Kickin'Inn Woden — Restaurant in District of Woden Valley

Booked myself and my mum in to try Kickin'Inn, on our trip down from Sydney to visit the Floriade for her birthday. It was definitely a highlight of our trip, and would absolutely come by again next time we visit Canberra!

Fantastic service from the moment we walked in - waitstaff clearly explained the full menu, and Rabi was our highly attentive and friendly server for the rest of the night. Very spacious, bright, cosy and clean restaurant. We went 6pm on a Saturday night, at it was fairly quiet at the time (two other tables).

We got the complimentary birthday Kickin' Shrimp Martini, Mini Mixed Bag with Kickin' Sha Bang sauce, 'Spicy' level, and a side of toasted garlic bread - and as it was my mum's birthday dinner, Rabi served us a complimentary mud cake with a candle, which was so lovely.

We were equipped with a bib and gloves, and were given the option to use plates/cutlery, but of course opted to use our hands (food always tastes better, eating with your hands).

Food in summary: Absolutely wowed by the Martini! It was huge, and we couldn't believe it was complimentary. The shrimp and chips were hot and crispy, with a delicious special sauce (like a slightly spicy thousand island - creamy, tangy, a little spicy, sweet), and the lettuce really balanced out the dish. The shrimp was tender and plump under the golden crunchy coating. Really delicious, highly recommend. The Mini Mixed Bag was a great first foray into eating at Kickin'Inn! The little baby octopus was a star - perfectly tender with a bit of bite. Prawns were also tender and juicy, and the mussels were briney and sweet (the shells also worked well to scoop up the sauce and the rice). I also feel like I have to mention that the rice on the side was really good - very fragrant, perfect texture. We chose 'Spicy', which isn't very spicy (to compare, it's less spicy than sriracha), so looking forward to trying some of the hotter sauce options next time. The Kickin' Sha Bang lives up to its name - it's kickin'. Aromatic and very well rounded, super flavoursome, but not overbearing. Garlic bread was piping hot and so buttery. Crispy on the edge and so fluffy in the middle. Overall it was a lot of food for us two, so we got to pack some to go in a cardboard takeaway container. The mud cake was also delicious - not too sweet, very chocolatey and moist. It's also gluten free, halal and vegan, for those looking for these options. A very sweet end to the meal!

Overall, would definitely recommend, and would love to come by...

Over hyped, over priced and not worth the visit

We visited the woden store for dinner and ordered lobster, swimmer crab, peeled prawns, shabang wings, cajun rice, potatoes and corn. We ordered the lobster and crab in shabang sauce and prawns in garlic butter sauce. We were very excited to try the food to celebrate a special Occassion however were utterly disappointed.

The peeled prawns and wings were somewhat edible along with the rice. Everything else was over cooked, chewy and salty. All food were served in too much sauce. Specially the lobster was smelly and didn’t feel fresh. Same with crabs.

We also ordered spaghetti and squid meals for kids. Spaghetti was ok but squid meal was horrible too. Supermarket salt and pepper squid tastes better than that, not to mention the tiniest size of each piece of squid. The meal comes with ice cream which wasn’t served because apparently it was ‘inedible’ !

Service was even worse. The wait staff forgot our potatoes (even though she read it back to us on our request). After enquiring about it they sent plain whole potatoes. We sent it back reminding our order was with shabang sauce which was then corrected. Again too salty, but definitely better than the crab or lobster.

The server served everything except the ice cream and didn’t mention anything about it. When we asked about the ice cream we were told ‘it is inedible and i cant serve it. It comes free with the meal so all good’ . Really? When asked at the counter while paying bill the staff explained they have ‘issue with freezer and all ice cream are melted’. Ok thats better explanation but would have appreciated the information earlier with some sort of apology rather than acting as if it was never ordered. But apparently because ice cream is free with kids meal, no apology or explanation is needed! The service was shocking!

All in all very disappointed with both the meal and service of the restaurant. We never felt this dissatisfied after a meal. Ever. Usually there is a balance in the menu- few items are good few are ok. But this one was mostly bad. Didn’t think the chicken wings will be the highlight of the menu in a fancy seafood restaurant.

Wouldn’t recommend anyone trying this over priced over cooked junk. If you do feel like trying , may be stick to prawns in garlic butter sauce or regular chicken wings! but there are good alternatives if chicken wings...

We’ve been dining at Kickin’ Inn 5 times in the past 6 months and have always loved it, however, our experience tonight was way below our expectations and totally different to our previously great experiences at Kickin’ Inn:

A couple of things:

We ordered the Octocrazy and the whole lobster, and unfortunately they were well over cooked. The lobster was tough and had a rubbery texture. The Octopus was chewy beyond compare, almost like eating gum. For the price you pay, you expect the seafood to be cooked properly at least. The taste was also different compared to our previous visits, specifically the garlic butter lobster. We asked for the original flavour (usually not spicy) however the one we had tonight definitely had spice to it. This totally overpowered the delicate taste of the lobster. We have been advised that they cannot accept cash payment unless it is the exact amount as they do not have change. Nowhere in the shop or in the website does it mention this. Cash is a legal tender, and if the premises does not accept cash, there should be a clear signage to advise of this. Trading hours of the shop is also not clear. Google says they close at 9pm, however, they take last orders at 8pm. I have seen staff turn away customers coming in at 8:05pm due to this and I don’t blame them, as their trading hours are misleading. I believe this needs to be updated.

The only good thing about our experience tonight was the service from Tiarrah. She was friendly and checked up on our dining experience at the end. We also had her in one of our previous visits and she was lovely! The manager, on the other hand, seems unapproachable and would much rather prefer to be elsewhere.

Overall, I don’t think we will be making a return trip...