Appetite for Steeltown: 33 Bowen - 33 Bowen Street, Hamilton Ontario

33 Bowen

33 Bowen is a new restaurant in Hamilton located in a historical building that has been home to a few businesses over the years. More recently, it was the location of The Keg up until 1995 and then Slainte Irish Pub until 2015. This new restaurant is part of the Unique Restaurant Group that also owns The Powerhouse, Pheasant Plucker and The Augusta House.

The building itself is beautiful and inside there is a large stone fireplace, which is exactly where our table was for our visit here. I was happy to be sitting next to the fireplace at first, but it did get a little too warm as the night went on. They have removed the old bar and replaced it with a more modern looking design. The menu had a good selection of starters and entrees but that night the starters and choice of salads appealed to us the most. As we were leaving, the entertainment was just getting started with a singer and keyboardist that sounded good.

Instead of ordering an entree, we selected three starters to share and ordered a small salad each. We also ordered a draft beer. There wasn't a huge selection of craft beers but this was their first week being open and we did find one to try. I started with the Bowen salad (small for $6) with arugula, pecans and parmesan and my husband tried the small Brussels and Bacon salad ($7). Both salads were delicious and a good size as well. If I was having lunch, I could easily see myself ordering the large size salad and being totally satisfied with that.

For our three starters, we tried the Pan Seared Calamari ($15), Naan Flatbread ($15) and the Tempura Vegetables ($12). The calamari was good, but a bit plain tasting and maybe a deep fried calamari might have appealed to us more. We did enjoy the flat bread which was served like mini pizza slices and tasted nice with the apples, bacon and carmelized onions. The tempura veggies were also quite tasty.

We would definitely go back to 33 Bowen but next time try one of the entrees. As we watched the entrees being delivered to other tables, they looked like nice size portions. The prices were good and so was the service. I hope they do well in this location as it is away from the main hub of restaurants in downtown Hamilton but it is such a beautiful historical spot.