Monday, May 26, 2014

Hooked on Heads

Hooked on Heads is one of the old shops who have been dishing out delights for quite a while...I am not sure when they began operations, but from as long ago as 2007 I have been visiting this place.


Originally, cooked and served with passion, but my latest experience falls short of all the other visits. Not only did the quality of the cooking falter, but also, and perhaps more dangerously, the attitude of the owner. It is a sad when an old faithful fails. Sad indeed.

We ordered our usual fish fillet curry. Usually this was a beautiful piece of fish, fresh, cooked just so in the wonderfully fragrant curry. The curry was still rather good, but the fish had a foul smell. 



Unfortunate, and these things sometimes happen. But when we told the owner, his reaction rather surprised me, and told me that the passion has left, and the days of the restaurant are numbered. He said, "oh, its the fish belly...if you don't like, don't eat.", and got his server to take back the curry. I am saddened. No apology, no offer to replace with another dish. No interest from him at all.

I have had a taste of the curry, it was still rather good, but not class leading anymore. Happy Fish, a stall in a Food Court is very similar, and I can see the owner of that stall takes great pride in the freshness and the quality of his fish. 

The other dishes were also not class leading...the baby kailan



Was good, but the vegetable was not peak freshness. It lacked the crunch, and sweetness that a good baby kailan has. I will introduce a small cze char stall who does this particularly well soon...and who also does the next dish extremely well...the venerable har cheong kai, But that is another story for another blog post. We push on with Hooked's har cheong kai.


The har cheong kai at Hooked was very good. Crisp, juicy. It was well seasoned, with nam yu and other condiments, giving it a red hue. It remained the saving grace for Hooked this evening. Still very good. 

And we used to love the hae cho


Still quite decent. But a bit lacking...I cannot quite put my finger on any one single component that this dish is lacking a bit. It was perhaps only good...but why eat good deep fried food, when you can get excellent ones? Especially with the attendant health risks associated with deep frying. 

So it is with a bit of sadness, that I see the passing of a great place to eat...at least for me...I probably won't be visiting again soon. Sigh.

Hooked on Heads

64554948 
Daily: 10:30 - 14:30
Daily: 17:30 - 21:30


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