O’Neills
1374 BARTON ST E,
HAMILTON, ON
L8H 2W3
Phone: 905-549-7066
* No current website*
O’Neill’s seems to have almost legendary status in east end. Ask anyone about it pretty much and always seems to be same thing. Always mentioned is the massive Pugger Burger and a close second is damn good milk shakes. Now years ago I had tried O’Neill’s for delivery, actually a few times but to this day I have never stopped in. Never really has occured to me to do so.
So needing a change on a rare Friday night we were both off, and facing abysmal rainy weather, Melissa and I debated what to do for dinner, of course was the old standbys, but we wanted something more. O’Neill’s came to mind. Now one major issue, is a lack of website and/or an online menu. This is 2011 people, and both or one or the other would no doubt increase sales. I found the menu for the Mountain location online, which is apparently under different ownership now, so I used it as a guideline.
Calling O’Neill’s on a Friday night was a chore of sorts, they are definitely doing fair business, it took 5 calls to get thru, all other calls prior were greeted with a voicemail asking to callback, which can be off putting and may even cause some people to go elsewhere, but I endured. I over ordered as I always seem to, and it turns out the Barton location prices are lower than the mountain, which was a pleasant surprise.
We both ordered a pugger burger, a 1 pound burger that comes with onion rings, I of course went with my usual, mustard, mayo and pickles, the burger already had bacon and cheese included. These were decent value at $7.49 each, one of the cheapest in town even. I also ordered a combo platter that had 3 pizza fingers and 3 chicken strips with fries $8.95, and a deluxe garlic bread $6.95 and of course 2 chocolate shakes. Delivery was shockingly cheap at $2.50, there are places on this block that are almost double that, and O’Neills is a good 10 minutes away from here.
Food arrived very fast considering how busy they were, maybe took a bit over 30 minutes. My burger was well cooked and well seasoned, was a little sparse on the condiments I ordered but was pretty good otherwise. It had a nice garlic taste to it and the bacon was cooked perfectly. The cheese was kind of overwhelmed by the beef, maybe ordering an extra slice could fix this. The deluxe garlic bread, a previous favorite of mine, was a letdown, on 2 reasons, First was my own fault, I had forgotten to specify I wanted hot peppers, you have to ask, and secondly and a major issue at that, it was placed in one of those styrofoam to go containers, so was a soggy soaking wet mess. I am sure last time they sent it in a foil wrap, which prevented this, it was definitely a miss for sure. The onion rings with the burger were very good, crispy and well cooked, were a perfect side. The combo platter, which we had bought for the Pizza fingers, we had loved them before, was not so good either. There was a good amount of fries, which were not in greatest form from the styrofoam container, but they were still ok, the chicken strips were a little smaller than most places, but were pretty good, the plum sauce it came with was excellent but was not enough in the container. But the main attraction, the pizza fingers were just plain awful. Way over fried and I came to realize they are the $10 a bag variety from Food Basics, which I on occasion buy and fry up myself, much better than these were. Safe to say this old favorite item has passed on for us.
My biggest surprise was the chocolate shakes, $3.95, for a really good size. I am not one for ice cream, shakes or anything the like. As well, I am not a chocolate person, but I have to say these shakes were excellent, very thick and had a very good chocolately flavor. I would definitely get them again.
O’Neill’s has definitely a sort of cult following and I can see why, The prices are very fair, food for the most part is very good and portions are huge. This isn’t gourmet or healthy but it’s plain and simple comfort food, great for a rainy day in. A website is so needed tho c’mon please??
Rating: 8.25 out of Ten