Oda House's Turkey Melt Doesn't Mess Around

[Photograph: Ben Jay]

On a nondescript corner somewhere in Alphabet City is Oda House, one of the city's few havens for Georgian food outside south Brooklyn. When we last visited Oda House, we loaded up on khachapuri, the former Soviet republic's national dish of cheese-filled bread, and left in a state of joyous cardiac peril.

The Baked Cheese Turkey Sandwich ($9) off Oda's lunch menu provides a similar, although less extreme feeling, and it's almost as good. The sandwich consists of reasonably moist thick-cut turkey breast, chopped tomato, and herbs served open-face, topped with mayo and sulguni—a salty Georgian cheese that's like a drier, tangier mozzarella—and served with a forgettable side salad. The first bite is easily dominated by the cheesy tang of the sulguni and mayo, enough so that it took a couple bites to find the larger chunks of turkey. But they turkey and tomato gradually assert themselves in this extra-cheese, extra-mayo turkey melt. An indulgent sandwich, and wildly unbalanced, but rewarding for those looking for excess.

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