Hook and Reel

Cajun Food & Beer

Meeks Review

Upon review "Hook and Reel" deserves 🥨🥨🥨🥨 I believe it was pretty tasty. It's not what you expect a restaurant to be... especially because it's located in the middle of a shopping mall. If you're looking for a quick bite and seafood is your thing this is the place to be.

For my appetizer, I tried the "Fried Calamari" which was delicious crispy outside, and tender with each bite. For my entrée I ordered 1lbs. of the "New Zealand Mussels" that was accompanied with corn, potatoes, and the "Hook and Reel Hot butter sauce I think that's what it was called. I think the portions in my entrée were fair and I still had leftovers to take home. I would definitely return.

🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨  tasty 

Kiki's Review

I'm not a fan of being served seafood in a bag, but maybe some may not find it to be a problem. The lemon pepper wings I got had way too many feathers on them, which was a turn-off. The crab bits were too mushy and may be needed to cook a little longer. Overall the food tasted really good and didn't at all lacked flavor. 

The two things I enjoyed most were my crabs and the fried calamari meek ordered. Would I go back to Hook and Reel, yes I would give them another play. 

                                                

🥨 🥨 🥨 it's "aight"

Hook & Reel

Steffi's Non-Review:

So as you can see in the mini title this is a non-review because I was unable to attend the lunch-dinner with Kiki and Meek. Hey, we are busy people.  I did do some more research about the seafood joint that you may find interesting. Below is a roots story from their website and information about their locations in Pennsylvania, mostly in the Philadelphia area. This chain does have several locations within the United States. If you are interested in venturing out to taste the seafood cuisine Hook and Reel has a casual feel where you can dress in jeans & a t-shirt with your friends, family, and coworkers when you visit.

source: https://hookreel.com/

OUR STORY

Born in the South where a feast means getting messy with friends, the seafood boil has been bringing people together for ages. At Hook & Reel our signature boil forks over bold flavors with a genuine, down-home feel.

But eating seafood is only part of the fun. Everything tastes better elbow-to-elbow with friends, swapping stories over music, getting down and dirty and eating with your hands – all with a cold drink at the ready, ‘cause that spice ain’t no joke. We set out to share the saucy spirit of the boil with folks everywhere – testing our very own recipes, inspired by fiery Cajun home cooking. The Hook & Reel seafood boil dishes up the “reel” deal – the full backyard boil experience and flavor, with a twist.

It’s a party, so we always laugh loud, and eat big. Ya comin?

Most locations are located in Philadephia:

PENNSYLVANIA

PHILADELPHIA 

PHILADELPHIA MILLS MALL 

SOUTH PHILADELPHIA 

WYNCOTE 

source: https://hookreel.com/

URBANPHILLYFOODIES rating system:

🥨   sucks

🥨 🥨   kinda sucks

🥨 🥨 🥨   they "aight"

🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨   tasty

🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨   yum yummy

El Poquito

El Poquito

La Chinesca, Philadelphia PA

La Chinesca

Upon review of La Chinesca, I didn't find it particularly special in any way.  I was very excited because I thought it was a Chino-Latino restaurant however it turned out to be a quasi-Mexican-Chinese fusion. 

The beef tacos my cousin ordered were very bland even though they looked yummy on the outside the beef is very dry and lacked flavor on the inside. We were told that the duck egg roll would be of quite a large size to split between three people and it turned out to be the average size of a typical egg roll you would find in a Chinese-American Takeout joint.  My younger cousins ordered two orders of beef tacos and were met with a look of judgment and shock.  It really was totally unnecessary, I believe in the young waitress mindset thought we were ordering in excess.  Believe me, they did not.

I personally really enjoyed the fried wonton triangular-shaped chips with salsa, Verde, and a peanut tomato base sauce. The name of that particular sauce escapes me but that little appetizer was pretty good in my opinion. I will give La Chinesca a good review as far as the ambiance and atmosphere were very pleasing and not pretentious at all. Most of the staff was lovely and inviting even our waitress who seem to be very taken back that my other two cousins ordered double orders of tacos. That waitress seem to exaggerate the size of the portions as very large sizes which when entering our table turn out to be smaller than what she had suggested. Again, very good service. We didn't wait long for food when the restaurant had been booked up with reservations and a nice size crowd filled up the restaurant, I can ask any other waitress anything I wanted about a drink or entrée they had and they were very eager to tell me.

Would I go back for dinner? No, but I would definitely go for happy hour cocktails and appetizers.

FINAL RATING:

Steffi 🥨 🥨 🥨

Kiki 🥨 🥨

Meek 🥨 🥨

NOTE: In future blog posts we will be using a rating system of pretzels.

🥨   sucks

🥨 🥨   kinda sucks

🥨 🥨 🥨   they "aight"

🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨   tasty

🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨 🥨   yum yummy