FOR this week’s review I decided to head to a chain pub that, to me, feels far from a bland, brand pub.

Having had many good nights at O’Neill’s in St Nicholas Street over the years, I had never actually eaten in there so felt it was time to give the Irish influenced pub a proper chance.

When you walk in, immediately you are struck by how interesting this place is.

It is bright, helped by the natural light coming in from the large windows, and has a modern feel with LED boards, and televisions showing sporting events.

However, balancing this, the decor is traditional – an old Irish pub feel. Added to this you have Guinness-inspired memorabilia on the walls, including parts of beer barrels hanging up.

The things that particularly caught my eye were a recipe for Irish stew and an enormous Guinness mirror.

A glance at the menu and I could see there was a good choice, particularly with a variety of pub classics including scampi and chips, ham, egg and chips, chicken and mushroom pie, chicken and beef dishes.

There is also an impressive breakfast menu featuring classic favourites, continental, breakfast butties and Stateside style dishes – all served until noon.

For anyone taking their family, it is likely the children’s menu would be a disappointment though, featuring only three mains.

The drinks menu offers good choice, with cocktails, fruit lager and cider, and of course Guinness.

When I went up, I did have to wait a few minutes to get served as the bar was not attended – a pet hate of mine.

But when I was served, staff were friendly and helpful, as they took my order of a traditional fish and chips, and a pint of Peroni, a favourite of mine which seems to be rare to find in pubs lately.

I paid £3.95 for the Peroni, which I feel is not a bad price for a quality pint, and £9.49 for the meal, which again seemed good value for money.

I wasn’t waiting too long for the food and to be fair the fish and chips – always the test of any pub – were good quality.

The chips in particular were impressive – proper chunky, and a good portion on the plate.

While I was eating I was impressed with bar staff, who were calling for a taxi for some customers who were needing to get home – I like to see that sort of service, staff going above and beyond to help their customers.

It was early evening when I visited so it was difficult to gain an impression of the atmosphere at peak time, but the buzz was slowly building as it got near 7pm, and I know from experience that O’Neill’s is one of the popular places used for many city centre pub crawls so tends to get busier late in the evening.

There are pub machines and a pool table that seems always in use, while toilets can be found downstairs at the back of the pub and were being attended to as I walked in – another good sign of a professional outfit.

There are also music nights featuring performances from Irish folk to indie, held every Friday to Sunday.

Overall I would thoroughly recommend O’Neill’s, and I expect to be heading back there soon.