How’s Your Onion

Always happy when I go there… no matter what time of the 24 hours that they are potentially open on weekends. Wicked good for breakfast lunch or dinner. Waitresses almost always are a friendly, familiar face and they usually remember you, too.
It’s nice that a place treats their staff well enough to have such good retention. Been eating here 7 years now and they are mostly the same staff.

My wife and I were in Derry and wanted to stop somewhere for lunch that wasn’t the «same old same old». Unilocal brought up How’s Your Onion — the name intrigued me and the menu looked like something we would like so we stopped in. Are we ever glad we did!
At first, it’s an unassuming place — somewhat dark with dark vinyl-​covered booth seats. But there are surprises — such as the moon-​mission triptych on the ceiling at one side of the restaurant. Service was prompt and cheerful, not cloyingly so.
What I soon discovered was that HYO’s menu is filled with familiar-​looking dishes that are sometimes given delightful twists. More important, everything we ordered was made «from scratch» using fresh ingredients — no pulling things out of a freezer and warming them over.
My wife had the Salmon Avocado Sandwich with a side of fresh baby spinach lightly sauteed with garlic, and she raved about both. I had the Tuna Melt, which was served open-​faced with tomato, Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheeses and was utterly delicious. For sides I had two of their special «Spiked Potatoes» which I liked but would probably choose something different next time.
To drink I ordered a chocolate frappé (a word I didn’t learn until I moved from Florida to Maine in my teens), and it was made fresh with ice cream, milk and syrup. My wife had the fruit smoothie which she liked so much she ordered a second.
I had spotted Strawberry Shortcake on the dessert menu — this is about my favorite, but most restaurants do a poor job of it, serving on sponge cake with canned whipped cream. Not HYO! Real shortcake biscuits and freshly whipped cream! Yum!
The prices are quite reasonable and the food delicious. I’ve lived in this area for more than 30 years but had never ventured out this way — a mistake I intend to rectify again and again!

I can’t believe it took me so long to discover this gem. The amount of food you get for the price beats any other restaurant in the state! I had a whole quesadilla for $ 10 and it was enough for both me and my girlfriend. And did I mention the SPIKED POTATOES!!! Easily one of the best appetizers I’ve ever had! Fried mashed potatoes with bacon and peppers mixed in, all covered with a crushed chip breading, soooo good. Bethany, our server was an absolute pleasure as well! Helpful and attentive. All in all my favorite new diner!

Took a chance and went for breakfast. Overall, pretty good, except for the following:
The hash browns were undercooked and, somehow, half of them were hot and the other half were stone cold. They need to stop rushing the orders and cook the food correctly.
The orange juice was way too thick. It was like trying to get a frappé through a straw.
Just not like the way it used to be.

I have been going to How’s Your Onion regularly for about a year. I have never had bad food or bad service. Everyone there is super friendly. Even when they are straight out slammed busy, they are always awesome. The other night I went with my son and our server was Brianne. She is new, and she is learning the ropes, but she was very nice and did a great job even though the place was hopping. I highly recommend HYO if you love great diner food and friendly servers and a lively atmosphere. :) Welcome to my second home, Brianne!

Left after waiting 20 minutes for a menu. Waitress walked by 10 times had to send my son after her just to get her attention. Waited more… People were just standing around. Left without ever even having a chance to order a soda. A real disappointment having driven past a number of times only to be dissuaded by a full lot adjacent to a busy road. Take it from me… Keep driving unless you have copious amounts of time to spend at tables in need of serious leveling and adjustment. The icing on the cake was the dusty house plant tickling the top of my head.

We came back the next morning for another delicious breakfast: for only $ 6, you get their amazing corned beef hash (or bacon, ham, etc), lovely toast (we had the rye), eggs, and home fries. It was all delicious! This is such an awesome restaurant and I highly recommend it!

Great food, service (it was slow once so far) staff is great the down side is there parking lot is very small and I wish it was bigger

Just tried this place after years of driving past, wondering about it. Having read other reviews, it seems you need to be looking for it to love it. If you want atmosphere and gourmet food, don’t bother. However, if you want a hole-​in-​the-​wall diner with solid value in terms of quality, quantity for price, little things that differentiate them from the competition, and good service, it may work for you.
I had the chicken quesadilla, sweet potato fries, and onion rings. The quesadilla was hearty with a nice balance of flavors, O-​rings had a batter like nothing I’ve seen elsewhere (tasty, firm and crunchy), and the fries had a dusting of sugar and spice that suggests they value small touches in even routine dishes.
I will be back.

