Hooksey's Fish & Chips — Restaurant in Whitby

Turn for the worse.

I placed our usual order for pick up over the phone. For starters the girl who answered to take our order could hardly speak or understand English. I'm all for allowing newcomers to Canada to work however they need to speak English in positions that require good communications, It took several tries to place an order that was quite simple with several requests by me to repeat my order back as it was wrong. Finally it seemed we were good to go. She advised it would be 20 minutes.

I arrived at Hooksey's after about 25 minutes. I gave the young lady my name and she just smiled as if she didn't understand. She pulled my order from the pile on the counter and I asked if she placed it because she seemed a little confused. I repeated the order again to be sure. One item was chicken fingers which she questioned me on and pointed to a menu picture of chicken souvlaki and I said no... chicken fingers. I finally called the more experienced waitress who was helping in the kitchen over and we got everything sorted out. Now for the real kicker - I happened to sit with a view of the cook who was about to prepare our Greek Salads and he was grabbing the lettuce and feta cheese with his bare hands while wiping his hands on an extremely filthy rag hanging from his waistband - this rag looked like an auto mechanic threw it out - disgustingly filthy. No safe food handling whatsoever here. I called the experienced waitress over and told her that I would not accept those salads and why. She said she keeps telling the cook to use gloves but he doesn't listen... really!!

The total time to get my order filled was almost an hour when I was told 20 minutes. The food was also not on par with our expectations.

This experience has turned me totally off Hooksey's and I won't return as long as this staff is in place. I believe it may be under new ownership/management and they are not up to decent quality standards by a long shot.

It was a disgusting display of a cook and restaurant not having any sense of food safety handling or regard for public health....

🦄 Hooksey’s… our favourite local breakfast/fish and chips joint. If you are not local to the area, it is easily missed but word of mouth reaches far and wide when you are a wholesomely good family spot! My family and I have been coming here for years. We love both the breakfast and the fish and chips! My most recent visit was for breakfast and my usual order is the Full of It sandwich. Other family members usually get eggs, bacon and peameal. The over easy eggs are cooked and plated perfectly. The pancakes (not pictured here) are fluffy and soft with no eggy flavour.

While we came here for breakfast today, we also love the fish and chips. The fish portions have to be the most generous I’ve ever encountered without excessive batter. The gravy is dark and delicious and perfect accompaniment to the chips. Be sure to also try their Greek salad… one of the best greek salads I’ve had. The dressing is creamy and so flavourful along with a generous mound of fresh, soft feta.

This is a family run business and owners are wonderful. We will continue to visit and have told many of our friends and family...

UPDATE: went in person had a great experience. Much better portion fish and service was excellent! Food was hot and fresh, will return again. The owner went above and beyond to make things right, much appreciated! We left satisfied and happy.

We ordered through Uber Eats this evening and we were disappointed! I was told this place is amazing for fish and chips it isn't. I ordered 2 small poutines, one piece of halibut fish and a slice of coconut cream pie. PROS: portion of pie and poutines were great! The cheese curds were nicely melted. The pie was incredible and flavourful; fluffy whipped cream, homemade taste and delicious crust! CONS: poutine was kinda dry; needed more cheese and gravy, fries could be thicker too! Fish was way too small for the cost and tasted spongy. It lacked flavour. The tarter sauce was tasty but stingy, they could have given more. They forgot to add the ketchup and coleslaw I asked for. The order said coleslaw included so I was expecting it!

Overall not worth the $67 spent. I will be calling and complaining tomorrow as they closed right as we got...