Onion Restaurant and Tea House

Have you ever walked into a place and the odor of cooking food makes you hungry?  

How about having just consumed enough goodness that you're considering if you need an airlift to make it to your car, and you find yourself STILL transported by the smell alone coming from the kitchen.  So delightful that you can swear you can taste the air.

This is what it is like sitting down at Onion Restaurant.

Some complain about the setting, and it does indeed look like a house that has been converted into a restaurant.  So? Consider it "Ma's Cooking with a Oriental Twist" and enjoy.  Yes, they have a WIDE variety of foods, and that is another plus - considering our group often has several divergent taste preferences, this is a plus.  Especially when the food is all prepared with attention to detail and ingredients.

Even the Chicken Strips (yes, we had a teenager that ordered Chicken Strips when asking to go to Chinese) appeared to be hand breaded and were moist and awesome.

Triple Delight is EXACTLY that.  Three types of Protein, a great spicy bite without being to much.  Each bite seemed to have rice, veggie and meat.  Important to this omnivore.

For those that enjoy "Bubble Teas" the mugs you are provided are bigger than most children's heads!  It is definitely a value and everyone who tried it raved about the taste profile, and the 'yummy chewiness' of the taro balls.  (I'm not going to say anything else to that.)

The Oolong Tea.  The fact that I could specifically order Oolong already had them an 'extra star' but the fact that it was loose leaf, in a covered tea pot and really good secured it.

I will be back, I know.  And focus on several dishes with pictures.  It was great to find 'non-greasy' Chinese finally in this area.  I'd actually given up hope!

Had never realized the Onion was a Chinese restaurant until desperately looking for hot & sour soup sellers near our Corydon home tonight. My husband was craving comfort food and though none of the Chinese restaurants we had tried when first moving here had been repeatable experiences, one being completely inedible, I figured it wouldn't hurt to search again.

We've driven by the Onion countless times and knew it would take nearly 45 mins to get there from our home, but the reviews were so positive that we figured we'd try. Saw the posted hours closed at only 8:30 and it was already 7:50, so called ahead on the way to confirm hours and see if we should place a to go order instead, but they promised they would serve us as long as we made it by 8:30.

We did, just barely, and while they were in full closing mode, they never made us feel rushed or anything other than welcome.

Pot of Chrysanthemum tea to start - very nice. Hot & sour soup was tangy and soothing, but certainly not spicy or really memorable - other than the pleasant surprise that it tasted so fresh for end of day soup.

Mains were Orange Peel Beef and Chicken in Garlic sauce with an order of pot stickers to share. Portions were not "family style" like some restaurants but were still ample. I took enough home as leftovers for a small lunch. Sauces were wonderful. Texture of the twice cooked beef was perfect. I'll definitely be getting the veg version of husbands dish next time. His garlic sauce was excellent, not thick or syrupy like at the typical Louisville Chinese place.

Pot stickers were traditional and will be ordered again, though we prefer less dense dumplings ourselves, a la Jade Palace.

Food was really more of a 2.5 to 3 if compared to all other Cinese restaurants, but compared to greater Louisville area in general & Harrison County, IN specifically, definitely a high 4. For both ingredient quality and overall taste.

Omgsh - I have been coming here since this place was built.  My last trip was a few weeks ago, and we are going back in a couple of weeks before we go to a movie.  I cannot imagine a place as good as this! :-D
The only downside, is this is the first place my daughter tried Oriental food, so it kind of set every other restaurant up to fail for her afterward, and me too really.  Everything was compared to The Onion! :p lol
The prices, the amount of food, the food itself, the service, the ambiance...sigh.

Looking for excellent food (I deleted an entire sentence to change that from "great" :p lol), reasonable prices, wonderful service...Charlestown Road is where it's at BABY!! :-D