What can you say about JJ’s that hasn’t been said dozens of times over? Well, it’s big and it’s friendly and they have some really good drinks promotions such as ladies’ nights at BD4. There’s live music four nights a week with a really good UK cover band, The Noise, and regular karaokes and quiz nights.

What we like about JJ’s is that, once you’ve been there a few times, you can walk in in the certain knowledge you’ll find at least someone you know and, if you don’t, bar manager Siyana will make sure you don’t feel left out.

We’ve also always been very impressed with the security staff. You’re never more than a couple of metres from a big guy in a red shirt and there is never any trouble because, even though the place can get packed out, the team is on top of everything the whole time.

The food’s good, though it can be a bit unpredictable. We love the Irish stew with soda bread.

Drinks prices are reasonable, pretty much on a par with everywhere else, and the bar staff are happy to mix up strange concoctions if you ask them.

Next door is JJ’s Music Hall where they put on events and band performances and with which we’re not so impressed. The acoustics aren’t great and it seems a real pain trundling up and down the stairs from one to the other - not surprsingly, the music hall never seems to be particularly full but that’s probably because anyone with sense wants to stay in JJ’s where you’ll usually have a much better time.