Ora Italian kitchen + bar

Overall great evening! Never been to Hamilton before, but went to «Hess Village» (George Street, which is cobblestone and full of bars/​restaurants/​fun) with the family for dinner. Great staff, great environment, good-​enough food. Nothing was «oh my gosh so amazing», but overall very good food. Family-​Friendly, too. I can tell after about 930 it gets a bit more adult/​nightlife-​ish, but we took the 2 kids there at like 7:30/8:00 and it was perfect. Cannot get over how friendly/​accommodating the staff was. Is that just a Canada thing? Haha

Wow have they turned this place into a landmark! Wood over pizza is next level, all the pastas are authentic. I just had an incredible steak that the manager told me was going to be out of the world, and it was!!! The rice balls were fresh and made in house and the ambiance is incredible. If your in Hess that’s you spot, don’t even thick twice.

Poor service. Management did not prepare their waitstaff by telling them which menu items were unavailable or providing them with correct wine list. Strangest thing was, when the red wine arrived it was actually warm — not room temp, but warm as if it had been in a saucepan or in the sun. 1hr 10 mins for an appetizer to arrive. Poor quality food. Seafood and meats were not fresh — clearly from frozen. When mains arrived they were cold and not flavourful. Seriously unimpressed.

Wanted an Italian restaurant within walking distance from the hotel and Ora came up on the search and it was only 3 minutes walk… bonus!
Located in Hess Village, the exterior looked very welcoming and upon entering the interior looks very modern with a casual ambience.
Hostess was not at the entrance to greet us, but we were definitely greeted warmly by someone whom I’m guessing to be the manager. It was quite busy for 6pm dining, but we only waited a couple minutes before we were shown to our table.
Since it was race weekend, Around the Bay, I would imagine an Italian restaurant would be busy for runners to carbo load, plus fact it was within 5 minutes walk from most of the nearby hotels, so not surprised the restaurant was busy.
Our server was very friendly and attentive, but not overbearing. And seeing how busy the place was, service was a little slow, but we didn’t mind too much as we were just chatting away.
We ordered fish tacos and calamari to share. Fish was tilapia which was hot seared and served with Italian coleslaw and fresh avocado. It was delicious as the fish was fresh and flaky, plus the flavours all blended nicely. Whereas, the calamari was not seasoned quite well and flavour was lacking, but the lemon garlic aioli complemented it well.
For my main I ordered the wood fired Sophia pizza which was very tasty. Thin crusted with pancetta, wild mushrooms, red onions, ricotta and asiago cheese, with an olive oil and oregano base. Definitely very flavourful and I enjoyed every bite. Plus love the scissors that came with the pizza was a nice touch, so much easier and I can cut pizza slice however size I wanted.
Since we waited a while for our food, our server informed us that dessert was on the house or we can get 25% off next meal. We’re rarely in Hamilton and fact we were full and couldn’t really eat dessert before a big race, I asked if we can just have one appetizer complimentary. To our surprise and delight, the server came back and told us instead of taking an appetizer off, the manager decided to reduce our bill by 50% which we thought was very generous. Of course we tipped generously on top of the discount.
What a way to treat their customers right and acknowledged their delayed with food service. If you’re in the area, definitely worth going for the friendly service and their famous pizza. Menu has many options and there’s something for every palate. Buon appetito!

This is a good place to eat. Really good pizzas, salads and drinks. Staff is very friendly and make you feel welcome. Love their Sicilian pizza (spicy) and their limoncello sangria. They have large tv in several spots through the restaurant so it was great for watching the World Cup!
Update — lately service has been quite bad and once I ordered their sangria and tasted rotten. I still love their tiramisu.