I don’t think I’ve ever been here when i wasn’t drunk at 1 am but the hours are great, super convenient. Spiked potatoes are a must. SOOO good. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten anything besides those and the chicken tenders. Maybe the Corn beef hash and you can’t really mess that up. Good diner food. Not as good as Maryanns (classic)

Just ate here for the first time. Heard the food was good so figured I’d give it a try food was good but had to battle all the flies take a bite swat at a fly kind of ridiculous

What a change 8 months can make. Firstly, the food which was awesome is now a joke. Half of the kitchen staff migrated to other restaurants in the area and the food has suffered immensely. Undercooked pancakes, burnt chicken, raw fish, greasy quesadillas and black guacamole have all been issues I’ve dealt with. Portion sizes were cut by a third on most items. A chicken parm sandwich was barely the size of two chicken nuggets between two pieces of white bread. The menus are beyond outdated featuring a Thursday beer can chicken special and Friday fish fry that haven’t been offered in a year.
Besides the kitchen staff fleeing, several waitresses have left as well. The owner Marc, can routinely be seen pounding the counter and screaming though the pickup window at his staff, so I don’t blame them for leaving. Marc also has a nasty habit of grabbing food, like toast or bagels, without wearing gloves and my friend actually complained that her food smelled like cigarettes. He routinely swears about, sometimes at, customers when they complain about their food, which you can hear if you listen. He’s not a quiet man and has no customer service whatsoever. The manager Jen is just as bad, treating customers like walking wallets and her staff just as poor as Marc does. A new dishwasher came out and told me I was going to hell for not believing in God and the entire new staff seems to be made up of dropouts and delinquents. This place should have stopped being open 24 hours on the weekends a long time ago. Now besides being treated like garbage, the waitstaff also deals with dead hour after dead hour of no customers or tips, vomiting drunks, or people literally passed out at the tables after last call. This is not a family friendly place anymore.
The dishes are never clean and when they mop, the mop is so old and unclean the entire restaurant reeks like toilet water. The freezer visible from the counter is stocked with improperly stored food. Safety and health issues are abundant and OSHA would have a field day.
Between the awful food and service, the disgusting environment and the way the owner treats his staff, this place has dropped off the map as a viable option out of quality and principle and will be closed for good soon if this keeps up. I can no longer support an owner who openly disrespects his staff and cares little for his customers or restaurant and food quality. Feel free to stop by for yourself to verify all I’ve said, but whether you’ve been here or not before, you should now avoid it at all costs. I’ll never eat here again.

Being generous here with four stars… More of a 3 – 3.5 for the food, but service (funny meeting a waitress with the same nickname, Dee) was really good and there was no wait to get seated.
Hubby was satisfied with his create-​your-​own four topping omelette (i.e. meat lovers). Hash browns were good and he enjoyed the whole wheat toast. Think the word he used was «substantial».
I was mulling between the Lobster Benedict and spinach quiche. Opted for the latter for a change. Been awhile since I had quiche. It didn’t come with anything on the side, so I ordered a bowl of fresh fruit. Expected the usual grapes, honey dew melon, cantaloupe and pineapple. Delighted to receive a big pile of juicy and sweet watermelon, with a few extra fruity tidbits, something different! It was cut nice and small, without going so far as to dice, so you didn’t need a knife to make politely sized pieces. I know, it’s a nitpick detail and old fashioned. Truly a missed pleasure these days, even in high end restaurants. Didn’t expect it in a diner. Thank you to the staffer who took the time to do that. :)
Sadly, my quiche was a letdown. It looked so tempting but totally lacking in flavor and the pastry, even though not thick, wasn’t cooked on the bottom and part way up the sides. I’m guessing they just broiled it to cook the eggs.
We may be back in the future, if we are in the area, but won’t make a special trip. Those spiked potatoes sound intriguing!

We went there yesterday, 5÷30÷2015, and the experience was horrible. First off, we went around 7:30 am. The restaurant was half-​full, so we were seated immediately. I ordered a patrolmen special, and my girlfriend ordered 2 pancakes with 2 eggs, homefries and toast. Our order took 24 minutes from when the server took our order. When it came, my girlfriend had a really hard time cutting the pancakes. Okay, I thought the knives could be dull. She said it tasted old and burnt, so I decided to try it as well. She was right, it tasted burnt. It wasn’t just the pancakes. The homefries looked and tasted burnt as well.
When the server asked us how the food were, we said it was alright because we were still trying out the other items if they were also burnt. We did not say something, but I let them know through the tip what we thought of the food. When we were in the car leaving, that’s when we thought that it might have just been frozen food, but it was our bad not to complain while we were still in the restaurant.
Never going back there again.

