The Onyx Room

Had the catfish (11.99) with mac n cheese and greens, overall I enjoyed everything. The starter salad was fresh and just enough. The greens are very good and the Mac satisfied my need for cheese. Although I splashed the catfish with hot sauce, it was great by itself. I thought the salt was a little heavy but I was really pleased all around. I am a salt liver but might be a bit much for some, so just be sure to taste before seasoning your plate. Finished with a slice of pie and coffee. Now, I need to go walk 5 miles but I am super happy. I am curious what this sleepy post lunch crowd becomes at happy hour. The wait staff was nice and helpful. Give it a try with a big appetite. I’m glad to see that Tucson is getting different cuisines and look forward to this spot finally supporting a successful restaurant. I wish you guys lots of luck.

I was hoping that the Onyx Room would be a sentimental sistah’s fried chicken an’ po’ boy oasis and renew my hope for the struggling Stone/​Drachman jive and funk ethnic nexus. The marquee, a provocative black sign luring passersby with a lady’s graceful hand fondling a martini glass, had me expecting to see Jackie Brown lounging at the bar. The interior, complete with mini balconies and jazzy murals, makes quaint seem cool. Surely, off the hook soul food would be found here. I used to live in NOLA, where mom and pop soul diners face fierce competition, so I know my collards from my blackeyed peas and bow down in slavering reverence for Southern cuisine made from animal parts which would be considered scraps in the North. However, the fried chicken was tasty but not May’s caliber, and the catfish and pork po’boy wasn’t worthy of its sub Mason-​Dixon name. The filling was sparse and the bun appeared to be a Safeway hoagie roll from the expired bakery rack. The sides were also barely up to par. The fries were a limp, grease-​sodden mess, and could not be redeemed even by bathing them in hot sauce. The onion gravy was delicious, and the onyx sauce, which is a thick vinegary BBQ, covered the po’boy. However, a po’boy should be packed with kitchen odds n ends (thus the name) such as veggies, tartar, etc. The sauce, yummy as it was, did not suffice in lieu of everything else including cole slaw, which is a mandatory po’boy partner and finally came in a paper thimble cup at the end of the meal. The sweet potato pie is excellent, and the service polite although a tad sluggish. I want to see the Onyx Room attend to sweet Southern details like Barry White attends to his women’s needs.

I had been eyeing this place since I moved to Tucson about a year ago and immediately saw it as the proclaimed ‘Best of Tucson’ for its trade. I am a soul food lover and love to try to recreate what I believe is its perfection myself. I finally had some time and my boyfriend I and I went there a week ago, Friday night about 8 with intentions to meet a couple downtown around 9:30.
When we arrived, there were two larger parties at long tables. The rest of the seats were pretty much empty. I immediately thought, ‘This will be great! We will have warm, fresh food because of the parties and we will probably be served right away so that our small table won’t be a worry!’ It was the EXACT opposite.
We ordered drinks, the Onyx Sweet Tea and their Onyx Manhattan. Both were delish. Our waitress seemed new, but was very polite. We were set on the fried chicken and ordered our food with our drinks; I requested the dark meat platter and black-​eyed peas and coleslaw. My boyfriend ordered the white meat plate, mac and cheese and the yams. She brought our salads and they were all right; darker greens, tomato, cheese. The dressing was bought not made. That’s fine.
But then fifteen minutes passed, thirty, about 45. Our waitress apologized a couple times for the wait. I had seen several plates of food go to the parties, but not mass quantities. A plate here, a plate there, I was expecting that since we were a two top, we would get food shortly; some management HAD to notice at that point that our drinks were empty and that we still had not been served. I began to look for authority, I am not sure I saw any.
The waitress at this point apologized for the wait and offered a couple more drinks. I assumed mistakenly that these were on the house. In fact, mine was made incorrectly. Instead of what was sweet tea before, I had a cocktail with regular iced tea.
After about an hour and 15 minutes, we received our food, devoid of the corn bread promised and I had incorrect sides. After getting the correct ones, I was very happy with the coleslaw — tangy, shredded well, purple and green cabbage. Our meat was good. It was not greasy, or dry. It was good. The yams were my FAVORITE; they were spiced well with cinnamon and it seemed all spice, gooey but not overcooked.
We had asked at one point if our second drinks were on the house and the waitress said that she would buy them; we said that she did not have to do that at all, the house should. They did not. She then offered us dessert, on the house, and we choose the sweet potato pie. It held the same flavors as our side — spicy, warm, and delicious.
I think that May’s is the Best of Tucson.

