Hooked! (Upper Thomson)

Was wandering around Thomson road after some grocery shopping at NTUC finest and chanced upon Hooked!, which has another outlet located at Rail Mall in the western part of Singapore. With Hooked! evidently being a seafood restaurant, I, as a meat lover and occasional fish consumer, had my reservations.

The interior is a cheerful yellow and blue with sketches and ornaments of sea creatures plastered onto the walls - very in tune with the seafood aspect of the restaurant. Some background music would have been appreciated though, as the place did seem a little too quiet and every whisper could potentially be echoed around.

Baked Rice - From my personal experience, not many places whip up a mean baked rice and Hooked! wasn't about to prove me wrong. Having said that, I would say Hooked! still managed to do some decent work on the rice, with the cheese gooey, a little chewy and of course, the relatively generous serving of seafood entrenched within.

Snapper Wrapped with Bacon - Although I am no big fan of snapper, I surprisingly took to this dish quite a fair bit. The delicate fish was nicely wrapped around in bacon, which had a nice crisp to it and contrasted very well with the texture of the fish. It would have been great if the fish had more natural sweetness though. A serving of rice and asparagus completed the dish.

Personally, I feel prices are quite reasonable at $33 for a 2 pax dinner, which came with 2 drinks. Having no service charge was definitely a plus and service was good, though it could have been due to the lack of crowds. Still, I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

See all my pictures here.

I know Hooked has been around for some time but somehow I've not patronized the restaurant till three weeks ago, partly because I was rather put off by the high prices on the menu when it first opened. We had planned to go to the chicken rice restaurant next door to it but it was crowded as usual and as we were contemplating where else to go, the special set lunch menu caught my eye. $9.90 without service charge seemed a steal. Well, what the heck, we were already there so my family and I decided to go in. We were surprised to see that the restaurant was empty! Wasn't a very good sign, I thought but anyway we proceeded to select our meals. My son and I went for the SET F which was deep fried sea bass with linguine while my husband went for SET B, the ribs with the mashed potato. I was pleasantly surprised they offered earl grey tea, my favourite, as an option for the drink. The waiter was very polite and attentive, notwithstanding we were the only customers there. We have been to restaurants where we were served rudely and flippantly even when we were the only customers there. The food came rather fast and I was surprised that the sea bass was in rather big chunks under the thin batter! Tasted really ocean-fresh too. The linguine was a really nice accompaniment to the fish. There was no oily taste to the batter, unlike the fish and chips I tried at another popular Fish restaurant in Junction 8. The linguine was al-dente and served with a nice mushroom sauce that wasn't too salty. My husband thought the mashed potatoes was a real hit because it tasted different from the usual mashed potatoes he had before. I detected some garlic paste as well as shallot oil in it. He told me it was simply unforgettable! So much so that we went back to Hooked again after two weeks and they were so versatile that they allowed us to do swaps - the rice pilaf that came with two dishes for mashed potato and linguine without any fuss or extra charges. My husband ordered the snapper this time and he said it was delicious. We are already planning to come back soon for our third visit...This time i'd be ordering something from the dessert menu! I'm really surprised there aren't more people visiting this place as we feel it is really good value for money. The menu is also very comprehensive and interesting. Perhaps the management can offer some packaging or specials as some of the items do seem daunting in price.

There's two hooked in singapore. One is @ The Rail Mall & the other is right here @ upper thomson.

Being a fan of seafood & fish(of course), i decided to have my lunch here. There wasnt a single customer except me in the restaurant. It was lunch time yet there were not a single soul. There's a large extenisve of fish dishes. You can take ur time to choose what fish you want and the method of preparation.

I had the grilled eggplant and the salmon & tuna tapas. I rmb having the grilled eggplant @ The Rail mall many yrs back. It was topped with tuna and grilled to perfection. However, this seems to have dropped in standard. The eggplant is pretty long and simply grilled with a special sauce. It was quite ordinary but it was grilled to well done.

The Salmon and tuna tapas. It is salmon & topped with tuna and fish roe. The tuna is significant and i felt that there's too much salmon meat. Don't be deceived by it's size! It is 100% salmon meat and i was too full when i finished the second one. However, i felt that it was actually quite tasty as the salmon used is very fresh and not fishy.

The salmon mousse on the menu looks interesting & i would probably order that on my next visit.

We decided try out Hooked! set dinner promotion after being recommended by a colleague who used to be a regular patron of Hooked!

Last Saturday, boyfriend & me went to the branch in Upper Thomson.

