The Great Onion

by Jeff D.

As you walk past the "B" rating the first thing that strikes you that this place is f'n dirty. I mean dirty. Hopefully the kitchen is cleaner than the front. There is absolutely no way that this is true, but one can hope.
The food is just OK. Even if it was the best food on the planet I would not go back. Too many iffy things going on. Way too many.

by alfonzo e.

This place has the best Indian food! I have not eaten off the menu since it  seems kind of pricey, but you can't beat the lunch buffet! It runs from 11:30a-3:30p Monday thru Friday all-you-can-eat for $5.99.  It has about 8 selections of Indian food and 6 Mexican food dishes.  Don't even waste your time with the Mexican food, it's all about the Indian food!  They serve you garlic or regular naan and they keep it coming.  The staff is really friendly and the covered outdoor patio is a nice atmosphere.  They also have all-you-can-eat buffet on Saturday and Sunday for $9.49 which includes soda or 2 glasses of champagne.  It's really a great affordable place to get stuffed for lunch.

by Daniel T.

This restaurant  was recommended by Shah, a 7-11 (Citrus-Covina)  employee who swears that the cooking here is the best in this part of  India and Pakistan.  Have not eaten real tasty Indian/Paki  fare since last February in Artesia and been insanely itching to fire up my internal organs in this summer heat.Lunch today was strictly a three way chicken affair - tandoori, curry and tikka masala and choices of vegetables; mushrooms, palak paneer (spinach) and aloo gobi (cauliflower potato).  Shucks, no lamb or mutton of any style (what a downer!) in sight.   Pickles, plain white rice and choices of plain or garlic naan and sweet dessert are also included in this $6.99 (weekdays) limited mini buffet (which also include a limited Mexican fare).Came here only to try the Indian/Paki fare (and did not sample from  the Mexican section).  The presentation, cooking and flavor did live up to Shah's (a Pakistani) recommendation and did not disappoint. Real tasty cooking with the right spice level (medium).  The chicken tikka masala and palak paneer is outstanding. Yep, no need to gulp any kind of coolant right after this meal. The only server was pleasant and attentative. There is limited seating in the airconditioned section and the covered outdoor seating is spacious. There's ample parking in the rear. We may make another attempt to try their weekend Champagne Lunch Buffet (@$9.49) and taste their lamb/goat curries (if presented).This restaurant is now known as The Great Onion/A Zest of India.

by Alexandra B.

So I went to The Great Onion for the first time today.  I had driven past it many times and thought it looked pretty appealing.  I assumed it was sort of American-Mexican style food, like huge wet burritos and chicken soft tacos, that sort of thing.  Well... it is.  Kind of.As I walked in I noticed a sign that said: "The Great Onion" and right below it, "A Zest of India".  I also noticed that their patio is really charming and cozy - great atmosphere.  So I walk in to the small but inviting indoor dining area and am seated by a very friendly young lady.  She hands me a menu that, upon reading it, almost made me pass out from confusion.Seriously, this menu would make Gordon Ramsay have an aneurysm.  Two full pages of Mexican food followed by two full pages of Indian food, followed by.... cheeseburgers?  and fish chips?? What is happening? This was such a huge red flag that I wanted to leave immediately, but of course I didn't because I was curious, and the incredibly friendly waitress had already started making coffee for me.After realizing that the owner appeared to be Indian, I decided ordering from the Indian menu might be my best bet.  Besides, I love Indian food.  Still, I was overwhelmed by the choices.  They had seemingly every Indian dish under the sun on there, and no combo meals.  I asked the waitress for a recommendation.  She thought I should try the lamb korma, so I did.Was it bad? Not really.  It was bland and inoffensive.  I've certainly had worse Indian food.  But it wasn't good enough to make me want to eat it again.  And the schizophrenia of that menu honestly just had me shaking my head the entire time.  While I was sitting there I saw that kitchen produce two curries, one burrito, a nachos, refried beans, and a cheeseburger.  Seriously, someone call Kitchen Nightmares.I noticed a sign indicating that The Great Onion has been in business since 1957.  This leads me to believe that the most recent owners decided to tack on the Indian menu, but also keep the old Mexican menu so as not to lose regular customers.  I'm not sure what they should do going forward, but I do know that they have to make up their minds.  This dual-menu business is too much for them and it shows.  They even have a lunch buffet and a drive-up pickup window, for gracious' sake! What are they trying to do to themselves???Well, that's it for this terribly long review.  I really hope that The Great Onion can figure itself out and survive, because it's a beautiful space and the staff are very friendly.  It would be a shame to see it replaced with yet another fast-food joint.

by joseph c.

