156 E 45th St, New York, NY | Directions 10017
40.752852 -73.973428 View Website“Unassuming balls of delicately seasoned rice are stuffed with incredibly flavorful fillings--grilled eel, kishu plum with yukari and white sesame seeds, and shrimp tempura with green tea salt, to name a few.”
“Good food but.”
“Also, the service is the worst I have had in a Japanese restaurant (Japanese's service is always superb!)”
“Just three ball weren't filling; so, if you order a bunch, it can get quite pricey.”
The Best Balls in Town. In the sea of mediocrity that is Midtown lunch, Oms/b shines like a beacon of light. Unassuming balls of delicately seasoned rice are stuffed with incredibly flavorful fillings--grilled eel, kishu plum with yukari and white sesame seeds, and shrimp tempura with green tea salt, to name a few. If I'm anywhere near Grand Central, I'd go out of my way for these babies--they're the best in Manhattan, hands down.
Good to look but cannot touch.
The look of the rice ball is attractive and cute and innovative. BUT once you pick it up with your chop-stick, after a bite, it fall apart! Obviously those people working in this restaurant are not trained rice ball/ sushi maker. It's a shame for a sushi/ rice ball maker to make a "fall apart" sushi/ rice ball in Japan. I don't know what they think about it but for Japanese, it's just a lack of respect. I don't think I will pay a high price for a low quality rice ball.
Also, the service is the worst I have had in a Japanese restaurant (Japanese's service is always superb!) A girl took my order, then instead of checking me out and give me the food, she start serving another guy, holding up my order in her hand! So weird!
Vegetarians beware. I've visited this small eatery / take-out restaurant twice, and while portions are indeed rather small at relatively high prices, service and presentation were fine. However, there is perhaps some communication-issue with the staff--or else just carelessness in preparation--at any rate, the first time I went, after selecting only items that were labeled as vegetarian, I was left with some doubts; the second time, after asking about this specifically and receiving verbal reassurances from the staff, I took my riceballs back to my office with me for lunch, only to discover shreds of beef in my edamame-riceball. Needless to say, as a strict vegetarian, this struck me as rather distressing--I attempted to contact the restaurant and alert them to what amounts either to mislabeling or, as mentioned above, extremely careless food preparation--but no one ever got back to me with either an apology or exlpanation, or any other attempt at rectification. I will be staying away from this eatery in the future and advise other vegetarians to do the same.
Good food but.... My friend took me here a few months ago, and I was addicted to their rice ball for a while. I went there about 5 times. The servers are REALLY REALLY sweet. The food is really good, but I think the ball are a bit overpriced. Just three ball weren't filling; so, if you order a bunch, it can get quite pricey. My suggestion is if you want an actual meal, then definitely don't come here because you will spend quite a bit of money to feel full. However, if you want to snack on something light, then this is definitely a place to try. I highly recommend the shrimp popcorn, lobster salad, and tuna rice ball. (I couldn't pluralize "ball" because it's listed as an inappropriate word.)
Pretty little parcels of rice draw a large lunch crowd to this Japanese take-out shop..
In Short
Petite Japanese women wearing bright bandanas run this small and immaculate white-tiled shop. A couple of tiny tables line one wall, but most patrons opt for take-out. OMS/B is an abbreviation for "omusubi," or rice balls, and the artfully prepared lunch snacks fill glass cases. Puck-shaped, triangular, and spherical rice cakes are wrapped in lettuce and topped with shrimp tempura, filled with gingery ground beef and folded into seaweed, or stuffed with pickled plums and sheathed in pink soy sheets.
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