O'Neill's - Montpellier, Cheltenham

Thursday 4th February 2010

This is a Crackerjack review of O'Neills. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.

Family friendly: 7 / 10.
Range of drinks: 9 / 10.
Atmosphere: 10 / 10.
Food and drink: 8 / 10.

Like those 40 shades of green, it’s only 40 days ’til St Patrick’s Day and it’s best to start building up stamina now, I find.

To kick-start the training, we headed to O’Neill’s in Cheltenham’s Montpellier for a bite to eat, a pint of the black stuff and a Jameson chaser – or three.

During race week and on Paddy’s Day, the Montpellier bar is, as they say in Dublin, jammers.

So if you want to avail yourself of the craic, drink a good pint of Guinness and feast on Bantry Bay mussels, now’s the time to do it before the March rush marches in.

O’Neill’s, as a chain, is a jolly affair with Guinness memorabilia everywhere, Magners and Smithwick’s on tap, famous Irish quotes daubed on the brightly painted walls, low lighting and a decent, pubby menu. Plus it’s always lively.

The decor screams “we’re Irish”, and so does the food. On the menu, they make much of Limerick ham, County Kildare steaks and Cashel Blue cheese from Tipperary – and why ever not?

Puritans will be sniffy, but as theme bars go, O’Neill’s does it well and manager George Doyle makes sure of a welcome as warm as a roaring peat fire.

He’s just introduced a new grill section with calves’ liver and bacon, lamb chops and ribeye steaks, plus there are pies, burgers, sandwiches and salads to choose from, too.

Better still, if you’re really feeling the pinch, you can tuck into a decent-sized portion of Irish stew, sausages and colcannon or Limerick ham quiche for just £2.99.

Strictly authentic? Maybe not, but I can’t imagine you’d find better value this side of the Irish sea – and probably not across it either.

We started with an eclectic mix of what O’Neill’s calls “pickers and sharers”. You can order individual dishes for £2.49, but we were lured by the £8.49-for-four deal.

Earthenware bowls of steaming chilli beef nachos, grilled prawn skewers, sausage skewers and potato wedges with bacon and Irish cheddar arrived in a matter of minutes.

The nachos were deliciously spicy with dollops of salsa, sour cream and guacamole, the bacon wedges crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside and the sausages beautifully herby.

The prawn skewers weren’t exciting, but were pleasant nonetheless.

In truth, given the size of the dishes, we ought reasonably to have stopped there, but we were swayed by the promise of a burger.

Marianne went for the barbecue version – a great hunk of Irish beef topped with thick bacon and melted cheese and smokey barbecue sauce.

The bacon wasn’t as crispy as we might have liked, but it (and the £4.99 price tag) was a small price to pay for a plate of good pub grub.

Cashel Blue is high on my agenda at the best of times – I’ve been known to eat it for breakfast – and, melted with cheddar atop the two-cheese burger, it was tremendous, though I’d have loved a thicker slice of the blue.

Piping hot thick-cut chips, crunchy coleslaw and a dash of chilli tomato sauce completed the picture.

Sadly we had no room for pudding, though we could have plumped for standard pub puds like chocolate fudge cake, sundaes or apple tart.

What you won’t get in O’Neill’s is Michelin-starred finesse, but when you’re watching the rugby (every Six Nations game from tomorrow will be shown) or the footie on a Saturday afternoon, you neither want nor need that.

What it does dish up is good, honest, well-prepared pub grub and a well-kept pint, and there’s live music, too – which is considerably more than you can say about your average pub chain. Sláinte!

Tanya Gledhill

This is a Crackerjack review of O'Neills. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.