Mobay

I want to put their jerk on everything.
And I want to drink their specialty cocktails all day.
And if they don’t have english muffins for your eggs benedict, they will go get them.
And its a great compliment to this neighborhood.
And I want mo Mobay. :)

Had the vegetarian chicken roti. Roti skin was cooked well (even though I prefer Golden Krust’s for $ 3). The roti was filled with curried chickpeas, potatoes, onions, green peppers, diced soy chicken. Tasted pretty good. LARGE portion. Came with a cornbread muffin that tasted pretty good.
Previously I had the collard greens and they were SLAMMIN! Again, large portions.
I’ve also had a veggie omelet there for brunch. Was very tasty!
Wish they had more options for vegetarians on their lunch special menu.
I wish their prices were maybe a dollar or two less than what they were. That’s coming from a foodie who is trying to make it through this recession on a budget. But I digress…
Décor is beautiful with nice artwork on the walls.
Nice, clean, spacious bathroom.
They did a poor job of updating their website though. There were some desserts listed and when I went there to buy them, they said they no longer made those desserts anymore. Needless to say, I was disappointment. When your mouth is set for peach cobbler or bread pudding and they don’t have it… there are no words to describe the feeling. Also on some days in the summer, they were closed on Mondays for lunch, but this was not mentioned anywhere on their website. What a waste of time it would have been if I had gone down there and they were closed.
I’m sad to hear that Saturday, Aug 25, 2012 will be their last day that they will be open (call to confirm though). They will be missed!!! Harlem needed a restaurant like this.

So sorry to see this long standing Harlem restaurant close at the end of the month. I’ve always had a good experience here. If you are considering trying them out before they close, do it! They need the business and the food are drinks are good. Service is friendly.

Great food. Whatever I order off the menu I have never been disappointed.

This place could use a little work.
The food is good, not great.
The mac ‘n’ cheese was all dried up, and food was a little on the cold side.
Catfish was a little too oily but eh, it was edible.
My wine was warm, yuck.
On the contrary…
The King Fish with the curry was really good here!
Service needs major work.
The waiter came to take our order, and left. He did not check up on us, our food, saw if we wanted dessert.
He did not deserve the 18% that we left him.
Uh, won’t be coming back.

Food was VERY yummy and came in large portion size. The restaurant it self is really tiny but cozy and the starter cornbread is to DIE for!

Macaroni and Cheese was great. The Fried Green Plantains were also good but extremely salty. If you have an aversion to overly salty food like I do, then I suggest asking them to go easy.
The ginger beer was pretty good and spicy too. Wouldve been nice if I couldve added a shot of something in it but they dont have a liquor license anymore so there goes that.
Since I was by myself I sat at the table near the bar area and service was still a little slow. I had to ask for the check even though I was dam near seated at the cash register (ok not really but close enough). I dont think it was due to laziness or their lack of attention but rather a cultural difference. A lot of carribeans have a more laid back vibe than us Americans and take their time eating, drinking and just being.
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August 2012 update: I saw an eviction notice on their door on Monday ⁸⁄₆ but they were open for business later on in the week. Stopped in and had the jerk chicken salad. The origin of the «chicken» is up for debate so I pushed it to the side of the plate and only ate some of the greens. The guy sitting in the next table ordered dark meat and still couldnt figure out what body part of the chicken was on his plate. We think it may have either been a chicken back or another animal altogether. I’ll stick to the vegetarian side of the menu if I get a chance to go back before their closing. Or maybe I’ll just remember the good times.

I’ve been to Mobay for dinner, drinks, and brunch so I feel I have a complete picture of this place.
Lets start with Dinner:
Came here with the parents and I ordered the stewed chicken, mac & cheese, and greens-​everything was very good (I especially like the garlic flavor in the mac and greens-​yum!) My Dad ordered some type of fish that he was not pleased with and the manager seemed very perturbed about my Dad’s complaint, but switched his order nonetheless. The dinner prices also seemed way too expensive for the food/​ambiance/​location.
Brunch/​Drinks:
Came here for brunch with a friend because we had a Scoutmob discount-​thank goodness! We both ordered the chicken and waffles, mac & cheese, and two cocktails (tropical martini). The chicken was eh, the waffles were undercooked, and the martinis tasted like cough syrup-​yuck! We switched out our martinis to regular mimosas — you can’t mess that up right? Mmmmm, well let’s just say somehow they managed to do that as well. I don’t know if it was the OJ, the champagne, the juice to alcohol ratio, or all 3… but how in the world does someone make a bad mimosa???
Once again, I want to say thank goodness for the Scoutmob, because I would not want to pay regular price here again. While the dinner experience the first time was okay, the second outing caused me to drop a star. The Grade Pending rating is not helping this place either :-/

