The Pickled Onion Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

EDIT- UPDATED 5-17-2025: Wow. My last few visits have really changed my opinion of The Pickled Onion. They used to be a regular choice for us, and I had several favorite items. Lately, I'm not sure if they are just trying to pinch their pennies so hard that Lincoln cries, or what. The food - and service - seems to be going downhill.

This last visit was awful. We took a friend there for dinner. I was hungry as I had skipped lunch (and don't eat breakfast) and it was after 6pm. We all ordered sandwiches. I ordered the Ahi tuna sandwich. The waiter asked how I'd like that cooked and I said "Medium well, more well than medium." The last one I had was a bit undercooked, so I made sure to specify that I wanted it more done. The first couple bites were of the "thin" part of the tuna, which was medium, but SO bland. Previously, the tuna had been cooked the same as the Ahi entree - with "blackened" seasoning - so that's what I was expecting. I opened the bun and there was no seasoning visible on the meat. I normally am not a complainer, so I just sprinkled it liberally with salt and pepper and took another bite. It began to taste fishy, like it wasn't done enough - as on my previous visit.

I was very hungry so I kept eating, but the next bite was soft and so slimy I had to remove it from my mouth to keep from gagging. Let me be perfectly clear - I am not a raw fish eater. I don't like the taste and I actually have a violent aversion to the texture. I ordered the previous sandwich "medium" and it was more cooked than this one that I ordered "medium-WELL"! You'd think this one would be LESS raw. But NO! It was full on RARE. At that point, I sat the sandwich on the plate and said "I'm sorry, I can't eat that." I pointed to the bite of raw fish. No one came back for quite a while, and by the time they did, I'd eaten all the fries, because I was hungry, and my husband and our friend were both done eating.

The waiter asked if everything was okay, and my husband said "No" and pointed to my partially eaten sandwich with the bite of raw fish laying beside it.

The waiter asked what was wrong, and I said "Well, it tastes like it's not seasoned at all, it's bland, and very fishy because it's way underdone." I pointed to the sad, discarded bite on the plate. His response? "Oh, that's served rare." What?!?!? Is "rare" mandatory? Then why the asterisk and disclaimer about raw or undercooked food? And if the only choice is "rare", why did our original waiter ask me how I WANTED it cooked? Unreal. I clearly stated that I'd ordered it MEDIUM-WELL. He did offer to have them cook it further (that would be gross since one bite had been in my mouth), or remake it but the others were done and we needed to leave as we had something to do after dinner.

So he grabs it, and says "Let me go show this to the cook," and I said "Don't throw it away, I'm going to take it to my dog."

He put it back down and walked off. The bill was for the full amount. I expected to be charged something, since I wanted to take the leftovers, but no discount, and no apology, for the sandwich being bland and raw when I ordered it "medium-well" just to avoid the rawness!

The slaw, over the times I have ordered it, is billed as "soy sesame cucumber slaw" but has turned into shredded cukes, onion and carrot, with no flavor of either soy or sesame. The "wasabi" mayo was very pale green (unlike the picture on the online menu) and had only the faintest taste of wasabi. Are they cutting back on ingredients to pinch pennies? Are they neglecting to stir the dressing back up into the slaw? Who can solve these mysteries? I don't know, but I am done paying premium prices for bland, tasteless (or even gross) food.

I guess if you like bland, raw fish served atop soggy cucumber shreds with mayonnaise that has only a very faint taste of wasabi, this sandwich might be for you. It definitely wasn't for me.

The pupper - who doesn't care if his fish is cooked or raw - enjoyed the sandwich. I hope so, for it was a...

My fiance'  and I have been to the Wakefield location many times the food and people were always awesome we loved it there, that was one of our favorite places to go, not anymore. On this particular night 1/7/24  ,we finished dinner and the food and service was amazing as usual. After paying the bill,  my fiance' and I went to the bathroom. I should mention that I am disabled and in a wheelchair, and my fiance' is from Argentina. When we came out of the bathroom, there was a woman standing at the bar blocking the exit. So we were waiting for several seconds, while we saw this guy was watching us doing nothing. We said excuse me to the lady and she did hear us, two men other at other tables asked her to move and she kindly did after realizing we were behind her. On the way out the door, this guy followed us, turns out he was the manager. This happened around 8:30 pm. My fiance' was making sure I was in the car and putting my wheelchair in the trunk. When the manager, followed us , out the door. The manager saw what happened in the restaurant and we both saw him looking at us, we trying to pass to get out the door. He said nothing. As we  were going out the door my fiance ' said , in a normal one ,why didn't you say anything? You saw us? I'm going to report you to your manager ? My fiance ' said. When The guy rudely raised his voice  and with attitude he said that he was the manager!! My fiance ' got pissed because the manager raised his voice for no reason. All the manager had to do say was to apologize for the misunderstanding and he didn't. He told my fiance ' to leave. My fiance 'was leaving and the manager stopped him. We believe that he was being racist.  This is due to the fact I am disabled and my fiance' from Argentina. The manager didn't act professionally. In addition, there was a Hispanic man outside and he asked my fiance ' could he please go in the restaurant for him to get his food because the manager kicked out him without the food or giving a refund.  He said that this manager was racist...

Their food is great. The service and ambiance don't live up to it.

We've been there 4 times now. The food is always on point. If you love spicy, the crack fire appetizer is absolutely amazing. Spicy, creamy, crunchy, smoky, it is an awesome dish. Be clear, it's spicy, but it's damn good.

I don't care about sports. At all. The TVs and sound are all that. I expected that, so I'm not downgrading my review based on that at all. It's not my thing, but I knew that when I walked in. I just want you to know as a customer.

The service is where we were let down. And let down badly. It is rare that food this good would also result in a negative review.

We were completely ignored. The sign said "seat yourself ". We did. 20 minutes later we got a menu and made drink orders. I'd make allowances for new years, but they both chose seat yourself that night, and have had this problem twice before.

We were ignored. It took 20 minutes to get a drink. This was after 20 minutes to see a waitress. Our food was great. Our drinks were good. We never tip less than 15%, we've both been servers.

We tipped 13%. We probably won't be back. We may try one more time simply because it's near our house and had in house chips and we want it to be good.

On the off chance the owners read it. You're restaurant is very close to being a great pub. You're servers suck and have always been the letdown. Get service dealt with and you can at least put yourselves in the same sentences as wakefield tavern. Until then, they have you beat on every metric and we'll...