Red Lobster

I like Red Lobster from time to time. LOVE the cheddar biscuits, and the potato soup is usually good too. The only thing that gets me is this!!! I love salmon and tilapia so I normally get one or the other unless I feel like shrimp. I’ve had salmon at a few other places (steak places mind you) and why is it their salmon is like 100 times BETTER than an actual seafood place? That just floors me really. I think the best salmon I have had recently was actually at Clive’s Roadhouse in Blaine, followed by Texas Roadhouse. A distant third is then Red Lobster. What is wrong with that picture??? Overall, Red Lobster is just not as good as it once was, and that is not to say that their fish /​food is bad. I just can’t put my finger on it, but if I had to guess I would say it is more than likely just «bad cooking». I can’t remember the last time my salmon was PERFECT or near perfect at Red Lobster, and the portion I get there is extremely small compared to the other two places I mentioned. Still thought the soup, biscuits and salad are the only thing really saving it for me as the salmon or tilapia seem to be a good ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on if it is «tolerable» or «awful as in overcooked». Again you would think a seafood place would just have things PERFECT, and well it is normally anything but that. Hey on a positive note, the shrimp are amazing! :-)

Have always gotten good service here. The food is up to par with the other Red Lobsters I have visited. We go here for lunch mostly.

I love Red Lobster, and this location didn’t disappoint. However, nothing extraordinary happened to make me want to go back any more frequently than I’m already accustomed to. Our server was extremely friendly and the food was delicious. If this location has had staffing issues in the past, I think the management has properly dealt with the issues.
This is also the first time I’ve been to a Red Lobster without having to drive two hours to get there. I will definitely return to this location in the future.

Let me start off by saying how the parking lot here is always packed. Which would explain why there’s always a crowd in the waiting room when you enter the restaurant. The wait is always 20 – 30 minutes after you check in. You can definately hear the hosts talking about how frustrated they are with the seating.
Our server greeted us and offered excellent service, which I’d rate a ²⁄₅.
We started out with a salad and the clam chowder soup. The soup was very bland and runny. It was missing a lot of flavor, like salt.
Next we got a basket of their famous biscuits and the mussel appetizer. The biscuits, hands down, are amazing. Mussels, on the other hand, we’re the opposite of the clam chowder. It was super salty, perhaps from all the butter loaded in there maybe? I don’t know. The shells were all completely shut, even the minute fork they gave us to prive it open didn’t work.
We got the ultimate fest and the wood grilled shrimp, lobster, and salmon. The crab legs were stuck on the shell, you literally had to open up the whole shell and scrape it. It didn’t come out as a whole piece. I felt like the salmon had no seasoning or flavor to it at all. Lobster was ok. We didn’t touch the breaded shrimp at all. I upgraded one of my sides to the lobster mash potatoes, it was NOT worth it. There are lobster pieces in there but the whole thing is slobbered in butter. The broccoli pieces were too big. French fries-​add your own salt. They have nothing on them at all.
I feel really disappointed in this place, and that everything’s drenched in 10 pounds of butter. The biscuits are the only thing worth it and they don’t refill them unless you ask. For the price, the food alone was not worth it and service could use a little work.

Really lousy service on Sunday evening! Order went in server’s one ear and out the other. No apology from her when we asked for items she’d forgotten. Water glasses never refilled. In fact, she seemed to have vanished into thin air. Neglected to return my credit card. When it was time to leave, a gaggle of servers standing around talking blocked our path. They made no effort to get out of the way of customers. At over $ 80 for 2 adults, I expect better.

Not sure why this place has so many terrible reviews… but I can see when I drive by sometimes that this restaurants parking lot is full. From what I’ve read from previous reviews is that service sucks. I honestly think that is just do to lack of staff… but I could be very wrong.
Regarding my meal here: I had no wait, although it was on a Tuesday night. I place was moderately packed and our waitress was very pleasant. She tried to sell us on the lobster mania thing… and paced our meal well.
I noticed that the booths and tables around me were handled by other servers, which made me think that the servers sections must be small. 2 or 3 tables per server. (not the best situation if you’re trying to make money) but anyways… one would assume that you would have VERY attentive service if that were the case. Our servers missed a few changes to our order… but they were minor. Broccoli instead of green beans, Caesar instead of the house salad… My rating is higher than most because I understand that this place isn’t some 4 star restaurant — so my expectations were leveled a bit lower. Regardless, service was nice and the chef… or expo guy came to our table and delivered us our meal. I though that was a pleasant touch for a chain restaurant.
I can see this establishment is trying and that’s works for me. From the host, to our server to the chef coming out with our meal to the busser… I felt very welcomed.

