Kickin Seafood — Restaurant in Orem

The server was really nice and attentive, but unfortunately that’s where the good stops. I have 2 stars because she was great. I ordered the shrimp boil bag without the head. The shrimp are. It cleaned so the vein is still in them. These are large shrimp so the vein is prominent and leaves the shrimp tasting like gritty dirt. It was terrible. I requested some shrimp cocktail sauce in an attempt to cover up the gross flavor of eating shrimp poop, but it was inedible. It was potent, primarily comprised of vinegar and horseradish. It made my nose and throat burn and not in a yummy spicy food kind of way. More like a drank a bottle of vinegar way. My husband had the shrimp sandwich and said it was good. I’m far from a Karen, but what happened next is really why I’m posting this review. I told my sweet waitress that the cocktail sauce was inedible (believe me I had my husband tried it who is not picky at all, and even he gagged) and that the shrimp weren’t cleaned and weren’t good. She went and spoke with her manager who she said was going to come over. Well he never did, but instead sent the poor girl back to tell me that he wasn’t going to do anything and it was too bad, that’s just how it is. I told her I wasn’t going to pay for it, since she had already taken my plate back to the kitchen, and she said her boss told her I had to. I asked her to send her boss over to talk to me, which I could see her requesting from across the restaurant, but he was just yelling at her. He told her that I needed to go over to him (on the other side of the restaurant where there were no people so he could more than likely tell me to stick it), I refused and told her he was welcome to walk over to our table, but that I was not paying. I felt bad for her and made sure I was discreet so no one around knew what was going on. I was appalled by this manager (probably the owner) arguing with me via his staff because he was a coward and didn’t want to do it himself. She needed up not charging me for my food, and I tipped her 20% of what the bill would have been with my food plus some, to show my appreciation to her in a difficult situation. I wouldn’t recommend this place based on management. I also found it really strange that their we’re dishes like lo Mein and pot stickers at a Cajun seafood restaurant. I think there’s a bit of an identity crisis happening with what type of restaurant it is...

My wife and I are from south Louisiana and got really excited when we saw this restaurant and read all the wonderful reviews. We went for lunch and ordered the oyster poboy, the boil in a bag shrimp/clams/muscles, and a side of lo mein. I admit, we probably have higher standards for seafood considering where we grew up, but we try to be very open minded when having seafood in Utah. I also usually don't leave reviews for restaurants when we have a negative experience because everyone and everywhere has "off days" and we like to give the benefit of the doubt. However, this was to the point that I felt like I had to say something.

First of all, I'm not sure why they consider themselves a "Cajun" restaurant, because it clearly isn't in terms of taste and how things are cooked. It's more like a Chinese restaurant that has some food items labeled as Cajun food, but the taste and recipes are very far from what it claims to be.

Second, we almost couldn't finish our food due to how poorly things tasted. The shrimp wasn't de-veined and was very much over cooked to the point that it was extremely rubbery with a gritty bitter taste inside. They were also very difficult to peel due to being over-boiled. The clams and muscles were also very rubbery due to being over-boiled. The oysters in the poboy were clearly over-fried and tasted like they were left to soak in very old fryer grease. After we left we had to head straight home to take antacids to ease our stomachs and essentially couldn't eat the rest of the day due to nausea and not being able to get the taste out of our mouths.

I will say, however, that the server was very friendly and we tried their lo mein and it was delicious. The music playing there was also interesting to say the least. It seemed to be someone's personal playlist as it jumped from rap, to pop, to Christmas music and then some.

Overall, we will never go back and will never recommend this restaurant to...

Went to Kickin Seafood with my roommate Keane tonight. He having spent some time in Georgia confirmed that this was some pretty good cajun food. I got the fried oysters as an appetizer and Keane got the fried calamari. I ordered Combo #1 where you can choose up to 3 seafoods. I chose 1/2 lb of shrimp, 1/2 lb of crawfish, and 1/2 lb of mussels. Comes with 3 pieces of corn, some red skin potatoes, and some sausages, I'm thinking probably Andouille sausage. Keane got 1.5 lbs of shrimp for his 3 items from combo 1. He got mild and I got spicy with Fire seasoning on the side and we both got the Kickin Style sauce. Great portions. The fried oysters were delicious. I think I would prefer them raw. The fried calamari was done really well as well. Very tender. I've never had crawfish, so it was a first for me. Tasted great, definitely too small, not worth the effort to eat. The shrimp were delicious. Don't pay the extra $1.25 to have them remove the head for you. The head has the most flavor and you should enjoy sucking the juices out of it. The mussels turned out really well. The potatoes were a nice touch. The sausage was flavorful and the corn was full of flavor and sweet. I went with Spicy seasoning and Fire seasoning on the side. Fire is spiciest on their list, but not spicy enough for me. It does linger, but became more of a bitter spice which is not enjoyable. I recommend staying my Spicy which has the tingle and still retains the good cajun flavor. I will definitely have to come back and try some more of the appetizers and seafood. Remember to support your local businesses.

#thisishowichow @kickinseafoodorem...