The Pickled Onion Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Raleigh

It was a little too loud, and that's fine if that's what you're into. It is a bar, and it did calm down a little.

There's a TV at every table, and the table we were sitting at had a sticky note label on it that said "Touch Cable or TV."

So we thought that it was a TOUCH SCREEN, and we were trying to change the station/volume by "TOUCHING the TV."

Well, the guy comes from behind the bar with an attitude and says, "Don't touch the TV!" Then he says he has a remote and will put on what we want to watch...

It was not really a big deal, but when we were packing up our leftovers (the waitress had just put our bill on the table) I said "can I get a small container with a little more sauce for the shrimp?" She says "sure" and as I'm reaching for the check, she grabs it and says,"I need to add the extra charge for the sauce for the shrimp. " 👀

We tried to stop her because that was ridiculous and we were not going to pay for a 1/2 ounce of sauce that we wouldn't have had to ask for if there'd been enough when it was served.

She brings the tiny container of sauce and the revised check, and we tell her, "we tried to stop you, to tell you that we don't want the sauce if we have to pay extra for it!"

So she grabs the check and says, "Keep the sauce, I just won't charge you for it," acts all flustered, and she revises the check again.

Gee, thanks 😊

So my friend was aggravated by the whole thing, and another very nice waitress had come over and cleared out plates and asked if we needed another to go box and bags. My friend mentioned that she was "never coming back to this place," and the waitress was very apologetic and asked what happened and if we wanted to speak to a manager...

My friend told her, "Well, thank you, but the waitress did rectify the issue." and put the blame on herself saying, "I'm just having a bad day."

That waitress was kind and said, "I hope your day gets better."

When I saw the bartender come around again, I pointed out that he needed to replace the part of the signage that said, "DO NOT." I figured we weren't the ones who would think it was a touch screen, and I figured he'd want to fix it rather than running around scolding people. He was arguing with me at first, saying "well it also says ask for help," but then he conceded.

It's this kind of nonsense and attitude that loses customers for you.

Stop and think next time, would you rather be arrogant or...

My husband and I both ordered the Patty Melt which we had enjoyed many times before but, not this time. It's really sad, this used to be a wonderful place to go and be sure of good food and good service. We were not offered a choice of white or rye as indicated on the menu; we got soggy semi toasted white bread. We asked for the meat to be pink in the middle; mine had about a teaspoon of pink on one side of the sandwich and the other side (as well as my husbands' total sandwich) was very well done and dry. It says on the menu that it has melted cheese on it but, after searching both entrees we only found a tiny bit of melted cheese anywhere to which the waiter said, "It does have cheese on it" - maybe that was supposed to be funny but the humor of it escaped us. He then asked if I wanted another slice of cheese. Since the first slice was miniscule, I decided it would not improve the entree so I declined. I requested a little mayonnaise and got a ramekin of about 2 tablespoons which was plenty for what I needed. When the bill came I was annoyed to see that they had charged me for the 2 tablespoons of mayo - I asked why and he said, "we charge for everything on the menu" . Good thing they didn't see my husband using ketchup! I wonder how much they would have charged for another miniature slice of cheese! All of the crummy food plus the indifferent service (we didn't see the same waiter or server twice) cost us close to $40. I will say that it cost them more - we will not be back and will spread the word about this...

So, I came here with all my gal pals for a friends sweet 16, and the ambience was…unique! Not in a good way. They have a variety of slot machines, and the music made me feel like we should be at the club, throwing it back. Strip that down by Liam Payne would’ve been a far more appropriate pick than all the stuff they were playing. There were just straight up men moaning in the songs. I’m sure the elderly couple seated next to us were loving it!

Also, a rather pregnant woman was at the slots machine. The problem wasn’t her being pregnant and using the slots, a girls gotta make do, but the problem was her lingering around the bar and looking very possibly drunk. Now I’m no doctor, but the last time I checked, you shouldn’t drink while pregnant. She was hella focused on those slots too. SHE DIDNT EVEN COLLECT HER WINNINGS EITHER! HER 36 DOLLARS!

The food was mid. My friend described the fettuccini Alfredo as tasting like the food they give people in eating disorder rehab, and they could have put more sauce on my pasta. Our other friends chicken was pitch black with how burnt it was, and idk how my friend felt about her caesar salad but it just had an unpleasant vibe to it.

All in all, The Pickled Onion made for a terrible but unforgettable experience. Like I said though, the music had me feeling like I was one of the women in the Magic Mike movies that get totally...