Wow, worst service ever. Forgot drinks orders even with several reminders. Slow with food, asked for lemon and only got 1, at end of the meal and in her drink. Not useful when you want it for your lobster. Unbelievable.

What happened in the past half year! They are so cheap now! A goup of 20 people, only one biscuit each. Asked 3 times for more and never had. And no soda refilled during 2 hour lunch time.

Based on the multiple times I’ve come here as a kid (OMG it was my FAVORITE!) to now, nothing other than the menu and staff has changed. A corporate conglomerate restaurant where everything is taught to everyone the same way, wants you to perform like a robot, hit key points in their selling techniques, focuses on labor costs and worker performance. Alot of reviewers don’t realize that there is a reason you have that pager in your hand.
There are certain steps that «almost» every restaurant follows to make your visit a great one. From door to door there is a process that each and every table goes through, and while these practices differ from table (of people) to table.
If you have to wait, please be patient and try not to let your kids run around the waiting area. This is very rude and while yes, your kids might be cute, it gets old fast. The screaming and crying can also go outside please, we didn’t come to a daycare, we came for some grub!
If you see an open table, it’s probably going to be sat by the host soon, or the kitchen might be backed up a little. The Front of the House and The Back of the House must run cohesively. This also applies to the servers. Servers have a set pace that they set their tables at, and they expect them to turn so they can make money. If you paid your bill and your still sitting there 2 hours later, that server possibly lost 2 more tables.
This is just the rant I needed to put up here. I think this Red Lobster location is great, I always get good service and good food!

The cheddar bay biscuits, and that’s it.
Everything else wasn’t worth paying approximately $ 60 for two. Mom and I both decided to visit red lobster for the first time, and we chose this one.
They made us wait almost a full hour AFTER placing our order, and kept stuffing us with those damn biscuits! By the time our meal came, we were too full with the salad and biscuits to even care — we were really hungry when we initially came in! The food tasted reheated, and for a seafood spot, they didn’t seem very generous with the seafood. We packed up, and left never to return.
It was obviously a really bad experience, and we won’t be going back.

They don’t allow you to make a reservation.
Instead they make you wait for 45 minutes.
Anything will taste good if you sit hungry and waiting for so long.

Our food here was great! The bar area was cluttered with dirty glasses and full of unprofessional banter though, unfortunately. Perhaps the wait time would be shorter and the bar would be cleaner if there was a little less talk and a lot more action.

Red Lobster is the Denny’s of sea food… they’re just OK.
I drive by this location almost everyday… and they’re always packed with customers. My wife is a sea food nut and has been bugging me for months to stop in. We finally decided to go there this afternoon with our daughter.
POSITIVE: Technically, everything was good. We were seated quickly, the staff was friendly, the food came quickly, and the food was pretty good. We had two adult meals (shrimp, lobster, scallops, mussels), one kids meal, one appetizer, and three drinks.
NEGATIVE: In general, it wasn’t a warm or welcoming place where we felt we could have a relaxing dinner and just hang out for a bit. Maybe it was just us but we felt anxiety to leave so they could turn our table. In addition, a few other minor negatives… The menus were just too much. There was a regular «dinner menu» and also a «Lobster Fest» menu that was almost the same physical size. (Each of us had one of each.) Then there was the menu with «fresh specials». And a «kids» menu (our daughter is old enough to choose from an adult or a kids menu). And of course, there’s the «drinks» menu. Finally, we had the «lunch specials» menu sitting on our table… for Monday through Friday (it was Sunday). We had menus ALL OVER THE PLACE! It was somewhat confusing and overwhelming. And the server kept coming back frequently to ask if we were ready yet. We had TEN different menus flipping around our table of 3, like a giant poker game! The booth was small. In hind sight, I guess we should have asked for a table. I’m a pretty big guy and I was literally bumping elbows sitting next to my wife. Our table wasn’t set with flatware and linens when we arrived. We were almost finished with the appetizers and we finally had to ask for implements. I asked for cream with my coffee and my server forgot. I had to ask for a refill after it sat empty for a while. For 80 bucks, I think they should have been on top of these details better. Our server seemed busy as hell. She was really nice. I kind of felt sorry for her. Despite the missteps, I left her a nice tip.
Again, we felt like we should eat and leave so they could seat another table. Obviously, they’re very good at this because they always have a lot of customers and they seem to cycle them through efficiently.
We’ll leave this restaurant to the rest of the northwest suburbs and try something different next time.
NEXT!
–Daddy Maxx Retro