My cousin booked us a table for four for last night, and I'll be the first to admit: I would NEVER have EVER in a MILLION years visited Hotel Orient. If you've been a longtime local to Brisbane, you know this place as a dive, so it came as a complete surprise come 5.30pm yesterday afternoon that I realised that with the facelift Hotel Orient has been given, this place could weigh-in and wrastle with the best of the pubs in the CBD.
If you're a local, there's a promo going on at Hotel Orient for Cathedral Place residents; free Mexican food Wednesday night, just pay for your drinks. BUT YOU MUST BOOK. It's in clear sight on the poster they put up, and if you rock up without a booking expect a bit of midweek disappointment.
You can get to the Hotel Orient very easily; either walk up Ann St toward the valley from Central station, catch a bus to one of the stops right outside the pub (handy for the crawl home), or flag a cab from any one of the main arterials running on either side of the pub.
Ambience ****
For a pub hotel, Hotel Orient looks pretty good. It's clean, fresh, and only on the outside looks shabby (though we were in the main dining/ bar area and I can't comment on the accommodation side of things). The dining area was decked out in green, red, and white napkins, table cloths, with wooden tables and chairs (leaning back can be an interesting experience if you're used to straight backs), typical Queenslander style, but with some modern decking out. While I understand the desire to push the 'Mexicana' experience, I really need them to ditch the Mexican pop. The whole time we were there I had the urge to jump up and do my zumba routine (and a few margaritas later I probably would have!). A CD with some fancy guitar and drum work would go down a treat, though, well, at least to me.
Service *****
To begin with and through most of the meal, we were tended to super fast by the manager (maybe an/ the owner?) who was cheerful, energetic and quick with our orders. Only one other waitress was on that night and hadn't started her shift yet, but as soon as she was on the floor all the tables were checked on.
Food ****
As to be expected with a promo like this and the attention it will receive, the menu for the Wednesday night promo is a reduced version of the larger offering. Of course, you don't want your most expensive plates streaming out of the kitchen all night being comped away for a few drinks.
Having said that, what was advertised on the reduced menu is still a nice variety of Mexican food; cuz and I opted for fajitas (I like my tortillas soft), hubby went for the totsada ensalada and my partner in spicy food-avoidance betrayed me and chose the chilli con carne... Yep, that ended up in some sweaty forehead action. The fajitas were fun to make ourselves, but the side plates a little too small to use the whole wrap. Cuz smartly broke hers in half and made four mini fajitas, I went the whole hog and made two big ones, skillfully folding a quarter of the fajita inward to get the job done. And they were delish. The rice and meat portions were spot on for filling the fajitas and I happily munched on them. Only a little bit spicy so if you're afraid of chilli these should be a safe option, but bursting with flavour. Could have done with a bit more veg - capsicum or tomatoes, but for a free feed, I'm not complaining; we're already talking about going back to actually pay for a meal, so that can only say good things!
Drinks ****
Hotel Orient boasts 'the best margaritas in town'. I can't confirm or deny that, though they are pretty good. Happy hour is weekdays from 4.30pm-6pm, but you'll have to check that out for yourself as I was nose deep in my cocktails.
Overall
On a weekday afternoon it's a good little spot to to get out of the city for a cheap drink and bite, without actually getting out of the city. read more