O'neill's Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

Our visit to O’Neill’s today was a chance one. I’ve been local to the area for a long time and have always enjoyed O’Neill’s for the live music and an evening drink with friends however I’ve never eaten there. After our visit today, that will change. We were there with friends and our young children. In total there were 7 of us and we were definitely at the point of hanger when we arrived. We were greeted so warmly by Eamon like long lost friends and he generally couldn’t do enough to help us. As the face of the establishment during our visit, you couldn’t ask for a better one. He was engaged with us all, including the children, checked in on us and ensured that we didn’t want for anything. He definitely made the visit for us and would go back without a second thought due to the amazing service we received. As for the food, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know how good it was at O’Neill’s! Genuinely one of the best burgers I have ever had (Guinness burger) rivalling many other establishments. Our party also had a pizza, a mixture of the small plates as well as a mixed grill. All of us were silent eating which you know is a good sign. Then once finished, we all sang the chef’s/kitchen team’s praises. They have customers for foreseeable visits to Oxford and will happily direct friends to give O’Neill’s a visit. Yes it’s an amazing drinking evening venue however it’s equally amazing for food even for family visits. Thank you so much Eamon and team, keep up the...

Shockingly had a disappointed visit last night to watch the boxing. We had pre-booked a table almost 1 month in advance from 17:00pm to watch the boxing (pre-lims included, we were not just there for the main event hence the time booked). Where we were placed was just absurd and we spoke to 2 members of staff about this as we had 2 tv’s to watch from but one had the golf on. Completely understandable that someone had booked a table to watch the golf but why would you place a booking for 12 people in that area too who booked 1 month in advance to watch the boxing when there was a great space in the other side of the pub?

Moving on to the food, we were shocked at the portion size of the curry and the dryness of the burgers. Also, almost £4 for a side of chips in the tiniest pot and they were just plain chips?! Then the baileys sundae is the most basic dessert, 2 people found not worth the money. A few scoops, with a little sauce and dab of whipped cream.

The service was good, but the atmosphere was dry and at about 19:00pm they decided to turn the music up to the point we were raising our voices to talk to each other, and no sound from the tv’s for the fights. It wasn’t even like anyone was dancing. Just unnecessary to try and get an atmosphere going which just was not there.

We left at just gone 20:30pm and moved on to watch the fight at a better place where...

Avoid this pub - we asked for garlic bread and the bartender mistakenly put the order for cheesy garlic pizza (the most expensive order possible) - probably deliberately to get us to spend as much money as possible. When we went to pay, we realised it was much higher price than garlic bread so we said “we asked for garlic bread” and he said “I thought you wanted cheesy garlic pizza”. In any other establishment, the bartender would change the order as we hadn’t yet paid. But this bartender forced us to pay for his mistake, saying he couldn’t change the order?? I mean… what sort of establishment forces a customer to pay and eat something that they didn’t order, especially when it was HIS mistake? AVOID THIS PLACE at all costs - £7.60 for a mediocre pint. Awful service and mean staff. The pizza (which we didn’t want and were forced to pay for - probably illegal) was awful.

UPDATE

The response is a blatant lie. We had NOT yet paid when the bartender had told us that we had to pay for the cheesy garlic pizza. I’ve worked in hospitality, been to hundreds of pubs and never encountered this absurdity. I’m astonished really, and might have to take this up with the city council.

AVOID THIS PUB...