Staff was attentive & brought us to our seats. We both were spoilt for choice as menu was so extensive & can't make up our minds. many variety of seafood, from normal fish & chips, snappers, groupers, salmons and even Seabass.
Also noticed they offer Set Dinner Promotion too which boyfriend decided to go for the next trip.

This is what we had:

I had Fish & Chips which i found was lightly battered,very crispy on outside fresh and not oily or dry. and boyfriend ordered Poached Fresh King Salmon. He swore it was very fresh & pink in middle which he liked. also found it succulent & the sauce blended well with the salmon.Potatoes were nice too.

Decor of Hooked! was very comfortable and pleasant. I think Blue & yellow was their corporate color. my boyfriend & me felt like we dining in a submarine.

Service on that night was service prompt & efficient.we found Prices are reasonable.

we enjoyed our visit.

Next time we decide come back to try the dinner set promotions.

On 30 May 2009, my friends and I patronised Hooked! at Upper Thomson Road for dinner.

As the restaurant was due to be closed for the day, my friends and I began to pack and prepare to leave. In the midst of doing so, I noticed that black soya sauce was spilt all over my bag, possibly caused when the used dishes were being cleared from our table. I called for the staff supervisor to find out what had happened, and instead of getting a proper explanation or an apology for the matter, he was suggesting that it could have been our fault as we helped their staff clear the table earlier by passing the dirty dishes to them.

While I recognize that the accident could have been caused by either party, and that no one could clearly ascertain how it happened or who may have spilt the soya sauce on my bag accidentally, it was absolutely unnecessary and unprofessional of Hooked!’s staff to suggest that it is their customer’s fault, for that matter.

While no apology, any compensation or basic respect to their customer was rendered by the service staff at the restaurant for a mishap that happened in their premises, one would certainly not expect the staff to suggest that the onus is upon the customer. This certainly speaks volumes of Hooked!’s level of professionalism, from higher management to lower management.

I have worked in the F&B service line before and it is the profession’s rule of thumb to never suggest that the fault lies with the customer. What has happened to the very basic fundamentals of service? Isn’t the very essence of running a restaurant to serve your customers just the same as running your own home kitchen and serving your family and friends? Shouldn’t the host bear some sort of responsibility for any incident or accident that were to happen in your home or restaurant, under your care?

As customers, we cannot always expect perfect service, but the very least an establishment in the F&B industry can offer its customers is an acceptable, if not better, level of professionalism and respect for its own profession and customers. Unfortunately, an establishment such as Hooked! has much to learn about treating its customers right.

Don't know how to park parallel? there's your free valet from 6pm-10pm. Thumbs up already.

environment wise, your decent cafe furnishings. nothing really special to rave about. just comfortable.

Date and I shared Fish Pie, Pan-Seared Salmon and Rail *sth* (choc brownie with vanilla ice-cream la)

Fish Pie was recommended by other reviewers and yes, i recommend that as well. It was something special, with salmon bits and other fish bits in there, nicely baked with your potatoes. Try it if you're there.

Pan-Seared Salmon was with the dinner set (value for your buck). Very nicely done salmon. still had moisture in the salmon (unlike other places where it might get too dry after cooking) and thus juicy! the sauce that was on the salmon itself was great as well, matched the fish quite well. the accompanying portion of pasta was a bit too dry for my liking...

Choc Brownie and Vanilla Ice-cream. No one would go wrong with that. But the dessert was pleasant.

Service, attentive and attempts to communicate with you, though there is some language barrier maybe. and they lack waiters/tresses, but they have started "hiring".

For my family dinner on Sundays, I have the task of deciding where to eat, and on this occasion, I decided to check out the latest outlet of Hooked at Upper Thomson.

Walking into the outlet, it was a surreal oceanic feeling as the place was lit in a nice blue colour and created a very "peaceful" environment.

I started out with a baked oyster, which was wonderful, but the real deal came when I had my King Salmon. The fish was done medium-rare and I could taste the freshness of the salmon.

I had a strawberry ice cream to end the meal. As my mother is into this "healthy diet" lifestyle, this place really suited her. I look forward to returning again soon.

I parked @ Thompson Ridge and walked to Hooked. Its location was inconspicuous and I didn't even see it when I drove past it. Upon arrival, I was pretty disappointed with the interior as the poor design cheapened the place and as it was Good Friday, I was surprised to see only 1 other table of 9 or 10 bald guys(presumably from BMT).

Anyway, my party of 5 sat down and gave our orders. There were only 2 waiters around but I can't say that that was inadequate. The selections in the menu was far too vast. Hence, we took around 15min to decide what we each wanted. However, our waitress was very detailed and professional in explaining a myriad of dishes to us to speed up our ordering process.

