Kickin'Inn Spring Hill — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I went for dinner yesterday night at Kickin’ In Spring Hill. I have been to other franchises and had a great experience. But Spring Hill was atrocious, I would give it a negative rating if possible. Upon arrival we were standing at the entrance of the restaurant and were not attended to for 5 minutes. When the staff came he pointed us to a table while at the till serving another customer. They did not wait on us and I had to get up and inquire one of the staff about the all you can eat campaign, to which I was given an order form to fill out. We filled it out promptly and gave it to one of the staff. We continued to wait for over an hour until one of the staff approached our table and asked if we had already paid as there was nothing in the system for our table. We informed them that we had not paid yet and the staff went back behind the counter and started scurrying through the order forms. Following this, the staff came to apologise that our order had not been put through, but to just give them 10 minutes. 10 minutes pass and we’re still waiting, so we go up to the counter to ask. The manager then gives us attitude and makes a snarky comment that it’s not just us but, “everyone is waiting”, despite it being his fault for not putting in our order properly in the first place and people who had ordered after us had already gotten their food. We were once again told to wait a little longer so we went back to our table. After waiting for well over an hour and half, they finally brought a bag over. However, the bag very obviously had food missing and seemed as if it was barely enough for one person, despite having ordered a generous amount. I asked why it looked like there didn’t seem to be any crawfish because I had ordered extra on my form. Then the waitress said, “didn’t anyone inform you that we were out of crawfish?” They had not. They left us waiting for over an hour and half, I had queried two different staff on how the buffet runs and they both failed to mention this important detail. When I gave the staff the order form he even asked whether I was going to be able to eat that much food, to which I responded yes. He did not mention there was no crawfish which I had ticked with extra serving on my form. I was not given any reason to believe our order would not be put in how I placed it. After explaining this, they told us they could offer us a 10% discount off the $140 bill for a tiny bag with a laughable amount. We ended up leaving after that because it would have been absurd to pay that much for what was being offered and the service was awful. In addition, by that time the store was 10 minutes to close. With how bad the service had already been, had we stayed I could have imagined how they would have treated us being there past the store’s hours.

TL;DR Horrible Service. Manager forgot to input our order in the system so we were waiting 1.5hrs+. Staff didn’t inform us that crawfish was out, and changed our order without informing us and tried to serve us a bag without crawfish without checking whether we were happy with that change. Ended up leaving because it was extremely unreasonable to pay $140 for a small bag of seafood that we would have had to share...

What an unorganised mess. We came to Kicking Inn Spring Chill for a 7 PM Saturday night booking, and from the moment we arrived, it felt like we were inconveniencing the host staff by just being there.

After being seated at a bare table—no menus, serviettes, or setup—we had to ask for menus after siiting for 15 minutes at the bare table, which kicked off a string of issues. First, the menus were all different as some had pages missing or mixed up, then we had to ask someone if we could order, where we were then told they were out of lobster, this and that, and pointed to several other items on the menu we couldn’t have, including the bag we came to have. When we settled on snow crab, we were told the sauce that comes with it wasn’t available either.

Despite ordering water early, we had to remind the staff multiple times, while new tables around us were served drinks. It felt like no one was managing the floor. Four or five different staff members served us at different points of the night, well-meaning but clearly uncoordinated.

When the seafood bags finally came out, the staff didn’t know which bag was what or which belonged to whom, just unknowingly dropping them in front of people. Meanwhile, our food sat getting cold as we waited for something to eat with. Staff promised utensils and gloves, but soon started avoiding eye contact while handling other complaints nearby. That’s when it stopped being funny and became frustrating.

We had to ask several times for utensils, and eventually received just a wooden knife and fork, as they are all out of utensils. The dusposable utensils matched with the drinks that were served in plastic cups. After asking about how we were going to eat the crab we were told the restaurant only had three crab forks and crackers for the whole place, so we were simply out of luck.

No gloves or napkins were provided still, so one of us had to get up and grab them off the bar, so we could start eating.

One round of rum and Coke came out as just Coke, no alcohol. We had to ask to get them redone, which was another drawn-out process.

All around us, people were visibly unhappy. Lots of complaints, confused staff, and a general sense of chaos.

Then at the end of the night, they handed us a QR code asking us to post about our experience online. 😒

The seafood itself was just okay, but absolutely not worth the price. For what we paid, we could’ve done a lot better elsewhere. It's a shame, because the concept is great and the place had good reviews, but the execution was an unprofessional mess, amd it wasn't even busy. Won’t...

First time here and we were left standing around waiting by the doorway near the desk at the entrance. Was expecting a member of the staff to approach us and assist since we obviously looked unsure but when it became clear none would we had to approach the bar and seek assistance ourselves.

Our server, after we sat ourselves down, was nice and prompt though.

Very disappointed by the mud crab that I ordered as an add-on to the MINI MIXED BAG. It was so tiny that I almost asked the staff where the crab was. It wasn’t until I moved the other seafood items aside that I noticed it. It cost $39.95 to add the mud crab. Compared to the $49.95 for the MINI MIXED BAG which comprised of 5 whole prawns, 5 peeled prawns, 5 half shelled mussels, 5 baby octopus, 1 corn, 1 potato and 1 bowl of rice I was shocked at the size of the mud crab for what it cost. Please learn from my mistake and don’t ever order the mud crab. The mini mixed bag is good value but the mud crab add-on is a rip off. Minuscule amount of meat, whatever crab meat that was in there was papery (usually indicative that the seafood has been frozen and defrosted OR overcooked which would not be hard to do considering how small it was) and definitely overpriced.

The sauce was delicious and was our favourite part. We used the rice to soak it all up and could have definitely had more sauce. We got the Kickin Sha-Bang sauce which we were told was a combination of all the sauces. Got it in mild because was told by our server that most customers find the mild spicy enough. However if you like spice then get the “Spicy” or anything above depending on your spice tolerance because I didn’t find it spicy enough.

Already knew the meal total would be a bit pricey with the crab I included but got a surprise at the checkout with a 10% service charge added to our bill. When I enquired about the additional charge I was told they charge this on Sundays and Public Holidays. Knew about the Public Holidays surcharge but wish they were more upfront about the Sunday 10% service charge too.

Ended up spending approx. $105 for two adults for a meal without drinks...