Bowman’s Bar & Grill

I’m a sucker for a pub meal. This blew away all my expectations. The menu is presented on a clipboard, with two pages of food and two of drink. Excellent selection on tap. I had chicken and waffles. Never had this before… But wow. The waffles were savoury, and drizzled with a garlic maple syrup. My partner had the pulled pork sandwich. Friends had room for dessert — I wish! Nutella brownies, lemon tart, to name a few. We’ll be back.

Wow. You truly can’t at times tell a book by its cover. We went into the restaurant on the strength of previous Unilocal reviews and weren’t at all disappointed. In fact, it was so good, we went a second night in a row during our time in Ottawa.
Excellent selection on the menu general with a special highlight being the vegetarian options. Having recently moved from the UK to Canada my partner has found the veggie options to be often quite lacking this side of the Atlantic but she most definitely wasn’t disappointed here.
The beer selection is good too and a special mention must go to the Bicycle IPA on offer — lovely!
Do yourself a favour and give this potentially easily missed out jewel a go, you won’t be disappointed!

Andrea B. and I had dinner recently at Bowman’s Bar and Grill. I’ve been meaning to check this place out for some time now and am really glad that I finally did!
We went on a Wednesday evening and the place was pretty empty, which is surprising since the food is very good and there aren’t many restaurants on that part of Carling Ave.
Anyway, we started off with the Guacamole and Chips ($ 12). The chips were crispy and freshly fried, no Tostitos here! The guacamole was fresh and had a nice spicy kick to it. It wasn’t overly limey or cilantro-​y, like I’ve had at other places. I liked it a lot.
I had the Almond Cashew Nutburg ($ 14) which comes with a side (I chose fries). However, you can also add a second side for another $ 4, which is exactly what I did (a side salad).
Our server was Mike and he was incredibly attentive (without being too intrusive) and friendly. He was very knowledgeable about the restaurant and menu items and anything that he didn’t know, he gladly went to the kitchen to ask. He asked if I wanted my side salad as a starter and then my fries with my burger. What a great idea! I took him up on it.
The salad was a mixed green salad with grape tomatoes, and pickled red onions. It came with a buttermilk dill ranch dressing. I usually don’t like ranch dressing but since I was told it was made in-​house and it’s their «special dressing» I gave it a try. It was creamy and tangy. It didn’t convert me into a «ranch dressing enthusiast» but it was significantly better than most ranch dressings that I’ve had.
Now their burger buns have sesame seeds on them (I’m not talking about a light sprinkling on the top bun, more like the top and bottom pieces are completely covered in sesame seeds!). Great for sesame seed lovers, not great for people like me who can’t eat them. Mike recommended that I have my burger on their sandwich bread instead, and I happily accepted. The sandwich bread was thickly sliced, like «Texas Toast» and the nut patty was on the thin side, so I did feel that the bread overpowered the patty. I’m not going to fault them for this though because I was not able to eat the bun that the burger is supposed to come with, and so they just did their best to accommodate me. The patty itself was delicious. It was really nutty, and it held together well. I just wish their had been more of it. Like I said, I felt it was too thin. The grainy Dijon mustard that it came with complimented it well, as did the pickled red onions.
The fries were shoestring fries and were super crispy. I loved them!
Andrea and I shared desserts. We got the flourless brownie and the churros. The flourless brownie was dense and creamy and full of whole (or maybe halved) hazelnuts. The hazelnuts were softened by the brownie and so I found the texture a bit unusual. It came with ice cream on top which was delicious.
Now the churros were the star of the night! The best churros I’ve had in Ottawa (!) Think crispy honey crueller pieces rolled in sugar and cinnamon. The outside was crispy and the inside had a bit of that choux pastry consistency, so slightly chewy. I am drooling just thinking about it. Now at first I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t come with dulce de leche, but my disappointment disappeared when I tried the two dipping sauces that it came with — a sweet non-​milky caramel and a rich dark chocolate. If you love churros, you need to try the ones here!
The washrooms are clean but a little snug. However, I’ve been to restaurants with smaller washrooms, so it’s not that bad.
Bowman’s is where The New Dubrovnik used to be. It’s right across from the Royal Ottawa Hospital. There’s free parking in their private lot at the side of their restaurant.
Food was very good and service was outstanding. I would definitely go back.

I was pretty surprised to see such high ratings for a seemingly standard pub, but this place certainly earns the five stars. From the kind and friendly service from Mike, to the awesome food (churros for the win!), this place was great.
Jennifer P and I came for dinner around 6pm on a Wednesday night, and the place was dead, except for a few regulars who sat at the bar to watch the baseball game. They did have a few other guests pop in while we were there, but I’m betting this place is generally pretty quiet on Wednesday nights.
Neither of us are beer drinkers, but they do have an awesome selection of local craft beers on tap, so be sure to check those out if you’re a beer drinker. We didn’t see a cocktail list, but Mike assured us they had plenty of liquors, spirits and the like if we wanted him to mix something for us. They also have a wine list.
We opted to stick to water as we didn’t want to waste calories on alcohol! We started with the chips and guacamole which was tasty. I don’t know if the chips were made in house, but they were warm and crunchy and were perfect with the guac. It was very flavourful, but I almost wished their was a bit more avocado and less onion, but it was still really good. We munched away happily, as our salads arrived. The salad size was perfect, and all the ingredients were fresh and tasty. The big hit here was the dressing — it came on the side and was so good! It was dill (which I love!), and creamy and wonderful, and we actually kept some to dip our fries in as well.
One thing I enjoyed here is that you can order two sides (I always have such a hard time choosing!), so while we started with our salad, I was also able to order a tortilla soup with my burger. The food came out super fast (likely due to the fact that they were so quiet), and looked positively awesome. I ordered the Mexican burger (this was my first time ordering a burger in a restaurant!), and it was amazing. The patty was cooked perfectly, and it was topped with more of the yummy guacamole, pico de gallo, yummy jack cheese, chipotle aioli and cabbage. The bun was from Rideau Bakery and was everything a hamburger bun should be — fresh, chewy and delicious.
The tortilla soup was good, but not as flavourful as I expected. Maybe a dollop of sour cream would have been good. Either way, I still ate it up. For dessert we split the brownie sundae (a flourless brownie made with nutella!) topped with homemade ice cream (so rich and good!) and the churros. I hadn’t ever tried churros before and I totally fell in love. I would come back here just for those!
This place was so unexpectedly awesome, I can’t wait to come back and try more dishes. They also have an open mic night on Saturdays, and trivia night on Mondays. This is an awesome spot in a community with few great restaurants. Stop by for superb food and excellent service.

Beer list is awesome, food is great and the staff are outstanding! Have had their fried chicken, deep fried pickles, meat pie, and pork loin (daily special) and all were well above average for a pub. If this place was located in Westboro it would be called a Gastropub, and charge twice as much.

Amazing craft beer selection and great food. Definitely recommend this place, and the bicycle brewery IPA on tap!

Came on Monday night after work. The place was pretty empty but I don’t know why. Nice atmosphere, welcoming staff. The beer selection is good.
I had the stuffed pork chop. While it wasn’t actually stuffed (the stuffing was next to the pork chop on the plate) and the pork chop was ever so slightly over done, the overall presentation and flavor was very good
Comfortable enough to be your neighborhood watering hole but classy enough to bring your mom.
I will definitely be back

Had heard good things about Bowman’s from some friends, so thought it was worth a try. Dropped in on a Thursday evening as a table of four, arriving somewhat haphazardly as snow and bad drivers had traffic snarled all over the place.
It’s a cozy little bar — one big room with seating for about 60. Things weren’t terribly busy when we arrived, which might have allowed for the casual and very friendly service from Mike, who showed personality and actually engaged with us as customers rather than simply reciting internal scripts. Nice selection of local beers, which is great to see, and the staff seem to take pride in knowing about them, which is also nice. A full house might have meant less attention.
Food was mostly a big hit. Two hamburgers were very well received; the jerk pork medallions on a bed of mushrooms and pasta (which I had) was really nicely done (MAYBE could have been a cooked a fraction less); flavours were strong and balanced, a great dish, although in retrospect the Beau’s Gruit beer I had probably wasn’t the best match for it (maybe something more hoppy), and the one lukewarm response from our table was for the pickerel.
The ice-​cream sandwich dessert was amazing — made-​on-​site boubon, bacon, and brownsugar ice cream sandwiched between two home-​made chocolate chip cookies. At $ 9, the dessert is on a bit pricey, but you know what — it’s worth it.
Overall, a total win for the evening, Will return.

Amazing food quality and prices! Good for all ages, you can get it all. You leave with full and happy stomachs. Not too far away from hotels you can come here for a nice beer and appetizers or for a good meal. You can tell the place is newly built or remodeled. Recommending this place to everyone

This place is a JEM! !! Just down the road from our hotel and thought we would give it a try and… WOW! The waiter is awesome (Mike) and the atmosphere is nice and relaxed. When we first get in and sit and they hand us the menu we were skeptical but the food is INCREDIBLE! There was 5 of us and a 2 year old and we all left with full bellies and happy. Their fish dish was yummy and their burger was awesome. A big MUST is their bacon onion jam… they need to package that and sell it because we would have bought a case! We definitely will be back the next time we are in Ottawa. Thank you Mike and the rest of you at Bowman’s for a great meal :-)

Bowmans is EXCELLENT! I cannot believe it’s not busier but everyone that goes there returns. YUM!

Atmosphere is great. Food was great. The staff was super friendly. If you like great food, a nice cold beer, and a great atmosphere, this is the place.

Bowman’s wins when it comes to quality food done right and delicious craft beer. If you live in the vicinity this should be your local, if you don’t you should probably move. They have Dominion City Beer on tap and Schnitzel Pops on the apps menu. Leave now and I will see you there!

I had no idea this restaurant existed even though we live fairly close by. A friend suggested we try it and we were not disappointed. Great food, great service and a very friendly environment. Our 1 year old was very happy too :)
We tried the mushroom tostados (excellent but small portion), the nut loaf, also amazing and the fried chicken with pancakes and kale (huge portion and wow!). For dessert we tried the churros which again were a huge portion. All in all we were very impressed, definitely returning.

If I lived in Ottawa, I would be a regular at Bowman’s. As it is, I was visiting my old home town to spend some time with my father while he was recuperating from surgery at the heart institute. Since ‘home’ was an hour away, we decided to stay in town and spent a lot of time within a short walk of the hospital. We tried several of the restaurants in the area, but ended up back at Bowman’s again and again because we really enjoyed the food and the people were so friendly. They have eight beer taps with mostly local craft brews and a nice wine selection. I really enjoyed the nut loaf (vegetarian!) and the weekend brunch.

We were staying at the Macies Hotel and this restaurant was a lifesaver. We ate so many meals here and just loved every one of them.
They have a vegetarian nut loaf that is out of this world good!
Craft beer selection was wonderful for my husband and I enjoyed the wine.

I went to Bowman’s to attend the first Ottawa Trivia League night. We had made a reservation earlier in the day and when I mentioned this to the server, he did not seem to know that they took reservations or that they should have been holding a table for us. Thankfully, everything worked out and we were able to get a table for 5 (instead of 6), and we weren’t too cramped. But I do think that if you’re going to take reservations, you need to make sure that when people show up with one, you remember that you took it.
We sampled the churros, which were delicious and came with two sauces, caramel (yum) and a thin chocolate sauce. Having never had churros before, I was pretty happy to try something new, and everyone at the table said that they were excellent as well. I’ve never seen them on the menu anywhere in town, so just for that factor alone, Bowman’s is pretty unique.
The beer selection is not that large, with only a few local offerings (Beau’s, Ashton Brewing Company). It would be great if they added a few more local beers to their list.
I didn’t eat a meal, but the menu looked pretty appealing, albeit a little pricey (especially for the dinner options). Maybe it’s because it’s just a stand alone bar/​restaurant on Carling, but I thought their prices should be a touch cheaper. But perhaps the food is amazing and it’s worth every penny — I might just go back to find out — and have another order of churros.

Good food, nice décor, a great place to drop in for a bite to eat. We have dropped in to Bowman’s a number of times now, and have always had a good experience. Whether you sit at one of the booths, or up at the bar, the staff is always friendly, and the beers cold. We especially enjoyed the nachos, will visit again!

After hearing great things about this place, I went with a friend and we were not disappointed. My grilled cheese with pork belly and arugula was outstanding. The only disappointment was there beer selection was low. Great service and great atmosphere. I’ll go back for sure.

Canadian food with totally unique flair! Watch the game, meet-​up with friends for lunch or just enjoy a quick eat. A great addition to the Carling Civic Hospital area. :)