The Office - Beer Bar & Grill

We have heard a lot about how there are all kinds of nice restaurants and cafes in Montclair, NJ but we have never really ventured out that way before. It's just about 15-20 minutes away from us (still in Essex County), so we decided to go check Montclair out two weekends ago. We drove down Bloomfield Avenue and boy, the whole street is lined with restaurants. Fancy upscale restaurants, ethnic restaurants, casual dining restaurants...you name it, it's there. It reminds me somewhat of a quieter Hoboken.

After driving around for ages to look for a parking spot (another thing similar to Hoboken, parking is hard to come by!!), we found a spot near The Office - Beer Bar & Grill. It's pretty much a casual dining sports bar, and since the Jets game was on and they had like LCD TVs everywhere, we decided to go check it out.

There was a huge bar area at the front, where you can just eat finger food, have a drink or two and watch the game. Since we were there for dinner, we were lead to the dining area at the back, where there were booths and dining tables (of course there was a huge LCD TV back there too). Their menu was just your regular pub food menu but their beer menu was pretty impressive. Check it out here. We'll have to return another time to try out their Beer Sampler :P

After taking our drinks and appetizer order, our server returned with a complimentary vegetable bowl. That's a nice refreshing change. Usually, most pubs/restaurants would bring out unhealthy fried stuff for you to munch on while waiting for your food. A fresh bowl of vegetables on ice with Ranch dressing is indeed a pleasant change.

For our appetizer, we shared their "New" Office Wings ($8.99). One dozen jumbo wings with celery and their yummy signature dipping sauce. You can choose to have it served in their popular Office Buffalo, Fireball, Southwest Sweet Heat, Ginger Teriyaki or Spicy Blue Cheese sauce. We chose their most popular sauce, the Office Buffalo. Boy, they were yummy! A little spicy, but yummy! The wings were also really huge, it's quite hard to find such huge wings in this parts. Two thumbs up! :D

Kevin ordered one of their chef's recommendation, the Arrogant Bastard Ale BBQ Ribs ($15.99 for a full rack, $11.49 for half a rack). It comes with a side of fries, coleslaw and some special sauce. I tried one rib and mm mmm mmmm...it's really good. Cooked to perfection, with the meat was so tender, it was just falling off the bone. The portion was pretty big too. Kevin ordered half a rack and he couldn't even finish it.

I also tried another one of their chef's recommendation - Fish & Chips ($11.99) . After all, this is a pub and what better pub food to try than Fish & Chips. It comes with fries (I changed it to sweet potato fries...yummy!), coleslaw and some special tartar sauce. I am quite particular when it comes to seafood and I must say, this Fish & Chips totally rocks! It had just the correct amount of batter and it wasn't oily or soggy. It was crunchy on the outside and moist in the inside. Very very nice :D Overall, we had a great dinner. The food was good and the servers were nice too. Will definitely return to try their beer sampler in the near future!

The Office - Beer Bar & Grill
619 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair, NJ 07042
Tel: (973) 783 2929
Web: http://www.office-beerbar.com/