Kailis Bros Leederville — Restaurant in Western Australia

Myself and my wife invited some dear friends to dinner to celebrate the husband’s 69th birthday. We chose Kailis Leederville as we thought they were a top class seafood restaurant as well as offering a selection of gluten free options. Unfortunately, the only aspect of the evening that we can complement was the staff, who were unfailingly polite and helpful. The standard of nearly all the dishes was poor. I ordered the sardine entree. The sardines looked like they had come out of a can, rather than off the boat at Fremantle. I was expecting some tasty, grilled sardines on toasted bread, but only got some limp, tasteless bits of fish on some even more limp bits of bread. The food poisoning which I suffered later may well have come from the sardines as I am still belching up sardine flavoured gas twelve hours later! The grilled snapper I ordered for my main course was dried out and overcooked. My birthday guest ordered the seafood chowder. He was looking forward to a rich, tasty chowder but got a bland, creamy concoction. We all took a mouthful and agreed that it was a disappointment. My wife tried the garlic prawns. Another big disappointment! The prawns had little flavour and were dried out. Our suspicion was that they were not fresh. Frozen? Maybe. My guest’s partner (who needed the GF option) was looking forward to the half lobster, with a side of sautéed greens. The lobster came, but not the vegetables. They had been forgotten. When they did arrive, they looked a very sorry, unappetising oily mix of asparagus and beans with macadamia nuts. Most of the plate was left uneaten. I won’t go on any further, but the only feedback I got from the lady at checkout was that our disappointment was likely the result of our meal having been prepared by “the trainee chef”!!! I did point out at the time that we were very disappointed by our dining experience and that we would neither return to Kailis’ nor recommend it to anyone else. The lady was apologetic and I accept that she was sincere. I was not feeling so conciliatory several hours later, when I was awoken from my sleep by severe stomach upset, which continues today. It was therefore perhaps no surprise when I heard from my guest this morning that he was suffering from the identical symptoms. Paying top prices for sub-standard food is one thing, but paying top prices to be given food poisoning is something else! Sorry, but this is just...

I have been to this restaurant 30-40 times with my wife and my 93 year old mum. I used to have a kailis vip card but I gave it back and told them we won't be visiting again. We were regular customers. We turned up on a Tuesday night. They had a lot of fat greedy customers eat as many mussels as you can for $30. They put us on a small table. We wanted a booth but they said "no". It was cold and my mum was under an air conditioner.I swapped seats with her. We ordered natural oysters for mum and myself, followed by a seafood pasta dish. My wife ordered camilari. After asking for the oysters several times, they arrived 40 minutes later. We were assured the camilari was coming. After the oysters, we noticed the booth we wanted to sit in still was vacant. We just moved into it. After an hour of being in the cafe, I asked about the squid for my wife. And also the seafood pasta dishes. They said they were coming. Iasked again 15 minutes later. They said they were coming. After 1 hour and twenty minutes we left. I don' remember an apology. As we were leaving, they said the dishes were ready, but they weren't on the counter. I said "too late". I think the lesson learned is that if a business caters for bargain hunting customers, not only will they not come back for a la carte, they run the risk of losing their regular a la carte customers as qwell. IOn the previous visit my fish serving had a strong amonia taste to it. I overlooked that because the previous scores of visits were ok, except they don't know how to make a cup of tea. Never mind. We shall be going to The Cray Room in Scarborough Beach Road...

Disappointing - We have been going to Kailis for over 15 years, and we enjoy the fact that the menu has barely changed in all these years. We know what they do and that they do it well. Unfortunately our recent experience fell far short of their usual standard. The restaurant as practically empty when we arrived, 3 tables of 2 or 4 people, so we were advised we could sit anywhere. A waitress appeared and plonked two glasses of water on the table and did not ask if we wanted to order drinks. Then another waitress arrived to take drinks and food orders, we only wanted a glass of wine each. After a VERY long wait I had to go and ask where our wine was, the staff appeared to have forgotten about it. Then we were advice that the entree we had ordered was sold out - why this took them so long to find out is a mystery. The waitress then stood over us as we chose another option. When the food came it was disappointing too - the squid was tough and chewy, the chilli mussels rather mediocre and my snapper, although tasty, was not worth the $40 plus price tag. Two small pieces of snapper over one sliced baby potato. The restaurant was still empty bar a couple of tables, so the kitchen and staff were not under pressure. In todays current financial climate dining out is even more of a luxury and as such you expect it to feel like a treat, sadly this was not and we may reconsider...