Purple Onion — Restaurant in Hoover

To say that our experience with the Purple Onion (P.O. for shorthand) was disappointing is something of an understatement. In the interest of fairness, I will disclose that this experience was Christmas night, but that should not have had such an impact on our experience. We arrived at the P.O. at 7:15 pm for our annual Christmas gathering with our friends. Dining at the P.O. has been a tradition of ours since at least 2007, and we look forward to this every single year. When we arrived, there was a line, but that did not deter us in the slightest. While our families organized the tables, the husbands placed the orders. We split between two different cash registers, and therefore had randomly different order numbers. Once we ordered our food and got our drinks, we rejoined our families to wait for our dinners. Somewhere in the 7:30 time frame, my order came to the table. The food was warm and the flavors were good. I wish this would hold true for my friends, but it did not. Sometime around 7:45-8, one of the other family's meals arrived, but was missing part of the order (hummus and pita). The server/food runner made no effort to listen to our objections and ran off to do other duties. While my wife and I both had gyros and fries, this particular couple had a cheeseburger and Santa Fe wrap (and pita and hummus). Finally, about twenty minutes after that, the last set of orders came out (I should note that the order that our food was delivered was the exact opposite of the order in which it was placed). This order came out, I suspect, because I went and checked on it while fetching a refill for my wife and I. Here is where the true disappointment lies: the kebab was cold, the grill cheese sandwiches for the kids was not hot, or ever was hot or walked near a heat source. How can we tell? The cheese was not melted and not even stuck to the bread. The mother's sandwich was only marginally better, but it, too, was cold. Again, I know this was Christmas night, but the service was terrible, the food was cold, and the friendliness of the staff was as warm and inviting as the food. While I wish I could say this was an isolated incident, this is not. Poor service, poor food, and poor quality has become the norm at this location, and we will not go back to this location of the P.O. I write this to warn you, potential diner. Please think twice about...

Filthy, disgusting bathroom!

🤮🤮🤮My first time here after catching a show. There were 4 in our party; after standing in line approximately 10 minutes, the female at the register motioned for us to approach the register next to her to order..then she called the people behind us and took their orders first. She was very rude and it was quite obvious she doesn't like her job. We had simple orders, no special requests, all on one ticket. Order #1 Salad...arrived to the table without salad dressing; when it was requested, the same nasty female said it would cost $1.The lettuce was brown and the rest wasn't any better.

Order #2 Hot wings and fries...no dressing either...also told it would be $1..even though dressing is included.

Order #3..my food🤮🤢 mushroom Swiss burger and fries. Of course most people start with fries; they're better hot. I ate a few fries then took the top bun off my burger..just checking it out. The bun didn't have anything on it, no condiments . The meat was dry..tasted old, like it'd been reheated..like an off brand frozen type. The cheese was greasy, it did not look like any cheese I've ever seen; when I removed it and set to the side it got hard. The mushrooms were from a can and the best part of the entire meal..but only 4 or 5 slices.

I took the food to the counter, now this female wants to act as if she doesn't understand English...she took our order! She and another female look at the food and can't seem to understand what the problem is; until I asked if they would eat it. The nasty female asked if I wanted "money or food." She says "you ate some french fries and mushrooms 🤯. She counts out six dollars, comes from behind the counter and walks past me to our table, and gives the money to my friend whom had paid with a card. This was about a $15 meal. that had one bite from the burger that was spit out, and maybe 7 or 8 french fries.

Being treated so disrespectful was worse than the food. I really wouldn't have gotten so upset about the food had the employee not been so nasty...restaurants can't stand the test of of with both bad food and poor service.. That's kind of like being ugly and having a...

Food quality has gone down hill. I have been eating at this restaurant for nearly 20 years. We used to enjoy it and it was on the southside. And then Homewood and now Hoover. I have her location. The girl answers the phone tonight and doesn’t speak English. She could say Purple onion hello OK and thank you. Someone else had to take the phone, to take my order.

I have always ordered chicken in a sack. It comes with marinated chicken thighs, with regular mustard, lettuce, and tomato. I always ask them no lettuce or tomato or mustard but add honey mustard. The guy mildly argued with me and told me that’s the way the sandwich came and I said now I understand it’s marinated because it’s marinated in curry. That is what I like, I don’t like regular mustard someone long ago suggested to add honey, mustard, and cheese. It is a wonderful combination.

The last three times, but I have ordered this dish the chicken taste like it’s been cooking for days. And let me say as a cook myself, dark meat chicken thighs are hard to cook dry!

You can generally simmer dark meat, chicken for a couple of hours with ease at a low temperature. Anyway, we get our order tonight and the chicken in a sack is rolled in a soft warm tortilla full of lettuce, hot wilted, lettuce, and what looks to be about 4 ounces of chicken. They literally were in small hard pieces.

We spent $20 on two sandwiches. And it’s not even the money part of it because everything has gone up and quality is lacking in the food.

I’ll give anybody the benefit of the doubt, maybe a busy night, or short, staffed, etc, But when quality of food suffers over & over again and your customers aren’t getting the amount of food, it is time to...