I’ll keep this simple — the food here sucks! I don’t understand why there are so many positive comments about the food here! This is not quality «soul food». First of all, I ordered the fried chicken «breast» with black-​eyed peas and greens. I received a fried chicken wing and tiny piece of chicken that barely resembled a breast. The black-​eyed peas were less than flavorful and somewhat watery. The greens were salty. I was disgusted and a bit disappointed because I heard negative things about it. I’d much rather go to May’s Counter. I wish I could give this place negative stars!!!

My husband and I went twice in one week because we were so impressed with their lunch the first time. We went mid-​afternoon on a Thursday for a late lunch, and there were about 3 other tables occupied.
My husband ordered the brisket sandwich with fries and I ordered the smothered dark meat fried chicken with mashed potatoes and potato salad (dinner portion). It took about 15 minutes for our food to arrive. In the meantime my husband ate my salad and said it was standard.
The fried chicken was well-​prepared, with crispy breading on the outside and very juicy chicken on the inside. The breading isn’t very thick, and the chicken overall wasn’t greasy at all. The fries were seasoned well with spices, but some people might find them a little salty. The mashed potatoes were wonderful, but personally I didn’t enjoy the gravy very much. They use an onion-​based gravy, and I much prefer the heavier beef-​broth based gravy. The potatoes in the potato salad was a little undercooked, and the potatoes themselves were cut into pretty large pieces. The highlight of the whole meal was my husband’s pulled brisket sandwich. Very tender, well seasoned and amazing flavor. All in all we had a very pleasant experience and I couldn’t stop talking about the brisket for a couple of days afterwards.
And that’s why we went back a second time that weekend, hoping for another amazing experience. And we were spectacularly disappointed. This time we went on a Saturday night at 7, and only one other table was occupied. This time I ordered the brisket with mac & cheese and fries and my husband ordered the spare ribs with black eyed peas and fries. The brisket dinner is completely different from the brisket sandwich. With the dinner you get 2 large slabs of sliced brisket (there’s a picture on their website under «our menu» in the «daily sides» section) that doesn’t have the wonderful flavor that the pulled brisket had. My husband complained about only getting 3 ribs (burnt and dry) for $ 16. The mac & cheese was hard and crusty, like it had been sitting there for awhile. The black-​eyed peas were ok, if a little salty. We ordered the peach cobbler and sweet potato pie for dessert. Sweet potato pie was awesome, but I felt like I was eating spoonfuls of maple syrup for the peach cobbler.
I don’t know if the chefs are different between Thursday afternoon and Saturday night, but if you want a well-​cooked meal, get their brisket sandwich or fried chicken on Thursday afternoons.

It’s so nice having actual soul food in Tucson and not the stuff May’s counter trys to peddle as soul food. I love the Onyx room and I just hope that Tucsonan’s frequent this place enough to keep it in business.
My usual days of choice are sunday’s after church or on weeknight when me and the wife get a craving. Down south the post church exodus usually involves heading to a house, a buffet, or a soul food spot for some viddles. Well heading to the Onyx room is the closest thing to that we can do in Tucson.
The staff is always attentive and the food is consistently good. I have never had a bad dish or been dissatisfied with my food. In my numerous visits I have had 1 hiccup and that was due to being there a little too early and the sweet tea wasn’t ready yet. My waitress in a effort to accomodate my request tried to make a «glass» of sweet tea but any sweet tea drinker cringed when they read «glass of sweet tea». She took it away promptly and I elected to stick with water that meal.
The owner is usually around and when he is will ask how your meal was. Me and some friends were there and one sent his plate back with quite a bit of food left. Most restaurants would ignore this fact and not bring up the meal if nothing was said. The staff here seems committed to customer satisfaction and checked in just to make sure the food was to his liking and that there wasn’t an issue with the meal. When he told them he ordered too much food they thanked him for his business and made us feel like welcome guests in their establishment.
If you want the closest thing you will get to traditional soul food in tucson without visiting my kitchen or someone elses come here.

So this one is part of the Unilocal has an app for that food fight. Ill be posting a review just for the app and then I’ll update at a later time once I actually have a full blown meal here!
This was stop #12 on the tour
The Onyx room was an interesting place. We went in the late afternoon and there was nobody there, but I can see how this place could be totally bad ass chock full of people eating, dancing, and having a good time.
So the app: «That’s a Wrap» it was what I call a twofer! lol it was two different styles of BBQ. The first — BBQ pork, cheese, mushrooms, onion and garlic all wrapped in lettuce was very good but the texture was off-​putting it’s hard to explain but it was this mushy-​esque texture of all those ingredients put in a not too stable lettuce wrap thingy. Kinda weird but good. The second part of the twofer was a buffalo chicken– jack cheese and buffalo sauce in a won ton wrap served with a blue cheese sauce. This one was good too! (I’m a sucker for BBQ) The texture on this one was killer. Nice crispy wonton roll and BBQ inside, oh yeah! The blue cheese dipping sauce was an enigma all in itself. I couldn’t have too much of it because it was strong but then again I could not stop dipping in it.
I gave this place 3 out of 5 only because of the weird texture.

