Fino’s Orangery, Docklands

Fino’s Orangery
1 Harbour Exchange Square
Docklands
E14 9GE
020 7515 2600

by Molly Coddle-Degg

Work bonding sessions generally involve bountiful amounts of alcohol, in order to counter the fact that most colleagues don’t have much to say to each other in a social context. However, on this occasion, I truly welcomed the more wholesome suggestion of a Team Breakfast.

We arrived in the office bright and early, dreaming of eggs, and toddled off to Fino’s Orangery for bacon and said bonding. With its somewhat odd choice of décor, the Orangery looks like the sanitised reception area of a large multinational corporation, which is hardly surprising, given that this is Canary Wharf and any hint of soul will be ripped out of you faster than you can say ‘buy, buy, sell, sell’ or ‘I heart Alan Sugar’. We dined under neon lights and plastic plants, surrounded by lonesome businessmen hunched over their laptops – presumably not Armani enough to be invited to power breakfasts in the HSBC tower.

As for the food, perhaps I was too busy bonding to notice any thrilling taste nuances, but it seemed simply standard cooked breakfast fare; alright, but nothing to get egg-static about. Sausages just the right side of rubbery, bacon just the right side of crispy, and eggs, well you can’t beat an egg, can you? The toast fan won’t be disappointed though – copious amounts were in evidence, cut into neat triangles, along with a generous selection of sample-sized tubs of butter and marmalade. (At one point the bonding was threatened by a looming fight over the mini strawberry jam, but fortunately a blackberry alternative was deemed acceptable).

So if you ever find yourself in Docklands early enough for breakfast, I suppose Fino’s Orangery would serve the purpose, but at an average £7 a head, and it being in Docklands, you’d probably be better off bonding somewhere else.