Kickin'Inn Highett — Restaurant in Melbourne

The staff: very friendly, but very young (cheap labour I'm guessing). I wouldn't trust them with any questions or instructions re dietary requirements and allergies. We didn't have a booking (the visit was completely unplanned) but seated quickly. The staff made a big point that we must book in future - not once but twice - despite being about 20% full. The design of the restaurant means it's loud - unbearably loud - even when only 20% full. Cheap floating flooring and hard surfaces everywhere. Imagine how bad it gets when a baby cries (yes this happened). They offered to move us to a quieter area which was nice of them, but the new table wobbled to the point of tipping glasses. Our waiter (3 different people were serving us) forgot to put through the drinks order, despite confirming it.

The feel: whilst the venue is styled like a modern upmarket pub, this feels more like a typical authentic Asian restaurant you'd find around Glen Waverley where every item on the menu has photos (yes it does), and you're the only table with English as a first language (the bowl of rice side dish and other aspects of the menu reinforces this feeling). It's a bit like Hog's Breath meets seafood. Inside the restaurant is a giant wall that contains far too many paragraphs about the founders, which I can only describe as a physical manifestation of ego-stroking. Not content with a few simple lines to explain what it's about and where it's come from, it reads as though they've found a way to turn water into gold. They must be very pleased.

The menu: whilst most specialty restaurants would have a couple of "accommodating" dishes, this restaurant only has one on the mains list, and it's still seafood. There are a few vego options but they are more like afterthoughts. As mentioned, almost every menu item is accompanied with a photo. It feels a bit tacky, but the price is as if it was upmarket fine dining. Make no mistake - this is not fine dining.

The food: barramundi, one with garlic butter sauce: more like garlic butter sauce with a side of barramundi. The picture speaks for itself. The fish seemed good but overcooked. The salad was somewhat wilted and not restaurant quality. We only ate half the salad. The side of potatoes was very plain but fine, a little underdone. At over $80, this was significantly overpriced.

Disclaimer: we had not researched prior to our visit and obviously aren't in the target market, we had previously dined at the same venue when it was a very different environment and menu prior to going bust during covid.

I'm not sure exactly who the target market is though - the place feels a confused mix of modern gastropub style, family dining, tacky trimmings, cheap eats and service to match - but priced as fine dining (plastic cups and plates are anything but fine dining). Despite this, there are obviously a number of problems with the service, the food, the venue, and based on comments from various staff it seems clear that some issues are well known but it is "what the owners like".

Credit to the leading lady at front of house who proactively saw that things weren't right, tried to fix them, tried to make us feel comfortable, and apologised for the failings. She comes across as the only one in the venue who really knows what she's doing and what needs to be done.

In summary: Check before you go. If you don't love every single item on the menu, it isn't for you. This isn't casual dining or fine dining, it's a special outing for people who love the menu. It isn't for us, and we won't...

The stars present in this rating are solely due to the service. If it wasn’t great, I’d give zero stars. The girl who managed the place and was the waitress as well was very helpful, reacted well to criticism and complaints, was kind and respectful to us despite our many concerns that were raised. Needless to say- we left her a tip. As for the rest- entrée menu tents to be around $30 mark per entree, with a $50 entrée recommended, which was pretty much a shrimp cocktail. The mains range up to $170 I think. Make no mistake- the prices here are not your pub food prices, even up scale pub. These are prices you would find in an upscale seafood restaurant. However, the food and experience does not reflect that in the slightest. Prawns in garlic sauce were more like a garlic oil soup with some prawns swimming in it. It was advertised by the staff as the “mild, very mild” sauce. It is not mild, still a little spicy and my friend who ordered it could not eat it. Sweet potato chips were coated in cooking salt and when we gave them back and asked to really make sure the salt was reduced by 90%, they just placed some freshly fried chips on top.. in fact, everything was over salted, except for boiled potatoes, kajun potatoes and boiled corn. Speaking about corn- don’t expect freshly made corn (even though it takes 7 mins to cook it from scratch)- it has been sitting in a warm Bain Marie for most of the day, just warm, limp and completely full of water. Also expect: plastic cups, packed aioli sauce (not house made, more like what you get at KFC, empty plates served only upon request (everyone eats straight off the table, even prawn soup (“prawns in garlic sauce”), wet plates being served to you, and a “chef” in her late teens/early twenties who when we enquired where she studied, we were told didn’t finish her studies as a chef. In other words, this place is very confused. Great service but sky high prices, but everything is over fried and covered in salt and it looks like a pub. Add- VERY uncomfortable metal chairs (although we had someone with us who needed a better chair otherwise we couldn’t stay and we got brought a nice chair from the back, but in fact they were uncomfortable for everyone). The drinks menu was extensive, but when I asked what’s in the cocktails (there are 4 on the menu with only 2 being available) - I was told they are pretty much the same as cruisers :) So… go, check it out for yourselves. Or don’t.. but if you get the great service, like we did, make sure you do give them a tip. Our waitress/manager was very nice...

DO NOT GO THERE! A complete train wreck. Where do I start? Walked in to a cave like black space with hard metal chairs and booming noise bouncing around all the hard surfaces. Butchers paper off a roll for a table cloth. No plates or cutlery on the table. Got served water in a plastic jug with plastic glasses - this was an omen of what's to come. Watched a waiter bring a metal bucket to a table across the aisle, pull a clear plastic bag out of the bucket and empty its contents (about a kg of clams in sauce) directly onto the table. The family at the table donned the plastic bibs and rubber gloves provided to them instead of cutlery and proceeded to devour the clams. The table looked like all 4 people had thrown up on it. NOT VERY APPETISING! Waited for almost an hour for the first entree to arrive - 6 oily deep fried mozzarella sticks ($9.95) with no flavour served in a plastic bowl with a take away style plastic tub of tomato relish. The baguette ($5.95) and the Shrimp Martini ($39.95) never showed up. The main arrived half an hour later - 4 tiny Moreton Bay bugs cut in half and drowning in a sea of spicy KAJUN sauce in a clear plastic bag for $44. We said no to tipping the bugs on the table so they were left swimming in the plastic bag for us to fish them out with our gloved hands. We asked for plates and cutlery but they do not provide such modern luxuries. Instead we were given black rubber gloves. We asked how we should eat the KAJUN fried rice ($19.95) with only one spoon given with it? We were told to use our gloved hands. We politely said that we would prefer to use utensils, so 4 semi-clean table spoons were reluctantly provided for us to use in a shared bowl of rice. NOT VERY HYGIENIC! The KAJUN potatoes ($9.95) were 5 potatoes cut in halves, boiled and totally smothered in KAJUN seasoning. After some more waiting and trying to attract the waiter's attention, we gave up on the hope of getting our Shrimp Martini entree with our main meal and got up leave. When we told the waitress that we did not get two of the items we ordered, she said that we won't be charged for them like this was a good will...