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No cutlery or plates… scissors, crackers, apron and gloves instead
Invited to visit the restaurant Hooked in Abu Dhabi this summer, we actually didn’t know what to expect. This new restaurant – it opened in May 2017 – is located downtown, close to Electra Street (location map below).
Hooked is an homegrown concept inspired by the casual seafood eateries in the South of the USA (Louisiana and around).
Upon arrival, the waiters spread a paper over the table, stack up a pile of paper towels and get you equipped with a plastic apron and gloves while you finalize your choice on the menu. We do hope that the plastic cutlery is switched over for some more environmentally friendly materials.
What makes Hooked special amongst the casual seafood restaurants in Abu Dhabi is that your seafood order comes in a clear plastic bag with your selected homemade sauce and heat level.
Following the manager’s suggestions, we first ordered crab balls as a starter and fried calamari with aioli. We really enjoyed both, especially the crab balls – our first time trying them out- that we adored and devored in no time. The cherry on the top is that it is priced at 13 AED only.
For our mains, we had three steps to follow :
– choose the catch which comes either in half a kg or 1 kg, amongst shrimps, lobster, mussels, crabs, king crab legs, snow crab legs or crab claw.
– pick the sauce among the lemon pepper, garlic butter or house specialty (we tasted the last two and recommend them both, especially the house specialty that was designed by the owner and she prepares it daily)
– spice it up to our taste from mild, medium to hot.
We grabbed half a kilo lobster and half a kilo king crab legs that came to the table within 15 minutes. The pricing is very fair and these options cost 75 AED and 81 AED for half a kilo.We were intimidated at first there were no cutlery or plates coming along with our order… only scissors and crackers on the table.
Finally, it didn’t take us long to adjust and gloves on, we loved peeling these pincers and our lobster. It gets messy quickly but is definitely fun! Both the crab legs and lobster were tasty and the sauce that came along paired well. We had corn on the cob as a side but it was slightly over boiled to our taste.
If you still have room for dessert, the menu offers six options – 3 cold and 3 warm desserts. The homemade red velvet cream cheese (served chill) and lotus dessert (served warm) look very cute as they come in small glass jars but were too sweet in our opinion.
A casual spot with a feel good ambience
Visiting on a Thursday evening, we were amazed the restaurant was absolutely full by 8pm and guests kept on coming and filling the rare empty tables. We were lucky as that night, there was a live band duo playing the guitar and singing trendy tunes. All along the dinner, we noticed a few guests grabbing the microphone and singing a song or two which added a friendly air to the atmosphere. The overall casual ambience was lovely there and our only thought after leaving was to pick a date and share our experience with friends and kids.
We were told the live band is usually there during the weekends and to better book a table before visiting to avoid any disappointment as Fridays and Saturdays are quite busy !
The restaurant has an ongoing offer during weekdays with a seafood kilo at the price of half a kilo.. For more details, check their Facebook and Instagram pages.
If you are into karaoke…
If you are into karaoke, you can rent for two hours or more private karaoke rooms – that can accommodate 6 people and 10 people-. For more info about the karaoke packages, check this page.
A new spot in town worth checking out that will leave you and the kids – who will love the messy part of the experience – in a great mood !
HOOKED SEAFOOD| +971 2 626 99 18 | Email: [email protected]
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