Red Lobster

Red Lobster! My first experience with this was so long ago I’m embarrassed to say but let’s just say I was 8.
Now I love me some seafood; especially crab legs. Red lobster always has on there menu ½, 1, or 2# of crab legs either alone with a salad or in a steamer with baby red potatoes and a chewy little half cob of corn.
Price is excellent. The best time to go is actually around 2:30 during the week or 4:00 on a weekend. The service here is very nice. Always acknowledged at the door and seated as soon as possible. Drink orders are taken in a few minutes and then a bit later the entrée ordering happens. Then… The cheddar garlic biscuits arrive! Every time I try so hard not to eat the biscuits because first of all they’re loaded with kcals, and secondly they’re very filling.
Then salads arrive and I have to remind myself not to talk too much because before you know it the entrees are there. That’s the lack of 5^th star… I always feel incredibly rushed. The crab legs come out perfectly steamed and along with the proper little utensils to crack if you need and pick the luscious crabmeat out if it’s shells. They also bring out the lemon scented towelettes not just one though about three per person and lots of extra napkins without asking… Bonus points for my servers. They’re also very good at keeping drinks filled and encouraging dessert which I’ve yet to be able to try. One day we’ll eat backwards with dessert first.
Overall, pretty darn delicious for a chain restaurant.

Recently gave this Red Lobster in Madison a second try as the first time the food was awful. This time around I ordered the fish lunch special instead of the rubbery bland lobster. The best part of my lunch was the caesar salad. A fresh good fish doesn’t taste or smell «fishy» and this one did even the texture was mushy and the rice pilaf was hard bland pebbles. Rather than get sick I pushed the plate away, barely touched. The cheddar biscuits were way to salty and I love salt.
I have eaten at many different Red Lobsters in different states over the years and this is the worst. I’ve had great food everytime I ate at the one in Rockford, IL over many years. I’ll make that drive next time I need my lobster fix. 1 star for the salty biscuits is a ½ star too much.

Very very pleasant experience! Came here for dinner and couldn’t have been happier. From the reception to servers and managers, everyone was SO friendly — I don’t know if something happened to the management…
I had to give 5 stars based on the service. I was told our clam chowders might take a while, but I was okay with it, no big deal. But then our lobster pizza came out little bit late, but it definitely wasn’t too much of a wait. Plus it was delicious! (But the soups still haven’t come out at this point, but we were already told twice that it might take longer so whatever, didn’t care much).
Then manager came by to check up on us twice about the chowders and said they will still bring out, free of charge :) and she even took the lobster pizza off the tab too, which I thought it wasn’t necessary but hey, it’s free!
Food was pretty good as well but all in all, their service deserves 5 star. Even my gf felt that service was bit overwhelming: D I’d highly recommend you give this place another try if your previous experience was bit negative.

We were quickly seated, served and our food came out quickly. My chicken sandwich was nice. So why the 1 star? I love seafood and have eaten at some amazing seafood restaurants in my time. Unfortunately Red Lobster uses MSG in a majority of its seafood. 85% of the time I eat at any Red Lobster I get sick within 30mins –1hr, so much so I need a bathroom very quickly. Two separate managers at different locations and corporate all admitted they use MSG extensively. MSG is banned in many countries as its so bad for you. The only reason its allowed in the US is that the food industry keeps pressure on the FDA. Red Lobster is the only chain I know that uses MSG and a no go for seafood. Feel free to look up MSG… linked to strokes, heart attacks, several organ failures, etc

Welllll… if I’m craving crab legs, garlic biscuits or a shrimpwreck bloody mary, this is the place to go. Generic seafood mostly smothered in garlic sauces so the seafood is beyond recognition. Not the best quality seafood, and I know this and remember this, but I still occasionally get a craving to eat here. Not sure why. Pretty much consistently the service is good, food is fair, and there’s always a long wait for a table.

Our food was better than I expected and came in a timely manner (for the most part). I’m giving a 2 star rating because the service was… awkward. Maybe Kelsey was having a rough night. I understand, it happens. In fact, most of our group has food service experience and agreed that some nights are harder than others. I wonder what happened to that poor girl today for her to be so short with our table to the point where we discussed asking for a different server. I would gladly visit this location again and hope that the service is more hospitable.

The biscuits. Seriously! That’s why I come. The rest of the food is pretty good too but nothing beats the biscuits. As far as the rest of the food, tried something new and got the lobster artichoke dip. It was really good however the chips were extremely salty. I got the caesar side salad. Good but a little heavy on the dressing. Then came the ultimate feast. I wasn’t really hungry at this point but leftover seafood isn’t great. The shrimp, lobster and crab were great. I didn’t try the rice and I only ate a couple of fries which were also very salty. As far as the service it was pretty good. Took a little long to be greeted and get our waters but it wasn’t horrible.

