O'Briens Irish Sandwich Bar

Another guest blogger here, this time Stephen Boyce of It's a Big Shopping Centre - haigh and Rate This Toilet.

O'Briens Sandwich Bar,
Wilton Shopping Centre,
Wilton,
Cork.

I can honestly say that having had various experiences of O'Briens this is one that I would make an effort *not* to go to again.

When they changed the Triple Decker I forgave them and found a new sandwich, but I can say that over the last few years I have found staff getting less friendlier and the food disimproving. There are less fillings and higher prices and this particular sandwich bar really hit a new low.

I had asked for something simple: ham and cheese on white bread with mayo. Mayo was put onto only one slice of bread, then one slice of ham and a squeeze of cheese to the centre (imagine closing your fingers together and what you fit in the middle was it). I asked for a cappuccino which was roasting hot and undrinkable, hardly any froth and what was there was burnt. I tried adding milk in but I still couldn't drink the coffee.

I had intended in sitting there for 40mins or so, eating a nice sandwich, drinking the coffee and reading my book but instead I lasted about 15 mins (including queuing time) and left quite disgusted at my eight wasted Euros.

nosh + coffee

Ballincollig Town Centre
Main St., Ballincollig

I will actually be making an effort to *not* go to this cafe again. It is conveniently close to work. Has a great selection of items: smoothies, sandwiches, bagels, cookies, coffee, juices, and so forth but the service was terrible and the food wasn't that great either.

I went with Matilda, and we both decided to get the cranberry and brie baguette. The girl at the counter had no idea what we were talking about, and behaved as if she didn't believe this item existed on the menu. Undeterred, we explained where it was and continued on.

When our sandwiches came they only had brie and cranberry on them... no sign of rocket (despite there only being 3 ingredients for this sandwich on the menu, it appeared that they had forgotten 1/3 of them). I brought the sandwiches back up and told the person that I thought there was supposed to be rocket on the sandwiches. She paused for a second from cleaning the grill and turned around to say, 'We're out of rocket,' and turned back around again. The sandwich would have been pretty extra crap as it was, so I said, 'Could we get some salad or something on them then?'.

As we were eating, our juice and smoothie came. My smoothie had the same consistency as Matilda's juice. And 3 separate times while we were eating our brie with a tad of bread sandwiches we were asked if other orders belonged to us.

I give it a 1.5: the food was edible and the atmosphere/location great.
Would i go back? Not willingly.