O'Neills, Sutton Coldfield

O�Neil�s hasn�t changed much in the last eight or so years apart from a slight revamp. I have drank in this place on and off since the dying days of the conservatory through the Pat O�Connell�s days (the first mock Irish incarnation), before the new and not really improved O�Neill�s. There are severally alarmingly wrong things about the place, which I didn�t mind as much when I was 18 or 19 at 28 I won�t really tolerate it as much.
1. The service is terrible and it takes an eternity to get a drink and the bar staff on the whole are rude.
2. The toilets are worse than ones at a festival.
3. The place stinks worse now than it did before the smoking ban.
4. People you haven�t seen from school (for a good reason) always seem to be in there.
5. It�s got a strange combination of Chav�s and people of an age who should really know better ( I would suggest beyond the age of 35 screaming the words out to Chesney Hawkes is a mite sad).
6. The smoking ban means having to go outside which makes things a nightmare for the bouncers.
7. The same songs I heard when I was an 18 year old drinking Caffery�s still ring out now and I am 28.
8. I have and know of people who have had their drinks spiked in there.
9. Bouncers are incredibly slow sorting out trouble sometimes and other times very over zealous.
10. They always seem to shut the top bar even though the place is rammed.
On getting a drink, if you have never been to this place on the weekend, well it should be an Olympic event. When you do finally get served getting away from the bar is an even bigger trauma as people position themselves to claim your spot at the bar, you then have to negotiate the dance floor area full of drunk sawing jumping and generally have no control of their bodies. Therefore it is an art and a skill to getting to where you are standing or sitting with full drinks.
But even with all these fundamental issues bizarrely for a bit of reminiscing its actually good fun in there, it�s a pub which hasn�t really moved on from the late 90s and the days of Blur, Oasis and TGI Fridays, which is nice in a way as you can kinda remember how you felt when you were that age as it really hasn�t changed, but not somewhere I would go more than once every 6 months, mainly due to the fact I don�t want to now fall into the category of someone who should know better around all the kids in there!

9 Apr 2008 17:35

The Duke, Sutton Coldfield

The Duke Inn is a pub you would miss if you didn�t know it was there, which I am sure its locals prefer it that way, it�s a funny little place which is friendly and worth a look for a drink in the centre of Sutton Coldfield which feels like it�s off the beaten track.
The bar area and the pub is small and intimate, they sometimes put the football on and it�s a good place to watch it as you can always see the screen. The choice of beers is good and the cask ales are great. With a beer garden as well it�s a little gem but probably not one for a Friday or Saturday if you are under 30 years old, but a great place for a quick pint during the week. Plus its chav free from what I saw.

9 Apr 2008 16:53

The Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield

I must have visited a different pub to these reviews!!
I went into this place on a pub crawl with a mate of mine after I had just moved back to the area. The pub interior is tired and in need of a refurbishment, there is decent space, but the majority of the tables were dirty. The staff were quick to serve locals but slow and rude to us non locals. The beer was alright but then again I only had lager and the prices were ok. The food looked like the standard stuff you get in those sort of pubs but I wouldn�t eat there when there are two really good curry houses near by! It was half full and 75% of them were chav�s of various ages and people who are old enough to know better.
Alright for a drink on the way through but not somewhere I would want to spend too long in.

9 Apr 2008 16:37