Best Onion Rings

around Sactown it would have to be a place called Avaitors tucked in Executive Airport (which was THe airport in Sac until the mid sixties)...The rings are sweet, fresh , somewhat tempura like  and are really something to behold..have them with the great patty melt and you will be a happy pilot.This place also has great breakfasts and check out the truly Roadfood worthy decor on this link   http://www.erench.com/RESTAUR/CALIF/SCRM/BRKCLUB/AVIA/index.htm  

Onion Rings that stand out as being memorable since I first "discovered" this tasty side back in the 1960's:
 
Huot's Seafood Restaurant, Saco, ME
The Villanova Inn, New Castle, PA
The Plainview Diner, Plainview, NY (L.I.)
Hard Times Cafe, Alexandria, VA
(the original) Sonny Bryan's, Dallas, TX
Sonny P's Burgers, McKinney, TX
 
If I had to pick the all-time best it would be the stacked beer-battered rings at Huot's.  Of course, everything tastes better with lobstah!
 
(I used to love Tony Roma's onion loaf but my last two meals at their Scottsdale, AZ and Georgetown, Grand Cayman locations were so dreadful I stopped patronizing that chain.  Too bad; I enjoyed many good meals there in Orlando and San Juan, PR).
 

Chamberlains Roast Beef in Booth's Corner's Farm Market in Boothwyn, PA.

Metro Jim,
   Some years back I had my first ever Onion 'Loaf' at a Tony Roma's in SoCal. It took a while for me to gain a yearning for those little pieces of onion.
  We found the larger rings to be more to our liking. Farmer Boy's, the SoCal mini-chain, offers an order of 6 or 7 rings...but they are Massive Inch-and-a-half thick slices of very large sweet onions. Battered and fried. I have seen some folks actually use a knife and fork to eat them. O R's are one side dish that I approve the use of Ketchup as a dip.

I used to love the onion loaf at the first Damon's. But when Damon's became a chain something bad happened to those loaves.

May I suggest the onion rings at the Grant Bar in Millvale, Pa?
Really, just outside Pittsburgh City Limits-they are outstanding,
and I believe they use the same coating with their signature Butterfly shrimp.
                                Falco
 

Does anybody ever make their own?  I have tried it a few times lately using McCormick all purpose batter where you mix it in to two parts.  One wet and one dry.  I mix some spices in the batter such as chili powder. garlic powder and even onion powder
 
I fry them at 375F, slice the onions sideways very thick dip them in the dry and then the wet and coat them and let it rip.  I use a dipping sauce of thousand island which I make and cholula.
 
I use the same mix for small slices of chicken breast, chicken thighs and other things.
 
Pretty good.
 
Paul E. smjith
Knoxville, TN 

Paul,
 
We used to make a big batch of onion rings each spring when Vidalia's were released.  Now it seems that Vidalia's (usually a South American clone) are available all year long, so it is not such a big deal.
 
We never used a batter mix.  I've got a beer batter recipe that is good, but more recently have been doing a double dip with buttermilk as part of the recipe.
 
Jim

The Varsity in and the Beacon in Spartanburg are close if not the best.  The long gone Red Barn Bar Be Que on the west side of Jacksonville Fl used to rank high, they cut a large onion   above and below its equator broke the slices apart and dipped it into buttermilk and flour and fried em and served em steaming hot.  Long gone now.   

Honestly haven't had a good one in a while. Last time I had good ones that appeared to be homemade was at Kay Bros BBQ in Gainesville, FL. Noticed that Sonny's BBQ has apparently quit serving them. After reading this thread and getting a real "hankering" for some I was disappointed to see Sonny's stopped serving them when I had lunch there the other day. Also noticed my favorite wing place doesn't appear to serve them either.

The Pear Tree Restaurant in Bevier, Missouri has outstanding onion rings. Big, thick, and oh so tasty !!

Ted's Hot Dogs in Tempe AZ make a thin slice, light coated ring that goes well with their Dogs.

I'm kind of partial to the ones that I serve.......Beer battered, nice and crispy.

chefbuba


I'm kind of partial to the ones that I serve.......Beer battered, nice and crispy.

Them Thar's good lookin' Wrangs!

One of favorites has got to be Gott's Roadside in SF, soo good

I tried the onion rings at Long John Silvers and they were very good which was a surprise.

Surprise, yes, as the rest of their food is horrible at best......

I enjoyed some really surprisingly good rings at Skip's Chicago Dogs in Avondale Estates GA last week.  They had that really nice beer-battered crunch and were fried just a little darker than "golden brown," but they went just perfectly with their Vienna Beef dogs.

Love them from The Beacon Drive In.

Heartbreaksoup


I enjoyed some really surprisingly good rings at Skip's Chicago Dogs in Avondale Estates GA last week.  They had that really nice beer-battered crunch and were fried just a little darker than "golden brown," but they went just perfectly with their Vienna Beef dogs.

Many times when I order onion rings I'll ask that they be "overcooked" to a deep, dark brown so that the onion itself is really cooked through.

I used to like the "Funion Loaf" at Ribit.  As I recall they had some nice ribs as well.

falco


May I suggest the onion rings at the Grant Bar in Millvale, Pa?
Really, just outside Pittsburgh City Limits-they are outstanding,
and I believe they use the same coating with their signature Butterfly shrimp.
                               Falco

That's a great tip!
IMHO, my hometown of Pittsburgh has the best bar/short order-food in the USA.
I read your other posts and found them all to be useful/insightful.
You should post more!
 
A belated WELCOME! to Roadfood!

The BEST onion ring in NYC are at New York Burger Co. The burgers are eh and the hamburger buns are just odd. But the onion rings...
 

 
They are not inexpensive but my son always finds really good deals on Groupon or Living Social. He loves a good sauce bar and the sauce bar at New York Burger Co. is substantial....
 

The two best orders of Onion Rings I had in 2012 came from two places that I went into with fairly low expectations:
 
The re-created Don's Drive In, formerly of Livingston NJ and now in Morristown, and no longer a drive in. Thier rings were more or less the traditional style and excellent, not greasy, with a great "crunch" and flavor.
 
And, just the other day, the much-hyped Bucu Burger in Paramus. There they were the thin style (they call them haystack onion rings here) and very tasty indeed, light and crispy, just the way I like them.
 
As for the burgers at these places, well, with all the "gourmet fast food" burger places opeing up in NJ, it's getting difficult to distinguish one from another. Five Guys, Bucu, Don's, Smash, Elevation, Cheebuger, and on and on.  All fine and edible, but not really memorable, and mostly overpriced.

phatphil


popeyes chicken makes awesome rings

I agree!