball of fresh mozzarella and have the chef use it to prepare a sandwich, salad, or just layer it with some eggplant or Italian meats.
The place was pretty empty considering it was the weekend, but we didn't mind having some privacy. Especially considering how quickly I polished off that salad. Not sure that's very lady-like, but when there is fresh mozzarella around I feel like you get a little extra leniency in that department. Especially when its so fresh that water comes out of the cheese when you push down on it with your fork. I'm not sure that the mozzarella and the bleu cheese salad really worked together to create a coherent dish. I did feel like I was just randomly taking bites of a cheese ball in between my already cheesy salad; but it was undoubtedly cheaper to do it that way and still delicious.
This really makes me want to take a mozzarella making class, since fresh ingredients really do make all the difference. Obika probably could have just put the cheese on a plate and brought it out to me and I would have been happy. Bring a cheese lover to this place and you'll surely be their hero.