OBA Grill — Restaurant in New York

I’ve been living in New York for over 10 years and worked in the restaurant industry for nearly 5. I’ve had Turkish food at many different spots across the city. Unfortunately, this place stands out—not for good reasons—but as the worst dining experience I’ve had, not just among Turkish restaurants, but across all the food I’ve tried in America.

I’ve never left a restaurant feeling this disappointed—or worse, like I was treated as if I didn’t matter.

I ordered the meatball plate with rice and salad (small portion). It came with only three pieces of meatballs, which were shockingly small and thin. That alone wasn’t the main issue. I understand portion sizes vary by restaurant policy. I just personally found the serving size to be underwhelming.

Now, let’s get to the real problem: the quality of the food.

The rice was inedible. I’ve worked in restaurants long enough to know when rice is simply undercooked versus when it’s been sitting out for too long. This rice was clearly old and dried out—so hard I nearly broke a tooth. It was one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted. And I don’t mean it was just “not good”—it was downright awful.

The salad on the plate was equally bad—completely unappetizing and clearly not fresh. Thankfully, I had ordered a shepherd’s salad on the side, which was somewhat better. My wife ordered the chicken shish kebab and unfortunately received the same terrible rice. We could barely eat anything beyond the meat. The rest of the plate went straight to the trash.

I paid $60 for this meal—and felt completely robbed.

Not only will I never return to this restaurant, but I’m genuinely considering avoiding even walking...

This is not the first time I have been to Oba, but it was the first time I have felt uncomfortable due to the waitress in the red skirt that sat us (06/19/2022). She was the main one serving the guests and she seated us with water and the menus. She then left us for THIRTY minutes, even though I asked for straws, while she continued to serve other guests and even sat two guests next to us, and they got their food before us. We ended up calling one of the guys who work in the back as he was walking around, but he was NOT a waiter. He nicely took our order and apologized. Eventually, we asked the waitress why she never came back. I asked her why she was serving everyone around us but us, and why we had to ask someone to take our order. She proceeded to tell me “We all work here”, even though she was the main one waitressing and the one who sat us. We were visibly upset and she did not apologize at all but continued to tell me “it’s okay”. We decided to get our food to go. Like I said, I have been to Oba many times, and have never experience this type of service. I am by no means upset at the restaurant as they were very apologetic, but I am very upset at that specific waitress. She acted very clueless when it was clear what she was doing, we were the only people of color in the establishment, and did not feel like staying after her continually telling me it was okay for us to wait thirty minutes while everyone...

OVERPRICED AND NOT THAT GOOD I got takeout tonight after passing this place several times on the way to one of my favorite Indian restaurants and I was left disappointed with the food as well as the poor ability to meet my VERY simple requests. Ordered: chicken vegetable soup, babaganoush, chicken gyro sandwich (extra white sauce on the side), chicken shish kebab sandwich (extra white sauce on the side). The soup was absolutely delicious but just under $9.00 for a small cup of soup is outrageous! The babaganoush was just ok, a 5 out of 10. It tasted like there was mayonnaise in it.😬 The chicken gyro was good but the pita was totally falling apart and extremely difficult to eat not to mention there was NO SAUCE. ☹ The chicken shish kebab was NOT good. It was really nothing more than dry grilled chicken cutlet in desperate need of flavor. It could've been more flavorful if the white sauce that was supposed to be in the bag was actually there. I was told TWICE that the sauce was going to be on the side ... there was ZERO sauce given so yeah, that really sucked. I also mentioned that I did not want any cutlery ... I got all the cutlery and no sauce!🤦‍♀️ Listening skills and meeting customer requests are imperative for a positive customer experience. This was definitely not that. 😒 I would not order...