D was so cheerful this morning & the coffee was great. So my order (IrishBennie ExtraCrispyHomefries w/​grilled onions) sounded so good to my friend that she had to just say «ditto»… Good thing: it was soooo flippin deeeeliciosooo!!! Fresh made corned beef hash, perfectly poached eggs, English muffin toasted just right. Hollandaise was amazeballs. See you again soon! Thanks for being open on Memorial Day to feed us so we could adjust our military families today. Nice having such great neighbors

A recommendation from my boss and I wasn’t disappointed. Been there twice and the first time the wait was long. Longer than I hoped for because I was hungry. To my own fault I was a single person and only 4 seat tables were available. And customers with 4 people got first priority.
Second trip, I went right for the counter at the back. This was a lot quicker and both times the food was great. I’m a «BACON» guy and this place has better bacon than the «***** Barn» Just saying…

I had been here a couple of years ago and wasn’t terribly impressed but I found myself in town again and there are such good reviews I thought I’d try it again. I will not be going back. The biscuits and gravy was gross, it tastes how I’d imagine beef in a can to taste. The homefries were old and obviously reheated. My husband got a very bland club sandwich, but at least the ingredients were fresh.
The table had been wiped down but the small menu at the table and other things were disgusting, sticky, and brown. One waitress took our drink orders and another came by the say she’d be right with us, even though it didn’t seem so busy we needed 2 servers (and last time I had a similar incident here where no one knew who was supposed to be serving my table). The second waitress dropped off butter and maple syrup even though we ordered lunch and eggs. Then she never checked on us so we couldn’t even convey how inedible the food was. When I finally got her attention to ask for the check she brought it over and cleared out plates without inquiring why they were still full of food.
Poor customer service, inedible food. I do not recommend it.

Better than Mary Anne’s, Airport Diner or even Red Arrow. Yeah, I went there.
The food is amazing. You could order pretty much anything here and leave satisfied, but the breakfast is the cream of the crop. Besides the usual stuff, the egg nests and spiked potatoes are insane.
The late weekend hours are awesome, and something no one else in the area seems to do for whatever reason. I do wish they were open a little later during week days, but I usually only end up there for breakfast or drunken post-​midnight ventures anyways, so… yeah. As good as the name is bizarre.

Stopped by after appointments in Derry about 10:30AM.
The place is much larger inside than outside appearance. Parking for maybe 20 cars. Seating for maybe 50 people at 4 per booth.
Two waitresses but we happened to get the slow one. There were only 10 other customers at this time.
Ordered the spiked potatoes based upon Unilocal reviews. They were fantastic.
Someone on here mentioned the home fries. My opinion the most bland home fries ever. Sea salt on the table just bounced off the potato cubes. I would of preferred regular salt these home fries desperately needed salt.
Eggs over medium were dry yolk and we sent one order back and it still took forever to arrive. I had finished my whole breakfast before the replacements arrived.
The side order of corned beef hash was home made and also fantastic. I ordered it based on another review here. I would of liked a larger portion though.
I will go back but I don’t think I would order over medium eggs again. I probably would order my eggs differently Omelet or something. We both ordered the #6 one with bacon and sour dough toast, the other with grilled English and sausage.
I ordered coffee and my wife ordered tea and ice water. The waitress walked by a few times and my cup was empty for about 15 mins. When she came over and asked if I would like a refill is when she asked how our food was. This is when we sent the eggs back.
Our overall experience was OK and I would revisit again. I would change what I ordered and maybe request a different waitress. Everyone has good and bad days so I can’t fault her if she was having a bad one.

I have always meant to write a review for this place as I go pretty often.
Service: always with a smile. I have never had bad waitstaff here. They all seem to like their job and want to be there helping you.
Food: I ALWAYS get the eggs Benedict (with streaky bacon) it’s always been perfect. The eggs are spot on never over done and the hollandaise isn’t to watery/​gluey/​salty. It’s perfect.
Now, I go for the benedict but I stay for the house made Cornbeef hash. It’s THE BEST hash I have ever had in my life. This place is a solid 25 min from my house but, that hash makes it all worth it. Salty, flavorful, crispy, fresh. I could go in for days about how fantastic this is but, do yourself a favor And just go.
Also, jalepeño roulette is an experience. Do it. Or don’t. It made me cry but it was fun. :)