Brother’s Beer Bistro

We had nice evening at Brother’s. They have a Sunday-​Monday special of small plates and it gives you the chance to try more than one dish. Perfect time to sharea meal!!! We had the jerky as a starter and we went for 3 small plates for main course! The beef tartare was really good and I was very happy to discover their use of cacao nibs as a crunch factor in it!!! The fish croquette and the peas and porc were following the tartare and they were really tasty has well!!! The choices of beer is out of this world and their bloody ceasar is just as good!!! They also offer beer pairing with their dishes.
For all of you beer lovers this is the right spot for you!!!

First time to Ottawa. Ordered ale flight. Fun and tasty. Apps of oxtail. Delicious, tender, edgy, oyster mushrooms enhance, gnocchi is tender and creamy. Plate of smoked duck, chorizo, etorki which was outstanding. So many favors just right, everything excellent. Would love to come back.

Awesome beer selection both times I was there. Haven’t tried the food yet. This happened both times I visited. Waiters are very nice (but it can take a while to get a drink) and the ambiance of the bar is cool.

Decent selection of beer and they could make some of the basic drinks. The service was so-​so. Food is expensive. Thought of getting the «mini» items but those really are appetizers and not big enough for a meal. If you are hungry and don’t want to spend a lot for a full dinner, would recommend reconsidering your order.

My husband is still raving about the beer pairings from our amazing five course dinner last night. We were in Ottawa for New Year’s Eve and decided to treat ourselves to the five course dinner at Brothers. My husband choose to do the beer pairings with each course. I’m pregnant so I just got to watch his excitement. Each course we had was great. Some highlights were the house smoked duck, cardamom braised short rib, truffles brown butter gnocchi, and the «banana split» dessert. My husband, a former Brewer and current beer professional, was very impressed with the beer pairings and their beer list in general. Our server was very attentive, knowledgable, and dealt well with a major slow down in the kitchen. Thank you to Brothers for helping us ring in 2016 in the best way possible! We will be back next time we are in Ottawa.

I’ve been to Brother’s Beer Bistro a few times in the last few years and it seems that every year it gets worse. I can remember really enjoying it a couple of times the first year they were open but since then it’s been bad. When it opened it was an interesting place with a good beer selection, good food and reasonable prices. Since then the quality of the food has dropped, the beer selection has become more erratic and the prices higher.
Our last visit consisted mostly of people staring at the beer menu thinking, «Do I want to pay that much for so little?» I had the scallop appetizer — the scallops themselves were passable but everything else on the plate was a mystery. There was some tasteless salad — it might have been cabbage, it might have been lettuce, it might have been paper, I’m not really sure. There was an orange coloured purée with a watery discharge polluting everything else on the plate and some little bits of what I think was beef. Entirely not worth it.
One friend ordered the vegetarian burger and immediately sent it back saying it was, «like mashed potatoes in a hamburger bun.»
Bottom line: Don’t waste your time and money on this place.

Loved this place — right across from the Courtyard Marriott, helpful staff, laid back atmosphere with good diversity of music, from classic rock, reggae, 90’s pop, to some kind of trance-​reggae thing I hadn’t heard ;)
Had an awesome flight of ales/​stouts, the Blue D’Elizabeth with fig compote was incredible! For an entrée, the venison was incredible, with artichoke putter, butternut squash and Brussel sprouts (loved those!), and a lovely cranberry veal demi glaze, with a bonus of pork belly (just enough, not too much!) on the plate.
Anthony at the bar was a great help with selecting a flight, since I was unfamiliar with many of the Canadian craft brewers.
Hoping to convince my colleagues to come here for dinner tomorrow!

This place does brunch! — and very very well.
We came here for brunch on thanksgiving weekend, and it was just amazing. The atmosphere and staff were very friendly… and the food was perfect. We all had the smoked salmon and it was better than we’ve had back home (in toronto). We learned they actually do everything in house, make the bread, smoke the salmon, even their own ketchup is made in house.
So so so good. Highly recommend :)

We did not eat here, but the beer selection was really good.
Very glad we chose this place and not one of the more touristy areas inside Byward Market!

Was in here a couple of nights ago — I can’t wait to return! Their beer list is great, the music is awesome and our server was hilarious. I’d like to come in earlier to than I did to try their food menu!

Went there for the beer and ended up loving the food. If I could have liked the plate without looking like a slob I might have done just that. Probably the best piece of Halibut I’ve ever had, seared to perfection and flanked with a rainbow of flavors: bacon, butter foam, celery root, and more. The presentation on the plate was also impeccable. Wasn’t expecting food of that caliber.
Grabbed a seat on their patio, enjoyed the warm weather, sampled some of their draft beers from one of their pre-​selected flights. Great meal after spending the entire day traveling up to Ottawa through airports and delays.

Beer and bistro normally don’t go together. As bistro usually means wine and tasty food. But this place nails excellent food and tasty beer pairings if you want. Rotating casks for new adventures. Local and Quebec drafts. And many European bottles on the menu.
Appies include some seafood which is well done. Also charcuterie with meat and cheese featuring local cheese and meats.
Service was excellent. Many Ottawa restaurants cater to tourist family food over priced and mediocre. But this place is a quality location. I hesitated to recommend as I don’t want to wait to have good beer and food.

