Brocach Irish Pub

Cozy, laid back Irish pub along the river. Friendly waitstaff, food was a little slow (or I’d made it a 5) but we weren’t in a hurry so nbd. we soaked up the history of the pub and enjoyed our drinks and appetizers. GF doesnt recommend the Bloody Mary BTW,(but to be fair its the only one I have seen her drink) I had Harp, on tap, lovely day.

The girl at the front was very disinterested and was just reading her kindle. I felt I interrupted her by entering. The rest of our visit however was excellent.
We sat at the bar and were greeted by a super nice, attentive bar tender. He gave us suggestions of his favorite foods and got us water and drinks pretty quickly. My mimosa wasn’t anything special but my friends bloody didn’t disappoint.
We started off with the sugar donuts which were kinda boring. Nice taste, just felt like they were missing something… A nice glaze or syrup to set them apart. We both ordered two different kinds of hash. Both were outstanding. Potatoes cooked perfectly, good serving size, excellent flavor, and every mouthful was something new. I will definitely be back to try some of the other drink specials and menu items. Bummed their changing hands soon and going British instead of sticking with these Irish roots.

Why did you change the fries? They were perfect, now they taste like Rallys, but not even.
I’ve eaten here at least 20 times, having formerly lived down the block. Food and drink quality has been slipping the last few visits, although I’d had some sketchy meals in the past as well.
There used to be a great bartender, now the drinks are average at best. Bloody Mary has changed, and again WHY DID YOU CHANGE THE FRIES?
The food can be great here. Dublin burger, corned beef, fish fry… Yet I’ve also had all three come out less than stellar.
Please get and keep some consistency in the kitchen.

There are a ton of places to have great brunch in Milwaukee, but this is my favorite. First of all, I love the atmosphere and the authentic Irish look and feel. Any establishment with a Bushmills sign behind the bar gets my stamp of approval! Surprisingly, I’ve never had to wait for seating (as opposed to a lot of other brunch places downtown), and during the summer they open up their rooftop patio which is really nice.
The Bacon Bourbon Bloody is delicious, with candied bacon and a hefty amount of other toppings. For brunch on Saturdays, they have 2 for 1 bloodys and mimosas — it’s a great deal! For food, I recommend the hashes — especially the corned beef.

First of all, you can’t go wrong with their Shepherd’s Pie. SO GOOD. I have never been disappointed with food here – including their brunch and their bloodies. They have a really great Trivia night as well.
But I really want to highlight their catering because I had them cater my wedding at the Villa Terrace! For those of you who have been to catering taste testings before you might be blown away by the amount of mediocre, heavy, mass produced food that is – meh, «good enough for guests I guess.» My husband and I didn’t want to pay a bunch of money per person for this kind of crap! After three different tastings at other vendors, we were very discouraged until we sat down at our tasting for Brocach. Two appetizers in and we were SOLD.
Our wedding featured a cheese and meat platter, bruschetta, vege and beef sliders, and three our four other amazing appetizers – a beautiful salad of greens to start and then a guinness beef dish, vegetarian pasta, and pesto salmon. It was all beyond great during our tasting – and while I didn’t know how that would translate when we were serving over 80 guests – it was JUST THE SAME QUALITY! I was amazing. I was able to dance the night away happy – feeling great after the food I just ate. Seriously light, delicious, and flavorful without being heavy!
The service was great too. I was in contact with their catering point person for MONTHS prior to the event as he helped plan all the meals to my expectations and to my families plethora of dietary restrictions including gluten allergies, nut allergies, dairy allergies, alcohol allergies, vegan, vegetarian, etc.
All of the servers the day of the event, were amazing. I really don’t have any complaints about working with them. My guests raved about the food – and we even had some friends who are getting married who admitted that the food at their wedding wasn’t going to be nearly as good.
So if you are thinking about a caterer for your wedding, look in to Brocach. They will give you the one on one attention, great food, and service that you want for a stress free and tasty evening!

