Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

First and foremost, the huge negative thing I want to say about this place is that I do NOT like being charged an 18% gratuity fee for just 2 people. And before you start thinking I am “cheap”, what you have to understand is that a gratuity is NOT a tip, it is a SERVICE FEE (look it up). As such, by law, any restaurant that charges a gratuity fee is supposed to pay their workers minimum wage. However, they do NOT have to pay the worker anything else from that gratuity (aka: service fee) other than the state minimum wage. So, if you’re thinking that the waitress who just served you and did an excellent job just got an 18% tip, you’re probably dead wrong. More than likely, the waitress will get her measly $7.25/hour, and the corporate will keep the rest. Therefore, with our total bill being $127.00, service fee included, this means that the gratuity was roughly $23.00, of which $7.25 goes to the waitress and $15.75 goes to the corporate. Hence, the nice waitress that served us here would have been way better off if we didn’t have a gratuity forced upon us. We tip at 20%, meaning that she’d have made roughly $25 for her services vs. the $7.25 that she probably actually made. And even knowing this, who is going to pay an 18% gratuity and then top that with another 14% tip so that the waitress actually gets the tip you want HER to have???? NO ONE! This is what people do NOT understand about gratuities vs. tips. Oh, but the greedy corporates do!!

Now for the rest of the breakdown…. The restaurant is in a very busy shopping and eating district; Restaurants and shops out the wazoo, and traffic to boot. So, we were somewhat surprised when we drove up and there were only a couple of cars in the parking lot, but yet all of the other restaurants around it were booming with customers. Bad omen…

Once inside we were greeted and seated promptly. We both ordered a Long Island Tea, which in actuality turned out to be a Short Island Tea. The glass was about 3” tall, and more resembled something I’d expect to get a small orange juice in rather than a Long Island Tea. Just guessing, I’d say it was about a 6oz glass, if even. If you subtract the ice from that, we probably ended up with about 3oz of actual drink for $8 each. Another bad omen….

Our food all came out in a huge plastic bag, which was just bizarre to me. My crab, shrimp, potatoes, corn, everything all smothered in sauce. Not my thing. I can’t honestly say I want my entire dish smothered in sauce. Need I tell you what an absolute mess it was trying to eat? Even worse is trying to crack the crab open when you can barely hang on to it and your utensils… and to that end, honest to goodness, one of my crab legs went flying out of my hands and across the floor because I lost my grip on it when trying to separate the legs. It’s like trying to turn a doorknob that’s covered in grease. Oh, but they do give you cheap plastic gloves that would fit a huge gorilla, if you think that helps any. I honestly felt like an uncivilized caveman trying to eat this mess. In a way it was humorous, but still…

The crab legs were small with very little meat. The flavor was fine and they were hot and cooked well. The peel and eat shrimp was extremely rubbery. The potatoes were cooked perfect. The corn was decent. My wife also got some fried shrimp and it was pretty good.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to value for me. Do I feel like my wife and I got a $127 dollar meal? No, absolutely not. This will be a one and done experience for us that I would never recommend to anyone. Considering that there was only about 5 other couples in the restaurant between the hours of 6:30 PM and 7:30 PM, while all the other restaurants around it were packed, I guess other people don’t think too highly of it either. Just everything about it screamed of corporate greed and a budget meal at extravagant meal prices. UPDATE: DOWNGRADED FROM 2 STARS TO 1 STAR BECAUSE THEY ASKED ME TO EMAIL THEM, AND I DID 3 TIMES AND THEY NEVER RESPONDED, JUST LIKE I KNEW...

Today was my first & last visit to Hook & Reel. Met up with a friend for lunch we arrived & was greeted by the waitress more on her in the minute. Very cute place I definitely will give them that but customer service & lack of listening from the waitress caused the detour in satisfaction. My friend ordered extras to her boil I made sure to mention MULTIPLE times I didn’t want to add anything extra the waitress looked me in the face and told me no problem I understand. The food arrives at the table hot & fresh (giving them some props). I looked at my boil it had extras before she opened the bag I told her oh this bag has eggs & sausage I said I didn’t want extras. At this point she had opened the bag she goes oh I made it like hers I once again mentioned I didn’t want extras for what felt like this 10th time. She shrugged & walked off…ummmm okay thanks? She comes back to the table and was reminded again I didn’t order extras. She said I will talk to my manager I simply said thank you & started to eat my food the parts I ORDERED. She comes back & says “My manager said I have to take those off of YOUR plate”. Color me confused but you made the mistake & had the nerve to want to put your hands in my food. I removed the food from my plate because at this point I’m embarrassed because they obviously didn’t care she didn’t have her listening ears on & I was shamed liked it was my fault. I made sure to get every last little piece of THEIR sausage off my plate & the eggs. I told her I didn’t want during my order. At first I tried to use my gloves but friendly reminder you can’t reserve food I was very calm with her as I told her “I will just use my hands seeing how you can’t reserve this well I at least hope ya’ll don’t”. Ya’ll she never once denied my statement also the manager lacks management skills why are you sending your employees to handle management duties? Many of you may be thinking why didn’t we leave the embarrassment was to the point. I was in such disbelief this was actually happening.

Save your money & precious time avoid this place like it has “Seafood Poisoning” on the sign...

Had a very awkward experience here with my best friend on 7/7/24! The food was awesome and the staff were great for the most part and it was super clean! However, we placed our order at the beginning, (2 crab clusters, 1/2 pound of shrimp with no head & extra potatoes, water and diet Dr Pepper) The waitress confirmed the order and brought everything out to us. However, whenever it was time to pay I noticed that the shrimp was listed as 1 pound ($24) instead of 1/2 a pound($12.50). I let the waitress know our bill was incorrect and told her she listed the shrimp as 1 pound instead of 1/2 pound. The waitress did take ownership that the ticket was incorrect and that she put it in the computer wrong, which I do really appreciate! However, here is where it got really awkward, instead of her walking away and correcting the ticket and bringing me back the correct one, which would occur at a normal restaurant. She then stands there awkwardly in silence and then proceeds to tell me she brought that amount of food out to us, so if I didn’t pay the difference, she would have to pay the cost difference personally, not the restaurant. I then said I don’t feel like she should have to take the cost because of a mistake, but the ticket was incorrect and we didn’t get what we ordered and she confirmed she was incorrect when she entered the order. She then kinda leaned towards me and whispered “you can just take it out of my tip”. Which I just thought was very very inappropriate and not something you say to your guest at a restaurant.

I get that we all make mistakes at our jobs. But whenever I make a mistake I don’t tell my clients and try to make them feel guilty especially if I have acknowledged the mistake was my fault. I also don’t tell them what my consequences are when I make a mistake. And I definitely don’t tell them to fix the error (by having them lower their morals standards/etiquette and having telling me to tip less) whenever I wasn’t the one that made...