J R Hooks Cafe

In town for the night so decided I would try JR Hooks.
I ordered a Bloody Mary to start and I am picky about my bloody Mary’s and the staff was very accommodating to my additions to there recipe. It turned out to be a very good Bloody Mary.
I then ordered the Bone in Ribeye steak with a side salad and fries.
First the side salad was fresh and perfect one of the better side salads I have had.
The Ribeye left something to be desired. It wasn’t a bad steak but I wouldn’t say this place is known for there steaks. It was cooked perfectly at medium rare but had no flavor and wasn’t really grilled on the outside like they maybe just baked it or something.
The Fries stole the main dishes lime light. Once I tasted the fries I left the last 2 inches of the length of my steak to waste and finished those. Full of great flavor for French fries.
The staff was excellent, very accommodating and friendly and helpful.

I’ve never eaten anything at hooks but the wings and the club sandwich, but their wings are the best I’ve ever had! Worth a trip just for that.

We have been meaning to try this restaurant for quite a while because we enjoy their sister restaurant, Tuscan Table. We were not disappointed. Not very impressive from the outside but tailored and clean on the inside. The service was very friendly. The crab cakes were amazing. Slightly crisp on the outside and mostly crab (not bread crumbs with an hint of crab). The pork chops were moist and cooked perfect, nothing worst than overdone pork. The jambalaya was great. Nice and spicy, if you don’t like spicy, you shouldn’t order jambalaya. The meats in the jambalaya were firm and moist. Definately not sitting in sauce for hours getting soggy. We will be back.

Six of us went to JR Hooks for dinner at around 6:30pm. Firstly, there was ample parking in the back of the restaurant, which is always a good thing. However, beyond that, my experience at JR Hooks is one of the worst I have ever had in any restaurant.
I arrived about 10 minutes after the rest of my party had already been seated. So, when I got in the restaurant, I had to look for my party. There were two waitresses doing nothing at the front of the door who saw me looking around and they completely ignored me. Then, when I started walking into the restaurant to look for my friends, one of the waitresses finally asked me who I was looking for. She happened to me the server for the table.
When we were ready to order, we were dsappointed even further. Hmm, this is a Cajun/​Creole restaurant. They advertise that. It seems like ½ of their menu is based around this cuisine. However, when one of my friends wanted to order jambalaya, the staple of Creole cooking, we were told that they were out of SAUSAGE. She, being an extremely calm and non-​particular person, just said it would be fine without the sausage. My husband, who LOVES all meat in tube form, was looking forward to going to JR hooks for two weeks. He talked about it every night… then, he’s told that they are out of sausage. He was disappointed that he couldn’t get his Red beans and Rice but he decided to get something else without sausage. So, he opted for the file gumbo. After taking the rest of our orders, the waitress then came back ten minutes later and told us that they are also out of gumbo!!! O_​o How is that possible? At then end, he ordered the swamp catfish courrbouillon… which just didn’t taste right.
I ordered the Bayou Chicken Florentine, which had a thick alfredo sauce. However, the chicken was dry and there was literally one leaf of the spinach cut into small pieces throughout the dish. Disappointment. Two of our friends ordered the ribeye because they also ran out of the filet mignon. Out of 10, they would give it a 6.
The only thing that was actually good were the free rolls. They were light and buttery… but, I would not go back there regardless of how good the rolls are. It was the worst service I’ve ever seen in a restaurant.