Conor O'Neill's Traditional Irish Pub & Restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor
One more day in Ann Arbor. I was actually supposed to work another day, but the softball game I was supposed to work was moved to Saturday because of the threat of nasty weather. J and I got a hotel to stay in Ann Arbor Saturday night. Our plan was to go shopping on Sunday but before we could do that, we needed to find lunch.
We headed downtown to find the Prickly Pear after Amy suggested it to us. When we got there, we found a menu outside and realized we weren’t really in the mood for Southwestern so we walked down Main Street until we found someplace to get sandwiches.
Conor O’Neill’s is on South Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor. There are a lot of restaurants in the area and a lot of fancy restaurant in the area. Conor O’Neill’s offers a more price friendly alternative.
The outside of the building is painted in bright colors and really, it looks like a lot of other Irish pubs. Inside, they have the typical decor. There’s a lot of dark woods, old furniture, and Guinness signs. The walls and ceilings are hand painted with words of wisdom. We were shown to a table where one side was a padded bench an the other side had chairs that I thought I was going to break when I sat down. It creaked pretty loud when I sat down, but the furniture really added to the overall look and feel of the bar.
The ambiance includes a lot of TV’s playing soccer games. If watching soccer isn’t enough, the volume was up loud that it could have been heard over a live band. It was obnoxiously loud for the one guy who was drinking at 11:30 on a Sunday morning and watching a Manchester United game because he probably doesn’t get the channel in his dorm room.
Conor O'Neill's on Main Street in Ann Arbor.
We both went with Coke’s for lunch and we both ordered sandwiches. I passed on the burger for once and ordered the Guinness and James BBQ Pork sandwich. The sandwich was a generous portion of pulled pork on an onion roll with a sweet BBQ sauce. I actually really liked the sandwich. J took a bite of the meat and thought it tasted too much like meat and not enough like BBQ sauce. The sauce was good, but not overpowering. The sandwich came out really hot. I ended up taking the top bun off and using a knife and fork. I didn’t want to burn my lips or chin on pork that fell off.
J ordered O’Neill’s vegetarian burger. That sandwich is a fresh patty of garden vegetables char-grilled and served on an onion poppy seed bun with lettuce and tomato. She said it was good and offered me a bite, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I knew it was a veggie burger. The patty just doesn’t look appetizing to me (on any veggie burger, not just this particular one), but she seemed to enjoy it.
Both of our sandwiches came with fresh cut fries. I used some of the BBQ sauce that fell off my sandwich to dip them in. They were good and what I hope for when I order fries at a restaurant.
Our bill was just over twenty bucks, which, as regular readers know, is pretty standard. The waitress dropped off the check then disappeared for ten minutes. I swear, it must be us. There’s no one else in the restaurant, so I know she wasn’t tied up somewhere else. How long do you think it takes me to pull a credit card out of my pocket? That was really the only downside of our visit. Conor O’Neill’s is good, but it’s also pretty typical of what I expect from an Irish Pub.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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