Red Lobster

We went here for my mother-in-law’s birthday. Arriving at 4:30 pm on a Sunday the place was not that busy.
We were seated relatively quickly, although we asked for a table, they seated us in a booth. The hostess actually sounded quite dismissive about the request.
Upon ordering we were told we had to wait for their hallmark biscuits because they were still in the oven. We did get the biscuits a bit later.
Later, when our orders arrived, my Manhattan Clam Chowder was cold. Our server, who was actually quite good and pleasant, replaced the soup relatively quickly, but it was excessively salty, just as the main course Tilapia.
I am quite disappointed with the attitude of the hostess and even more disappointed with the quality of the food. I will not be returning to this, or any other, Red Lobster location. They have lost my business.

when you order a mudslide, you get an ICE shake (no flavor no alcohol). when you send it back, they just add in more chocolate syrup. i get that they’re trying to preserve their food and drink supply but come on, even my lobster scampi was cut in half. it took over 45minutes for my meal to arrive and when it did, there was only less than a half a palm of linguini… and two pieces of bread to compensate for the rest of the meal. since when did grilled white bread come with a linguini meal here?! last couple of visits have been so disappointing! will not be supporting this place anymore.

I go to Red Lobster every other year or so for the endless shrimp event — this was my last visit at least to this location. We were given a 45 minute wait time — so we took the vibrate/​light up gadget and went to sit out in the car and listen to the baseball game (right in front of building). We waited 20 minutes and checked in and were told still 40 minute wait. We watched the parking lot get more and more empty. We go in and they said «Oh we called you 30 minutes ago, those gadgets don’t work outside the door, honestly they don’t work inside half the time.» Are you serious? — Then why are they still using them or let the customer know they won’t work outside the door.
The location is dank, needs some serious renovations. Our waiter was slow, inattentive. My husband doesn’t eat shellfish and got the grilled chicken alfredo which was $ 17.99 — totally overpriced being that was what I was paying that for endless shrimp. The alfredo was oily, flavorless. He had a caesar salad that came with it and the dressing was super thick, not appetizing. I had a house salad come with my meal and it was literally just iceberg salad mix put in a bowl with too much shredded cheese. The garlic cheese rolls are good, they were smaller than I remember and the waiter didn’t offer to being any additional.
I know that the shrimp is generally frozen here but I have always really enjoyed the grilled options — I had the teriyaki which was terrible, sugary bottled sauce with minimal grilled flavor. I also tried the pineapple habanero coconut bites which were tasty (just the fried shrimp coconut bites with some sauce spooned on top) but I was trying to avoid the fried options. The scampi was flavorless actually seemed like it was sitting in a pool of water and garlic salt.
Service was terrible, we watched as the table next to us had an endless supply of shrimp being brought out constantly and I was waiting 10 minutes between each dish. Overall just a bad experience. I am not sure if it is just this location or the chain in general — but I will grill my own shrimp in the future especially now that you can buy their biscuit mix at the store and its very similar.

On a Monday night my family decided to head out and get some dinner to celebrate a family member’s new job. Deciding to try something new we went to Red Lobster for a family celebration. When we arrived we were quickly seated. We told the server the reason for our celebration. She quickly went into a story of how she came to work at Red Lobster making sure to tell us of her young daughter and dream of going back to college. After our drink orders the waitress went to go get our drinks and silverware. We got our drinks but we never got our silverware. We received plenty of biscuits but our silverware never came. After a very long time we received our salads, and still no silverware. Five minutes of staring at our salads later I decided to go up and ask for silverware. Pretty bad to not receive silverware in a restaurant in my opinion. More waiting later we finally received our food which was fair and hot. We ordered fish and chips, crab legs, a pasta dish, and a baked potato for someone who couldn’t be there. We enjoyed our food as we had waited so long. After eating we had to wait even longer for our check to come. Instead of waiting all night one of us decided to go and ask for it after about 15 mins. Overall the food was ok and the service was horrible. However that’s not the end of the story. A couple of days later we were driving somewhere and I realized that we never received our baked potato…

