The Pickled Onion

The Pickled Onion is a popular meeting place for Bermuda's opulent and sophisticated crowd. A lot of its success can be attributed to its excellent Front Street location. The building, dating from the 19th century, was formerly the headquarters of a local wine and spirit merchants. Occupying the second floor of the building it’s a fine use of what used to be the whisky warehouse.

The Pickled Onion has a rather exquisite bar, serving wines by the glass and a range of house cocktails. Many choose to spend the entire evening in the bar area, making it consistently and fashionably crammed. Elsewhere there are also numerous tables and booths and you don’t have to be a diner to get a seat. Outside, a covered veranda overlooks Front Street and Hamilton Harbour. The original slate ceiling with its exposed cedar beams still covers the premises, but the rest of the interior has a contemporary design that blends in well.

It’s also a pretty good place to eat as well. For an appetiser try the Coconut Crusted Shrimp. For an entree how about the Pan Seared Rockfish, a local speciality.

The Pickled Onion gets busy on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. ‘Why Wednesdays?’ we hear you ask. Well in the summer, Wednesdays are Harbour Nights. The Pickled Onion is located right in the thick of the action. Its veranda offers a bird’s eye view of all the entertainment and table reservations are essential.

Reader Reviews and Additional Information

kike :

The waiter that served us needs a course in manners, I agree with the comments of Raymond and we did not leave an extra tip either. The baby back ribs had been smothered in some sort of powder, cumin I think. Talk about burning lips, had to stop eating them. The vegetables looked fresh until in the mouth. They had been covered with some sort of odd tasting oil, lard I think. The other meal was chicken strips with peppers over jasmine rice, however they too had too much spice and could not be eaten. The waiter asked how things were going and when we told him we could not eat the food he made a hasty retreat to get us the check without any apology.
We were charged almost $97 for this which included a 15% service charge which was not deserved. That is the problem with service charges, you have to pay even though you got terrible service. Never again.

happy dancer :

Music is great, love the duo. Tuesdays accoustic night is fun too.

Raymond :

I love the bar and the ambience. My mates and I always hang out there. Went to dinner with mates (5 of us) on 9 July 07. I'm very disappointed with an impolite server name Josh. He even threw the bill on the table when we asked for the bill. I was very upset with the whole dining experience! We did not leave him any extra tips like usually we do.

Pat :

Fabulous place! Great food, great atmosphere, fabulous entertainment!

racerxda :

Nice bar and good sounds.

Emma :

The Pickled Onion has been renovated now, with a better kitchen and bar, seating etc and is easily one of the best bars in Bermuda, if not the best. They have new and more staff and I would recommend it any day.

Simon :

Hasn't it closed for renovations and opened under a different name?

Editor :

Each year the restaurant usually has a March Madness promotion - a 3-course meal for a bargain price.

holly :

Nice place but if you've got a infant you'll struggle getting your stroller up the narrow staircase.

Danny :

Good place but can get very busy at the weekends. They really need to put more bar staff on. The queues at the bar can get a little annoying.