Obicà Mozzarella Bar - Duomo — Restaurant in Milan

AVOID!!!

The location of the restaurant is amazing. That being said, I had the worst “dining” experience of my life here. We were seated at a table but almost immediately my friend asked if another table was okay because the table was only a few centimeters away from the other tables and we could hear the surrounding conversations better than our own. The waiter told us it wasn’t possible, explaining that we already ordered so she could’t seat us at another table. We kindly explained that we hadn’t ordered yet and that we therefore didn’t see the issue. She literally just didn’t reply and walked off… we thought at first that she was going to get someone else but quickly came to the conclusion she wasn’t coming back.

We were already baffled by this incident but it only got worse from here.

At one point another waiter came by our table to take our order (mind you, we were still seated at the same table we complained about). We ordered two Aperol Spritz for the time being. My friend and I concluded that we felt uncomfortable at this place and would rather have something to eat elsewhere. When the first waiter arrived with our drinks, she was ready to take our food order. We explained that we just wanted to have some drinks and enjoy the view. This was where the drama started… she actually became extremely rude, telling us that this is a restaurant and not a bar. She stormed of and the second waiter came to talk to us. My friend explained that she didn’t feel comfortable at this table and that we also mentioned this to the first waiter but that she reacted extremely rude. We were hoping for some sympathy but the second waiter was just as rude as the first. She said that if we only wanted a drink we could go to the bar (which was inside). My friend and I politely agreed, thinking we could take our drink of €14 (!!!) and enjoy it at the bar (the bar of the same restaurant). But quite bizarrely, the waiter told us we were not allowed to take our current drinks with us… we were literally stuck… either we had to leave our expensive drinks behind or we had to order food against our will. Whilst standing there completely lost, with our drinks in our hand, the second waiter had mercy and said we could finish our drinks first.

We finished our drinks as quick as humanly possible and went to pay the bill. Not only were the Aperol Spritzes crazy expensive, we also needed to pay for a mandatory service fee (€3,50 per person)… we were standing at the counter, ready to pay and the first waiter told us to hold on a moment. Then we watched her wait ten other people first after finally attending to us. I mean, if you don’t want our money, by all means, don’t take it.

This was the most bizarre dinning experience I have ever had. It was borderline traumatizing. Please, please, please, do not visit this terrible place with it’s...

Go here for the views, the terrace and the experience but not for the pizzas.

I live in Milano for about half a year now and this is the second worst pizza I’ve had. My way of grading pizza is asking for a Margueritta. In this case they promised “buffalo DOP”. It’s difficult to accept that a place that prides themselves as a “mozzarella bar” puts in pits pizzas something that it is not buffalo mozzarella but even more it is not decent mozzarella. I make my own pizzas and I am used to many different type of cheese from shredded mozzarella to Fior di latte to buffala mozzarella in balls. Mozzarella di buffala is always watery and soft even if you cut it and drain it before but what I was presented was a rubbery flat and dry cheese difficult to chew. (See picture). On the other hand the oven is not a typical traditional dome oven as I have seen in other Obicà restaurants but a regular electric pizza oven. Worst of all the pizzaiolos don’t achieve any leoparding on the crust. Service was hit and miss. We ordered two pizzas, a glass of wine and bottle of water plus a fruit juice for my toddler. They sent two glasses of wine, three pizzas and the water and juice. They returned the excess without much issue but it was a repetitive inconvenience to explain we didn’t ask for those. Olive oil and aceto balsámico on the table were actually excellent but the included basket of 6 pieces of bread for 3 people was a disappointment. Grossing (bread sticks) were stale and not crunchy and the other bread slices on the drier side. You get charged 4 euros for coperto (just for this subpar bread) per person and our 3 year old toddler was accounted as well which I find abusive. In summary, views are pretty good (very close to the side of the Duomo), the terrace is modern and well laid out but the food is really forgettable.

UPDATE in response to the owner’s reply:

It is very frequent to see restaurants have their standards lowered and lowered specially when you get a constant flux of tourists that are never going to become returning customers. Your explanations about the quality of the flour, the carefull processing of the dough and specially the quality of the mozzarella maybe were something that was done in the past but I guarantee you they are not the current process or ingredients. Just look at the flat rubbery cheese. Do you think that is possible from buffalo mozzarella? Believe me that the looks is generous compared to the flavor and texture which were just like chewing rubber. I dare you to visit the restaurant and...

I have been a loyal guest of the Obicà Mozzarella Bar restaurants for many years – I’ve visited their locations in Rome, Florence, Turin, Palermo, and Milan, and until now, I’ve always experienced excellent service and memorable culinary moments. Unfortunately, my recent visit to Obicà Duomo Milano was a deeply disappointing and humiliating exception.

Two weeks prior to our planned trip to Milan, I made a reservation online and received a confirmation email. We arrived at the restaurant precisely at the reserved time – the place was already quite full. However, the brunette, short woman at the reception greeted us with an attitude that was shockingly unwelcoming. She appeared visibly annoyed that we even approached her to mention our lunch reservation.

She curtly told us there was no reservation under my name and that we would not be able to have lunch there. I politely explained that I had a confirmed reservation, which had even been automatically saved to my Google Calendar, and showed her the email as proof. She barely glanced at it, rolling her eyes and fiddling with her phone with complete disinterest. Eventually, she stated that it must have been some kind of system error, but regardless, we had no reservation and should go elsewhere.

I asked her why, especially since there were clearly empty tables around us. I even inquired if perhaps a private event was scheduled. Her response? Simply: “yes. Bye.”

The attitude and rudeness of this one staff member was both shocking and unacceptable – and absolutely unworthy of a restaurant with such a strong reputation. A single employee’s behavior can do irreparable damage to a brand’s image, and unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened here. It was a terrible and degrading experience. A strong...