First time ever at a Red Lobster. We saw from the parking lot that this restaurant might be packed, but luckily for my family and I, there was room for us!
Upon entering, we were not properly greeted, bur whatever. We were seated and served by a very nice waitress. She was quick and had smile on her the whole time she helped us.
The food came out in a good amount of time and was extremely delicious. The steaks ordered were cooked to our liking. The other food was well-​seasoned and just tasty.
Being a first-​time Red Lobster customer, I actually really enjoyed my visit. The food was good, the service was good… Just about everything about this experience was fairly good. Left happy and full. Unfortunately for me, we were only visiting Rochester, so it is not likely I will be travelling back here.

For those who never thought they would see me reviewing a Red Lobster, let me just say this: Upon receiving a $ 50 gift certificate good in either a Red Lobster or the Olive Garden, I chose the lesser of 2 evils, and came here.
Now, to start off with, when considering such things as food preparation, menu adventurousness, clientele, décor, and value, I will give the same flippant, but appropriate response; «It’s a Red Lobster-​what did you expect??»
That aside, the service was excellent, the bar was decent and reasonably well stocked, the place was clean, and the food was… well, better than I expected. All in all, a decent place to take kids, the elderly, your co-​workers, etc. One caveat, though; if going on a high-​traffic night, be prepared to wait a long time…

Oh… Good LAWD! Where do I begin with this review?
While visiting this location with my party of 3 (which included 2 diabetic, disabled seniors over 65-​years of age) on a Saturday evening (1^st visit to this location), my initial impression was that we should’ve selected another restaurant to patronize. The moment we arrived we noticed it was very crowded and largely-​ignored once we entered with no attempt at proper seating accommodations). However, because we’ve experienced this type of over-​capacity at other establishments with similar seating issues who were found to expedite service without incident, we relented and figured we’d wait to be seated for dining. Initial Impression — 1 out of 5 stars!
Approaching the bar-​area for temporary seating for appetizers ourselves was unsuccessful, so we were forced to stand and wait 10-​minutes for other diners in the lobby waiting to be seated in order to gain a «coveted lobby chair». After watching over a dozen individuals and group parties being finally seated over the next 35-​minutes, one of my co-​diners asked the hostess if we would be accommodated soon, as there were 7 tables noticeably vacant but appeared to be in various stages of diner-​preparedness. She replied that there was nothing she could do and we’d have to wait until the 45-​minutes expired on our remote to be seated. Wait– and table turn-​around time — 1 out of 5 stars!
Now frustrated, as we gathered our coats to leave, another host (Desmond) overheard our conversation about other establishments we’ve frequented in and outside the area with varying service ratings who have, at the very least, offered complimentary appetizers and/​or beverages to diners subjected to excessive wait times. He then graciously returned with a complimentary basket of famous Red Lobster biscuits to nibble on. Then lo and behold, five-​minutes later, we were finally seated. When I voiced our sentiments directly to Desmond and asked for the manager’s name, he asked if I would like to speak with her. I declined because at that point, in my opinion, a manager not only should’ve been summonsed without request, but should’ve been canvassing the floor repeatedly, inquiring about customer satisfaction, and if necessary, offering personal apologies for inconvenience/​dissatisfaction long beforehand. Host service — 4 out of 5 stars!
Once seated, our server Kenny was VERY knowledgeable of the menu and the day’s «specials», helpful with his offering of «personal favorites» in our selection process and expedient in service, though the wait on our ONLY order from the bar, a non-​alcoholic strawberry smoothie, took 15-​minutes to arrive AFTER water and lemonade was served. Overall table service was phenomenal — 5 out of 5 stars!
Food: We ordered Caesar and Garden salads, two Ultimate Lobster Fests (lobster linguine and two styles of lobster; baked potato and asparagus) and the Ultimate Feast (lobster, shrimp scampi and Walt’s garlic shrimp; baked potato). I guess I shouldn’t expect much from a restaurant that shows «crispy green, romaine lettuce» salads on the menu but serves lettuce leaves resembling nutrient-​deficient iceberg and displays fresh, LIVE lobster swimming in tanks in the lobby, but serves seafood that tastes «flash-​frozen» to their diners. (Note: The garnish and seasoning slightly mask the «flash-​freeze» taste for a discerning taste bud of FRESH seafood.) Food — Sadly, 2 out of 5 stars!
However, once our dining experience came to an end, things took a DRASTIC turn to the EXTREME left as we all entered the restroom. OH MY LAWD! Dear Jesus … PLEASE Fix It … AND Help Them Clean IT!!! I only wish that I’d taken pictures of that waste dump, while using paper towels and feet to handle EH-​VER-​RY-​THING in that room. OMFG!!! It was WAAAY worse than ANY gas station restroom I’ve been in and LITERALLY made me «baby barf» in my mouth, knowing that service staff have entered that cesspool and STILL served diners … WITH a smile (and possibly a side of streptococcus, staphylococcus, E. coli and shigella bacteria, with a topping of hepatitis A) !!! Oh HELLL Naw! No SIIIRRR! No SIIIRRR! No SIR! EWWW CHILE’ ! If the health Inspector ever, EEE-​VER stepped foot in there … It would be «A WRAP» for this location! Restroom cleanliness — 0 out of 5 stars!
Overall rating: 2.3 stars

