Return to General Hoock's

Written by Tyler

General Hoock’s (1308 Buffalo Road, Gates) was the first restaurant we reviewed back in February. In the months that have followed, we have continued to spread the word of this unheralded gem to our friends and family and have made several return visits, bringing along new faces each time.

We like it more and more and seem to discover or try a new item each time we go back, while it maintains the ‘A’ grade we gave it.

To recap some of our recent discoveries, we’ll start with our friend Chad, who we successfully ‘Hoocked.’ He has been back several times since we first brought him along in March.

Chad’s go-to dish is the Curly Bomber, a sandwich with shaved steak, hamburger and curly fries piled on between a delicious homemade roll.

Our friend Ryan apparently didn’t believe us when we told him the portion sizes were enormous, so he went ahead and purchased the $11 Raging Bull Bomber, which is like the Curly Bomber… except about 10 sizes larger (basically on a full-size loaf of bread) and includes onion rings (rather than curly fries), cheese and sweet “Stiggy” sauce.


Ryan said it was a great sandwich, but, needless to say, he could barely scarf down half of it.


Our friend Greg is an eating machine, who once (back in the day) randomly downed three hot dogs wrapped in turkey shortly before a football workout. He also once jokingly ordered the entire kids menu at a restaurant, but anyway, Greg ordered the Plate X-M on this, his first visit to Hoock’s.

A big fan of garbage plates, Greg enjoyed and downed what was essentially a breakfast garbage plate. It took him longer than expected, but you can always count on Greg to stomach an entire family’s worth of food.


As for me, I’ve really become a fan of General Hoock’s pizza – er, Magik Bread Pie. In an unconventional move, I have twice ordered a small pizza topped with grilled chicken, but without cheese.


The plethora of grilled chicken replaces what the cheese would be. I just like chicken so much I order it instead of cheese (which, again, is a topping here). But the ingredients on this pizza complement each other so well – the crust is baked to a perfect balance between soft and crisp, and there is the perfect amount of sauce –I can’t relent from ordering this.

In another new development, the last few times we’ve gone, proprietor Shawn Hoock has had some family members helping him out around the restaurant, rather than doing it all himself. His two young sons were even in there during one visit and drew us pictures while we waited.

Ah, General Hoock’s just keeps getting better and better and I find myself daydreaming about a cheeseless pizza again.