Sassy Onion

Really nice and great selection of food
Tried to bearcat which was good but wish I had tried their French toast

Yeah! They are open again. They had a fire several months ago :(but just open back up today. Food and service as good (or better) than before. Excellent gluten free chicken fried steak, crisp and crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. Way to go!

Way over priced for the garbage that they serve. Nothing is fresh, the muffins are all purchased straight from Costco and resold at 3x what they got them for. You can basically get all of this food elsewhere for a much lower price. Don’t waste your time.

Great french toast and a great variety.
Place could be a little cleaner and less cramped but the staff were nice and food good.

A little overhyped on Unilocal,but decent. People are willing to wait in line and I am a little baffled by that. Tables are crammed together and I got somewhat claustrophobic being seated in the traffic area. Food is very good if somewhat uninspired.

Only place in town if French toast is on your mind. Super for that.
If you want to something savory, go elsewhere. Not their forte.
Please note the service is insanely slow but if you have the time and a hankering for plain or stuffed French toast, go. You’ll be glad you did.

This place is seriously overrated. I came here with my children on a busy weekend morning. I was optimistic that it would be great as there were about 20 people in front of us waiting to get tables. The restaurant staff seemed to do a good job of cranking through orders, as it only took us 20 minutes to get seated. The menu included the classic breakfast standards along with some seasonal options. They have a couple eggs Benedict varieties that sounded really nice (duck breast with blackberry hollandaise or Dungeness crab, for example), but as I was particularly hungry I opted to go with a vegetarian omelet. My children all had variations of the French toast. We also ordered a cinnamon roll (they looked delicious) and a fall specialty pumpkin drink. Unfortunately, every single item looked much better than it tasted. The cinnamon roll looked huge and delicious but ended up being incredibly light with next to no cinnamon flavor and overly sweet icing. The pumpkin drink came with whipped cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon, but tasted like artificial pumpkin candy (though to be fair the drink was described as being made with «pumpkin syrup» and so I probably should have expected this). My omelette was dry, overcooked, and the cheese was just thrown under and on top of the omelette after it had cooked so it just fell off while I was trying to eat it. The hashbrowns that came with the omelette were honestly the worst I have ever had. They weren’t seasoned at all (as in, not even salted) and were a mixture of overcooked and almost raw. Surprisingly, the wheat toast was dense and grainy and the homemade strawberry jam was quite good. The French toast was okay, but certainly nothing to write home about. We had ordered a serving of the mixed berry French toast and a slice of French toast off the children’s menu. I was surprised to find that the only differences between the two orders was that the mixed berry French toast cost $ 4.50 more and had about ¼ cup of sliced berries on top. The fact that they charge different amounts for a slice of French toast based on the age of the person that is ordering is kind of mind boggling to me ($ 4.19 vs $ 6.79 for kids vs adults).
Final takeaway: While Salem has limited options for breakfast, this restaurant should be nowhere near the top of your list. Service is adequate, but the food is uninspired and/​or poorly cooked. There are much better options nearby.

Excellent place for breakfast. All of us ordered off the smaller portion of the menu and it was plenty of food. I had their pepper bacon which was good. Got a lemon scone and cranberry scone to go. Both good. Friendly staff. Has some seasonal items on the menu. Would eat there again.

Service has been slow the past 4 times I’ve eaten here. I keep thinking it will get better. My eggs Benedict and potatoes came out lukewarm. My friends Barito was huge and lacked flavor.
My daughters love their pancakes.

Mixed bag. Disappointment.
We brought some out-​of-​town colleagues here for lunch. Walk in to find a bakery case filled with drink bottles, kinda weird. The whole place seemed shabby and tired.
Our colleagues wanted a soup and salad combo, which wasn’t on the menu. They received a cup of soup, small handful of salad and a minuscule piece of bread so were surprised by the $ 8 price tag. My husband ordered a club sandwich that he rated «OK,» however, the fries that came with it were quite tasty. I ordered a chicken bento bowl. It was very flavorful but had no chicken! When we told the waitress, she went back and got some chicken for me to add. I think it had been warmed in the microwave. Certainly not grilled. It was not the cook’s best effort.
All in all, we were sorry we took our colleagues to lunch here.

