Henry's Hat3413 Cahuenga Blvd W
Los Angeles
323-512-2500
There are times when I really want to like a restaurant. So much so that I will put up with bad service or bad food and chalk it up to an off day. When I first heard of Henry's Hat, I thought it sounded like a great place to watch some games and have some good food. So I decided to watch a Saturday afternoon's worth of college football at Henry's Hat. I read up on Henry's, I found out that they are a sister restaurant to Luna Park. When I first walked into Henry's I find it is the place for Former Students to watch the Texas A & M Aggies kick ass. OK ok they lost to Colorado that day. They don't call themselves alumni at A & M, they called themselves Former Students. So my first impression of Henry's Hat is a good one because we have something in common, Former Students hate t-sips and so do I.
I was surprised that there weren't that many people there. Former Students had their own room but the rest of the place was pretty empty. I looked at their menu and I got the Fish and Chips which are suppose to be like another sister restaurant, Joe Jack's Fish Shack in Puerto Vallarta, $14. In a few minutes out came a huge piece of cod, fried to a nice golden brown. Too bad appearance was the only good thing about it. First thing I noticed after taking a bite was that there was no crunch at all. A very soggy and greasy piece of cod. The inside was mushy and bland, not flavor nothing. Worse the fish was drowned in salt and way to salty. I was not impressed. The tarter sauce was filled with too much dill but otherwise pretty decent.
The fries were good. Fresh cut, nice crispy outside and good flavor inside.
But the chips are always a secondary thing for me. Sure the fries were very good but who cares if the fish suck, when you're having fish and chips. When I got to thinking that I could have bought about 10 pieces of perfectly battered and cooked cod from England Fish and Chips, I was mad at myself for all the money I just wasted. Sure England Fish and Chips has terrible fries but the fish is so much better and much less expensive!!
Service was bad. There was a bartender, server and a busboy serving the entire place. The place at most had 12 people the entire time, roughly three hours, I was there. The busboy was ok but when I asked him for refills, he never bothered to bring them!!! But the server was the worst, she rarely came to my table, I was dying for refills of ice tea, she wasn't friendly and just plain bad. I even tried asking about bringing a group here but she was so rude and short, saying "Yeah, just call in and talk to the manager." Nice way to drum up business, stupid!!! I wouldn't come back and they just lost 25 customers.
Henry's Hat did not come close to living up to expectations. The food was bad and the service was worse. No reason for me to bother coming here.
