The Red Onion Cafe

Low key place for lunch.
Friendly welcoming staff. The menu has a nice selection of burgers, sandwiches and salads.
What caught my eye was Pimento Cheese as an appetizer. Pimento cheese flavored with cumin served with carrots, celery sticks and toasted rounds of baguette. Now I know I’m in the south.
The blackened fish taco with pineapple, slaw and a pepper sauce hit the mid-​winter spot.

The French Onion soup is really good. We also ordered the White Pizza and the Thai Peanut Pizza. Both were just okay. Will try a different restaurant next time I’m in town.
The free bread was a bonus though!

Amazing food, excellent service. Our family of four adults had the spinach & artichoke dip as an appetizer (unique spin on it– loved it!), and for entrees we had the French onion soup (wow! Yum!), spinach & artichoke quesadillas, French dip sandwich, & fish tacos (delicious!). Our waitress was very sweet and attentive.

Food was great and well priced! Friendly staff. It’s nice, but still low key. There was a great variety of menu options for whatever you have in mind! Pizza, burgers, salads, even tacos! Would definitely recommend.

.Prices very reasonable. Very good artichoke dip. Rubeun was very good. Real onion rings. wait staff excellent.

I have always had a great experience with red onion restaurant. And I had a great meal with their catering service. I highly recommend them

Been here a couple of times and was disappointed. Both of my salads were super average and over priced. Chicken Caesar and Chinese chicken salad. No thank you.

Nice, clean atmosphere. Service was good. Just concerning that the parking lot was alway empty. Even at 6pm on a Saturday Ina college town! The food was good… small portions. We got the Ruben sandwich. The corned beef wasn’t home made and the sandwich was small. Fries were cooked perfectly when ordered «extra crispy «. No beer on tap. All bottles. No drink specials. Just «ok».

Local atmosphere was great with the outside dining. Nice variety of entrees to choose from for dinner; however, our waitress didn’t think to tell us what they were out of until we ordered. She definitely knew the menu and variations they could offer. She provided us service, nothing out of the ordinary, I got the impression she wanted to be anywhere but Red Onion’s. But who does not, from time to time, wish they were not at work? We can all relate. Thankfully my husband caught the automatic gratuity that had been added on before we left otherwise we may have made her night ;). I am surprised that a restraurant of this caliber feels it is necessary to automatically add 18% (we were only a party of 5) so watch out families! Thankfully we were able to change the tip we had left on top of the one Red Onion’s felt they had earned. Our food was average nothing particularly stood out. Even my favorite dessert, crème brûlée was lack luster. I like mine to have a thick caramelization on it to crack through and this one barely had any as well as was served cold. Overall nice for a local choice but with so many others to choose from probably won’t go back for a while.

Not terrible but not good. With so many choices in the area I would not go back. Overpriced for what it is and none of our food was what I would call good.

Nice lunch spot. The staff is friendly and they have a large menu of very tasty favorites. I had the Reuben/​French onion soup combo & a large side of onion rings for the table to share. Large bar & wine selection & everyone at our table really enjoyed the food!

Cute location, pretty outdoor dining area. Chose this on Unilocal reviews and was sorely disappointed. Took almost 10 minutes to get our drink order after we were seated. Other tables got complimentary bread, but we were never offered any. The nachos were terrible; chips were burned, and sliced cheese was put in the middle where it melted in a huge glob. No salsa, no sour cream, just burnt chips, cheese, and lettuce. I had the Chinese chicken salad, which was actually really tasty. Not overly sweet, well cooked chicken. Kid had salmon, which was overcooked, on a soggy polenta cake and runny, tasteless sauce. Hubs had the baked linguini, which was dry pasta with tons of cheese and minimal sauce. Save your $ and try something else.

Excellent food… Salads are great, burgers and mixed drinks. Very friendly wait staff and fair prices.

