Business

Dining Out: Taste and toast the bounty at Ooba

March 13, 2014 Heather Chin

BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/Photos by Heather J. Chin

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One of the benefits of Restaurant Week is being introduced to fantastic eateries that we may not otherwise have heard of. That was the case with our visit to Ooba Restaurant and Lounge, which we discovered thanks to South Williamsburg’s inaugural Grand Street Restaurant Week, held this past February.

Open since 2010, Ooba is the brainchild of husband-and-wife team Darien and Nyree Martinez, whose idea was to create a place with the look and feel of a Manhattan lounge, but with Brooklyn prices and sense of community.

Once Darien built out the former fish market space at 617 Grand Street, renovating it to feature exposed brick and three dining levels, Nyree decorated the space with dark wood, rich colors and warm lighting. Add large TV screens above the long, fully-stocked bar and you have a space that truly does invite “everyone to be comfortable,” whether they are there for a late night dinner, a birthday party, a wedding reception or a community fundraiser.

Completing the effect is the menu, which at Ooba—a wordplay on “uva,” or “grape” in Spanish—is a fusion of American and Spanish cuisine and bar food, served tapas style, although with slightly bigger appetizers and slightly smaller entrees.

Ooba’s signature dishes are the Churrasco Maduro ($12.95)—a mouth-wateringly tender marinated grilled skirt steak served with sweet plantain mash and chimichurri sauce that can be poured all over the steak—and the Camarones con Coco ($9.95)—jumbo coconut-crusted shrimp with lime-aioli dipping sauce and mango-papaya salsa.

Pair those with a starter of a trio of Empanadillas ($6.95) of your choice of ham and Manchego cheese, chicken, or spinach and cheese, each of which are delicious on their own, but really get a tasty kick from the green tomatillo sauce, and you’re good to go.

Other favorites include the bacon-wrapped grilled shrimp known as Camarones con Tocino y Vegetales ($11.95), and the Croquetas de Pollo or de Jamon ($6.95 for chicken/$7.95 for ham),

For dessert, selecting between the warm bread pudding ($5.95) served a la mode with vanilla ice cream and the delectably rich and not-too-sweet Flan ($4.95) is a tough choice, but at this price, easily rectified by ordering both and sharing.

There is also Tuesday happy hour and 25-cent wings, comedy night every other Wednesday, more happy hour on Thursday, and a live DJ after 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Dinner at Ooba manages to be both relaxing and surprising, with the truly unique menu providing the perfect complement to the lounge-y comfort that transports you, if only for a few hours, away from the hectic workaday routine.

OOBA

617 Grand Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211

www.oobany.com

347-335-0373

Tuesdays – Thursdays: 6:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Fridays – Saturdays: 6:30 p.m. – 4 a.m.

Live DJ after 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat.