Brassie Pub — Restaurant in Hamilton

It’s been years since I last visited The Brassie, but recently went in again with friends in late afternoon. The decor doesn’t appear to have changed in the slightest over the years, but I guess that’s what you’d expect from an establishment that’s trying to mimic a British gastro-pub. The bar and dining areas are not separated, so dining can be a noisy experience because of the group of drinkers at the bar.

There’s a long-ish list of beers on tap, a little too heavily weighted in favour of mass-produced schlock brands for my liking, but with some better choices shining through. The servers were pleasant and efficient, but the kitchen seemed a bit slow in getting orders out.

My companions had Chicken Parmesan and Bangers & Mash. The chicken was enjoyable, but the sausages were overcooked and dry/hard, and the baked beans an unappetizing dry mush.

I settled on the eponymous Brassie Burger, garnished with “arugula, tomato, red onion, bacon, beer-battered apple ring, home-made pickles, and smokey BBQ sauce”. I quote the list of garnishes for a reason: the only discernible taste from this list was the wildly overly-smokey BBQ sauce. It honestly tastes like the sauce has only 2 ingredients — smoke flavouring in bitter molasses — that overpower everything else on the plate. I couldn’t even taste the meat (which, like the sausages, was dry and overcooked). Fortunately, I had drunk most of my pint while waiting for the food to arrive, because the bitterness ruined what was left of my otherwise flavourful amber lager. Even hours after leaving, my mouth was full of that smokey bitterness. Only by brushing my teeth was I able to get rid of it.

Another note: Although I know many value-conscious eaters will disagree with this suggestion, the portions here are TOO LARGE. None of us was able to finish his meal, so we cancelled the idea of second pints. The eating philosophy of The Brassie seems to be “More is Better”. Mine, however, is “Better is Better”. I’d much rather have a more reasonably-sized portion of better-quality food...

I went to Brassie's yesterday ( a Thursday) with my mom, as she had a coupon for a free order of wings. When we dropped in at around 4:30 without a reservation, it was quite busy and just a tad loud, but not offensively so.

There was a sign indicating to wait to be seated...almost right away we were greeted by a smiling young hostess. My mother mentioned we would like a booth, and she freely directed us to the last one even though we were only 2! Alas when we got to the booth we realized it was a huge semi-circular "booth" which would have accommodated a larger group, which, by the looks of things would walk in shortly (it did). So we directed ourselves to a table for 2 with a comfy bankette on one side.

Our server ( I regret I forgot her name) was lovely and promptly took our drink orders. Right off the bat she gladly received the coupon without issue.

We opted for the medium wings and mozzarella sticks with marinara sauce as I had fond memories of them from my childhood.

The food arrived quickly and hot. The wings were a really good size and nice and saucy, but they were more of a mild sauce then medium but had a nice vinegary kick. The carrot and celery sticks were a bit underwhelming but the blue cheese sauce was very good. And they came with no additional cost like some places these days.

Being Thursday, it was half price apps. The mozzarella sticks that we had I remembered were exactly that... Kid friendly and had to be eaten hot as they turned to a rather an appetizing texture after a while.

Also being Thursday my 9 oz glass of wine was priced at the 6 oz value!

Overall it was substantial enough and economical. I would like to try other things on the menu as I saw other tables receiving nachos and salads that looked really...

We had heard about the wings at the Brassie, so we went for Wednesday Wing night with four other family.

The place was packed, very loud, with a 45-minute wait.

We waited.

Our waitress was good.

We all but one ordered wings. I asked for medium with lots of sauce.

Our waitess said there was an upcharge for lots of sauce.

Others had been there before and said the wings as well-sauced.

When my medium wings arrived, they looked like someone had forgotten to sauce them.

I was pretty disappointed. I sent them back, and they returned with a LITTLE more sauce, and I was charged extra.

No other restaurant has ever charged me for ample wing sauce, ever.

Not only was there STILL not much wing sauce, but the sauce itself was cold, so now my wings were cold too.

And worse yet, my sister found a very ling hair in her wings.

Thankfully, the waitress replaced them, but I was now totally turned off.

I didn't want to eat, now worried about someone's hair in my food.

We should have asked for the manager, but my family preferred to "just let it go" and didn't want to cause an issue.

From my perspective, anemic sauce on wings followed by additional charges to add sauce that makes my dinner cold are not good things. Further, finding a long hair in the wings was a complete turn-off.

My Google Maps showed I was at Brassie and asked me for a review to help...