Kickin'Inn Charlestown — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

Update: Had a call from the state manager, who wanted to offer a 20% discount on our next visit for our experience and even offered to throw in a jug of Coke. They do not offer a refund at all, not even the slightest refund for such a terrible experience. Be prepared to eat old seafood disguised in sauce and then get sick afterwards, and don’t think you’ll be compensated.

My partner, our son, and I recently visited Kickin’Inn in Charlestown and ordered a variety of dishes, including the Build Your Own Bag with half lobster, peeled prawns, half bay bugs, potatoes, eggs, and corn; the Barramundi meal with salad and chips; and Winglets with a side of fries. Unfortunately, the experience was extremely disappointing.

Firstly, the Build Your Own Bag was a major letdown. The lobster tasted off and old, making it difficult to enjoy. The peeled prawns were so rubbery and the half bay bugs tasted so off which made me gag. As someone who absolutely loves seafood, I knew all the seafood was not fresh at all because I instantly got an upset stomach after just a few bites.

The Barramundi meal was no better. The fish itself was not fresh and had such a rotten taste, making it completely inedible. The chips were also extremely salty, making them hard to eat.

Lastly, the Winglets with a side of fries were a disaster. The winglets were so crunchy and golden but were absolutely tasteless and pink on the inside. The fries again were so salty, it was like eating just a bowl of salt.

We left basically our whole meal on the table as we left, only picking at everything.

We had around $10 taken off the Build Your Own Bag and Barramundi meal, which gave us a small discount, and still paid $220 for old, rotten seafood disguised in sauce. Overall, this dining experience was far from satisfactory. The quality of the food was poor, and it was evident that little care was put into the preparation of these dishes. We will not be returning...

Extremely poor service. Order was taken and written on a scrap piece of paper, the order was wrong and when delivery meals the waitperson stood at the end of the table and passed food along the table to the dinner, everyone having to touch other dinners plates or bowls. there were many Items not available, however we were not told until time of ordering, not when provided menus. most of us were ordering the “classic bag” which we could not order due to one item not being available. We asked if we could just swap it out with another item but we’re told No . in the case of the oysters, we were advised they weren’t unavailable after the order was made and other meals were coming out. We ordered rice with one of the meals, it was finally brought to the table (after having to be asked for several times) as the the groups were finished eating and then we were charged for the rice twice!! Other sides that were ordered were missing but billed for.

The service was shocking .. there were numerous wait staff, though no one was “looking after” our table, though many staff would speak to us and say they were going to do things (such as bringing the forgotten rice, or corn that was left out of orders), no one was actually following up or being a consistent with waiting our table. It was the little things such as the lighting was so poor at one end of the table, we had to use the torch on our phone to read the menu, no offer of water at all, it felt very much like a big production line ..

The food was average, actually somewhat below average. Seafood overcooked and pasta over cooked.

Sorry but would not...

We had a booking for 7pm last night, table of 2 at Charlestown. Staff seemed very flustered when we got there and scrambled to get us seated. By 7:30, no one had even approached us for a drink order. We finally caught someone’s attention and she was very apologetic, stating she would prioritise our drink order (one corona and one coke, as they didn’t have the drink I actually wanted and we figured this doesn’t take long to prepare) and she was going to check how long food would take since we had already been waiting so long. We did offer to leave at that point if they were too busy, but she assured us it was fine and understood that so far our experience was less than acceptable. Another 15 mins passed and still no drinks, no service, no acknowledgement. We decided it was time to leave just before 8pm. Other diners were also expressing their disapproval at the level of service, so we figured it was not going to get any better. As we left, I asked the staff to please cancel our order. Three of them were standing around the front counter, chatting about something to do with a birthday. One called out to someone else to cancel table 19, we were table 17. So I wonder how table 19 got along with their food 🤔 Glad we didn’t waste $200 or anymore of our time. We went home for cheese on toast 👍🏼 Note - I would leave no stars if it...