Red Lobster

«Showed up earlier than suggested time, repaired both toilets in a flash. Softshell chicken tacos lukewarm ³⁄₅

Good consistent quality across all Red Lobsters that I have been too. Great customer service, excellent food, those biscuits!

A co-​worker and I took our clients, 2 disabled gentleman, to Red Lobster for lunch for a birthday treat. Everything from our table to the food to the service was excellent! I was especially impressed with our server, Tony. He treated my guys like adults and with respect, speaking to them instead of at them. I was very impressed with him! Even the other wait staff stopped by to check on our table.

They have changed their whole menu and the way they are cooking their food, and not for the good! We ordered an appetizer, lobster pizza, last time we had it there it was to die for, this time it could of killed you! Soggy wet cold salty and to much lemon juice we could not eat it. Our salads came I got blue cheese dressing it would of been nice if it wasn’t generic blended no taste kind. And the salad was so cold the lettuce was frozen. The dishes was dirty I had to ask for new clean plate 3 times. we ordered their ultimate feast like always we’ve got these two little teeny little Maine lobster tails that were half cooked shrimp scampi was cold the breaded shrimp was horrible tasted like something that we were served when we were in school freezer burnt the crab legs was cold and they were old they were not fresh. the waiter was terrific they refunded 10 dollars of our bill but I do not believe we will never going back there again please Red Lobster go back to your original way of making food and running your kitchen because this way is plane awful! Also who is Walt, your menu is always bragging about? Because he has no taste in Real food, more like prison food. The ONLY saving grace was the biscuits, and the waiter other wise it was a very expensive drink!

Awful service, raw food, needed to send my shrimp back twice and still managed to end up with food poisoning. Awfully regretting spending 25 $ on food poisoning

Iowa is a long way from any ocean. Maybe that’s why things cost as they do. Seafood is great. On occasion this place feeds the need for sea. I prefer my salmon blackened my shrimp grilled and my lobster buttered. the Caesar salad comes chilled. I prefer a baked potato to the new spuds. asparagus costs extra and the standard green beans are wirey and the size of Straws. good thing i don’t come here for the veggies as i would not. Lobster tail so thick it took a knife. Maybe stick wIth the rice. when vegetables are out of seaSon.

Pretty good time and god food. Abby was a great waitress too. And she’s pretty.

Seafood choices are rather limited in Cedar Rapids. Red Lobster attempts to fill that niche but diners who are used to big city or coastal seafood restaurants should not expect very much. Frozen fish and shrimp dominates a menu that is mixed with chicken and beef dishes. The menu offers ‘catch of the day’ selections but I do not remember if the menu indicates whether or not the fish has been previously frozen or if it is really fresh. Portions are small but that is to be expected in a restaurant that is so far from the source. There used to be a seafood restaurant in Cedar Rapids that prided itself in flying in fresh unfrozen fish a few times a week. I doubt if this is the case with Red Lobster.
Service tends to be slow and, judging by the varying daily times I have eaten here, is not effected by the amount of diners in the establishment.
Grilled or broiled fish selections are limited but are very good. The sides are also excellently prepared. The crisp steamed broccoli and salted baked potato are standouts. The side salads are very good as well. Soup selections are limited to overly caloric and overly salted creamed soups. Better soup choices, such as Red Lobster’s Manhattan Clam Chowder and Seafood Gumbo are not available here.
All dishes are unfortunately overly salted making salt the prominent taste. You can check the sodium count for yourself online at Red Lobsters website. Salt was the major taste of their Chef’s Signature Shrimp and Lobster Pasta dish which I had recently. Some of the lobster taste came through in the three pieces of lobster in the dish but the main taste was salt and a truly awful pasta sauce that was advertised on the menu as ‘Maine lobster, tender shrimp, fresh asparagus and tomatoes in a white wine and lobster butter sauce over linguini.’ Actually it tasted like the fake butter you get on popcorn in movie theaters. If I were you, I would avoid sauced dishes at Red Lobster. Also be aware that according to Red Lobster’s nutrition document, the full serving dish contains 1040 calories and 2170 mg of sodium. Unfortunately the grilled selections are not much better. Though selections such as grilled lobster, shrimp, and scallops are low in fat, this is made up for by whooping amounts of salt. 1000 mg more than you daily suggested maximum salt intake. Fried shrimp or scampi are actually better choices as is grilled salmon or stuffed flounder.
My advice? There are very good fish dishes offered by standard area restaurants. Check them out and avoid the chains like Red Lobster if you can.

Red lobster is one of those chain stores that is very consistent throughout the US. The interior, the menu choices, the way the food is prepared, etc. are pretty much the same in every restaurant. No a bad thing, but that means that I will had a hard time writing a review since there is nothing new I can say about this Cedar Rapids store that you don’t already know.
How about this, I was on a business trip and it was a Wednesday night around 7:30pm. This place is packed with locals who I assume must have tried every single restaurant in the every corner in the city. It took about 20 – 30 minutes to get me seated. Why don’t these people go to their local grandma and grandpa shops and support their neighbors instead? That pretty much says it all.
One star off because there was no surprises. Food was a bit salty and the portion was not the greatest. My server must be new and every 5 minutes or so that kid would came over and ask me if everything was alright. I smiled to him with my mouth full, he didn’t get it.

Great service! Great food! Got the surf & turf and the lobster was superb, my steak was cooked perfectly. Our waitress was awesome.

I was back in Cedar Rapids for a business trip and my friend and I wanted some seafood. We went to the most logical place for a seafood feast– the local Lobster. We stopped in around 9:00 pm on a Thursday evening and were seated immediately. The hostess informed us that our «seafood expert» (I’m not kidding) would be by to take our order shortly.
As if on cue, a high school student came out, informed us he was going to be our fish sommelier, and took our drink order. He did a great job (I wish I could remember his name)… we never saw the bottom of our glasses, and he always came out to ask permission before bringing the next course… which, while a bit pretentious, I really appreciate. I mean, I know it’s only Red Lobster– but eating there will set you back at least 50… it’s nice not to feel rushed through your courses. This kid was seriously the best waiter I’ve ever had… and I’ve eaten at some really uppity places.
The food, while served at the correct temperatures (cold salad, hot biscuits, hot entrees, etc.), tasted like what you’d expect from the Lobster. Lots of butter. Lots of salt. You knew you were eating fish because it’s what you ordered… but you couldn’t really taste it through all of the sauce.
The salad appeared (and tasted) as if it has been dry-​aged in a hot Ford Escort on a an August day. The Cheddar Bay Biscuits were glistening in a way that said «I will kill you». They were so greasy that they turned the napkins translucent (which is totally the best and the reason I eat them). The seafood tasted like it had been batch-​prepared in whatever coastal town it came from (possibly China), flash frozen, and heated in a microwave once I ordered it.
Seriously. Five stars for our waiter. Two (generous) stars for the food.