Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Shelby Charter Township

Okay so boom! Hook and reel food review!

So I arrive first of my party of six and I informed the greeter that it would be five adults one child he asked if they were a highchair or booster seat and I said no. And side note everyone at the table had to order all you can eat!!!!*

Initially, there were only just three adults the other three of the party were sort of late. My mom wasn’t familiar with all the sauces, but the waitress had very strongly suggested that the hook in reel sauce was the most popular, so she went along with it and ordered it with her seafood. Initially, my mom wasn’t a big favor of the hook and Reel sauce. She said that the sauce was not tasteful to her liking. She also ordered the same for her boyfriend. He had no issues with it. In fact, he kinda liked it, which goes on to say that everybody’s taste buds aren’t the same but when you take someone suggestions when is your first time at a restaurant, you would think that it is a fairly good option.

Me personally I stuck to my oldie but goody….garlic butter! For the win 🥇 for its works every time.

Now go off the sauce, the seafood that we got I ordered the Dungeness crab legs. My mom ordered the snow crab leg and also her boyfriend. Their crab legs (Now note that the snow crab legs were verry little) and were very very much overcooked. My Dungeness crab were very good. They also ordered shrimp and mussels. My mom did not care for the muscles, and she also noted that the snow crab and shrimp were overcooked verbatim.

But to add the fried shrimp were to die for.

Then my sister and her boyfriend and my niece arrived they began their order again. The waitress insisted that the hook in real sauce was the best, and my sister ordered it as well as her boyfriend, but my sister it very spicy. 🌶️

My niece who is in fact taller than her mom her mom is very short and stature only 411 and my niece is 5 foot. She’s only nine years old. The read half offered children under 10. My niece again is only nine years old again when our very first got seated, I said there will be one child!” Like if there was a child over 10 I would’ve said six adults” so moving forward, they placed their orders when they got there and the waitress decided to charge my nine-year-old niece as an adult l, but lest not forget to mention that she showed her the kids menu, and my niece is not obese or anything but because she was taller than her mom, the waitress said that she looked big because she was taller than her mom, what a way to body shame a child who is already gone through growing pains with Baby fat and already just being naturally taller than your own mom, that’s only “4”11” in height, and a bit slimmer than you as a child you get to hear this…

Then my sisters boyfriend is eating his seafood and finds Hair and his seafood platter, which my sister boyfriend and my mother‘s boyfriend or sitting adjacent to each other our bald head clean shaven, here comes a blonde strand of hair. No one in our party had blonde hair. He incidentally lost a partial which he went back to look for and the owner

She only offered him half off of his meal, which left a bad taste in his mouth, and he did not want to eat at the establishment any further which he did not.

The only the owner of the establishment got very defensive when my sister spoke about the fact that her seafood was very overcooked, which mine was too at the end of my order and also my mother’s. that’s the one thing got very distasteful and it was time to leave. I didn’t even get to experience the whole hour and a half of the all you can eat crab, but I would say that if your guests are not satisfied with the food make some exceptions. We all come here in good faith to pay what we owe pay our bill, I was aware of the 8%. Everyone was at the table. We were all fit and suited to pay the bill in fill! (Without any doubt) but they made us feel like we were there to get free food at the end of the day.

They did not take our, dissatisfaction with pride...

First of all, I'd like to begin by saying a couple of us in the group have years of food/service industry experience. That's not to say that we were all star-studded customers. Some of us had a couple drinks, so we could've been less obnoxious I'm sure...

Now for those that actually care about the review bit; then here's my take. There are stellar people who work here, and it is an establishment that I will visit again. However, Renee, please take this all with the most sincerity.

Starting with our drinks. My girlfriend gave you her drink order, but Renee, you insisted on her ordering a different drink, this denial happened 3 times back to back... not because there was anything wrong with the order, but because you were pushing a specific drink. As a sales person, I understand each person has a "script" they go by to promote certain items or attempt to upsell, I get it, but after the first attempt that came off as a clear disregard for the customers desire. Next, as we were ordering our appetizers, we wanted to give a heads up on how we planned to split the tab to make it easier, but you insisted (more than once) that since it was only five of us (on 3 bills) that it would be so much easier to be split after everything was ordered. I thought it was a little standoff-ish, but cool, you swore by it, do your thing.

