Let me say first off that O'briens does not have any heavy competition in the Temple area, and the only reason it is getting 3 stars is because I happen to have an almost unhealthy obsession with the Trivia set here. If I find it available a little closer in a different locale, this place is going to get bumped out.
That being said, it is a bar, and for being a bar, it does pretty good as far as drink selections are concerned. Actually, it does VERY well considering again that it's in Temple Tx. They have plenty of bottles and variety to choose from, but the problem comes in when they don't stock what they advertise, leaving you with that super annoying situation where you ask for something, then you have to pick something else, and they are out of that too, and the next option, and so on. If you don't have it available, just take the bottle down until you do, and be done with it. As far as staff is concerned, I've never had a problem with having slow service, regardless of where my group of friends sat there was a waitress coming by every 5 minutes or so. I would agree that food wise, you could do a lot better by going down the block to the Italian restaurant, or for pub grub, just hit up the green door. One strange thing that I've noticed as far as seating (and this is in ALL Temple bars / restaurants) is that there is no outdoor area. For an area that has pretty decent weather most of the time, it surprises me that they don't have more outdoor venues. While downtown Temple does look (and is) a little run down, I think it would help revitalize the downtown area to have some outdoor music or seating. But then you might have to deal with the Temple railroad gremlins and hobos panhandling you in between swigs from your coors light, and nothing kills a good laugh like a smelly and disheveled man with scurvy asking for some change.
Music wise, this place annoys the living shit out of me. I don't know who picks the bands or handles the sound here, but I am beginning to suspect it is a war veteran who has lost their hearing and or ability to recognize when peoples ears are bleeding. This place plays the music WAY too loud, all the time, resulting in songs that even if you like them, are so loud that it is grating, and you can barely talk. This also is a knock on the bands, which are mostly local cover bands that attract devout followers who are blindingly entertaining to watch 'rock out'. The bands for the most part are decent, but the volume levels and overpriced cover charge (10 bucks for a local band in Temple, really?) do them in, as you can barely understand them since O'briens packed an arena sound system into a small bar. Perhaps that's where that exorbitant cover charge went....
Interestingly, these qualities all combine to make a bar that is GREAT for getting shit-house drunk in with your friends, as they have cheap beer, generally good drink specials, and they don't care if you are combatively drinking and chain smoking enough to require the purchase of government carbon credits. Overall, if you want to go tie one on, I would recommend this place. If you want to go chill and have a few beers and shoot the shit on a friday night, go someplace else. read more