O' Neill's (Holborn - London)

O' Neill's

Although not strictly in Holborn this O Neil's is slyly sandwiched between Holborn and Covent Garden. It is a double entrance chain Irish pub with a route inside that brings you down the passage from one door, past the bar to the back of the pub with its bottom-of-the-range leather chairs and then U-turns around back up the other side of the pub, back behind the bar, passing very cramped looking diners tucking into battered cod suppers and then back out of the second entrance onto the streets outside. The bar itself appears to be served by an excess of staff but then service is quite fast and the staff are polite. The problem here is that the tables seat a maximum of three people so its the furthest cry from comfortable and unfortunately only a "Ye-Olde" traditional pub can get away with such child-like size.

Overall the place is a bustling chain pub squeezed into a plot the size of a thimble and it doesn't work, once over crowded with the elderly this just feels too far from the core of Covent garden to be trendy- 3/10