Great Food , Friendly atmosphere, and clean!The food there is really great and really tasty.I love their chips and salsa! .. I have eaten from both their Mexican Menu and Indian Menu. You can't go wrong either way...The food is very authentic and has lots of flavor. Totally a home cooked meal appeal.I don't know what the other reviewers were thinking when they got confused from the menu, If you know anything about Indian food, it is not confusing at all. The menu is very simple and it has a great variety of things to choose from. They has everything that anyone would like to eat.  If the person you are with does not like Indian, they can choose from the Mexican and American part of the menu. No one goes home hungry.This great onion is a great place to take your family at VERY REASONABLE prices. They also have a couple of TV screens for the sports Fans.If you ask me , would I go there again?I would have to say that I prefer them over anyone else for true authentic Indian food.Definitely Give them a try.

by Sandy L.

Haven't tried their buffet.  Indian food is very good but we've only tried the non-meat options.  The Mexican food is whatevers pretty average unoffensive stuff.  I just like being able to drink horchata and orange bang while eating Indian food.  Prices are reasonable for the portions except when we ordered basmati rice and it was like $6.  I could do w/o all the butter in the food but maybe that's why it tastes so good.

by Anthony C.

I haven't been here in about a year.  My good bud fuji would always want to go to this place because his dad lives in bradbury and he'd always go here before he went to his dads house.  Let me tell you, everything here is pretty nice.  They have hookah at night i believe, but i was a bit too young for it last year.  They have indian/mexican owners (I don't bother with the indian food) and i remember that their carnitas tacos and their carne asada (wet) was f*cking delicious.  Not only that, they give you like FRESH salsa with FRESH/HOT tortilla chips.  They keep bringing them too. Freaking delicious.The horchata is really fresh... theres 4 kinds of horchata - packaged/processed sitting in a store, crappy horchata from a restaurant (waterdown etc.), good horchata from a restaurant (the hat! oh god they have good horchata) and f*cking blow your brains, holy sh*t i'm about to come horchata - which this place has.The horchata is fresh and probably squeezed through a cheesecloth for authenticity.  Too bad they only refill it once, but it was damn good.  I'm not sure if they placed closed down or not, but I hope i'll be able to come back one day.

by John H.

This place used to be decent food for a decent value. That has taken a turn, however, as now it seems to be a place in search of an identity. They now serve Indian Food as well as the standard Mexican menu that they used to do an okay job with. They have a drive-thru, a Indian/Mexican lunch buffet (with no sneeze guards and little room to maneuver around it), and this last time I went charged way too much for the food with no prices on the menu board and charging way more than their pre-printed menus. I asked the manager about this and she said their new menus were being printed. Yanno, the food is too expensive for the quality of this joint, and the burritos have a hint of Indian flavor and the Indian food has a hint of Mexican flavor, and neither of these is in a good way. I won't be going back here again until I forget what it was I didn't like the last time.

by Laura M.

The combination of indian and mexican food sounds interesting. Both cuisines use similar ingredients and both are extremes in flavor so i decided to give this place a chance.  I stopped by this place when I had just moved to Duarte thinking it would be a cool spot to grab a quick meal after a long exhausting day at work. I grabbed a burrito and an order of nachos to go and saw that they have hookah and thought to my self... 'I'll come back for that next weekend.'I get home start examining my burrito and give it a bite and NOTHING. No flavor what so ever. I haven't had food this bland in ... in ... EVER. Disappointed I abandon the burrito and start up with the nachos. There's absolutely no way that anyone can mess up nachos, right? wrong...  same story with the nachos... long story short, i went back the next week for hookah since I didn't like their food and they had no coals, no flavors and I went home disappointed again. I pass it every day as I drive through Huntington Dr. and just *sigh* at the site of the Great Onion. The people are friendly and the place looks fairly clean, maybe I should give it a second chance and hope that my food will have a hint of flavor next time. Maybe.

by Amador A.

This place conjures up fond memories of my time when I was being treated at the City of Hope.There were times when this would be the only thing I could eat... the mexican food is great.  Not to mention their cheese burgers!My annual medical research exam for my cancer treatment came up last Friday and I had a break in between tests to grab a bite to eat.I drive by here and was quite happy to find them still going strong.The outdoor area is nicely shaded, able to sit about 40.  I was surprised to see that there were some hookas sitting out there and saw that they now also offer nightly hooka sessions!  Interesting.Apparently, half of the establishment is now also "A Zest of India".  I'll have to give it a try some time.As for the mexican food.  I'm glad to see that the quality of food is still there...Prices are pretty average for a burger / mexican food joint.  3 rolled tacos with refried beans and rice + drink + tips = ~$7.00