Off Broadway Hotel

Tim O is spot on in his review of this place. BF and I enjoy it here– reasonably priced schooners ($ 5 – 6), big screen in front of comfy couches on which to watch rugby, and cheap yet decent bar food. My favourite part about coming here is chit-​chatting with the friendly Asian dudes who simultaneously take the food orders and whip up the spring rolls, wedges and $ 11 pasta dishes. Dive-​y, yes, but not pretentious in the slightest. My kind of place.

The Off Broadway Hotel is a dive only by the most technical sense — you do have to descend a set of stairs to reach the main bar area. Inside is a reasonably well appointed pub, with an extensive gaming room partitioned by glass, a racing form on the far side of the bar, and a bistro section surrounded by pinball machines and pool tables.
I killed a lot of time here in my undergrad career, either leafing through readings with a beer on the table, shooting pool, watching Sunday Night Football on the big screen, or dropping in for lunch. The oddity of walking down a set of stairs to enter a bar under a mall might keep the crowd away as it is never too busy in here and you can usually score a pool table at will. The drinks are also pretty cheap and while attending tertiary education while under the influence of ‘adult beverages’ is never advisable, I understand the impulse and this place would do finely for that purpose.
The bistro food is also a real surprise: I’m not sure what I was expecting the first time I ordered the steak, but I received a meal cooked just as rare as I like and with flavourful mushroom sauce. Not to mention change from a $ 10 bill. Can’t argue with that.