Always busy, wait is about 10 – 15 mins. Food tasty and service is good. Great place for breakfast if you have time. Need coinage for parking. We’ll go back.

Sassy Onion lives up to its great reviews on Unilocal.The portions are enormous and the quality of ingredients is home style and organic. We had the corn beef hash and the eggs with bacon and toast and they were outstanding. Sassy has lot’s of street parking available and FREE coffee while you wait for your table (this place is popular). If you’re on a road trip and tired of what you’re eating come here and enjoy yourself.

They claim they have «World Famous French Toast»…it tasted «World Famous» to me. I recommend the cinnamon roll French toast!

Great brunch spot, without the wait of Word of Mouth Bistro, which is just up the street. Plenty of great options, especially the french toast. Coffee leaves something to be desired, however, but overall a great place!

In town from Hawai’i and wanted to try word of mouth but the place was packed! So we heard Sassy Onion was a close comparison so we went down.
Pros:
big food portions (might be a mainland thing, but we loved it)
Full of flavor
Best omelettes we have ever tasted
Cons:
It can get pricey BUT the portions are big
The french toasts and crepes were a little too sweet
All in all you should definitely come here for breakfast if your in town. Especially my Hawai’i braddahs who like grind!

Its the home of the world famous french toast, and I can tell you it deserves the title. Their home made bread with the hot maple syrup is heavenly.
We also got the Caprese Bene which was tasty, a couple of egg scrambles that were very well made and a banana and chocolate crêpe which was great as well. But the french toast was the star of the show.

I had been here once before, quite a few years ago, probably 2007 or 2008. My husband surprised me with brunch here after church, and I didn’t even recognize the place when I walked in. Either my memory is terrible or they’ve rearranged, which seems both possible and likely in that time period!
There was a 5 – 10 minute wait, which seems exceptionally low for a popular brunch place on a Sunday, but the host did say that it was surprisingly less busy than it was today. Speaking of which, the host was very welcoming and friendly without being awkwardly over-​talky :).
I had a veggie skillet and my husband got a turkey and bacon melt sandwich. I ordered coffee with my meal, and was given a mug and my own small coffee pot, definitely nice to be able to refill at my own pace! We were also given a small water carafe.
There was not a long wait for our food, but long enough that it was obvious it was being made to order. I have to say that my skillet was proportioned perfectly between eggs, hash browns, veggies, salsa, and cheese. I could taste each of these things in each bite, without any of the flavors overpowering the others. I am also picky about egg texture, and the eggs here were neither runny nor overcooked, as Goldilocks would say, they were just right!
My husband was impressed with his sandwich, and while he’s not super picky, he was obviously more impressed than normal!
Bottom line: there’s a reason this place is popular! They seem to pride themselves in doing food well.

Let me just start by saying, I WILL BE BACK. I have never been to a breakfast joint and had such a tough time deciding. Literally everything looked and sounded amazing. I had the corned beef hash which had almost a sweet flavor. My husband had hazelnut french toast. We literally bickered over whose was better. I maintain mine won.
Our server was the cutest little thing who offered advice and joked along with us
She was very prompt and courteous. Made us feel like her number one priority.
So to sum up, with choices like stuffed french toast, cinnamon swirl french toast, Hazelnut, banana nut french toast and so so so much more… how can this be wrong? You’re a fool if you don’t stop by.

With a name like this, how can you not stop by?
Sassy Onion is a nice quaint café that serves up some delicious breakfast foods.
The line can be outrageously long so get to the sassy onion early enough to get a table.
Prices are reasonable and food is good. Be patient as the food takes a while to get to you.

I have had breakfast /​brunch at the Sassy Onion twice in the last two weeks, and the food and service were great both times.
Four of us came in an hour before close, and the food, and our Server, Austin, were super.
I have eaten here over a dozen times, and never had a bad experience. I am having a tough time understanding the poor reviews. If I were to mention anything, it would be that the portions were overlarge — and I never complain about large portions!
We do not come more often because I hate to wait for a table (on the weekends, the Sassy Onion is always crowded) and because it is often hard to find a convenient parking space on State Street.