The Clocktower Brew Pub

Our first meal on holiday in Ottawa and it didn’t disappoint. Small but nice patio on a lovely street great for people-​watching. Decent menu, although not particularly unique. Food was good but not outstanding. Lackluster service and an extended wait to get service at the end of brunch rush.

Stopped here for a quick bite and a brew or two and had a really great time. The food, atmosphere and beer options are just ok but the friendly service puts this over the top.
I sat at the bar and got to see a lot of the employees coming and going for their drinks. The professional, courteous, friendly and smoking hot bartender had a good rapport with everyone on the serving team and it seemed they really enjoyed working together.
Frequent readers know I’m a beer enthusiast and the list of beers here was just not that long or interesting but the red ale I had was fine. For food I ordered chicken wings and poutine. I really liked the fries they used for the poutine but the gravy was heavy on the salt. I couldn’t finish it all. I also ordered some wings and they were good. Nice and meaty and sauced well.
But the bartender really made my night by making conversation when he had a free moment and he gave me some good advice on where to run the next day to avoid the most puddles (there was hella melting snow around O-​town due to some warm weather).
If I lived in Ottawa, I’d probably go nuts. I’m kidding, I’m kidding… what I meant to say is that if I lived in Ottawa, this is the place I’d hang out at because it’s such a good vibe and the people who work there are pretty great.

Atmosphere is fun, but I didn’t see clocks or towers. The beer is where it’s at its reaaaaaaaaaaallly good, would reccomend the bitter. If you would like a show ask to be seated near the windows so you can watch the wild life trickle by. Much entertaining.

Needed a cozy bar to just relax and talk. This was the perfect place after trying 3 other bars on a Saturday night! Recommend the Raspberry Wheat Beer and the sour cream and onion dip!

I’ve been to this place twice. The first time I ordered a chicken sandwich and the chicken was forgotten. More recently, I ordered the butternut squash tortellini. It was pre packaged tortellini with chunks of squash in a broken cream sauce. Not exactly what I was expecting. Decent beer but not the best for a meal.

Great place to relax and unwind after driving into town and completing a 2 hour urban hike on a beautiful Sunday in August. The service is great and the ambiance is less chaotic than the places closed to the market.

I went for lunch out at the patio. The atmosphere is great and the server was friendly. I had the Canadian burger and was looking forward to eating juicy beef but the party was quite dry and bland even with the sauce and cheese I added. It was like eating cooked frozen patty. The salad was — nothing extraordinary just like this place.

I went for brunch on a Sunday with a bit of a hurt on from the night before. This place gave me exactly what I needed. It wasn’t too busy so service was fast and it didn’t make my headache worse. The dish I wanted was on the website menu but not on the real menu (seemed to be a common theme this weekend in Ottawa). I settled on the eggs benedict. It was soooo good. Two eggs, peameal bacon, and an english muffin smothered in an ocean of hollandaise. The eggs were cooked properly and oozed delightfully. The peameal bacon was cut in big slices, I’ve never actually eaten it before, it just seems like ham to me, but it was good. There were fried potatoes, a salad, and fruit on the side of the plate. I should have asked for hollandaise on the side for potato dipping but luckily there was more than enough on the eggs to get me through. The staff were very friendly. A little slower than I like on the water refills, but nothing experience ruining. I’d go back.

The Clocktower Brew Pub located in the Byward Market Area is really convenient if you are in the Downtown Area.
This was our first stop for the night and it is decent place for a drink or 2. You can order a flight of their regular (house) selection which are all light and easy drinking: Kolsh, Red, Brown, EBS and Raspberry Wheat. For their seasonals, they only available in pint or half pint.
I really enjoyed their Pumpkin Ale which is heavily spiced with Cinnamon which tasted just like a pumpkin pie.
Service is OK. But I found the booth seating really tight. Maybe I have been drinking a little too much and now having a beer belly?!

Fantastic brewpub on Clarence Street. They have other locations as well, but this one is centrally located and is most convenient if you’re downtown. Good food, good beer and cider selection, and good service too!

