Review of Oche Reykjavík: Eat, Play, Sing

A few of us headed over to Oche Reykjavík, hoping to wind down after a day of grueling, back-breaking (office) work. It is located on the top floor of Kringlan Shopping Mall, the biggest shopping center in Reykjavik.

For the last couple of years, the area that now occupies Oche had been suspiciously closed off for construction, piquing the interest of Icelanders... Just what the heck was going on there?!

Well, now I know. And I couldn't be more satisfied.

Oche (pronounced ock-ee, rhyming with hockey) is an all-in-one destination for an evening of entertainment, with games to play, songs to sing, food to eat, and drinks to...drink. Oche originates in Norway, but the one in Reykjavik is their ninth venue that has opened worldwide. Therefore, this was a fully realized concept when it arrived in Iceland.

Everything has been thought out to a tee, and it feels like a well-oiled entertainment machine for the fortunate people who step through their door... and that's what we did!

Darting towards victory

The vibes are great at Oche Reykjavík, with clever neon signs and water vapor "fire" adding to the atmosphere.

We arrived around 5 PM, and it was still a bit empty, as the venue is quite large. There are multiple dartboards all over the place, and a few shuffleboard tables as well. There's a huge bar serving all kinds of colorful cocktails with a large kitchen in the back. The people at Oche were kind enough to arrange a private room for us to start our get-together.

In the private room, there were two fully furbished dartboards with cameras and large screens displaying the results. This way, all results are counted up automatically with no worries. After all, we came here to have fun, not to do mathematics! There are also cameras pointing toward the players for profile pictures and instant replays (!)

Our video editor trying his best at a game of darts... he did not know the cruel fate that awaited him.

In our private room, we had the option of connecting to the room's speakers via Bluetooth if we wanted to play our own music. However, the Oche playlist that evening provided us with a steady stream of low-key bangers, so we just kept on listening to that.

We started playing a dart game called "Killer" where the goal is to "shoot out" the opponents by hitting specific zones on the board. Our group included an Irishman, giving him a natural advantage in darts, but I still believed I could clench victory if I improved my aim by downing a beer quickly!

It was a pretty even game, and it came down to the wire. I could take out my opponent by hitting a triple 12... and you can see what happened in the instant replay video below...

An instant replay of me taking out our video editor with an epic shot. "Get out of here!"

I must admit that it's pretty cool to offer instant replays like this (especially if it catches me being victorious). It elevates these bar games to another level... as if they are of great importance and not just a simple pastime while drinking. After seeing the replay on the big screen, I simply scanned the QR code on the touchscreen in front of me and downloaded it to my phone. There were also other options to download group photos and fun stuff like that. Neat!

Oche has various interactive features, such as downloading photos and videos via QR code. The downloaded photo is on the right.

Of course, winning is not the most important thing when hanging out and playing with friends. Honestly, most of us are quite amateurish at playing these games. What's more important is the fun and friendly atmosphere that's provided, giving us the perfect circumstances for being silly together, cracking jokes, telling stories, laughing, and enjoying ourselves... alcohol also helps.

Everyday I'm shuffling

An epic showdown took place at the shuffleboard table: Slay vs. Goblin! In the end, the Goblin was no match for the mighty Slay.

Next to the dartboards is another fun game you can play: shuffleboard! The goal of the game is to push a weighted puck across the table and make it land into a scoring area, giving you points. The table itself is long and narrow, strewn with soft sand to decrease friction from the puck as it moves along the board. The fun part of this game is setting up devious traps or knocking the opponent's pucks off the table!

Similarly to the dartboards, everything is counted up automatically, making it super simple for first-time players (such as me). I must admit that my reign of dominance in darts did not extend over to the shuffleboard, as I lost both of my games. But it was very fun, nonetheless!

Fish & chips, mini burgers, sourdough pizzas, chicken wings and parmesan fried. There was something for anybody!

After a couple of hours of drinks and games, it was time to re-energize with some food and snacks. We got a little taste of everything. We split some spicy chicken wings, parmesan fries, two mini-burgers, and two sourdough pizzas. All of it tasted really good, but the chicken wings stood out for me, with a delicious blue cheese/buffalo sauce for dipping!

Cocktails: Assemble!

With happy stomachs, it was time to upgrade our drinks from beers to cocktails! The mixologists at the bar are very talented, and they whipped up an amazing piña colada for me with a delicious coconut foam on top. Yum! But the showstopper was definitely the impressive (and slightly intimidating) cocktail tree!

The mighty cocktail tree being assembled. It included 12 cocktails in total!

Yes, a tree-shaped glass holder which contained 12 cocktails in different colors. It included a "Blue Martini," an orange-colored "Pornstar Martini," a revitalizing "Espresso Martini," and a bright red "Classic Negroni." After tasting a few of these cocktails, we looked at each other and knew it was time... Time for karaoke!

Obviously, we had to save the karaoke until last because we needed a bit of loosening up before grabbing the mic, and the cocktail tree helped a lot! At this time, Oche had become buzzing with energy as the place had filled up with people. We had our very own private karaoke room, and I started things up with a little Johnny Cash. From there, the good times kept on rolling into the evening.

A lot of people had gathered at Oche later in the evening

If only those great artists like ABBA, Beyoncé, Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue, and others could see how we butchered their songs... What matters is that everybody had a great time. There was even a decent selection of Icelandic songs to sing, which is a rarity, even in Iceland! In the video below, you can see the fun times we had at Oche:

A quick video of our fun evening at Oche Reykjavík!

Considering it was a Thursday, and we all had to wake up at 8 AM the following morning, we had to pump the breaks around 10 PM. We all agreed that we had a great time at Oche Reykjavík and planned on going back soon.

Conclusion: Oche Reykjavík is the perfect place for a group of friends to hang out and have a good time for an evening. The staff took great care of us, and everything went smoothly without a hitch! The games were fun, the food was tasty, the cocktails were impressive, and we loved the... karaOCHE!