Restaurant review: Kickin'Inn - the Woden restaurant that serves seafood on the table - is a dinner worth getting a little messy for

This isn't a new concept. Ask anyone who has spent any time single and dating and they will probably tell you the same thing.

Not that I would waste a review on a first date anyway. Aside from potentially being stuck with a dud conversationalist for three courses, it would also risk said review becoming just as much about this poor Tinder guy, as it would be about the food. While entertaining, it probably wouldn't be fair.

So I head to this week's review with a friend - someone who has great conversation skills and doesn't care if the food is a little messy. OK, a lot messy.

Kickin'Inn made headlines when it opened its first store in Canberra not only because it was known for its Cajun (or as Kickin'Inn says, Kajun) style seafood boil, but because the restaurant serves it the traditional seafood boil way, tipped out on a paper-lined table.

It's novel, especially for an Australian audience. But the thing with novelty is that you also have to back it up with flavour.

As we sit down at our table, we're offered disposable gloves for the evening. If the paper-lined table and the bib provided weren't a clue that things were about to get messy, the gloves certainly were.

We kick things off with the Kickin' shrimp martini ($39.95) which is the restaurant's most popular starter. It comes out in one of those giant novelty martini glasses and is stacked high with the 15 battered and crumbed prawns, placed on top of chips and lettuce, and drizzled with Kickin's special sauce. The sauce itself seems to be their take on a Thousand Island, but it has a sweeter and tangier flavour, while still giving a kick of chilli. The prawns themselves have a crispy panko crumb to them, and a decent amount of batter that doesn't overpower the size of the prawn.

It's not long until the main event comes out, however - in fact, we're still going on our starter when it does.

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There are three mixed seafood bags that you can get - all varying in size and contents - as well as some speciality ones if you're just feeling like a specific type of seafood. You then get to choose what sauce you want - Kajun, garlic Kajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper or the sha-bang (a mix of all four) - as well as what spice level you're keen on.

Since there are only two of us, we opt for the smallest size, the classic ($129.95) with the sha-bang sauce and add a side of baguettes ($7.95) and corn ($7.95).

We're given the option of keeping the seafood in the bucket, rather than having it poured out on the table, but we came for the full seafood boil experience. Mess and all.

With mussels, peeled prawns, Bay bugs, mud crab and potatoes, there is a bit of everything. All of the seafood elements are definitely on the larger size. For example, the crab and its large claws would be too big to fit on a plate even if we wanted one. And all of it was super meaty - you weren't left with a shrivelled piece of seafood in some sauce. It was fat, juicy and cooked beautifully.

The sauce had a little kick to it - we opted for the one notch up on the chilli scale, but there's also the option to go up to "It's seriously hot" - one up from "I hear sirens" and two up from "Inferno" - for any chilli heads. And all of those Cajun flavours are coming through - garlic, paprika, Cayenne pepper, it's all there.

The side of corn was a great option - it was mixed in with the seafood, so it picked up all those flavours in the sauce which matched well with the sweetness in the kernels. The baguette was a nice option to soak up some of the sauce, but probably not a necessity. I'm glad we got it because who doesn't love bread? But there was already so much food, and the whole potatoes in the boil did a good job of soaking up some of the sauce.

As we looked at getting dessert we did wonder how the cleanup was going to work. As it turned out, we didn't find out. The only downside for this evening was that we had to ask for the dessert menu a couple of times, and by the time we got it, it was another 15 minutes of waiting with no sign of anyone coming to take the order or clear the table. It was a quiet night, so maybe the staff were caught up doing the odd jobs they don't get the chance to do when it's busy? Either way, we decided to get our cookies and cream cheesecake to go, ordering as we paid.

When we did get home, we found a no-bells-and-whistles dessert - just a good, solid cheesecake. The base of the cake was a little like a brownie in texture - soft rather than the usual biscuit base - and the cake top was dense in texture and not overly sweet like a lot of other cheesecakes.

Aside from the pre-dessert service, it was a fun night out. Kickin'Inn backs up the novelty with some strong Cajun flavours that aren't focused on anywhere else in Canberra.

Address: Cnr Hindmarsh Drive and Ball St, Phillip

Phone: 81031828

Website: kickininn.com.au

Hours: Sunday to Thursday, 11am-9pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11pm

Chef: Purushottam Parajuli

Dietary: Limited

Noise: Not a problem

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