YOW - York on William in Ottawa

Great view from the roof

Delicious cocktails and tasty sharing plates. Beautifully located in the heart of Ottawa s ByWard market. This restaurant does not disappoint. The servers are professional, accommodating and friendly. Highly recommended!

Went for a birthday reservation it took half an hour to get a menus then another 20 minutes to order drinks then another 20 minutes to get them and they were just draught and a glass of wine. Ridiculous. We left after two hours and just having nachos between 7 people. Ended up walking over to clock tower yo get real service

Beautiful rooftop patio Restaurant didn t have the drink I wanted but the restaurant downstairs did, so he went and got me a drink from the main floor restaurant, twice !! Vegetarian option : suggested me the Queso poutine which was honestly one of the best poutines I ve ever had. Would definitely be back

This place is not at all what was expected. The service was incredibly slow and staff were not attentive. It took at least 10 minutes to receive a menu after being seated, and there were only two other tables in the entire restaurant. The mains we ordered were also just plain gross. I had a philly cheese steak, and the bread was flaking and falling apart. The sandwhich literally consisted of cheap fried beef, which hardly filled it, and then sliced green onion covered in melted cheese. There was definitely no provolone as advertised, and the american cheese was incredibly hard to stomach and tasted more processed than Kraft singles. It was not at all worth $22. My partner ordered the kale ceasar salad and could not eat it because the bacon tasted like it had gone bad. The Jet Lag cocktail was great, the beers were good and the plate of nachos we ordered to share was also great. The staff kindly removed our mains from the bill as we could not finish them. Also, two things to clarify: the tacos section on the website was apparently outdated as told to us by the waiter, so if youre looking for the tacos from the website, they are not being served. Secondly, if you are looking at the Google maps health and safety measures it is incorrect or outdated as well; the staff do not wear masks at all. Defnitely not returning, and I dont recommend this place to anyone while there are so many better restaurants in Byward.

Good was very bad and staff even worse. Def not coming back. (If I could give 0 stars I would)

I went here last night for dinner and was extremely disappointed with both the service, and the quality of the food. The staff were very inattentive. Upon arrival, I indicated I had a reservation. A staff member told me that the hostess is the only one who can handle reservations, and she was busy but would be there shortly. A second staff member came, whom we thought was the hostess, also said she couldnt help, only the hostess could. We stood around waiting while staff did other non-customer facing work until finally (5 minutes later) a hostess showed up to take us to our seats. The whole thing was very confusing because the restaurant was not busy - any of these people could have sat us. Throughout the dinner service, the waitstaff were lackadaisical. They seemed more interested in chatting with each other at the bar than they were serving patrons. We found ourselves waiting around for quite some time. When the food arrived, it was not what I expected. Everyones food was extremely underwhelming, especially considering the price. I would guess this is because it is in the Byward Market, but even still it fell very short of advertised. Philly Cheesesteak was terrible, the tacos were bad, the fries were bad. The burger was the only thing that came out good. And the worst part - a member of our group, who was pregnant, asked for a non-alcohol cocktail, listed on the menu, called a Placebo First Class. When she got it, she drank it and found out it was full of alcohol. When we took a closer look, the menu has two drinks with the same name - one alcohol based, one non-alcohol. WHO DOES THIS!? Thats RIPE for confusion for a bartender. The waitstaff seemed to dismiss the concern, even though it resulted in a pregnant woman drinking alcohol. Overall - this place has a lot of problems. In the past, the reviews seemed to be good, but something has changed. Id stay away until changes are made.

I really wanted to like this place, but was very disappointed. The drinks were nice and our waitress was a sweetheart, but some of the staff walk around like they own the place and are very rude to customers and coworkers. Saw this happen twice and both times it was a white server being rude to a black coworker. I hope they do something to fix this because the management and service are clearly lacking.

At 10:15, you own a business in hearth of ottawa and you turn client around saying its weekday ( thursday june 9) an you are trying to serve the client you have & you wont take more? Lets lease it someone else who likes to turn this corner around!

Disappointment all around. Don t go here. Go somewhere else. Caused my friend an allergic reaction and took little to no responsibility for it.

We dealt with the worst waitress we have ever seen. She was awful to us. As soon as we arrived, she said we do not have beers anymore. Is there any pub or bar in this world which runs out of beer? Anyways, we brought a friend with us from outside Canada, and we regret bringing her there.

Had a few late afternoon cocktails on this beautiful rooftop patio. Drinks were great, service was pleasant. A nice way to spend a sunny afternoon!

Review is for the rooftop. Drinks were overpriced for their quality. during a flash storm, I moved my seat to get under the umbrella overhang. Staff was incompetent and left our table sopping wet after the storm so I couldnt return to my original seat and couldnt put anything down on our table.

We had an amazing birthday drinks and apps on a Friday evening on the rooftop. The service was wonderful, the drinks and food tasted lovely and our server Robynne was extra wonderful and attentive. Would definitely go back!

York on William, thank you so much for an unforgettable night. Its been a whole week since Ive visited and I still cant forget the amazing service Robynne provided me and the party I was with. It was my first time going here and definitely wont be my last. Cheers.

Expensive, service was terrible, drinks tasted like mock tails, food was bland. Been before and had better experience. thopefully just having an off day. We won t be back.

Great view of the market and even better cocktails.

Had the best dinner at YOW tonight! I love this new restaurant and I can t wait to come back. I recommend the pink margarita, onion bhaji, fish tacos and arancini