The Office : The Bottom Line
The Office offers up something quirky and interesting when you walk in, and is a cosy little alternative to the bars in the Ebisu area. While The Office isn’t as cheap as the downstairs bar, Craft Beer Bar iBrew Ebisu, the food on offer is much better than it. The Office has no table charge and prices include tax but it will probably be the end point of a bar crawl rather than the starting point. The best thing? Saying to your partner you’re staying late in The Office to get some work done and you aren’t telling fibs.
The Office : The Full Write-Up
The Office, ironically, came recommended to me via the staff at Craft Beer Bar iBrew as I was leaving – yet there are no signs to it from the outside. The only way you’ll know about it is if someone tells you, or you pull open the massive white steel door that is the entrance to the bar. It’s kind of weird in this day and age of social media that The Office didn’t pop up on any of our feeds before I found out about it.
The Office, as stated, is located in Ebisu and is upstairs from iBrew on the second floor. The Office opened in July 2021, right in the middle of the state of emergency, a strange time to open but I guess when you’ve been planning a bar opening for a while, a little bit of a pandemic isn’t going to put you off. The Office is also part of the Product of Time company that operates the Craftsman chain of bars, with Gotanda and Yokohama, as well as the Beetle chain – so there is some financial clout behind them.
The Office : Atmosphere and Interior
Once you get through the massive white steel door, you enter into a very wide bar with plenty of seating that is, surprisingly, not that close and is also rather bright and airy inside. There are some TVs dotted around the bar that on the day I went that had some baseball on but besides that, there wasn’t much besides the chatter of other people in the bar. The bar itself had an interesting design and feel to it – the remnants of the previous business with low tables and counters looked like an old Japanese izakaya / ramen shop.
In terms of seating, there is space for around 50 people or so dotted around the bar, with tables along the walls too. There is no table charge at The Office though I didn’t notice any WiFi for those who want that kind of thing.
The Office : Approach to Covid-19
When you walk into The Office, you have your temperature taken and alcohol spray is handed to you. All of the staff were wearing masks too. In terms of seating, you can sit in groups of four max and only if there is space enough for everyone in the bar.
The Office : Beer & Tap Information
There are 12 taps of beer at The Office, with a split between domestic and imports. The beers come in two sizes: half US pint (240ml) for 690yen and US pints (473ml) for 980yen with the prices being the same no matter where the beer comes from. The beers were served reasonably well – a bit less head next time though the staff were happy to top the beer up. There was no tasting flight on the menu – a shame with so many beers to try – but the prices weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be. All of the prices include tax too. There was no happy hour either.
The Office : Food
There is a lot of different food on offer at The Office, and it is all pretty damn good. We’re not a food blog – there are plenty of ones out there – but the chijimi was top-notch, as was the tsukune yakitori. The biggest issue at The Office is the menu is all in Japanese, with noone speaking English, so you may be left a bit hungry if your Japanese isn’t up to scratch. There are plenty of vegan options on the menu too, which is always a good thing to see.
The Office : Details
- Open: Weekdays 16:00 to 03:00 (L.O Food 02:00 / Drinks 02:30) Weekends 14:00 to 03:00 (L.O Food 02:00 / Drinks 02:30)
- Closed: N/A
- Happy Hour: N/A
- Phone: 03-6412-8622
- Homepage: N/A
- Social Media: Facebook / Instagram