Initially we were very happy because for all the places called today to ask about specials, Brocach was the one of the few who were actually pleasant and seemed like they wanted us to come by and give them our business. It’s amazing how many places in the Third Ward don’t even know what the specials are and aren’t pleasant via the phone.
We walked in and were excited to learn there was a rooftop. When we made it up to the roof, we were also surprised barely anyone was there.
We were at the tail end of brunch and if we ordered quickly could still get brunch or we could take our time and order of of the happy hour and lunch menus. We choose the latter.
The wines were $ 3 off (all except the house wines) and we each really liked our wine choices: Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.
For my meal I ordered onion soup and the happy hour slider flights.
The soup came out utterly cold. It was so strange how cold it was. A second one came out warmer but still not piping hot which is how onion soup typically comes out anyplace else I’ve had it because the top cheese layers hold in the heat and steam.
The slider flight came out: 1 black bean, 1 Ruben, 1 hamburger, 1 brisket.
Again all were cold.
The black bean had the best flavor. Can’t really over/​under cook a veggie burger so that wasn’t screwed up. Besides black bean it had cheese and guacamole. The brisket slider was pretty dry and hard to pull apart. The tendons that were never cooked down kept everything pretty well tight. It had a cheese «sauce» that was already seizing up into a solidified form because it was cold. Reminded me of a thick roux texture-​wise. I’d rather have real cheese. The burger was completely dried out and the cheddar cheese on top was hard and had little pimply bubbles all over it (indicating how overcooked the cheese was) yet still arrived cold. The Reuben was probably the worst. Firstly, as the menu had indicated and as a Reuben is typically made, there was no 1000 island and instead a white spread that tasted like mayonnaise. The corned beef pieces were pretty disgusting with 50% of it being pure, white, jiggly fat. I’m not sure who’d want a fat sandwich, but definitely not me.
My friend had her own problems with her meal. Again, everything was barely room temperature or colder. There were not one but two items missing from her plate. The big steak tomato was cut in half and grilled on one side and served that way. Not easy to eat, cut or get grilled flavor in each bite when presented that way.
Leads me to believe it’s empty here because of how terrible the food was. I’ve never had an entire meal come out 100% cold.
The server was very polite. We had to tell the manager because it was just inconceivable how badly you can screw up a meal. They both asked us to come back. Manager gave us $ 20 gift cards so that we’d consider coming back and also because we refused to let him pay for our meal. (I am adamant about this because I do not want a resturant to think that the motivation is to get free stuff. I just want them to listen and fix the egregious errors).
They said the cook was new. It’s not really an excuse for our meal, though.
They said their brunch is good — in a manner indicating nothing else is good except brunch. But, I looked at them and calmly said, but shouldn’t everything on your menu be good?
Not sure when I’ll be back, but I’m not against using the gift card another time and updating with a new review.

Very cool and authentic Irish pub. A bit off the beaten path which keeps this place from getting too busy. However looking at the development around here this place will be in the middle of the action soon. Random feature… great chairs. Cool design with padded backs and seats. Comfort you don’t get in other pubs. Good traditional food and beer selection. Heavy on the Lakefront Brewery beer but seems like a good line. Not many TVs so not a great place to watch games.

The atmosphere here is good — it reminds me strongly of a certain kind of Irish pub. Not the family establishment, but the dark-​wood pubs you find in Clifden or parts of Dublin or even along the tourist strip in Galway. It’s clean, neat, and well maintained.
The tap selection is just fine, the whiskey selection quite good.
The food is well prepared — but beware: if you’ve been to Ireland, it’s not what you’re expecting.
To be most specific, the bangers served with the Irish Breakfast and the Bangers and Mash are _​not_​bangers — at least they’re not like any bangers I’ve had in nine trips to Ireland and a hundred or so breakfasts on the other side of the pond.
Genuine Irish bangers are gentle, have an almost bread-​like consistency, and virtually no spice. Brocach’s bangers are thick-​skinned, have an interior color reminiscent of something you might see on _​The Walking Dead_​, and are far too spicy. Americans may love their spicy breakfast sausage — but not so much in Ireland.
If you like spicier sausage, enjoy. If you’re expecting the delicious memory of a B&B in Ballycastle or Ennis, think again.
The same can be said for the potato-​leek soup, which is delicious but resembles nothing I’ve seen or tasted in Éire.
The crab cakes are a good bet — they’re again not Maryland crab cakes — but they’re not advertised as such. The bangers are advertised as genuine Irish, and the truth put me off a bit.

