FoodMayhem

Lon and I met up with Kasi for lunch at Obika Mozzarella Bar Obika Mozzarella Bar. It’s in the atrium of the IBM building, which has a nice feel of almost al fresco dining, while being protected from the rain and cold. We made plans to meet for an early lunch at 11am just in case there was a lunch rush (never happened) but were soon disappointed hearing that their kitchen doesn’t open till 11:30am. This is not anywhere on their website that we can find. It says they open at 9am.

Well, I took this as a good opportunity to go to the bathroom, and good thing I had plenty of time…you have to hike into the Trump building and down an escalator, through the Trump Ice Cream Parlor, and into the back.

If you’re getting annoyed waiting for me to get to the food part, well, we had to wait, and so do you. Haha…JK We walked around and looked at their goodies; most things are on display.

When we got to ordering, we decided to start with the 3 Mozzarella Tasting and a basket of fresh bread. You have to pay for the bread ($3) but it is fresh (from Sullivan Street Bakery). We ended up needing two baskets.

They were out of the mozzarella from Vermont for the tasting, so that was substituted with Straciatella, which ended up being the favorite for me and Kasi. It’s just super soft mozzarella torn and sitting in cream, but so delicious.

The one in the middle was the Mozzarella Di Bufala Paestum. On the website, they say this one has a “more delicate taste”. On the menu at the restaurant, it says this one has a “stronger taste”. The three of us are letting you know that it has a somewhat acidic taste, which none of us were fond of, but the texture was super soft. You could cut it with a spoon.

Lon’s favorite was the Smoked Mozzarella Di Bufala, which is surprising since he normally does not like smoked mozzarella. This one is really different though, with a wonderful natural smoked flavor, again super soft and fresh.

We added the Stracciatella di Burata, which is cows milk mozzarella with Stracciatella inside. Loving the Stracciatella, I had high hopes for this one, but it ended up being rather bland and watery.

We needed a bit more and asked for the Fig and Prosciutto Salad, but they did not have figs. (Kasi asked for a Decaf Latte and they were out of that too.) It wasn’t clear on their menu if you could order just prosciutto or you had to order it with the mozzarella. (We weren’t interested enough to have more.) Well, turns out you can get anything separately although it’s not listed on the menu. We did end up getting Prosciutto Di Parma, good as usual and sliced thinly.

The mozzarella plates were served with some cherry tomatoes, olives, and baby spinach. The bread is served with salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar. All top quality and probably better than the mozzarellas. While everything is very fresh, $56.31 (including tax and tip) seems too much to put up with all this inconsistency and confusion.