THERE are a lot of people who don’t like chains, And O’Neill’s is a chain, owned by Mitchell and Butler, one on the UK’s largest pub-owning companies, with 49 branches across England, Wales and Scotland (though not in Northern Ireland. I guess there they don’t need faux-Irish bars).

I paid a visit on a Friday lunchtime, and the place was less busy than I had expected.

There was a small group of men roughly of retirement age at one end of the bar, clearly there for a noontime beer and chat. They were obviously regulars and were on good terms with the bar staff.

Elsewhere, there were a few diners in couples scattered around the main open space of the bar, which was decorated in unadventurous style, emphasising bare wood.

The bar carried a large number of beer taps, dispensing Guinness – of course – Coors lager and a range of other beers. The pub also stocks a selection of bottled and canned beers sourced from independent makers including Brewdog, Beavertown and Goose Island.

Magners Cider – another Irish brand – is also available, along with a variety of fruit-flavoured ciders.

Judging by its website, with banner for upcoming football and rugby matches, the pub is also a magnet for sports fans, and it also hosts live music, mostly but not exclusively on Fridays and Saturdays.

What about the food? The menu emphasises pub classics, including, naturally, Irish stew, sausage and colcannon mash, and steak and Guinness pie, along with steaks, burgers and so on.

A breakfast menu is available until noon, and there is a kids’ menu, with no item priced higher than £2.99.

Back on the main menu, the biggest item was the Mega Mixed Grill, featuring an eight-ounce rump steak, seven-ounce gammon steak, chargrilled chicken fillet and three sausages with chips, onion rings, and other trimmings, setting for £13.79.

But I wasn’t feeling that ambitious, so settled for the seven-ounce gammon steak, which came topped with a pineapple ring and fried egg, weaved with chips and peas, priced at £7.29.

The food came reasonably quickly, and the gammon proved to be perfectly acceptable, trimmed free of all fat and properly grilled.

The pineapple ring garnish had also been grilled, instead of being simply plonked on the cooked gammon, something that makes all the difference, and also showing that somewhere in the pub’s kitchen was someone who thought and cared about what they were doing.

All in all, it was a perfectly acceptable meal for the price, and filling enough that I didn’t feel the need for a dessert – if I had, I could have chosen a Belgian chocolate brownie, treacle sponge, baked vanilla cheesecake, or a number of other choices.

So, yes, O’Neill’s is s chain, and in some ways the world would be a better place if there were fewer chains and more independence traders.

But people go to these places for a reason, and in this case the reason could well be reasonable food at reasonable prices.

It’s not a gastronomic experience by any means, but I don’t think anyone goes there expecting that.