Décor: very nice and unusual for Tucson
Service: great
Sweet tea: strangely light in color, but still had a good flavor and the right amount of sweetening.
Fried chicken wings: fabulous
French fries: cooked perfectly and completely grease free
Brisket: a tiny bit dry but good with the «Onyx sauce»
Catfish: very good
Mac/​cheese: okay
Green Beans: very good
Mashed potatoes and gravy: good homemade with real potatoes
Dinner salads: very good quality
Corn bread: a little dry
Banana pudding: fine
Peach cobbler: fine
Sweet potato pie – close to perfect
One complaint – there were no red onions in my cucumber/​tomato salad

The fact that you can eat a BBQ brisket sandwich while 50 something-​year-​olds are crooning to classic karaōke might not be for everyone, but it got me going! This place is pretty unique. The menu is limited to classic southern fare, and then there are a number of sides you can add on to fill out the experience. I’m going to blow through dinner quick because it was tasty, but not as satisfying as their incredible sweet potato pie. When picking out my sweet ending I asked the waitress what she prefered, and she said she eats the sweet potato pie everyday, and I understand why. It’s smooth, silky, perfect amount of sweetness without being overly sweet. I wouldn’t change a thing, except maybe make the slice double the size! The atmosphere is chill, sleek black with silver accents. It’s a little warehouse-​y inside, and doesn’t have the warmth you may expect if you’ve never been — but the entire fam more than makes up for it — big smiles on their faces, walking around, making sure everything is a-​ok.
Know Before You Go: They’re slowly turning into a destination for music and events. Check out their website for the hip haps and get dinner and a show!

Holy cow!!! I have been waiting for a place that has real «Black people food» ever since Rainbows closed several years ago. The wait is over. This place has great food, good prices and a wonderful atmosphere. I am hard to please and this place wowed me. This is the greatest place for happy hour in Tucson right now in my opinion. I hope this place sticks around.

Smothered chicken excellent. Kids devoured catfish — who knew? I love soul food — and I don’t count May’s as soul food — this place qualifies!
Potato salad tasted eggy — like I like though didn’t really see chunks of egg which I don’t like — so it was my dream potato salad — very fresh. Collards maybe could’ve used a little more fat but very good.
Definitely going to be a regular.

The Po Boy (catfish) Sandwich is great. The price on drink could be better. Nice spot.

I’m so glad we now have a restaurant like this in Tucson. Last year we were treated to May Counter, but that restaurant — despite being one of my favorites in Tucson — serves what is tastes more like stoner take on soul food. The Onyx Room, on the other hand, is a real soul food joint and the food is damn good.
Smothered fried chicken with collard greens and yams seemed like an appropriate introduction. As tasty as the breading on the chicken was, the onion gravy was the star of the show here. It’s the kind of flavor that lingers with you well after the meal. The yams were perfectly sweet, and the collard greens were wonderfully smokey. In fact, the Onyx Room’s greens are the only greens outside of my own that I’ve wholly enjoyed. I capped the meal off with their bread pudding, which was so good it should be illegal.
Every time our server came by, I had to give her one of those embarrassing grunts of satisfaction because my mouth was always stuffed with food, but thankfully in addition to being attentive, she was also pleasant and understanding. The interior is almost strangely roomy, but it’s nice. It appears as though live music happens on certain nights, so you should definitely look into that if that is your scene. Either way, The Onyx Room is a long overdue addition to Tucson’s food community — a must try for any food lover.

Tip: if you’re going to go here for lunch on a Sunday around the time that church is just getting out, don’t come in athletic shorts and flip-​flops, because you will feel severely underdressed: P

Very impressed. We went there expecting a hole in the wall soul food joint. Instead we were pleasantly surprised and impressed. Our server Nina was wonderful and Beverly, one of partners stopped by to ask us how our food was (great). The pictures posted here are a bit misleading because it is quite a bit bigger with a full bar and small stage. Live jazz topped off the night. Will definitely be coming back.

