Chances are Kingsleys Steak & Crabhouse's name alone is the greatest indicator of whether or not you'd enjoy a meal there. If steak and crab are your thing — and most likely they are your thing — you will find little to complain about.
With their riverside location, the view is nothing to scoff at. They get quite a large corporate crowd at lunch, but that's always a given when dining on Eagle Street, and it contributes to the conviviality of the place. Service is relaxed but competent, and the clean and crisp (but not cold) aesthetic complements the sunny vista.
Steak and crab are a winning combination, so Kingsleys would have to work pretty hard to spoil the natural chemistry. Fortunately, they only seek to enhance it. Alaskan king crab legs come in 600-gram piles for $72.90, or in the entree size of 200 grams for $23.90. Served with lemon and mayonnaise, these monster legs come to the table already snipped lengthwise for your convenience. Queensland mud crab comes chilled in the shell, Singapore chilli-style (wok-fried with a sticky tomato, black bean and chilli sauce), or with tomato, olives, garlic, beer, lemon and herbs.
Sourced from a few hand-picked suppliers (notably South Australia's Riverine premium beef and Grasslands premium beef), the cuts of steak at Kingsleys are varied. They include the 500-gram rib on the bone ($52.50) and the 220-gram Coorong striploin ($24.90). We recommend you pay a little extra so that your piece of beef comes topped with a choice of soft shell crab ($9.90), grilled king prawn ($12.50) or Moreton Bay bug ($15.50).
Somewhat surprisingly, and to Kingsleys credit, the non-crab, non-steak dishes are far from perfunctory — with many sounding so appetising you could almost be tempted to order one over their namesake offerings. That said it is unlikely that on a return visit we would be straying from their specialities.