Do not patronize this place. You have been warned. Food is awesome service is absolutely terrible.
One time I went to this restaurant on a date and the waiter was constantly talking running his mouth, after the woman I was meeting showed up. Messed up our orders and everything. I gave the restaurant another chance, I went there a few weeks ago. The waitress automatically put gratuity on my bill which I didn’t realize and i left her cash as well. There is a sign posted that said gratuity is automatically added on bills $ 100 or more. Called 3 times to reclaim my money. I was given the run around each time. I gave her 32 dollar tip for sub par service and a bill total of $ 85 not including the gratuity. Unacceptable behavior. I did get my money back eventually.
By running his mouth I mean talking smack. I really love the food but the people that work there can be nasty. Like they are doing you a favor completely turned off.

To be perfectly honest, I was not very impressed with Mobay. When my friend and I walked in, we were seated promptly because we were one of the only few customers in the restaurant for Sunday brunch. Both of us ordered the chicken and waffles. The portion size of the chicken was huge and the chicken was seasoned but the waffle was a little soft and was not cooked as thoroughly. I did enjoy the warm corn muffin with melted butter that we received with our meal. My friend also ordered a side of mac and cheese and the mac and cheese was definitely not your grandma’s mac and cheese.
We also ordered drinks and had high hopes for a tropical martini because of the Carribean influence with the restaurant but the drinks tasted more like cough syrup rather than the delicious tropical drinks I remember having when I went to the Carribbean islands. Instead we ended up ordering mimosas and the mimosas were also watered-​down.
IF you still plan to try this restaurant and have a smartphone, PLEASE download the SCOUTMOB app on your phone. It will save you 50% off of your bill, with a max discount of $ 30. Since the food was not as great, we were definitely happy that we were able to eat for half-​price.

It was a crisp weekday in October, I had nothing to do for the day, and I wanted to go for an epic bike ride. I was hoping to encounter some tasty vittles on my journey. Mobay came up on here, and piqued my interest. Something about a restaurant that fuses Caribbean, BBQ, and Southern cuisine was incredibly enticing to me. I had to make the trip from Greenpoint to Harlem.
The bike ride was a 5-​star-​er for sure. I can only give Mobay 3 stars though. It was ‘A-​ok’. I went for lunch though, I could see dinner there being a way more sensual experience. The menu did have a bunch of stuff I wanted to try. I may have to go back for a second opinion.
A huge plus to this place is the mega irie vibrations. They were bumping nothing but the tuffest riddims throughout my entire meal. The staff was also very friendly,& accommodating.
The menu had at least a dozen things that I was salivating over. I decided to go for the lunch special. Pulled Pork Sandwich, fries, and a side salad. It was delicious, and very filling, but I did have a few misgivings. Firstly, the server led me to believe that any of the sandwiches were on special for $ 10. So I had to go for the pulled pork, one of my favorite things in the world. Alas, only the brisket sandwich was on lunch special, what I ordered was actually $ 13. Its only $ 3, but I feel like the server pulled a fast one on me, not cool. If I knew it was going to be 13, I probably would’ve got the Jerk Chicken.
Now, this was really good pulled pork, don’t get me wrong. But they advertise it as «The Pounder». They claim this to be 1 lb. While I don’t doubt that this sandwich weighed one pound, I’d estimate the breakdown to be about .25 lb of meat, .25 lb of bun, and .5 lb of sauce! This was possibly the sauciest/​messiest pulled pork sandwich of my life. Dangerous if you have a beard! The sandwich, the cornbread with mango-​coconut sauce, the fries, the salad… were all pretty damn tasty.
I wanted an adult beverage before getting back on my bike. They had a happy hour going on that advertised $ 4 mixed drinks. I ordered a gin and tonic, enjoyed its strength, but then was very surprised when the bill came I was charged $ 8 for the drink. When I asked the server about it, she was real flaky, and then told me that it means buy one get one free. Weird, you would think she would mention to me that $ 4 drink means buy two for $ 8?
Nonetheless, a pulled pork sandwich, a mixed drink and a whisky neat and I was on my way, happy and nourished for the ride back to Brooklyn. I think I still WANT to like this restaurant more than I actually did. In theory, Caribbean/​southern/​bbq fusion is an amazing concept to me. I don’t think I’ll go out of my way for Mobay again, but if I’m in the hood I’d definitely give it another chance.

