Red Onion Cafe

DATELINE: Jan 30 – 2015:
YUP It did reopen as the Main Street Social with new owners. See
for their new website. Food and service are great with the new owners.

Fun spot. Gorgonzola chips are outstanding. Craft beer list is great. Pork chop special I’d go back for. Service by Diamond was friendly, professional and great. Vibe in the bar on a Friday night was lively.

The epitome of Unilocalish! (New word… thank you very much). Red onion does most of their menu extremely well. The Salads and Crab Cakes are slap your great aunt good. The steak could use some work, however. Tough and a bit too much fat… this won’t stop me from coming back to this hidden gem.

Home made, good solid pub food and great specials. Stuff is usually a bit under seasoned but they have salt and pepper shakers to fix that.
We have eaten here many times and the food is always fresh, hot, and tasty.

Cute little hole in the wall type of place. Less than 20 tables and TONS of character!
Everything was made to order and my fish and chips were fresh out of the fryer. I didn’t care for the coleslaw but my Wife ordered a goat cheese burger with a special house sauce that was deliciously spicy which we LOVED!
Reminds me of Cheers! Great to have a little place that cooks locally grown food in Ohio instead of all the chain restraurants.

One of my favorite spots to have lunch! My favorite dish would be the chicken Caesar wrap. Just the right about of dressing and the kettle chips that accompany it are simply delicious! Great atmosphere! And ask about their desserts, always something different to try from a local bakery. Nom nom nom !

Much nicer on the inside than it looks outside. Friendly staff. Fairly expensive for what you get. Meals for the kids were nearly $ 10 with drinks. Definitely OK, but I don’t know that I’d go out of my way.

I recently had lunch here with my family and unfortunately I think we ran into the classic chef/​owner scenario where if the chef is there its good, if not its bad. When I say bad, I mean the backup cook must be part time at McDonalds. The food was aweful, my wife’s meal was so bad she sent it back after one bite. My dad and I forced a good amount of it and washed it down with a pint of the flat beer they served us. My dads stomach was upset after the meal and I had to pull over on the way home. Service was also the worst I’ve had in a very long time. If you want a good chef/​owner experience, try Brown Dog Café, won’t be back to the onion.

This is a nice local joint with a small pub atmosphere. We ordered Stella and Oberon on tap and the calamari for an appetizer. The service was prompt, but not overly friendly. The calamari was flavorful and spicy, but not consistent and we agreed that we’ve had better. Wife had the Philly Cheesesteak and while it was tasty, the bread was average and she skipped the bread. I had the roast beef sandwich with Bleu cheese. Bread was better but the sandwich was average. We enjoyed it, but it was just average pub fare. I’d recommend it, but not rave about it.

Good place to go if you are out by the outlets. I had the lunch crab cakes and my husband had a roast beef wrap. Both were delicious. Way better to get a meal here then stop by the food court at the outlets.

Stopped in here over Mother’s Day weekend with my family. It has all the makings of a great restaurant. There’s a lot of ambition in the menu, but it falls short in its execution.
Of the 4 diners, only 1 of us love their meal.
I ordered the crab and shrimp alfredo, and was told by the waitress that the crab meat and shrimp were fresh. Sadly, one bite into the nice sized shrimp proved to me that it was indeed of the frozen variety. The alfredo sauce was good, if not lacking for a certain savoriness.
The «fresh» salmon was reported to be dry, and needed an extra side of the sauce poured over it.
The steak looked great when brought out to the table, but was found to have a lot of fat and gristle. Not exactly what you expect from a $ 20 steak.
The dish that looked the best, and was the only one raved about after its consumption, was their roast beef sandwich.
Overall, the place has certain merits but is still a little rough around the edges.

The building looks old and broken down on the outside because it’s a historic landmark building but once you are inside the café/​bar it’s actually pretty nice inside. Just opening the front door you get hit with this armoma of good food cooking and instantly your brain is all like «Man this was a good idea… can’t wait to get that in my stomach.»
So yeah the food was great as expected and service was top notch. Very friendly laid back atmosphere in the afternoon. I’m a little hesitant to go back and try it for dinner because it’s very small inside and I’m told the wait times can be long. I dunno might be worth it though. So many great things on the menu to try.

Great home town bar atmosphere, with a terrific kitchen. Specials are nearly always the way to go, though their kettle chips with blue cheese and balsamic glaze are a favorite appetizer.

We love this gem! The food is consistently terrific and the daily specials offer a good variation to the standard menu. The ambiance and feel of the restaurant is perfect for me, casual, small, and feels just right.
If you cant be bothered to write your own name down and wait a while, or if you are expecting suit or coat environment… don’t bother this is not the right place for you.

Had an excellent meal here. Fish tacos were superb as was the soup. Love the atmosphere of places like this; a little quirky, little off beat, little hole in the wall… but the food and service are excellent!