The food wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t bad!
We had the veggie pizza and the spicy veggie burger.
Veggie pizza — loved the variety of veggies on the pizza, but the fontina cheese had a very strange and almost sock-​like flavor to it. The pizza had a good crust, but was dripping in oil.
Spicy veggie burger — everything was pretty good about this, it’s just that the guacamole took away from the tastiness of the burger. The guac was very plain and lacked really any flavor.
Service was nice, water was good, decent atmosphere, cool gender-​neutral bathrooms.

Over rated. The food was meh at best. Just wasn’t feeling it. My chicken caesar was not good. It basically had what appeared to be re-​heated chicken nuggets on it. My wife’s steak was supposed to be a spicy jerk but it tasted more like instant coffee (which could have been part of the rub but it wasn’t mentioned on the menu).
I was not impressed.
I almost asked for my money back.
Save your money and go somewhere else.

So me and my girlfriend were just driving through Boone from grandfather mountain and were looking for somewhere good to eat. One of her friends that goes to App State told us that the Red Onion was a good place. My take is that the Red Onion was a great quick place to grab a bite to eat. Their atmosphere was amazing and it’s a small place but so down to earth. The people there were very kind and very helpful with the menu items. I had the BBQ burger and man was it amazing, cooked just right and just the right amount; it was gone in 3 bites. If I had someone ask somewhere to eat in Boone I would highly recommend the Red Onion!

Day 3 of road trip vacation food — dinner — The Red Onion Café
So, by day 3, my (non-​food-​adventurous) family was tired of my using Unilocal to find new and unique places to eat and so, that resulted in my boycotting lunch when the majority decided to eat a chain that is found in Orlando. I just couldn’t. By dinner time, I had them back in step and they agreed to try a Unilocal recommendation back in Boone. Yay!
We had driven around the town for a couple of days now and passed a cute little spot I noticed called The Red Onion Café. I couldn’t pass it by any longer, so on our way back from road tripping on Day 3 (we traveled from North Carolina, to Virginia, back through Tennessee, and finally back to North Carolina) we stopped to eat dinner. It was a long day and I couldn’t wait to try this place out. (Boone is very close to where we stayed in Blowing Rock and there are tons of great restaurants to eat in both places.)
We had very attentive and helpful service for dinner, and after taking our drink order we were served warm bread with an olive oil and seasoning for dipping.
My mom decided on a salad, and opted for the house garden salad with mixed greens, red onions, carrots, cucumbers, button mushrooms, and tomatoes.
I believe she requested some feta and pepperoncini. The salad came with a soft roll.
My dad ordered a burger with fries. (I told you there were non-​adventurous food types in our party. My dad likes his burgers plain.)
I chose their tuna melt with a side of pasta salad. The tuna melt comes on an English muffin, is smothered in cheddar cheese and topped with alfalfa sprouts. The pasta salad came topped with parmesan cheese shavings. It was very good.
Back to her usual order, the child chose chicken nuggets and a fruit cup.
I really enjoyed our meal at The Red Onion Café and would definitely go back when we visit North Carolina again in December of this year.
The Red Onion Café is located at 227 Hardin St. Boone, NC 28 607. You can read more about them on their website at
. They are also on Facebook at
and you can follow them on Twitter @Red_Onion_Cafe.
Check them out!

We had the Fajita Wrap — Very Good
French Onion Soup — Extremely Good!
Fried zucchini — Extremely Good!
Best dining we have had so far on our vacation!

Have always had a good meal at the establishment.
Servers are almost 100% college students.

This was my second time here. Last time was three years ago.
I have to say this is one of my favorite Boone restaurants. It’s a bit small inside, but atmosphere is good, service is better.
Had the pimento cheese appetizer. It was huge, way too much for the two of us. Plus they serve carrots and celery with the pimento cheese and bread. A great value at 6.99 for this appetizer.
Both are our entrees were excellent. I had the Cajun Chicken Pasta. I couldn’t finish it, but it was very tasty. My only minor comment would be there is too much broccoli in the order. My wife had a veggie burger which she said was excellent, in fact much better than one she had at Canyons in Blowing Rock.
Dessert? Too stuffed to even consider it. All in all, an excellent meal and very good value.