Kickin'Inn, Canley Heights — Restaurant in Sydney

As I describe my dinner at the Kickin’Inn, I get the response, ‘So it’s like messy play, but for adults?’ I wonder how accurate this is and think back to my meal…

‘There’s no cutlery at all?’ is the first question I ask. The ‘Sha-bang’ sauce Classic seafood boil bag, slurps onto the white tablecloth amongst a waft of steam.

The rich, dark, orange sauce flecked with black specks gets everywhere. But our clothes are protected by the vast bib and our hands kept pristine by the gloves (though they don’t have young children’s sizes).

I smother each handful in the sauce puddle under the heaped crustaceans. My child thwacks half a crab with enthusiasm using the metal meat tenderiser hammer provided. The succulent unpeeled prawns with rich head butter is the gem of this mix.

Only ordering the same sauce for the boil bags make the flavours seem ho-hum. Avoid this by changing the seafood (from anything in between pipis and lobster), pick a different sauce like garlic butter, or raise the spice level.

We choose the ‘Inferno, Makes You Sing’ spice option for our Pipis bag. ‘Can you come over and wipe my head, please?’ The top of Dad’s head and forehead is glistening. It’s only three levels from the spiciest, but it doesn’t inflame our throat or nose.

Served in a colossal glass, the Shrimp Martini is the $59.99 birthday gift for Kickin’Inn Klubbers. The prawns have a chunky batter, but the thick, sweet chilli sauce gives an added taste.

The flavour designs are the brainchild of owners Ravi and Sami. The Canley Heights branch is one of twenty-five and they’re halfway to their goal of opening fifty by 2030. Once you get past the overuse of four and five syllable words, the About Us section on their website makes for an interesting pre-meal read.

After the meal, the beaming waitress gives my niece a red velvet birthday dessert. As I keek at our table, the seafood mound has been demolished with only shell piles left. Brown sauce stains paint the cloth. Phones are wiped clean, the discarded protective items and cups are sticky.

Our bill arrives and including garlic bread and salad, it’s $230.80 for 4 adults and 3 children. It’s a costly entrance fee, but worth it to visit this rarely visited realm: Kickin’Inn’s adult version of messy play.

Visited...

I was honestly really disappointed with my experience at Kickin’Inn. I had high hopes, especially considering the prices, but the food just did not live up to the hype at all. The snow crab, which is usually the star of any seafood boil and one of the most expensive items on the menu, was completely soggy and lacked any real flavour. It felt like a total waste of money. The prawns were even worse. They were still half frozen when they arrived at the table, which was honestly shocking. Not only was the texture totally off, but they didn’t even taste fresh or well seasoned. The mussels were the only decent part of the seafood, but even then, they weren’t great, just not to my taste. The only thing I actually enjoyed was the corn, which is kind of sad considering that’s probably the cheapest item in the whole boil.

What made the whole experience even worse was the fact that I had to wait around 40 minutes just to receive my order, and when it finally came out, it was the most underwhelming thing ever. The bag it came in was tiny, about the size of a flat size 4 soccer ball, and there was barely any food inside. For the amount I paid, I expected a decent portion and at least some level of quality, but it felt like I was completely ripped off. On top of all that, the restaurant was freezing cold. It was so uncomfortable sitting there for that long with the air conditioning blasting. It honestly made the food even less enjoyable. Between the cold temperature, the poor food, the tiny serving size, and the ridiculous wait, the whole experience felt like a total letdown. I walked away hungry, disappointed, and frustrated. Definitely won’t be coming back unless there are major improvements.

And the card and sunday and holiday surcharge is honestly...

We had heard about this chain from family and friends, so we were keen to try it. Sadly it did not live up to the hype at all.

Firstly the good: The young lady that served us was nice and helpful. The place is clean with a family atmosphere and the concept is very cool. The prawns were a good size and cooked nicely. The baby octopus were nice too. The she-bang sauce is tasty (at both mild and ultra-hot spice levels).

The not so good: By far the most disappointing thing we had was the mud crab. We were told this batch are small and they were very small. However the sad thing is that meat was practically dissolved probably due to over boiling. You could literally not get any intact flesh out of even the claws and knuckles. The tiny bits I could get had no taste. Basically that part was a waste of money and it was the most expensive thing we ordered. The bugs were nicely cooked and tasted sweet but they were baby bugs. At least the flesh was intact in those. As far as value for money, let me just say this; at $70 per person we still went and had sandwiches down the street straight after 😊. Note, there was a 10% holiday surcharge but even if there wasn't that surcharge it would still have been $60+ per head. For that I would have expected to have a better experience. The prawns were nice as I said but for $120 for 40 prawns ($132 with surcharge), they came with 4 tiny/baby potatoes. Bigger potatoes would have been great to soak up that nice sauce instead of leaving it on the table.

Anyway, I hope that is not the usual experience and this was just a one off bad day because I see there are high reviews here. I also hope you understand I am not being harsh, I'm just giving my...