Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in St. Louis

Last evening was my first time coming to Hook and Reel and it will most definitely be my last. My family and I arrived close to 8:20pm. When we entered, we noticed that the restaurant wasn't very busy at all so we didn't expect much of a wait. But since we were a party of 5, we were told by the manager that we were looking at about a 15 minute wait. This was completely understandable, so we had no problem taking a seat in the waiting area.

As we waited on the bench near the entrance, we quickly noticed how unprofessional the staff was. Everyone working during this particular shift, minus this manager and one other employee, were obviously high schoolers. Not only were the employees having very personal, loud and unprofessional conversations, but a couple of them were using profane language. My family and I were immediately turned off by this.

So 15 minutes passed and then 20 minutes, and the next thing I know, it's 9pm and we still have yet to be seated. During this wait, not one employee bothered to check on us or even inform us that the wait would be a lot longer than expected. Just by random observation, only 3 out the 10 or so employees on the floor were standing around conversing. Finally we were escorted to a table after almost an hour. It was about 9:25pm at this point. When we arrived at the table, immediately my mom noticed that the bench was dirty and had obviously not been wiped down. So she quickly brought this to one of the employee's attention. This young man then brought it to another employee's attention, who I'm assuming was a waiter and was obviously still in training (or wasn't being trained at all). He grabbed two moist toilettes from a bucket on our table and used them to wipe down the seats. I was just outdone at this point but still decided to give them a chance since we'd waited all this time.

So finally we sat down, received our menus, and were told that a waiter would be with us shortly. After looking through the menu for about 15 minutes without being helped at all, we just decided to leave. When we reached the entrance/exit, we finally realized where all of the employees were, as we were met by 6 of them at the door just standing around conversing. As we walked out, all we received was a "have a good night guys."

All in all, we will not be returning. I understand that this is a new location and many of them are probably still learning. In addition to that, the food might actually be decent. But the customer service...

First and foremost Walter is a horrible manager, the Asian lady with manager is very rude. And the waitress Stacy is terrible, We got there at 8 didn't get seated until 8:45, nobody paid attention to us or took our order until 10. Our food was not out until 1, by time they are supposed to close. When I tried to give my order I wanted a white wine, I gave the lady a printout of my paper ID that the DMV gives you. She tried to ask me if I had another form of ID, I told her no, so finally at about 11:15 we got our food. It was the wrong order, they had to go remake it. Finally it's time to pay, they tried to say I owed 60 something dollars. They tried to charge me for the mistake the waitress made, I also complained and was supposed to be given a 10% discount. My total came to $43, with the discount it was supposed to be $33. That's what I paid, then when getting home I realized they charged me for that wine that I never got. So I called up there and spoke to walter, I went up there today walter was supposed to refund me. So I was only supposed to pay $33, and get a 10% discount. So I was only supposed to pay 26 bucks, the lady tried to print me up a fake receipt. Because she claimed she couldn't find my original receipt, that was never gave to me. The manager got so frustrated that I was proving him wrong, that he literally handed me five bucks out of his pocket. He told us to have a nice day, and never to come back.There is so much more I would love to say about that guy, but I can only type so much. Definitely do not go hear the food's good, but the service is terrible. I definitely got overcharged, their food is skeet, and the waitress was horrible terrible service. The food is good but overpriced, definitely not going back there. I will try Kirkwood, you should have heard the way the manager was talking about his employees. I overheard him talking about their booties, and all types of stuff very inappropriate. Terrible place, the waiter stacy and that asian manager lady need to get it together, and learn how to treat customers. If they expect to stay open, that Asian lady literally tried to print up a fake receipt to lie to me about my total. They will definitely try to rip you off, I knew something was weird when she didn't give me a copy of my receipt. When I was with her that night, So watch out people they...

My partner & I went there, tonight. We ate inside & requested a booth. We noticed that they seated us directly next to another table, where a party was eating. It sounded as though they were preparing to leave, so we elected to just confirm with the staff that when that party left, another would not be seated directly next to us. She says "Hold on & walked away".

A few minutes later, the general manager approached our table & said that he was told there was a concern about the seating. I related to him, exactly, what I asked the hostess about making certain there was proper spacing between everyone being seated. His response was "Well, it is what it is...the mayor is no longer requiring that the 6 feet be enforced...We want to make money, too" He, additionally, commented, "You asked for a booth, correct?.. It's your choice to eat here"...My reply was, "I understand", nothing more.

I UNDERSTOOD that, basically, since safety measures are not being reinforced, they have reckless disregard for the customers safety and securing profits, in the form of increased seating, takes priority. What he said was tantamount to that. I was appalled...my usual response would be, "Sure, I understand" and to leave. However, my partner asked that we stay. So, we continued on to ordering the meal. The food WAS delicious. However, the encounter made my decision to never return or spend my money there. I don't begrudged anyone who eats at Hook & Reel, just understand they don't care about your safety & have the audacity to tell you that.

Some empathy & acknowledgement that my concern was legitimate would have...