Went for the second time, have to say was a bit disappointed. We went Thursday to listen to the band Shakey Bones. Planned on having dinner with friends, so was ready to enjoy fabulous meal, as I did the first time.
I ordered the smothered chicken, grilled, with a side of greens & macaroni & cheese. The gravy that the chicken was smothered in was very salty, and the greens were even saltier, couldn’t even eat them. The dinner salad was nice, but a very small portion. Actually all the portions were noticeably smaller this time. The portion of greens looked like a ¼ cup, and the cornbread was about a 1 inch square. The last time we had dinner there they brought soup & salad, this time just the salad.
I have to admit my last experience with the food was by far much better. I can’t see how anybody could actually eat such salty food, not to mention the sodium for those watching their sodium intake. The prices are a bit above average for Tucson, so you would expect a bit more attention to the seasoning.
So overall with this last visit the atmosphere was nice, wait staff great, food okay. I know they haven’t been open that long, so hopefully they are still trying to work out the kinks. A PLUS-​they have 2 for 1 Happy hour on drinks. 4 – 7 pm

Great southern food done right! The owner is a gem, making sure to talk to every table like you’re in her home being taken care of.
The food is outstanding and priced great! I had the brisket… SUPER TENDER! The greens were perfect, the black eyed peas were nice and soft. I also love the fact that you get a salad and a cup of soup (cream of potato… sooooo good) and cornbread included in the meal.
My wifes Po’ Boy pulled pork sandwich was juicy and tender and her green beans were great.
Definitely a place I will come back to.

Real soul food, yes, yes. Yes.
I don’t want Olive Garden service when I’m eating soul food. I want to chat with the staff about the food, their roots, life ya know. The laid-​back waitress with exposed tattoos chatted with me while I was waiting out front for my take-​out order. I learned about the restaurant’s Cleveland background and the menu’s love for pork.
The ambience isn’t classy but it’s nice with chandeliers and musical paintings on the wall. The bar is sexy. Check the photos I loaded.
The prices aren’t soul food cheap but there are huge portions with sides. I went for the Friday special, pig’s feet. It came with soup (today was beef and barley), salad (it’s basic), collard greens and mac and cheese. Peach cobbler was $ 3.50.
The pig’s feet were gigantic, way bigger than what I’m used to in those jars of Mexican pickled pigs feet. It was a tender gelatinous mass with some hunks of meat and a lot of skin. Doesn’t sound appetizing to most people, but if you grew up with it, it’s hella comforting and nourishing. It was seasoned just right but I wish they included to-​go packets of hot sauce.
The mac and cheese was rotini. I would rank the sauce Velveeta +. It didn’t have any fancy pungency and the pasta was a bit mushy but hell I could still shove my face into it and be happy as a pig.
The collard greens were very smokey with plenty of chunks of meat. They were still just a little crisp, just the way I like it.
My to-​go peach cobbler was packaged in a styrofoam cup but still maintained its warm, crumbly, sweet and cinnamony delight. A cup of vanilla ice cream and I would have had the best food coma ever.

I recommend anything smothered, the mac and cheese, and yams. The peach cobbler is freaking awesome. You should also try the Onyx Tea!

Southern home cooking done right. I had the pork shoulder, it was very tender and moist with a pleasantly robust flavor, the result of nice slow cooking. The mashed potatoes were amazing, I loved the texture with chunks of potatoes here and there. The gravy topping was incredible.
A nice side of collard greens and a little cup of cole slaw completed the sides. The collard greens were properly done with some bbq pork mixed in with them. The coleslaw was awesome, maybe because it was free! lol
The sweet potato pie is awesome! The portions are realistic, they seem generous for the quality and price.
They have a full bar, the wait staff is very attentive/​courteous. I highly recommend giving this refreshing new place a shot!

So we have a brand new establishment in Tucson,
Ladies and gentlemen… welcome to Onyx room the only Soul Food restaurant in Tucson. and I get to try it out 9 days after their opening day and yes they opened on April fools days.
First of all I am not a soul food expert by any means. but a friend of my from Detroit once wanted turn me into a soul food brothah after the dinner at their house. and I had tried… will~ make the long story short. no matter how hard I tried I am still a foodie. and NO I am not going to reveal what I did. Because its just wasn’t working!
Done with my very personal experiences with soul food… that makes my review VERY creditable right? at least that’s how I look at it…:-)
Parking lot was paved with bricks… yes the entire lot. its rare in Tucson. My buddy Dale pointed it out. or I will never notice.
Now we’re inside… its a wide open dinning room, I think its friend of owner’s creations on most of the artworks… from the walls to the tables. and NO. you will not find a piece of IKEA in here. (No offense. IKEA…)
I ordered smothered chicken and comes with 2 sides of your choice (yams & green beans was my picked). few choices of salad and soup (comes with corn bread as well). Chicken was well marinated and covered with onion gravy but its little salty (this is soul food) for my taste… the yams were well cooked and the green beans… wait… there are some BBQ pork mixed in the middle… nice touch!
So that sounded a lot of food right? but its smaller potions so you get to try varieties of food thus without over stuffed yourself… plus my order was only 10.99 although its just happens to be the cheapest dinner plate on the menu… talking about southern hospitality.:)
My friend got the pork shoulder. slow cooked and yummy.
Sweet tea was really a sweet tea… peach cobbler were nice and caramelized, sweet potato pie was served with almost lips burning temperature (our server wasn’t standing around for sure… awesome!!)