If you are looking for a perfect micro brewed pint — this is the place. Personaly a pint of Bitter is why I go there and of course when Carly is working the bar it is even that much better. This is one of my fav places to go and simply chillax, warm in the winter (as long as you are not close to the door), great initmate patio in the back and of course if you love people watching the front patio is a wonderful spot in the Summer time. The food here is always good and during a sporting «event» (hockey playoffs, NFL superbowl, etc.) the staff will usually have the sound on and there are some good vantage places to watch the game on the numerous tv placed in strategic places.
All to say, I love to just drop in and have that pint after work or even in the evening.
The only draw back (doesn’t affect me) is that the washrooms are downstairs — as are many of the washrooms in this area.
Tuesday’s is wing night — half price wings (super yummy!) and half price micro brews! Can’t go wrong.
Cheers! :-)

We were looking for a lunch spot in the Byward Market and happened to park in front of The Clocktower Brew Pub. We love microbrew beer so it was fortuitous.
The house brewed beers were terrific! The server was happy to bring us small samples to try which we really appreciated. We had a jalapeño burger, a sandwich with house cured bacon, and our daughter had chicken fingers (she’s a kid, what can you say?). It was all delicious, well-​prepared, fresh buns and salad, terrific fries and house made pub chips. It was busy but the service was friendly, timely, and we never felt ignored.
The prices were fair, better than we expected for a touristy area. The inside is gastro-​pub in its décor and they have an outdoor patio in front for excellent people watching.

This is the usual kind of place for the Market area.
Servers bringing you drinks and immediately putting a knife and fork in front of you presuming you are going to eat their bland average food.
Are there no pubs in Ottawa? Like pub pubs. Places to just go to a bar and order a drink without a server waiting on your table looking for tips and trying to get you to serve food?
I would like to go to a pub, walk up to the bar. Order a pint and sit down without any of the staff annoying me. Does this exist? Please tell me if there is such a place.
The beer I had Kolsch was pretty good but nearly 8 dollars for a pint? And I thought Ireland was bad for overpriced alcohol.

At the advice of a friend, we ended up at the Clocktower on Clarence. At the advice of the server, I ordered the meatloaf. Meatloaf? Who orders meatloaf? Apparently, lots of people, and now I know why. A well-​cooked meatloaf, slightly above average, but as a whole meal with the mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and delicious gravy, it was a very good choice. OH! It’s wrapped in bacon. I wish every bite had a bit of bacon, but hey…
My friend had a caesar salad which looked alright and a hummus plate that was as fresh and appetizing-​looking as it was delicious.
Sometimes, it pays to listen to others’ advice. I’ll be back.

Wow I just realized I don’t have a review here. If anyone asks me to hit up a pub in the market this is my go to place because the food is ok and so is the beer. They also have food specials during the week!
I was recently back at The Clock Tower for a Unilocal get together and had a chance to meet the awesome contingent from Montréal, Marie-​Pier, Risa and Risa’s boyfriend… I’m soooo sorry I can’t recall your name at the moment! We were seated in a booth and ordered drinks, food and talked about Ottawa, Montréal, Unilocal,travelling and life. The company was fantastic, the pub was good.
The Clocktower makes their own beer and it’s not bad but nothing spectacular. I had the raspberry wheat on this visit but didn’t know it was available outside the summer months. I didn’t have any food but the food is usually ok in that it’s what you expect from a pub. I’ve tried the wings (you guys know how I feel about Ottawa wings), the burger and some other appetizers. I haven’t had any terrible items here.
A few hours flew by and we had to go our own separate ways but it felt like meeting up with old friends I had not seen in years!
In the summer I like sitting on the front patio but some people don’t realize there’s a back patio. The service has always been good to me and the staff always friendly. It was no different on my weekend trip.