As we were leaving the Harlem DMV, my boyfriend and I walked past Mobay and decided, on a whim, to go in for lunch. Since we hadn’t vetted the place in advance on Unilocal,our expectations weren’t very high.
We were in for one heck of a glorious surprise. (I freaking love this city.)
The atmosphere inside was warm and artistic, and we immediately felt welcomed by the very friendly staff. We’ve been missing great jerk chicken ever since we moved away from our beloved Back-​A-​Yard Restaurant in the Bay Area, so we ordered one plate of jerk chicken to share with collard greens and rice and peas.
First, though, we devoured some of that amazing complementary cornbread with pineapple sauce. At first I wasn’t so sure about the sauce, which looked (and tasted) like coconut cream with bits of pineapple in it, but Mobay quickly converted me.
Our jerk chicken was not quite as spicy as we like it, but the flavors were great and the chicken was nice and tender. The rice and peas had a slight hint of coconut flavor and tasted especially good after they soaked up some of the jerk sauce.
But to my surprise, the real stars of the meal were the vegetarian collard greens. Damn, they were good! My mouth is watering right now just thinking of them. I had no idea collard greens could be that delicious.
Mid-​way though our meal, the waitress asked if we wanted another round of free cornbread. Yes, please! That cornbread is so good I would happily pay for it, but it’s a nice touch that they give it away for free.
The best part? The single portion of jerk and sides was plenty of food for both of us (in fact, we walked out of there totally stuffed), so our bill came to only $ 20.
Oh, Mobay. I’m so happy I found you.

So this visit to Mobay was waaaaaay overdue!
Ambiance:
Very nice interior decorating. Inviting warm and sultry colors, mood lighting and fresh scents. They definitely thought about the interior decorating down to the tables and chairs, with leather seats and plush pillows that accompanied the wall seating.
Food:
Jerk Chicken– The closest Jerk chicken flavor I had tasted in a while, but it was a little too salty. After we took off the skin it was better.
Oxtail– I always stand by Oxtail, it is the most consistent dish at Jamaica restaurants. I really enjoyed my meal, but it was bit too heavy on the oil. After eating the meal I felt weighted down. Aside from that, I did not like the cabbage they gave. Usually I expect it to be steamed well and not too crunchy with a nice hint of flavor, but this did not have that. Instead it felt like they just mixed it up and steamed it a little without adding any seasoning.
Curry Goat– I also liked the Curry Goat, only caveat was although the meat was cooked and well seasoned, the meat had pink spot on the inside. I know Goat is red-​meat, but I got a little worried because I have not seen that before.
Venue:
A little too small. They could do away with the middle seating area because it makes for tight corners and small passageways. I know it makes sense to maximize the number of patrons you can have but I think clearly the middle would allow more room and comfort.
I don’t usually write about Bathrooms, because when I like a restaurant and the bathroom is disgusting it completely kills it for me. But I have to say I liked their bathroom with the marble tiles and floor to ceiling mirrors. They get brownie points for their attention to detail here as well.

After work Thursday, I came here with co-​workers for appetizers. Mmm, each plate tasted yummy and each had it’s own kick in flavor. We ordered the coconut shrimp ($ 13.95 for 6 or 7 pcs), barbeque shrimp ($ 13.95 for 6 or 7 pcs), and catfish fingers. For sides (each $ 5), we ordered sweet potatoes and collard greens. Skip the barbeque shrimp; it’s cooked shrimp bathed in sauce. The coconut shrimp didn’t have a crunchy exterior.
I liked the catfish fingers, nice crunchy exterior, slender pieces and that pineapple-​curry sauce is chunky & pineapple-​y but a little light on curry flavor. Delicious to the last crumbs.
The collard greens is salted from whatever meat they throw in its cooking process, but the leaves remain intact. Good to the last forkful.
Those sweet potatoes tasted like dessert; it was my dessert with a little kick. A side of sweet potatoes costs $ 5; it was like 1 sweet potato chopped into 3 pieces. That was good to the last bite.

Delicious! I’m a big fan of the other veggie options in Harlem (particularly the new and improved Uptown Juice Bar and Café Veg), but Mobay offers a very different experience. It’s more upscale and more appropriate for a date or nice dinner. It’s also one of the few places you can get decent vegan food and watch sports. An important basketball game happened to be on the night I dined there so the bar was full of excited fans. Everyone was fun and friendly but I wasn’t in the mood for sports so I dined in the back of the restaurant and enjoyed listening to the R&B music playing.
I decided on the tofu with brown gravy because the menu described it as being addictive or something to that effect and it was quite good. For my sides, I went with the collard greens, which were also very good, although I can’t say I’ve really had «bad» collards in my experience. What I really enjoyed was the cabbage. The waitress recommended the cabbage over the sweet potatoes (the other vegetarian option), but cabbage is often prepared minimally and can be quite bland so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cabbage, however, absolutely blew me away. It was lightly cooked (steamed or sauteed) so it was still a bit crisp and it had onions (perhaps white and green) and just had a very strong, very delicious flavor. I mostly ate the cabbage alone but it was also very good mixed with the tofu so that the tofu wasn’t so heavy.
My meal was $ 15, which is certainly pricier than any other vegan restaurant in the area, but the food was very well prepared, the service was excellent, and I really enjoyed the ambiance. I will definitely be back!

