The haddock at Brewery Bay Food Co arrives in a batter made with Couchiching's Sunshine City blonde ale, and that one detail explains more about the restaurant than its sign does. Brewery Bay is a downtown Orillia pub that picked up its identity in late 2024 and moved roughly a hundred metres into Couchiching Craft Brewing Co.'s taproom at 162 Mississaga Street East. The Fish & Chips order — haddock in the ale batter, fries, slaw, tartar and lemon — is now the cleanest illustration of why the move made sense. The kitchen still cooks pub comfort, and the brewery now shares the address. A dozen Couchiching taps stand beside the menu rather than behind it.
The current card is broad pub comfort with a few clear house anchors. The Smash Mac Burger stacks a smashed AAA beef chuck patty with house pickles, Chef's mac sauce, orange cheddar, shredded iceberg and a brioche bun, and it is the order that defines the burger lane. Pitachos and José Nachos handle the shareable start. Pork Barbacoa Tacos, the Whipped Feta Cheese Bowl, Smoky Bacon Grilled Cheese and a Portobello Ranch Wrap give the menu reach without losing the pub frame. Vegetarian and vegan swaps run through almost every section — Vegan Chicken Tacos and a Sweet 'n' Spicy Veggie Burger sit on the same page as the Kitchen Sink Burger and Jumbo Chicken Wings. The Sunshine Cookie Skillet is the dessert nobody hands off: a warm chocolate-chip cookie under vanilla ice cream and house chocolate sauce, finished in the cast iron it baked in.
Brewery Bay has more than three decades of local memory behind it, and the current version keeps that history visible rather than replacing it with a generic taproom concept.
The move into Couchiching Craft Brewing gives the restaurant a beer program that is part of the room, not an add-on, with the menu shaped around pub food that belongs beside local taps.
Burgers, wings, tacos, Fish & Chips, salads, wraps, vegetarian swaps, and shareables make the menu easy to use for mixed tables without losing the core pub identity.
Brewery Bay now sits inside Couchiching's taproom, so the beer program is part of the room rather than an add-on. The food works in that lane too, from ale-battered Fish & Chips to burger-and-wings orders that make sense beside local taps.
The menu is built around pub comfort with enough house detail to keep it from feeling generic. Fish & Chips, Smash Mac Burger, Pitachos, nachos, tacos, and the Sunshine Cookie Skillet give the kitchen multiple anchors for a relaxed meal.
The calendar gives Brewery Bay a reason to check the date before choosing a night. Trivia, live music, drag shows, sing-alongs, and community nights make the upstairs and patio activity part of the visit.
This is a better fit for a social night than a quiet, formal dinner. The room has taps, shareable food, events, and enough history with local regulars to feel lived-in when the night gets going.
Groups have easy menu math here: nachos and Pitachos are shareable, tacos come in threes, and wings, burgers, and wraps cover different appetites. Higher Ground and the events calendar add another reason to gather around a date.
Share the nuances of your visit to Brewery Bay Food Co in Orillia — the standout dishes, the room, the service.
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