The Office
 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio        Date of Visit  05/31/13     http://www.theofficebistro.com/# 

Our driving to work together on Friday nights has been good for a wide variety of reasons, one of the big ones has been checking out some Falls spots for early dinner. This week Steph led us to The Office across the street from last week’s option at the Sheraton. The Office is the new sister to a like named place in Akron. It’s pretty swanky inside, clean and functional. The first thing that strikes you upon walking into the dining area is the clever way they have made up for being on the wrong side of the street to have a view of the river. They have a serious tv slung on the wall and instead of sports center it features a live video feed of the falls right across the street. It took us a bit to be sure it was live but the on and off again rain made us sure.
 

Live Video Feed Of Falls Across The River
 

Again, to be fair, we were there during typically off hours (although the bar sounded as though it were kicking) and we were the only ones in the dining room but the service wasn’t what I would expect in a place that has put this much thought into the interior. It took a bit for anyone to notice we were there which is alright, they were attending to other things, but it didn’t improve as much as it should have once we were identified. The host was, well, interesting and seemed extraordinarily distracted. Our server was alright but appeared bored rigid. We ordered the soup of the day, the potato croquettes, sesame tuna and the lobster mac and cheese.

Since Steph ordered the soup I ordered the salad to try something different. The house dressing is a white French which was the only standout. The sharp and rich dressing came with a small pile of romaine, three slices of cucumber and three halves of grape tomatoes. Uninspired at best.
 

The croquettes were average at best. I’m less a fan of the whipped tater variety but some have been alright. There seemed to be something off in the breading which formed the crust. I couldn’t quite place it but something was sour. The sriracha ranch helped but I would try something different next time.

Steph wasn’t going to get anything but the tuna after we saw the menu. The sesame noodles were tragically overcooked and half of the tuna was riddled with thick stripes of connective tissue. If you are not going to cook the tuna you need to do something, either clean it out or use the sections full of the stuff for something else that will allow that stuff to cook out. If you don’t half of the tuna is inedible, unless you are into tuna flavored Hubba Bubba.
 

I’m not gonna lie, I have never quite understood the lobster mac and cheese thing. I have yet to have one that has really good mac and cheese or lobster, let alone work together. This wasn’t much of an improvement. There were wonderfully large chunks of lobster in the bowl but they were absolutely overdone and had strong nose of fishiness which is an immense detraction from any chance at buttery lobsterness. The mac and cheese was meant to be a Monterey jack and parm mix in a garlic cream sauce. It might just be my preference but there was too much parm and too little jack in this mix. The sauce featured a bitterness that would have been better balanced by a more buttery and salty cheese like the jack but it just wasn’t there.
 

We  heard what was on the dessert menu, actually pretty interested, but there were maybe three cakes and a couple of ice creams which all sounded bought in at best and there was nothing even approaching imaginative so we passed. On the upside we took a moment to walk across the street and take a gander at the Falls which was a nice little adventure. If only The Office had any sense of the same adventure or a menu to lived up to their interior. Not a bad place but I have a feeling they think they are much better than the food actually turns out to be.