O'Connor's Public House

"Great Irish pub. Very authentic from the drinks and the food down to the atmosphere. O'Connor nails it. Had such a great time. Our server Lorna made our experience super special!!! She was efficient friendly and professional. She helped recommend our flights of craft beers and steered us towards the Best entrees. I have never been before. But food and service are world class. Was lucky enough to enjoy real live Irish music from a Galick band. Well done O'Connors"

"The green checkered paper is a somewhat common variant of the more common red, but I think it’s just one of a couple dozen ways O’Connor’s leans into the Irish aesthetic. Since the closest I’ve been to Ireland is the Manchester airport, I can’t speak to its authenticity, or whether or not Irish cuisine is full of obviously frozen onion rings, as these are. They look decent, as frozen rings go: thick, plump, and juicy. There’s also clear signs they were seasoned after frying with salt and pepper, a trivial step that most places ignore. Despite the thickness, they seem to be a bit overdone, with some onion rings either stuck together or cracked in twain. A lilting cup of undefined dipping sauce completes the platter, perched in such a way that it threatens to spill at the slightest provocation. Regular readers will know my long-standing disdain for the frozen Brew City Onion Rings which these, of course, are. They probably came off the same truck that delivered them to Rochester Mills Brewing Company just down the street, a crack in the “authentic Irish” facade. There’s little reason to dwell on the many deficiencies of frozen onion rings (bland batter, flavorless onions), but the additional seasoning manages to elevate them a little beyond the pack. It might be the extra salinity, but the batter does taste a little sweeter than frozen onion rings usually do. The onions, however, are wet and tasteless, more water-logged and sopping than either juicy or greasy. They’re clearly overdone, but not so much so that the moisture is completely gone, though perhaps that would have been better. The sauce is a bizarre blend of bland, the sort of mayonnaise based accompaniment that makes up roughly half of the calories in a standard American diet, and overpowering. There’s an aggressive aftertaste lurking in the orange sauce that sneaks up on you. To its credit, it is a lot spicier than I expected, but it’s a complete mismatch with the middling flavor of the onion rings. I often call onion rings overcooked, but this should be better understand as a gradient scale rather than a binary status. The terminal stage is when the onion rings are burnt husks, bordering on inedible. Before that, there’s a point at which all moisture has evaporated from the onion, but the batter might remain edible. These onion rings are at a stage before that, one where they cooked just long enough to turn the onions to mush and the batter to crumbly bits, but where both are still, at least vaguely, recognizable as belonging to an onion ring. The wet onions lead to slippage galore, with several instances where the entire onion slice spews out of the rigid batter like an albino snake squirming through a hole in a dark cave. The batter, while texturally superior to the onion (if only slightly), simply has no give, an ossified, fossilized layer of earth. Everyone knows about the roles that supply and demand play in price formation, but fewer discuss the role of other firms in the marketplace. When you have a competitor just down the street charging $7.95 for defrosting some tasteless onion rings, your price of $7.99 is in line with consumer expectations, regardless of the actual quality. While I understand why O’Connor’s is charging that much for a basket of sub-par, poorly prepared onion rings, that doesn’t make the value, or the food, any better."

"Everything is fantastic! Good food and upbeat atmosphere, where you can bring your pooches to sit on the back deck. Smoked Salmon appetizer is my go too."

"Everything was great. We ate here a year ago and don't know why we waited so long to return. Make sure your party is ready to share. The hard part is deciding what to eat. With four in our party, luckily I was able to sample four different entries. Now I have more choices to make next time I come, I'll be back."

"I came out on a day they the head chef was off. The kitchen staff put together these incredible dishes. It is great to know that the staff can prepare wonderful dishes in the absence of the head chef. The quality of their food is outstanding! Shout out to Alyssa and Stephanie, floor managers for their assistance. They are both very friendly and helpful. I had the Pub Streak. So good. The gravy was very flavorful.This establishment has been a staple in Rochester Hills for 17 years and is one of the most popular hot spots here. I can see why. Friendly staff, plentiful libation choices and of course the food! I highly recommend and recommend all the dishes pictured in this review."