Hubby decided we should start checking out micro-​breweries in our new home city — so off we went to the Clock Tower.
Friday night, 7p in November — wasn’t sure we’d be able to get a seat without a wait — however, our timing was perfect as a table was vacating as we walked in — had to pause for 3 minutes while the bussed it. A good start.
Casual feel. Mostly slightly younger (than us!) crowd, but there were all ages of people in there — anyone would be comfortable.
We orded and Red and a Byward Brown. Both were excellent, though we also both thought the Brown was the better of the two — yum!
Hubby orderd black and blue burger, I had onion soup and warm goat cheese salad. Everything came to the table looking great. Surprisingly, the salad dressing on my salad had a little spicey kick to it — I enjoyed it.
Staff were great. (Thanks!)
Would I return: Yes
Would I recommend: Yes,

Executive Summary: The clock tower is a great place to go if it’s your friend’s birthday and they make you go there. Otherwise, there are better choices for the beer aficionado.
As it’s a brew pub I feel compelled to buy their beers, though the always leave me a bit wanting.
For example: this evening I had a pumpkin ale and a pumpkin ale mixed with Guinness. It was pretty good, but I’m at a brew pub: I expect the beer to be a bit better than pretty good. In the past I’ve tried their fruit based beers, which I was also underwhelmed by but some people love. They really encourage mixing their brews with other beers — it was suggested to me to mix the pumpkin with the Guinness to take the sweetness off the former — which makes me think that they just aren’t that good in the first place. Maybe I just have unrealistic beerspectations.
And another thing — they only have 6 beers on tap. As Ottawa is kind of the worst, I’m not sure if it’s standard for brewpubs to mainly carry their own beers, but it feels a bit limiting to go to a place that specializes in beers and have them carry fewer than your average pub (especially when, as mentioned, the beers they brew are no great shakes).
If you’re in the mood for good beer just go to Pub Italia and get that stuff made from Monk’s tears.
Service was great, didn’t have any food.
(This review applies to the location in the Market)

I tried a 5 beer sampler of all of the beers they make. Today they had: Raspberry Wheat (excellent if you like fruity beers), Klosch (a beer that is great even if you hate light beers — this beer goes down way to easily and quickly), Wishart’s Bitter (an ESB that they claim is award winning and I see why, having had ESB’s in England, this is spot on), Clocktower Red (actually competes with Smithwick’s and Killians if you drink imitation Smithwick’s — which you should never do), and Bytown Brown (not a stout, but is rich in flavor like one)
Unfortunately, I did not try their food, but their beer was amazing, coming from someone who only likes craft beer.
They also offer free wifi, though you need to ask for the password, which they kindly gave (so I could write this review, eh.)

This Clock Tower pub is so conveniently located in the ByWard Market. My friends and I were getting together for a girls’ night at Buddha Bar across the street, and we decided to meet up at Clock Tower to have a few drinks and a small snack before heading to the lounge.
When we arrived, a few girls were already there and were seated at one of the high tables next to the bar. Even though we arrived sporadically, the bartender was really good at keeping tabs on who ordered what, and when. He asked us right away if we wanted anything, which was great because we didn’t have to flag him down. We ordered a couple gin and tonics, tequila shots, and beers. We also ordered nacho chips and salsa, which usually come burnt but they were really good this night. They were crispy and the salsa was a bit watery, but good. They gave us our bill right when we asked for it, and we were able to leave for the bar right on time. Great service!

I really like the Clock Tower’s Market pub. It hasn’t turned into and hopefully won’t turn into a club type pub like some of the neighbours. I was there two weeks ago and couldn’t find a spot to sit so we marched on. It was busy but you could still walk around and enjoy yourself. Daytime this place seems a lot more quiet than others in the Byward Market.
Two items on the menu I’d highly recommend are the sweet potato fries and their soups.
The Clock Tower is a brew pub and as much as I love beer, I’ve never actually ventured far into their beer menu before.
The staff at this location have always been pleasant. The last time I was there the waitress was willing to make a special order because I really wanted their soup.
Late on a Friday or Saturday night this place will still be open and hopping but it’s not the same frat-​type crowd as some of the other pubs in the market which I think is a good thing.