For the last year and half I’ve become obsessed with crab legs! I’m now on a mission to try as many seafood boil restaurants as possible.
On a Monday afternoon, bae and I grabbed lunch at Hook & Reel in Union NJ. We’ve never been to a seafood chain in New Jersey before so I was excited to try it out. We were a few minutes late due to traffic and this deemed not a problem for the hostess. We were seated right away. Yes, that’s right, we were seated immediately. In most places there’s always a wait to even get 2 seats.
I have to say the entire staff here was amazing. Everyone was super friendly, really helpful with everything (menu selection, drink options, you name it). My hat goes off to everyone who works here.
Starting off with the appetizers and drinks, since we came here on a pretty warm day I didn’t try any of the cocktails because I just wanted a nice cold refreshing beer, which is what I ordered. The prices here for beers are pretty cheap (going based off of Manhattan prices).
Backtracking a bit, before your meal comes, instead of getting a basket of bread, you are given what is called “prawn chips”. These things were DELICIOUS. I’ve had shrimp chips before but these were so fresh and so light. I had to stop myself from eating them all up.
From my experience of eating at seafood boil spots, sharing an appetizer is the way to go if you do not want to fill up on food before your actual boil comes out. So bae and I shared the crab meat fries. I’m drooling just writing about this. Basically it’s a creamy crab flavored sauce with actual crab meat drizzled on top of piping-hot crispy french fries. If you come here definitely order this. You will not be disappointed.
Now that we’ve had time to look at the menu, I noticed it was pretty standard where you either “make your own seafood combo” or select a predesigned combo boil. I decided to get the “Mardi Gras” predesigned boil. This combo totaled $35 and included a ½ lb order of snow crab legs, 1 lobster tail (6oz), and ½ lb of head-off shrimp. The sauce I selected was the mild “hook and reel special blend” which includes garlic butter, dry, lemon pepper, original cajun and seasoned garlic butter all in one. It was a great sauce but I realized the mild option was extremely mild and I like a little spice with my seafood so heads up if you like spice go above the mild level here. The size of the boil was pretty small compared to the other places but the price seems to match the sizing of the food (some places server bigger portions for $40 and up).
The boils are presented to you in a bag as all other places. The waiter gave us the option of either keeping the seafood in the bag or using a plate, we went with keeping it in the bag mostly to dip the seafood in the leftover sauce. The shrimp was pretty good, the lobster tail could have been cooked a few minutes less but the portion was good. The crab legs were delicious but could have been cooked a tiny bit longer so it would be easier to get to the meat. We took some of the crab legs home and heated it in the oven, this made the meat basically fall out of the shell. Next time I go to this establishment, I’ll figure out how to suggest cooking the crab legs a bit longer. Other boil spots I’ve gone to cook the crab legs to perfection where you can easily crack the legs and access the meat.
Overall I had a wonderful experience at Hook and Reel and I’ll definitely be back as I hear there is a Queens location opening up later this year. I’m excited to make my own combo, eat those prawn chips as well as chow down on the crab fries.
I almost forgot about dessert, I was extremely full but there is always room for dessert. We shared a slice of red velvet cake and we devoured it. It was so moist, so rich, just delicious.
