Hooked

Five stars for food, one star for management. The food at Hooked on Brunswick St has always been just perfect: fresh battered fish is complemented with a salad topped with pickled ginger among the options. This is undercut by a management attitude that is increasingly nickel-​and-​dime: you’ve paid $ 40 for fish and chips for two but we’d like to charge you another dollar for sauce; of course tap water is free but we’ve started to hide it behind the counter in the hope you’ll buy another drink; you’ve ordered several meals at once but you can only have one «frequent diner» stamp unless you order each one separately. They’re testing what you’re prepared to put up with for the best fish and chips in Melbourne.

Just like burgers or pub food or brunch, if you’re going to try to be «fancy», you need to also still produce good food, and just like many of the new «fancy» burger and brunch places, this place fails on fundamentals for me.
It’s simply not as tasty as really good, simple, old school fish and chips (Old School Fish n Chips may they rest in peace). It’s more expensive than good corner shops and doesn’t deliver for me. The batter is not that great, the chips (despite some alleged award) are a little limp. I’ve been here a handful of times now under duress but it’s on my do-​not-​fly list. The atmosphere inside is also not my style — it’s not somewhere you feel comfortable eating in, it’s in an uncomfortable spot between corner shops you’d never eat in and downscale pubs that you wouldn’t take a date to.

Fancy fish and chips in a casual setting.
Unlike it’s sister in Windsor, this Hooked has more space to accommodate children and mine was happy to have their Omega 3 fix here.
It’s not cheap but if you plan to go out and have fish and chips then why would one opt to have greasy fish and chips to save a few dollars when for a few dollars extra you have a satisfying meal here,

Healthy seafood at decent price, but service needs improvement…

A good and fun spot to take your gluten intolerant wife to eat fish and chips. You can get fish, chips, scallops, mussels, burgers, fish tacos, various burgers, a type of fish and seafood tomato soup, salmon + there are healthy options eg grilled fish, replacing chips with like rice and salad or something. They also have beer and cider on tap.

Go to the corner fish and chip shop you can get a pack of fish and chips for under $ 10. Go to a pub or restaurant and they now charge you upward of $ 25.
Now we have a third option, the up-​market corner fish and chip shop that is the little cousin of the restaurant. Hooked healthy seafood eatery opened up its second store on Brunswick St this year. The place reminds me of Barnacle Bill restaurants that had a brief stint in the 90’s; the décor is nautical with white walls, life preservers hanging amongst the ropes and seagulls. It is very much a mini theme restaurant.
I am a fried chip aficionado, and need to compile a list of Melbourne’s best chip. Unfortunately Hooked’s hand cut chips wouldn’t make it to the top of the list, although they are still tasty. The grilled fish was pretty fresh and fell apart beautifully in my mouth. The salad was actually the highlight of the meal: simple and fresh and a perfect accompaniment to the grilled and fried delights.

Fish and Chips just got a little bit fancy.
Definitely not the cheapest fish and chip option, they’re basically trying to get a ‘healthy’ edge on the market. By having hand cut chips, not frozen, they are actually pretty good. And the little bit of sweet potato shaving on top is a nice touch.
A nice way to try and convince you to part with your beloved money for something we all recognise as being cheap.
It’s definitely the yuppie/​private school version of fish and chips. They do serve a good salad for under $ 10 so it’s also another option for lunch or dinner. Or breakfast if you’re a weirdo.
The sticky rice/​bok choy option as a side as opposed to chips is also another great option.
Look, I know I’m a little torn on this place. I think you just have to walk in and not expect a fish and chip store, but a mainly seafood store that’s an up-​market version of take-​away.

This is the northern cousin of a store on Chapel Street and as such, it kind of feels a little out of place. That said, they are doing a different spin (boom boom) on fish and chips and have somehow taken the nouveau, gourmet approach to greasies and pushed it further up the scale (Ha).
Hooked have fancied up the standard chipper, but have taken it just short of being a fully-​fledged seafood restaurant. They do oysters and fresh varietals of fish and dress ‘em up for the not-​too-​wallet conscious consumer, but still offer up more traditional variants on the fish and chips theme.
It sounds like a bit of a no mans land and that’s exactly how it carries across. The food is bloody good though, so that leaves me in a bit of a no mans land as to whether I love it or not. So I perch (Ba-​doom-​cha) on the net, I mean fence.

Oh my, I couldn’t disagree with the previous review MORE!
Ok… well, that’s not exactly correct. Hooked IS similar to Grill’d in their concept of making traditionally unhealthy food healthy, and to be honest I’m not quite sure they pull that off. But who gets fish ‘n’ chips when they’re trying to be healthy?!
BUT, I have always found the food here to be delicious. The fish burger is truly to die for. I mean, how did they make it so tasty?! The chips are done ‘gourmet’ style with whisperings of sweet potato sprinkled on top, and comes on a plate — not wrapped in today’s newspaper. Plus, bottled beer is available.
Beer + fish burger = happy Jackie.
However, the outside courtyard is gorgeous but rather small, and I do find the prices to be… a little high. You’ll need a twenty to get a full meal.
There’s definitely no minimum chips at this fish ‘n’ chip joint!

The concept of Hooked is very simple. Just how Grilled claims to do healthy burgers, Hooked is trying to replicate the concept and apply it to fish and chips. On their website they ask the question «why hooked»?
A: low in fat, high in protein, rich in omega 3 etc etc etc. They also claim to only use locally sourced potatoes and the freshest of ingredients.
I do really love the concept and the menu looks really appealing. You can choose between the house fish, prawns, calamari and scallops. You can even continue down the healthy route and have a salad instead of fries.
All that aside, whenever I have come here (twice — i gave it a second go!) it has been exactly like the two star rating says… MEH. There is too much batter, the seafood does not pack a punch, the chips aren’t that addictive and overall there is no warm fuzzy feeling like you’ve had a good feed.
The service is good and the backyard a nice spot to eat but the food really is lacking. I’d rather go to an old school fish and chip shop that has more flavoursome food at much more inexpensive prices.