The food is good, although very rich. I had the hummus to start which came with homemade tortilla strips which were good. I then had one of the specials, the Chicken Kiev which was almost a little too rich for me. It came with a cream sauce, buttered pastry layers, and the chicken also had a breading– definitely a special occasion kid of food.
The beer menu is good, and the service is very friendly although a bit forgetful at times. The dining room is a bit small but comfortable. Overall this is a good place for special occasions and has reasonable prices and a local feel.

This is a 3 and a halfer that I am going to bump to 4. Why you ask? Well let me tell you. It is a small restaurant. We waited for about 15 minutes for a table and the waiting area is tight. There was limited room at the bar as well. That was a huge drawback and may be one of the reasons we won’t frequent the place (we were there on a Monday night too). Atmosphere is that of a typical hole in the wall bar joint. It is clean though which is the main thing.
Onto the food… Friend pickle spears are a must. Super yum!!! Loved the dipping sauce too. I ordered the portabello mushroom sandwich with grilled veggies and cheese and it was really not that great. It was small and virtually tasteless. The vegetables were fresh but definitely not something I would order again. My husband had the burger which I noshed on. It was pretty good. Nothing out of this world but good nonetheless and definitely filling. The real winner here is the pumpkin cake. Wow! Skip dinner and eat that. Seriously. It was phenomenal. Moist cake layered between fabulously wonderful cream cheese. My husband is not a big dessert person but he did love this. A definite must.
The staff is wonderful! Everyone was attentive and helpful. My drink was not refilled but that was not a huge deal. Overall, we may or may not be back. Food and service were pretty good but the size of the place and potential wait may deter us. Give em a try and make your own decision. I doubt you will be disappointed.

I saw this place while looking for new places to eat around Middletown. Seeing the reviews I just had to go.
Walking in the place, it is definitely cozy (aka: small). But décor is pretty cool. Make sure to get here early at lunch because the first time I tried to visit, it was full up with a bus of a retirement home.
Food was quite delicious, but a little pricey. It’s definitely one of those places that you pay for quality and not quantity. I had the smoked gouda pear salad and topped it with grilled chicken. Awesome salad, but for $ 14 I hoped the chicken would be warm (served cold like from a refrigerator) and a little larger.
Next stop, I’ll need to try some of the sandwiches but definitely a keeper!

I found this hidden gem after a day of shopping at the nearby outlets. It’s a small, hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant that serves phenomenal food. At first, our group of 6 was worried that there wasn’t a table large enough to seat us together. The waitress assured us that it wasn’t a problem at all — and then promptly added an extension to a table and brought us additional tall chairs. The waitress was wonderful, helpful and attentive. Everything was ordered was fantastic and very high-​quality. Yes, it’s a small restaurant but well-​worth the wait. We sat at the bar and had a drink while we waited and enjoyed the bar top covered in pennies.
This place is great for someone who appreciates home-​made quality food and wants to avoid chain restaurants. We had a great meal/​experience and plan to go back soon!

The fault of this food adventure lies squarely on the shoulders of Terry, owner of The Grove in Northside.
While I was dining at his little spot for the first time and talking about Unilocal,he goes, «Have you ever reviewed The Red Onion?» I had not. I hadn’t actually heard of it. «Oh, you got to go. It’s this great café where you’ll get $ 50 worth of food for half that price. It’s amazing.»
Amazing, you say? So I checked out the Unilocal reviews and sure enough, they thought so too. All five stars all of them. How do I turn that down?
So I told my girlfriend we were going on a food adventure, which I know she’ll never say no to. I didn’t tell her where we were going, just that it was a drive — and a drive it was. The Red Onion is located in Monroe, about 40 minutes away from downtown. Damn, I hope it was worth it (from the star rating though, I’m pretty sure you can figure out if it was or not.)
We got to this café with a cute sign declaring The Red Onion hanging above a door. Walking in, you get the immediate feeling that this place has been here forever. Old wood walls, old wood booths, smiling wait staff. It felt like home.
There are about three places to sit and this place was packed. Luckily, there was a spot at the bar for us to sit at (the bar, by the way, is decorated with tons of pennies, stretching across the whole area. I loved it.) They had a limited beer selection, and nothing fancy, but we got a giant Boddingtons’s for $ 6. And it was giant! It lasted the wait and the whole meal. Damn.
We were second on the list to be seated, but it still took about 45 minutes. No worries, the wait was nice. We ordered fried pickle spears to start and they were delicious. Our meals, though — even more delicious! I got an unbelievable crab cake sandwich and Allison got a pasta dish that blew my mind. I was craving her leftovers the next day — that’s how much I loved them.
You’re not going to get something super fancy or creative here, but you’re going to get quality. And Terry was right, it is cheaper than the places around Cincy — of course, once you figure in the price of gas to get there, it might not be so amazing … Still, if you’re in the area for outlet shopping or whatever you do in Monroe, this is where you need to stop. Hands down.