Food was amazing! We sat at the bar for a drink and an app, then moved to a table for dinner. The service was good and the food came out great. We will be back for another meal hopefully soon!

Service was awesome I have no complaints regarding that. There was half an empty dining room but a 20 minute wait which might piss some patrons off. But for a hospitality «specialist» like myself I respect that they put food service and quality above quantity and did not want to overwhelm the staff on a Friday during lent.
I will start by saying I normally do not patronize chains such as these but came here on a work lunch. I was immediately turned off by the smell. No not fish but the smell of heavy solvent cleaner over a public restroom which is right in the entrance of the lobby and waiting area. Worst place for a bathroom. Also the old carpet in the restaurant which is most likely wet from all the snow people trek in did not help.
I didn’t even look at a menu yet and already decided I did not want to come back. However I had to be polite for work and ate here. The food although not terrible just didn’t seem right to me. Clams had a very dark gray color? I was regretting everything I was eating while eating it which was not pleasant.
I’m sorry red lobster but you turned me off. Not sure if this was a one location thing or a chain thing but nothing about it sat well with me other than the great service. I do not expect to be back.

Oh the good old Red Lobster, where the food is always FROZEN, not fresh. We should not be surprised by this because this is another company that is ran by the Darden Corporation. We know that Darden specializes in frozen food delivered fresh on your plate. Recently, I have heard that Darden did in fact sell off all its Red Lobsters’ to private ownerships’. Most of the seafood comes frozen in boxes, besides the fresh lobsters you see in there tank. A «chef» at the Red Lobster merely boils/​steams the seafood in boiling water, where the servers pick it out of the pre-​made bags in order to plate it nicely for delivery. You would have no idea that your getting food out of a boiled bag with all the garnish they put around the plate to make it «look fresh». The environment at Red Lobster has not changed a bit, extremely outdated. In fact I missed the days where they used to have to wear the Hawaiian shirts as their server uniform. Service was bad, real slow, and I over-​heard other customers complain about their wait time as well. This was surprising since Darden always specializes in an intense server training, just NOT as good as the training the servers ironically get at Darden’s sister restaurant The Olive Garden. The menu is still the same as you probably remember it, BUT they now have the 4-​Course Experience which is awesome. The 4-​course is also the best deal at 16.99, of course it is well hidden in their menu, and the servers are not going to advertise for it cause it is a lot of work for them to do.
BAR DRINKS: Strawberry Pina Colada, Mai Tai — both tasted great, but VERY little alcohol value in either drink which was disappointing, even the bar tender took forever to make them. Each drink cost 8.00 dollars. get a BOTTLE of wine instead there.
FIRST COURSE: Tortilla Soup, which was actually pretty good. except our «air head» server forgot the actual tortilla’s to go on the soup itself. The soup was thick, and spicy with shredded chicken, fresh red and green bell peppers.
SECOND COURSE: Salad, Red Lobster has some of the best salad in any restaurant because of their homemade dressing’s. I had their Blueberry Vinaigrette, tasted amazing.
INTERCOURSE (not what your thinking): was there Cheesy Garlic Bread, I mean come on, you cant screw that one up. They are always flaky, garlicky, and buttery… even though they come frozen bulk in boxes.
ENTREE: Coconut shrimp bites with shrimp scampi on a barbie over rice pilaff– This was a good entrée, except they did not put enough of their marmalade sauce on the coconut shrimp. I love the spicy pineapple glaze over the shrimp scampi, which were boiled nicely. The rice pilaff was very dry, with little flavor.
DESSERT: Fudge brownie with vanilla ice-​cream topped with caramel and chocolate sauce– so good I ate it in 2 seconds. The microwaved fudge brownie tasted so good because of the gooey fudge center inside. The ice-​cream was Blue Bell, which is top quality for a restaurant to serve.
So for 16.99, I mean you couldn’t go wrong with everything I had, even if everything does come out of a frozen box. Overall: Great FROZEN Food for your BUCK, POOR Service, hardly no LIQUOR in bar drinks (like drinking a virgin), Cheesy Bread, Tasty Soups, Homemade Salad Dressings, and ULTIMATE Fudge Brownie.

