Office Hotel, Sydney

Cnr Erskine St & Kent St, Sydney
Reviewers present: Bot, Blogs, Doom, John, Derrick, Wayne, Ken, Clive, Ethel, Sam Smithsonson, other officey people
Time of review: Office Lunch

"Business at the front, business at the rear, business upstairs and down. Business as usual"

Do you like the idea of spending lunch at your desk? Yes? This is the place for you. Get out of the office, take a short walk outside, rest your eyes, stretch your legs, then step into The Office.



At the bottom of this CBD office building lives "another quality venue by FAL Hotels" - www.theofficehotel.com.au - who also bring you such outstanding establishments as Red Cow (Penrith) and O'Donoghue's (Emu Plains). Excitement is to be had here and is the general theme of the place.

It's a pretty stock standard set up with multiple levels, all areas feeling the same blah vibe. Bar, check; tables and chairs, check; food, check; background elevator music of boredom, check; and surprise, wall of betting and sport bullshit, check. All they need in here is some workstations and copiers and they have an "office away from the office".

Food wise, it's fine. On a previous visit for an office farewell lunch, a bunch of people ordered the schnitzels, which were passable but nothing outstanding. That day the steak was the pick of the menu.

On this following visit however, the food was more consistent across all menu items - well, there were no complaints that we heard. Anyway, we were too busy talking about work during our lunch break at a place that just felt like work. Go figure.

The place is full of office people, which is fine (and no suprise given the location), and there are even office related pictures on the wall. Where's the water cooler?! They haven't gone and put in anything that will offend anyone. It's safe.

Recently we visited again with work crew for a quick Monday 2-4-1 schnitzel chow down. The schnitzel wasn't too bad and good value. Works out at $10 per schnitty. The size was sufficient and the meat slightly juicy, the salad fine, chips fine, but the gravy had that sense of "same goo, choose your bits depending on your preference of floaty/flavour".

Schnitzel pictured below features Schnitzel Safari "$20 scale" standard. Check out their blog for some schnitzel comparisons.

On a previous visit, Danny Sammovich slaughtered a board of chicken wings (Wednesday deal, we believe), however on this occasion he opted only for water. He had brought his lunch into the office that day. No, not this office, the actual office. Work office. Confusing? "The water was good", was the only thing he had to say about the experience.

All in all, it lives up to its name - Office. You might come here with work colleagues for a work-related function perhaps, but we wouldn't really bother on any other occasion. We're giving it a 1.5 for the fact it is convenient and serves beer. It's not really a pub, just an extension of your office workplace. We'd give it a 2 if the building was wearing a giant tie.