What we order is as follows:

1) Fish Pie
This is probably the 1 of the 2 reasons I will come back. The pie is similar to shepherd's pie except that I noticed traces of cheese, egg and various fishes(hopefully not ytd's leftovers) within the mash. The mash was the soft moist kind which I love and the fish and cheese within the mash clearly went perfectly together. Really a must try here.

2) Freshly Baked Fish in puff pastry
The 2nd reason I will come back. The fish filling is rather similar to the Fish Pie but instead of mash, it is made into a pastry, like a chicken pie. The pastry is crispy on the outside, succulent on the inside with a nice whitish creamy sauce. Simply fabulous.

3) Poached fresh king salmon with house special sauce
This is supposedly a chef's reccomendation but it will certainly not be mine. My mum cooks Salmon pretty regularly so I pretty well know what a nice Salmon is supposed to taste like and this doesn't cut it. The Salmon was slightly overcooked(pan fried) which made it a little harder than my liking and the house special sauce was really special...Specially lousy and didn't complement the Salmon well. It was too salty and creamy that it totally blocked off the freshness of the Salmon(that is if it was fresh, I couldn't really tell due to the overpowering sauce). Total waste of my stomach space.

4) Crab and Prawn Au Gratin
This dish was pretty interesting. Chunks of potato baked with crab sauce with squid and prawns. Since I didn't see the menu, I didn't realise there was crab in it. I thought it was just a typical seafood gratin. But after 1 taste, there was the obvious taste of crab and I swear I could hear the ocean and feel the seabreeze. When I looked down to the dish, I realised that they did give quite a generous serving of crab within the sauce which was very refreshing to eat with the gratin. Not too shabby...

5) Shark Steak in vindaloo curry
Shark tastes like a fish with the texture of a chicken. Hence, it tasted a bit like muthu's curry(according to my fren who ate muthu's curry b4). I would say that this dish is pretty creative but lacked an oomph factor. Would get a bit sian if I had to finish the entire dish myself.

6) Crispy garlic black pepper pork ribs
This was the main screw up of the day. 4 Deep fried pork ribs with mash and black pepper sauce. Sound yummy and that was what I thought before I took a bite. The ribs were bland. I couldn't really tell the difference between the batter and the meat...Furthermore, the black pepper sauce didn't complement the mash or the ribs at all. Lastly, Mash with sauce sucks, without sauce its too dry and tasteless.

Pretty disappointed by hooked. Maybe they should revise the menu and stick to what they are good at rather than trying to overly diverify their menu.

A good place for fishes, really...

BUT... Point to note, eat your food when it's still hot. I find the taste isn't as good when it's good. The first bite is always the best.

Basically, I am not hungry due to the heavy lunch in Pin Si in the afternoon, so I did not ordered any food here.

I took a bite from all, and found the fish are all quite fresh, no stinky smell which I hate.

All tasted yummy when it's hot, but when it's cool, it doesn't taste as good anymore.

Definitely a place worth visiting...

Arrived at about 7pm for dinner and the entire restaurant was vacant. It was after my friend and I were seated that the idle waitress switched on the neon lights on the wall. That wld explain the low rating on ambience.

I asked about any valid credit card promotion and HGW discount and was told only 1 was applicable. I chose the discount as I didn't want any dessert (that comes with Citibank CC payment). There was no mention of the Wednesday's specials by the waitress - 1/2 price freshly shucked gourmet oysters (U.P. $2.70) with order of any maincourse. I would have ordered the oysters if I had known about it. Tsk.

Friend and I ordered the Bonza platter for 2 since it is a recommended dish on the menu (I forgot the exact name) and food came pretty fast, say 15 min or so? There were 5 grilled prawns, handful of cuttlefish, 4 cheese mussels, 4 scallops, 2 crayfish(s) and a side salad. The platter comes with a choice of linguine or plain rice for both persons. I chose the linguine and thought it was palatable. Overall taste of food is mootable. I like the crayfish and prawns but my friend prefers the platter from a certain Fish & Co to Hooked.

Service was not that prompt as no one was paying particular attention to the empty cups on the table throughout the period we were tucking in. There was this time when I had an irritated throat and I had to clear it by coughing. The waitress didn't even look up from the cashier to see what my discomfort was about. I had to call out to her to fill our cups for us, at which she came immediately and even filled our cups spontaneously few times after.

Left at abt 9pm and there was only another occupied table. My point is, the restaurant was not even busy and yet, service was rather frigid.

I would say I'm quite disappointed with the overall experience as I was expecting better with the 7< rating at HGW. :/