Have you ever went to a sporting event and to one of those filthy bathrooms and miss that kind of atmosphere? Come to this Red Lobster! This bathroom smelled like those sewer holes when you walk by downtown. Really stings the nostrils. Wasn’t clean, nor up to my standards. I felt violated inside and out.
If you want to see more bathroom reviews, look into my profile.

Our server Alex (female) was exceptionally kind. Food was good. Seafood has gotten really expensive, but that is not their fault. My parmesan crusted tilapia was tasty and I would come back.

Had the coconut shrimp along with two other people in party. Have had it before but this time shrimp had an after spice bite. Pina Colada sauce did not taste good and seemed to be watered down. needed more pineapple or something. Waitress said she would pass on to manager. Oh well these things happen. Just hope they are not trying to improve on something that was delicious because they did not succeed I have always loved Red Lobster but lunch today was disappointing.

Every year for the holiday my mother in law gives us RL gift certificates. that’s the only reason we go. The food is like Long John Silvers served on real plates with real silverware. I gave 2 stars because it was edible and 1 star because the service was actually quite good, they run a tight ship in that regard. If you want good seafood I would say check out Palmers down the road.

Full Disclosure — I feel that there is some unspoken rule that by writing a review on Red Lobster it will revoke the legitimacy of my reviews, but I’m a rebel without a cause, so here it goes…
I was suckered into the endless commercials of lobster fest. Who can resist amazing lobster dinners for $ 20 and up? I’m only human, after all. So my mom treated us to lobster fest at Red Lobster and I indulged. The biggest perk of the night was the endless cheesy biscuits. YUM! I can’t even begin to imagine the number of calories (but nobody counts calories at Red Lobster right?)
Since we ventured on a Monday night, there was no wait and we were seated right away. Our waitress was incredibly attentive and the food was good. My hubby got the four course meal for $ 16.99 which includes soup, salad, entrée and dessert. I ordered the split lobster tail and shrimp from the special lobster fest menu. My only complaint is that the lobster did not taste fresh. It was overly salted and a tad rubbery, not as tender as the ones that we normally make at home. By far not the best lobster I’ve had, but I can’t say I’m totally surprised.
Family frequents this chain more than I care to admit, so it will certainly be in the rotation. I may just stick to the tried and true though instead of venturing toward new territory.

The chain of restaurants know for its sea food varieties. The menu has a wide range of food items. The food tastes really good. If you are a sea food person you’ll love this place. The ambience is good. It’s a bit pricey.

