"took heat" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It means to receive criticism or backlash for something. Example: The company took heat from customers for their recent price increase.
Mr. Clinton, too, took heat from his left.
But the Justice Department took heat for prosecuting few top bank executives after the financial crisis.
Landrieu took heat, but he said that "everybody had a chance to vent".
Over the August break, few if any members took heat for bowing to the Senate's roadblock.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Cairo on Saturday, took heat for that veto.
President Bill Clinton hobnobbed with Hollywood glitterati and took heat for it.
In 2007 Performa took heat for not inviting local contemporary choreographers to the high-profile party.
Extra point Reese also took heat because he said fans didn't know what they were talking about.
When it first filed to go public, the company took heat for its use of a nonstandard financial performance metric that excluded its enormous marketing expenses.
Before his recent loss in the Nevada caucus, Barack Obama took heat (from the Clinton camp and from casino executives) for his history of opposing….
First, both took heat for backing the US in an unpopular war: Wilson and LBJ in Vietnam, Blair and Bush in Iraq.