Featured on Bobby Flay’s Throwdown! show, this Harlem restaurant specializes in both Caribbean and southern fare. As such, the menu offers an impossible number of good choices to make. The dish featured on the show, however, was the fried fish escovitch (escabeche) so I decided to go with that making matters a bit simpler for me. The entrée comes with a choice of two sides, and I went with the mac and cheese as well as the fried sweet plantains. At this point I should probably make note of the fact that the service here is especially slow. It took a few minutes to be noticed, several minutes to return with my opening choice of tap water, and a few minutes more to take my dinner and drink order. It would be another 45 minutes before I would even see my dinner, though they were good about bringing me my drink earlier on as well as a free piece of cornbread which was unexpected.
The food was generally pretty good. The cornbread was particularly amazing, enhanced by a dollop of a pineapple based sauce that was ultimately the perfect touch. I really liked the snapper escovitch ($ 24.95). It was served whole and topped with onions, carrots, and hot peppers. I loved the contrast of textures in the fish. The meat was flaky and soft and quite flavorful, and the skin was rather crisp. It’s amazing how much the skin tightens, so it is difficult to pierce the skin, yet underneath there is only supple, delicious meat. I liked the marinade and appreciated that the peppers were really hot. The only drawback was that my snapper was a bit on the small side, so it wasn’t particularly filling. The sides helped to make it a complete meal though. The fried sweet plantains were nicely done. The sweetness really came through, and they were enjoyable to eat. The mac and cheese was just so-​so. It was not particularly creamy, and even a touch dry in places. The types of cheese and the overall flavor were both underwhelming. My Caribbean rum punch ($ 12) was fairly good. They use Bacardi gold as well as coconut rum and mix in mango, pineapple, and orange juices to give it a nice tropical flavor. It paired well with my Caribbean specialty. I opted to pay my bill at the same time my dinner was served so that I would have a fighting chance of making my 8pm Broadway show later that night. Seriously, the food is good here, but only come if you have 2 – 3 hours to idly enjoy your dinner. I would loved to have tried their rum cake for dessert, but I would have had to skipped the show to do it. Recommend, otherwise.

This was my first trip to Harlem since I moved out here. I needed to pee. We walked by Mobay. My GF saw a bar. I saw a «People Love Us on Unilocal» sticker. We went in.
It’s cute. Nice table settings. Some fine dining qualities, but mostly tacky. Cute tacky though. I kinda expect Caribbean and tropical décor to be tacky. We just sat at the bar. GF ordered a Harlem Mojito. It was strong. I had a Chocolate Martini. It tasted like a White Russian and it was served in a cognac glass. Tacky. It was still good though, also strong. Drinks were overpriced, but like I said, strong. We ordered some appetizers and that’s when we were really blown away. Everything was spectacular! Definitely have to come back here for dinner.

The Good:
–it’s a hip and trendy restaurant that attracts a more upscale crowd
–they had live music on a Thursday night
–there is a large diverse menu
–they have unique menu items like red velvet ice cream
–the complimentary corn bread was very tastey as it had a bit extra zip with coconut pineapple sauce
–the shrimp curry was great
–their rice and peas are good
–the green plantain appetizer is good
The Bad:
–service seemed a bit slow there was a pretty big gap between our appetizers and the main course
–the waitor screwed up my vegetarian and gave me a meat dish although he boxed it and gave it to us for free. My wife is a happy carnivore.
— they make you keep the same utensils throughout your meal
–I found the vegetarian steak that was supposed to be seasoned in a sauce overnight bland
–the restaurant was very loud and seemed almost like a night club

I wanted to try the restaurants Fried Fish Escovitch, Bobby Flay’s throwdown challenge winner, but they ran out :(yet, their service and other items definitely made up for it! however, it lacked the x-​factor that makes it worthy of a 4 or 5 star.
Recommendation
*appetizer:cornbread w/​pineapple, mmm… it smelled so good and was extremely moist
*dessert; chocolate cake – solid dessert
*lunch prix-​fix ($ 12.5): pulled pork sandwich and candid yams – the sandwich was delicious, but extremely messy. you will need to ask for extra napkins
*lunch prix-​fix ($ 12.5): beef brisket and collard greens – yes to the brisket, no to the greens
*dinner prix-​fix (19); very reasonable and the selection seemed pretty good too!
*décor is romantic and soulful; definitely a great place to take a date!
CHALLENGE: Fried Fish Escovitch

Jamaican jerk chicken really jerked me around. Not really I can handle spice and it WAS spicy! I loved it. I also loved the corn-​muffin appetizer, the fried plantains, and left stuffed after lunch with leftovers.
The place is cute too.