Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Linden

Absolutely disgusted. I will NEVER be coming back to Hook & Reel.

I’ve been a loyal customer here for a long time—spending hundreds of dollars as can be clearly seen from the photos of past visits—but after tonight, I’m done.

The waitress was rude and unprofessional from the start. She promised us one appetizer, then came back with a different one without asking and blamed it on the manager. Throughout the night, she was nasty, dismissive, and rolled her eyes at us repeatedly. To make it worse, she had the audacity to charge me 18% automatic gratuity—for terrible service and hair in my food.

Yes, a long strand of hair in my food.

When I brought it to the attention of the manager, Eden, he actually tried to blame me. He said I should just eat the steak since “the hair was only in the ramen.” Then he said he could “check the camera”—as if I was lying about this disgusting situation. Why would you threaten to review footage without even confirming whether I ate the food or not?

When he finally realized I never touched the steak, he backtracked and blamed the waitress for not mentioning it. At that point, the damage was done. I wasn’t offered a replacement meal—just $15 off an entrée I never ate. Why should I pay anything for food that I couldn’t eat because there was HAIR in it?

And really—use your brain. If I were going to fake something, would I plant a hair in the $64 crab leg boil instead of the $22 steak? Makes no sense.

The worst thing you can do is insult a customer’s integrity. Eden is lucky I didn’t call the health department right then and there.

This place clearly doesn’t value its regulars. After tonight’s disrespect, blame-shifting, and complete lack of accountability, I’ll never be back—and I’ll make sure my friends and family don’t waste their time or money here either.

Had the manager apologized and shown an ounce of respect rather than the accusations he wouldn’t have...

Coming from memorable Cajun seafood boil experiences in Jersey City, NYC, New Orleans, and LA, I feel savvy with this kind of dining and was excited to try Hook & Reel. I'm Filipinx so staying seafood with my hands is practically a love language. This review is for delivery experience primarily. First, we ordered a snow crab and shrimp with head-on combo that came with mussels, corn, and potato. The deal itself is decent with portions however quality was inconsistent.

I've had pick up and delivery seafood boils from other restaurants and quality weren't impacted. We decided on Hook & Reel's Special Blend sauce which felt one note as spice forward. It lacked nuance without hardly any garlic or citrus. In the bag there was no chopped garlic but dry spices. It felt like seasoning and oil which isn't a satisfying sauce. My partner lives for seafood boil meals and needed me to get more lemon and make a garlic paprika old bay butter to add on our order. That's right, I modified my meal. The snowcrab legs were small and definitely overcooked as some of the crabmeat was mushy and the shells didn't snap. The shrimp however were cooked perfectly, tasted extremely fresh, the entire plump shrimp and head were not at all murky but flavorful. The mussels were slightly chewy but still delicious. The potatoes were a perfect doneness but the corn was another pitfall tasting mealy soft. We're going to try H&R again and hope that the overall taste improves because delivery was pretty expedient. I wanted to feel wowed by this meal because seafood is a grand enjoyment and instead it was just decent, maybe even lackluster.

Maybe I'll try their fried seafood options next time? The meal visually looked like a behemoth feast yet sadly, the food taste failed to keep up with the grandiose appearance. In summary, my kneejerk impetus description of the food here: Tepid. Very pretty but...

My husband and I decided to visit Hook and Reel for the the first ever dine in. We’ve ordered for pick up many times and decided we wanted to try their dine in experience. To say the least we were extremely disappointed. To begin once we were seated it took almost 15 minutes for anyone to come to us. By the time they got to us my 2 year old was obviously already getting extremely fussy and that’s the moment the waiter comes to our table. He stood there annoyed that our son was fussy and just rushed to get our order. I asked that the baby’s food please come out before anything else. We ordered appetizers drinks and a boil as our main dish. First comes out one of the appetizers. Then came my baby’s food then came another appetizer with our main dish. I thought appetizers were supposed to be before our main dish? Finally our drink finally came from the bar we ordered a mango piña coloda. And it just tasted like a regular one that’s fine. But once our food arrived at our table our waiter never came back. I needed a refill I had to ask a host. We had to flag down our waiter for the check and once we got it we saw there was an automatic tip. Which is fine if the server was attentive but he wasn’t even at the slightest bit. We then waited another 15-20 minutes he never came to collect the payment we had to flag down another server to complete the payment. I myself am a bartender and completely understand the automatic tip but it gave this server the option to never check on us because he knew regardless he would get a tip. It completely removes hospitality and was honestly an experience I do...