This restaurant has always held a bit of a mystery for me. The food and service are good, the location is convenient, and the layout and décor are cool. But I’ve never seen the place more than half full.
On a recent beautiful sunny weekend day the hillside patio wasn’t even at ¹⁄₃ of capacity. And I just can’t figure out why.
The brunch is great. There’s a full cocktail menu, including a hand full of bloodies. I went with the house bloody and it was great as always. They make their own batches of mix each morning and todays was a little on the spicier side, but very good nonetheless.
The brunch menu is rather extensive and varies from American to Irish and traditional breakfast to lunch items.
One section of the menu does perplex however, and it’s the one marked hashes. Per Webster’s hash is defined as: «A dish of diced or chopped meat and often vegetables, as of leftover corned beef or veal and potatoes, sautéed in a frying pan or of meat, potatoes, and carrots cooked together in gravy.»
Considered yourself informed, this is not what hash is at Brocach. Their version is deconstructed, or perhaps unconstructed is a better term. They serve the meat, the potatoes and the veggies in their full form (see photo). They are not chopped and there is no gravy (but their is hollandaise). But the end result is fantastic this way.
I chose the Smoked Salmon hash and was very glad I did. The tender pink fish was cooked to perfection and was moist and flaky. The three asparagus spears has a nice sear and good flavor and the potatoes were well seasoned with onions and butter and tasted great.
Recently rumors have been flying about the possible closing of this restaurant to make way for another local favorite, but nothing has been confirmed.
Regardless, the quality of food warrants that you make plans to go sooner rather than later!

Went here before and went again yesterday and had same LONG wait for food. Almost an hour! What’s up with your kitchen staff?

Milwaukee could use a few more options for brunch. I say this because I’ve had yet to find THEE brunch place that I’d recommend when asked. However, I have to now give it to brocach — thus the 5 stars. Great brunch, great setting — both indoor (antique-​y welldone irish pub) & out (rooftop patio overlooking the river with a separate part under a shady arbor).
My dining companion picked this place (supposidely I’m wildly indecisive & take too long– pfff…) and apparently our GPS was taking us where we were going, like I was on some mystery brunch tour.
We arrived pretty early (10:45) and it was pretty empty. By the time we left the patio was nearly full.
Menu — large! Difficult to decide what to eat. I sprung for the brunch poutine with braised beef. Huge! I ate half, was super stuffed & took the rest home. This could easily feed two (or maybe 3 skinny) people.
My dining companion went with the irish breakfast and asked to try a side of orange-​honey butter for the toast, a request that was easily accommodated. The irish was meat heavy, with irish sausage, rashers (thick bacon-​y ham) & black and white pudding (i.e. more [blood] sausage.). It was pronounced «substantial» and everything was polished off while I continued to slowly work through my plate of poutine.
I had a Bellini (good, peachy) & d.c. had a bloody Mary which although not accompanied by a huge garnish, had some sort of pickled onion that was declared excellent.
The brunch items looked to range from $ 9 to $ 12.
I finally know why all those people are eating up on that roof when I run by. Excellent brunch!

Descriptive phrase: big, Irish family pub.
We made reservations for 4 for a Friday fish fry at Brocach on Water, which was a good decision as it got packed. It’s a nice, large space with bottom and top floors that both feature bars and seating. The 4 of us split the Family Style Fish ($ 60), which is more expensive per person than the standard ($ 15v$ 13), but offers you unlimited amounts of fish, coleslaw, and fries instead of just 2 pieces of fish. Definitely worth it if you have a group.
The fish was breaded and fried, and was just fine. The fries and coleslaw was the same: fine. Service was nice and the plating was pretty. I also enjoyed my Great Lakes Brewery Burning River ($ 5/​pint), which can be hard to come by on draught in MKE.
Brocach is a nice place, and a fine stop for a Friday fish fry in the city.

I go back and forth about this joint. I love the location and the décor. The whole vibe captures that Irish feel without being super cheesy about it. The upstairs is adorable! The service, however is hit or miss as are the menu options. The sugar donuts, amazing. The dish and chips, not up to par. One time, had a great server who was attentive and didn’t rush us. Another time, service was slow and then I felt rushed so the table could be turned over.
My most recent visit we did Bloodies and Sugar Donuts on a Sunday and I was satisfied all around! For that experience alone, I’d have gone 4 stars. But… alas, it wasn’t. This visit made the lack of consistency glaringly apparent.

Brocach has a fantastic trivia night on Wednesdays, including beer specials and prizes like whiskey shots and discounts off your bill! Can’t complain. Trivia night can get pretty busy so it’s best to call ahead if you want to reserve a table upstairs.
Another huge plus at Brocach is the patio on the top floor. It’s an excellent place to enjoy the sunshine for brunch on the weekend. Trivia is also on the patio during warm months.
I wouldn’t say that Brocach is my first choice for food in the neighborhood, but that’s not to say it’s lacking in quality. I just get a little bored with the selections sometimes, since the menu has a lot of meat/​potato and other heavier food options. I haven’t ever had anything that I specifically disliked, but sometimes I need some more variety.
Overall, Brocach has a great atmosphere, good beer selection and fun trivia… Worth checking out!