Soon after we wanted to order a shot for my friend, it was his birthday we were celebrating, and you said you had already planned on getting us something special because of it. A while later you brought over three "special" drinks, and although it wasn't a simple shot like we had planned on ordering, it seemed like a very nice gesture, fun even to try. Although, I think only one of them was significantly drank? From here, there was little to no critique until the end.

When the checks were brought to us, not a single one was correct for any single person. If they were correct, then great, we can combine them amongst ourselves, but there wasn't a way to do that without any of them being correct. This is where I need to mention one of the things that bothered me the most. When you gave me the stack of tabs, you said, "also I took care of ONE of those special drinks for you guys". To make this perfectly clear: those "special drinks" were presented as a kind gesture, we wanted to simply order a single shot, and we didn't want nor order these 3 mixed drinks that we received. So why am I being billed for them? Why is it being played off like you've done something so kind? It was manipulative.

Now, this is where I'd like to make a great thanks to Lainey, Kayla, (sorry if i misspelled your names) and a gentleman of what I can only assume was part of the management. They did everything I'd want my staff to do in the event where something needed to be corrected. Now, I get there are times when you can chalk it up to someone having a bad day, I think we all have had our fair share, but unfortunately (aside from the incorrect bills which could've been a genuine mistake) this all appeared to be intentional.

To those of you that have made it to the end here, go give this place a shot if you haven't. I know it seems a bit counter intuitive after all that, but prior to this I've never had a single issue and I genuinely enjoy their seafood boils. I simply never had an interaction with a server that was similar to...

As a 59-year old Chaplain/Minister who just buried my 81-year old mother, I have never been more publicly humiliated, embarrassed, disrespected, and falsely accused in all my life, especially in front of my family! And all because I PRIVATELY and QUIETLY tried to address the POOR FOOD QUALITY of our meal/drinks, moreover, how DIRTY the menus were, as well as the front of the house and what we could visibly see of the entrance to the back of the house!

My family and I dine out DAILY throughout metro Detroit, patronizing some of the areas greatest fine and casual dining establishments. Not to mention, my sister is an EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONAL SERVER within the fine dining industry. But, this was our VERY FIRST TIME dining at Hook & Reel.

I said all that to say to be INSULTED and FALSELY "accused" of being RACIST, and/or a customer looking for a "free meal" is completely absurd!

He completely "deflected" and "projected" on me, causing a MAJOR scene at our booth where he REPEATEDLY PUBLICLY SHAMED AND DEFAMED me in front of my son, who is a Youth Minister, along with my 17-year old autistic godson who became completely frightened, nervous, and anxious because of "Paul's" shouting and screaming at me!

In all due respect, I am NOT looking for the "routine" corporate response of "we're sorry and we'll do better next time!" That is part of the reason WHY I was reluctant to even leave this PUBLIC review.

Whatever this business owner previously did as a self-proclaimed 20-year restaurant industry veteran, he obviously was NOT in leadership with a restaurant chain/brand! His gross lack of professionalism and crude "REVERSE-RACISM," DISRESPECTFUL, AND INHUMANE TREATMENT OF MY FAMILY AND ME PAINTS A VIVID PICTURE OF JUST WHAT TYPE OF RESTAURANT HE USED TO OWN!

I am EXPECTING an IMMEDIATE response via e-mail and/or phone. Additionally, I EXPECT A FULL REFUND BACK TO MY METHOD OF PAYMENT! Our server was awesome in spite of her boss, which is why I gave her a more than 30% CASH tip [I didn't want her penalized].

"Paul" didn't have the professional decency to remove from the bill the items we sent back, let alone "comp" the entire bill because of the BACTERIA IN THE SODAS, THE SPOILED/OLD/ROTTEN SHRIMP, FLOUNDER, and CHICKEN TENDERS, and BAD "GREASE"/OIL the "food" was cooked in! THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE WAS NASTY, AS WELL AS THE MENUS AND TABLES...ALL HUGE "HINT-HINT" and "CLUE-CLUE" THAT THE BACK OF THE HOUSE..i.e. THE KITCHEN...is, TOO!!!

I guess now my next course of action is to file an OFFICIAL COMPLAINT with the Macomb County Board of Health to ADD TO HIS APRIL 2025 HEALTH DEPT. VIOLATIONS! No customer should EVER experience the type of treatment we received yesterday! And I guess I just don't know any other way to give a "coaching moment" to the OWNER IF Corporate leadership does...