Had not set foot in this Red Lobster in almost 6 years — went back for a reminder on why that was. It’s your standard chain, that’s for sure, but things were definitely less than satisfactory on this occasion. Just so everyone knows, we waited 30 minutes for a table at 9:30pm on a Saturday, and even longer for our food. I realize it had probably been busy all night, but the place looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. They was a thin film of grease on everything I touched, from the bar to the tabletop, to the bathroom door. Our waitress was definitely overwhelmed by the number of tables she received at this time of the night (when the floor servers are cut down to about 3 people). She didnt really have the time or energy to deal with us, but it wasn’t exactly her fault — that’s more the fault of the person running the front of the house. A waitress next to us was running her hokie loudly and lazily under the table for nearly a full fifteen minutes, with the kind of efficiency you’d expect from a pot-​smoking Grateful Dead concertgoer. Just daydreaming, tired and unaware that she was being disruptive by carrying on for so long.
Onto our food. Biscuits were the best part. Pasta undercooked and chewy. Crabs cold and tasted like they’d been sitting in bath water for quite awhile. Fried coconut shrimp was good, regular fried shrimp was soft and only lukewarm.
Receiving and closing the cheque took far too long. The restaurant was not on its game.
Our forays into chain restaurants during the month of August are officially over. I can’t even bring myself to write about TGI Fridays. It was fun to return to the memories of yesteryear for a few weeks (I don’t think I’d eaten at a table-​service chain in over 5 years til this month), but enough is enough.

Summary: Red Lobster is probably one of the most well known seafood restaurant chains across the country. This one falls in line with others that I’ve had and I have no complaints at all!
Price: Dishes vary from $ 9 to $ 30ish, the latter including things like lobster. You probably can’t eat here on a super tight budget regularly, but who does that anyway?
Taste: I’ve eaten at this particular Red Lobster somewhere from 5 – 10 times in the course of the last half a decade and I haven’t had a bad meal yet. Granted, I get some form of fried shrimp and french fries almost every time, so that’s hard to mess up, but still. Oh, and as everyone else has mentioned, the Cheddar Bay Biscuits are worth eating there alone. We always ask for a refill even if we have no intentions of eating them, just to bring them home.
Atmosphere: It’s on Jefferson, which is one of my least favorite roads because it’s so busy. But really I think I just don’t like driving. The parking lot is nice though and the interior is pleasant enough. Pretty much like any other Red Lobster you’ve been to.
Service: Sometimes it’s better than others, but we have yet to have a rude hostess or wait staff.
Cheddar Biscuits: Yes please.
Overall: I can’t say I’ve been here with parties of 10, came during a super busy time during Lobsterfest, or any of the other things that could possibly cause a disruption in service. I normally go with my fiancée, occasionally with her family, around 1:30 PM — 4:30 PM and service has always been good and the food is fresh. I have no complaints. Holding off on the last star because I’m certain that you could find a fresher and more local place to eat seafood, but who cares, Cheddar Biscuits!

Put me on hold for 10 minutes when I was trying to call in a pick up. I hang up and call back. I’m switched over and am put on hold for another 4 minutes and the lady who picks up is obviously flustered. She is very short with me and very rude. I bite my tongue and order anyway cause it’s my husbands birthday and this is the restaurant he requested. We later pick up our food and go back to our hotel and my order looks like something off of someone else’s chewed up plate. I didn’t even get my scallops. My stuffing for my fish was slopped into a little bowl with butterflied shrimp with their tales still on them in it. It was disgusting. I don’t even know how butterflied shrimp that wasn’t even breaded got near, let alone into the stuffing. It wasn’t even part of the meal. Disgusting.

Came here on a weeknight, and it was very busy. They do not take reservations, so we did have to wait a while for a seat. The service was okay, but kind of rude when we asked for a table instead of a booth.
The food was typical for a Red Lobster, and my whole family loves seafood. Their cheddar biscuits are the best, and they have quite a few options for food. The food was very oily though, so if you are comparing this to a non-​chain seafood restaurant, you will be slightly disappointed. However, for it being a chain restaurant, it is pretty decent and reasonably priced.