Merk Snack Bar

Every time has been a great time at Merk for us. Love the alley patio for the warm months, and indoors provides a friendly cozy space all year.
Staff at Merk are great - friendly, attentive and welcoming. Such a positive upbeat vibe.

Great cocktails (according to my partner) and a good local beer selection. The food is always great!

Glad that Merk is one of the stops on the Ottawa Street Beer crawl (especially on the last one in early November when they had a guest BBQ chef - so delicious).

If you enjoy sharing small plates (like tapas or pintxo you might have in Spain) and trying lots of different foods, Merk is the place.

We're looking forward to the next Beer Crawl, but we'll be back at Merk before that.

Enjoy!

It was my first time going to merk went on a Sunday night, and they had entertainment. Ordered the fish taco. Finally, something on it besides coleslaw and it was so good will be back for another. The staff was really friendly and made my friend and I feel very welcome.

5 stars is still too low! Merk is an absolute amazing establishment. The food is always mind boggling incredible! Drinks are always delicious. But! The service is outstanding; from the owner, to the bar staff, to the servers.

What a gem this place is, to say the food is amazing is an understatement, from what I read it is a constantly changing menu, which is kinda awesome and refreshing in a restaurant also have a decent selection of craft beer, Staff are friendly and knowledgeable about food and the craft beer in current rotation. Looking forward to the next visit,

Amazing place, best bar food, best staff around! Purple People Eater is hands down my favorite cocktail!

Wanted to try somewhere new and totally enjoyed. Service was great. Cocktails were great. We sampled as much of the menu as we could. Until next time. Loved the garlic cheese bread, jerk chicken taquitos and the perogies. Enjoy!

This is definitely one of our favourite spots to frequent for a day or night. The staff, food, music and drinks are amazing. I highly recommend.

Love the atmosphere of Merk on Ottawa street. They have a number of awesome snack foods and lots of fun drink and beer choices to choose from!

Plenty of food options for everybody. Vegetarian options for my girlfriend, lots of interesting options for all kinds of eaters. Mocktails, Cocktails and Beer options make it a friendly for everybody kind of place. Most definitely will be back to try more.

Amazing service and beautiful patio! Great prices as well. However the food wasn’t the greatest. We tried three items: the jerk chicken taquitos, the chicken dumplings and the brisket sliders. Everything was extremely bland unfortunately, especially the jerk chicken. I would love this place to get a complete flavour redo. If they do that then it will become one of the best bars in town

Server was visibly under the influence of weed and dropped her entire drink tray on us. Good work.

We booked a spot here prior to attending the ticat game. Love supporting local and the idea of tapas resonated with the 4 of us. The waitress was upbeat and lovely. The food portions were perfect to share with one other person. We all had the Korean chicken bites.delish. Watermelon salad
Refreshing, Quesidilla was soooo good. Tater tots not so much (needed some seasoning and mushrooms gravy bland.
One couple enjoyed the local beers and I enjoyed a somewhat pricey caesar (15$) One lad doesn't drink amd we asked waiter to suggest a non alcoholic drink. She commented that she had a menu of those drinks and would bring it out. The menu was never presented and instead, she brought out a non alcoholic beer (for a past alcoholic not the best idea.) Fortunately it didn't taste that great and we didn't want to complain. I think next time, it may be best to wait for a suggested rather then decide for the customer. But it all worked out and we thoroughly enjoyed the ambience and food. Would definitely come back again.

We stumbled upon this place last night while looking for a patio on Ottawa Street and it’s now become a top favourite! Great food (especially the Korean fried chicken and chicken wontons), but the service at atmosphere really sold us. Super friendly staff and a cool vibe both inside and out. We will be back!

Love, love, love! This place. The service is always fantastic, food is amazing! Cool atmosphere

First time going to merk, Ive never review a place online before but the food here was phenomenal, i didnt expect the food to be that good with all of it being under $10, would 100% recommend

Shiloh and Heidi are amazing. 5 stars, they deserve a raise. Great service by them both, great snacks! Thank you guys & the cooks too!

Great spot for small plates and drinks. The game day special is an amazing deal and great quality. I like the record player in the front corner with the small library of vinyl.

So tasty. Fun atmosphere. The staff are all friendly and informative. Pretty good prices for the portion sizes. Cocktails a bit pricey but tasty

Awesome service and atmosphere. My one criticism is that the cocktails are overpriced for what you get. Ours were supposed to be 2.5oz for $17 and were most definitely not that. Other than that, the food, atmosphere and service are all awesome.

We were so excited to finally check this place out. It was the food truck festival so it was understandably busy.
The restaurant was a vibe. The music etc was awesome. It took a solid 20 minutes to get water, no big deal but after finally getting some drinks it took around 45 minutes afterwards for anyone to even ask if we wanted food. The one thing we wanted to try on the menu was not available. We were really hoping for a good experience but it ruined our Saturday. We noticed the bar tender was able to seat, provide a menu and serve a few guests who sat at the bar almost instantly. The bar tender also gave the finger to guests who were not pleased they couldn't be sat right away, which, yes the frustration is understandable but the lack of professionalism was not great to see.

Love the vibes and the food (when the samosa tacos aren't cold), just unfortunate with such slow service. Drinks and food have been finished for 25+ minutes and still no one to be found.: (

This place is a regular occurrence. Love getting friends and coming here for birthdays or before shows. Food is always great. The servers (for the most part are great) have had a couple off experiences but overall love the food. The vibe. The drinks.

Cozy retro vibes, friendly service, tasty snacks, great selection of drinks. Hamilton needs more places like this!