We stumbled across this place by accident looking for lunch. I happen to see a member of the kitchen staff outside and asked if they had lunch… Of course being Irish we had to get a beer and some lunch.
We got the Reuben sliders and garlic Parmesan fries– it was excellent. Got an IPA and a bells two hearted beers. Very good. The service was great– the only thing we didn’t like which dinged the bar one star– divider walls separate you from other bar patrons and the taps are right in the middle of the bar– if your Irish you know we love to gab. I think this takes away from the experience. I do recommend you stop in and give em a try you won’t be disappointed.

Brocach’s crew and beautiful establishment made our dreams come true this past Saturday evening as we hosted our wedding dinner and merriment on the 2^nd floor of the beautiful pub on North Water. We couldn’t have asked for better service, better food, a better location, etc. Everything we asked for was ready and waiting. We even forgot our music and the bartender was kind enough to play music from his phone until our best man retrieved our playlists! Every possible accommodation was made at a VERY reasonable price.
We absolutely recommend the food and establishment and our guests were raving about it as well. There is a minimum food & beverage fee to reserve the entire second floor and patio that was absolutely reasonable and made the entire evening affordable enough for us to have everything we wanted. With a capacity of 50, the room was intimate and yet had enough space for us to even have dancing after dinner (buffet style) and dessert. They even packaged our extra food individually and let our guests take it home.
Bathrooms– clean and in perfect condition.
Patio– breath taking views and heaters to rent made it a sweet escape our guests loved.
Food– Hands-​down the best fish fry in Milwaukee, and the pork chops, sides, and salads were all spot-​on. Something for everyone.
Drinks– with our own full-​service bar on the 2^nd floor and several cocktail waitresses, no one waited and everyone was served in in a timely and convenient manner.
Service– exceptional folks at this place. Smiling, helpful folks who wanted to make our day as special as possible by going out of their way at our every beck-​and-​call. Thorough follow-​through from Sandy, the coordinator, attentive service from bar staff and servers and even the other patrons of the bar respected our space.
We can’t thank you enough, Brocach! A special thank you to Sandy, the wonderful coordinator whose exceptional customer service skills put my mind at ease no matter what my special day through my way! :)
–The happy bride and her even happier new hubby

Went back for that shepard’s pie… veggie one. Was ok, frozen vegetables nothing very fresh. Prefer more of the pub food items on the menu.
They also have space available for private parties, which is a nice setting if your group is used to getting downtown that is!

I’ve only been to Brocach a few times but I’d have to say it’s a far better place to drink than to eat.
The interior is cozy and nice, in a «pre-​fab stereotypical Irish bar» kind of way. And there’s a hidden patio which is also surprisingly nice. Two for one bloodies and mimosas for brunch = yes.
The food… ehhhh…it’s ok. I had B&G on the recommendation of our server and it was kind of bland, and not very hot… no bueno. Service was pleasant but glacially slow.
If I were in the mood to get my drink on, I might return, but I’d be sure to eat someplace else beforehand.

Just gotta say — I believe Brocach currently makes my favorite black bean burger in the city! Those are certainly fightin words, but I’m telling ya, it’s like a thousand leprechauns doing a jig on your tastebuds!
BAM!

Brocach is the kind of place that I don’t really think I’m going to like, and then… huh. I’m pleasantly surprised. If I could give them a 3.5 for the time being, I would, but because the experience was overall pleasant and I was more concerned with my cocktail than my sandwich which was meh, I’ll round up.
Points for:
–dark woods, partitions on the bar and at the tables (which make it feel like an old-​timey train car to me)
–friendly FOH staff
–great drink specials ($ 3 taps of Old Chub… what? Dang! $ 3 Rehorst Cocktails after 10pm? Okay. Yes. I will, thankyouverymuch.)
–a nicely written and comprehensive menu
–authentic Irish Coffeeeeee
Points against:
–we came in late-​ish, and our food wasn’t that great. I’m going to chalk it up to the time we came in against when the kitchen closed, but my Rachel sandwich — and yes, I know… I’m a dork for ordering a sandwich that bears my own name, but I actually really like them when they’re done well — was not done well. It was very, very blah. Blaaahh. My bf’s burger started out great, and then, well… a discernible flavor of used fryer grease. (Maybe clean yr flattop, Brocach… then it would be, actually, pretty great.)
–street parking sucks donkey you-​know-​whats
I will go back. Yes, I will. I will hope that they clean the flattop, because a lot of their menu items are pretty interesting and could be very well-​done. Those drink special are FTW, most certainly, though. Yay.