Loved the scallops for appetizer — really fresh great taste. I had the halibut which was also very good. The serving size was small for both but really intense flavors so it depends what kind of place your looking for. Enjoyed the beer as well. The only downfall here is that everything was pretty expensive. I paid $ 10 for a pint of 10 years bitter.

I’m officially in love with this place.
What a great selection of beer. So many amazing beers to choose from.
The menu is small but every item looks good. We certainly enjoyed what we had. So a larger selection is not needed.
Our server Michael was knowledgeable, friendly and sooo fun.
If you are in Ottawa, I can not recommend this place highly enough

Great variety of drinks. We were visiting Ottawa and trying to find a place that had high quality drinks. Giving it a five for its drinks (wines and beers included), and for a great service throughout the night. The staff was knowledgeable about the drinks and let us be, they would come immediately if we needed anything.

This place is great. Take a load off. Take a seat at the bar.
Take in the taps. Talk to the bartender.
If it’s Thursday (or Fri or Sat) see what the weekly cask is.
note: Every Thursday they tap a new cask.
Brothers is one of the best places to get a beer and some food in the byward market.
Standout items are the beef tartare, and their fries.
The food here is very good, but those are two menu items I gravitate to.
The staff are knowledgeable, genuine, and well informed i.e. give a s%^& about beer.
The burger, was very messy. Sometimes when I eat, I want to just chow down and inhale my burger, which is hard to do when the bun is slding all around and have the sauce drip everywhere. But that’s a minor gripe.
I’ve been here a few times post bike ride with a buddy, and it’s just a nice place to get good food, and have a beer or two, while having a sightline to our bikes.
There are a good number of taps, I’d say 10+ and they rotate regularly, along with a
very well stocked fridge of all kinds of bottles.
This place is always on my shortlist of places to go when I need a beer in
the Byward Market.

Brother’s Beer Bistro is quite a nice place for a drink with friends. But I was just a little disappointed at the beer selection. Maybe I was expecting a more beer selection from the local breweries. Most of the beers on draft are mainly from the Bigger local breweries instead of those producing small batches.
There are only 2 choice of flights available: I wish they let us pick our own Mix and Match 6 taster. $ 16 for a Flight of 6 Beers though each sample was quite sizable. I love Dominion City Brewing Earl Grey Marmalade Saison which was included in on my flight!
The bottle list though quite extensive with choices from Belgium, USA and Ontario.
Service was excellent.

I came here the other day for brunch and it was great. My friends had the charcuterie, my partner had a brunch burger, and I had the brisket and eggs. The food was well prepared and delicious. You know food is good, when the table is silent because every one is eating. Either that or you want to eat your food as quickly as possible and don’t want to engage in meaningless conversation. However, in this case, it is because the food was fantastic.
The beer selection is extensive. I think people who know/​love beer will be impressed by the choices offered. The great thing for folks who don’t know too much about beer, is that the menu items suggest a beer pairing.
The décor and atmosphere is nothing special but well suited to this type of restaurant.
The service was fantastic! Our server was friendly and efficient. I unfortunately spilled some ketchup on my jacket, and without asking, our server brought me a small glass of club soda. I love when wait staff demonstrate attention to detail. I highly recommend this place.

After reviewing the very limited menu on-​line, we had some doubts, but as we are beer aficionados we thought we would give it a try. We were very impressed.
Sure, the beer selection was great — nice beers from Ontario, Quebec and. Belgium — but we came for dinner too. Although there was only 5 selections on the dinner menu — beef, fish, poultry, pork, vegetarian and burger — they are were first rate. We ordered the trout (awesome lightly seared with homemade gnocchi), pork tenderloin (cooked medium, with kale salad and bean salad) and the burger (with cheddar and smoked pork belly). They might not have a big selection, but what they do, they do very well!
Highly recommend. The best moderate-​expense meal we’ve had in Ottawa!

Brothers is a place that is perfect for me, it has good beer, and good food. I was here sort of on a whim because I was meeting people downtown and we decided to choose here last minute and boy am I glad we did!
First (and most important) is the beer. Their selection is very good, with draught and bottles from across Ontario, Quebec, and the world. We got a sampler as well as pints each and we managed to have all sorts of interesting beery goodness. The prices are a bit ouchy for some of the beers (9 $ per pint) but everythong we had was tasty, including an interesting Belgian fruit (kriek) beer as well as a very strong dark beer from Quebec.
For food I had a shrimp dish that was very good and my friend had moules frites (mussles and fries) that he enjoyed. Another friend had a steak that was a very good piece of cow and the fourth had himself rainbow trout that was tasty as well. Only drawback was that the prices were steep for what you got. The décor is very interesting, lots of light but I didn’t find the seats all that comfortable. The service was pretty good but didn’t blow me away.
I would come back but due to the prices it would be a sometimes thing when going to the market.