Went there for their all you can eat shrimp promotion. Glad we made a reservation, as they were packed at 6:30 p.m. on Sat. We were seated promptly. Waitress was great. When she delivered one order of shrimp to all, she took order for the next round as they are made fresh. Cheesey biscuits are delish. You get a smaller portion of smaller shrimp each time, but that’s fine. Get a good variety of recipes, garlic scampi, coconut, fried and alfredo. Last year they had sriracha which were good too. Good sides too, I had fresh green beans. Even though it was busy, waitresses handled all of her tables well.

I tried this place many years ago and said I would not be coming back. Yes it is a chain and usually chain places are not great but they’re also not horrible. I tried it again recently since the hubby had never been there. We’ve just decided that we are never going back. everything was drenched in butter. Why did it take 45 minutes for our food to get there? I was so thirsty by the end of the evening because everything was so salty. Even the cooks messed up the steak order at the table next to us. This must be their way of making money on drinks. Save yourself the trip, if you’re paying this much for mediocre seafood, might as well try a nicer place downtown.

Food was great and in large amount! The bread they serve was Yummy and you can have as many pieces as you want. Worth price and definitely worth going! The waiter was so friendly and warm hearted! Pleasant experience!

Came in at dinner time and it was quite busy. After we were seated, a server came up and took the check off of the table left by the previous customer and stated that she would be right back. She then proceeded to pass our table without saying a word at least 5 times in the next 10 to 15 minutes. Finally another server, Alyssa, noticed we were sitting there and offered to get us something to drink while waiting for our server. When she returned with our Iced Teas, she stated that she was also ignored by our server when she mentioned us to her. Alyssa stated that she would be our server and the night improved from there. Red Lobster fare is Red Lobster fare, the service is what tips the event toward the favorable. This visit, between being ignored by our original server and not a sight of the manager makes us wonder if another visit would be worthwhile.

Shrimp fest, lobster fest, and now crab fest. We had the crab lovers dream and it was very good with a larger portion than expected. Good service all around and they kept the cheddar biscuits coming?

Don’t go here if you expect fresh seafood. This is pretty much similar to how Olive Garden calls themselves an Italian restaurant. The food is fried and greasy, and overpriced for the food that you get. The only thing that is craveable are the biscuits.

First and probably last time I dine at this Red Lobster location. Restaurant half empty and food took 45 minutes. When food was brought out our less than spectacular server warned us that the plates were «scorching hot». Translation: «I left your food in the window under the lights for 20 minutes while I did my closing duties». Oh yeah, and even with 45 minutes to properly prepare and plate our meal… Forgot the grilled chicken for my son. Then I had to wait for our server to reappear to pay the bill.
Caribbean shrimp/​salmon was bland.

Once again with lobsterfest, I usually go for it every year but this time i felt it was special. Every thing we had was tasty. I didn’t know if that’s bcoz not many people came here on the game day (final four) and chefs were not too busy so that they were very focus on our dishes. However it was my great day. We got a free appetizer which was a bowl of garlic mussels. I would say I really liked it but the side bread was too salty for us. We had wood-​grilled lobster, shrimp and salmon and lobster lover’s dream to share. I usually don’t feel craving for pasta but for this time I had to give the thumb up for the chefs. Awesome!

Where to start? It was surprisingly busy for a weeknight, but the wait for a table was still longer than it should have been. Multiple tables at empty within view, but apparently they were low on wait staff so couldn’t seat us. That was frustrating.
Once seated, or waitress friendly and the bright spot of the evening. The food and drinks are high priced, at least compared to typical restaurants like this. The beer selection was very poor. No local taps are offered. The cheddar biscuits were heavily salted, almost to much to handle. We had the crab linguini, and it to was overly salted. The crab couldn’t even be treated, as the salt overwhelmed everything. We had a lobster tail that was rubbery and also lacked flavor, except for salt. All the food was terribly disappointing. Overall, this made for a rather miserable and expensive evening.
In Madison there are so many great choices for restaurants that I am amazed that people would even go to a place like this that is overpriced and serves rather food that is so bad. I hope to never eat here again.

This was my first time ever going to a Red Lobster, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The flavor on everything was amazing. I would and will go back. We also had a really attentive and kind server. I also noticed that the rest of the servers were the same way.

Solid seafood place. I had the tilapia last visit in July 2014 and it was tasty. The service is good but not exceptional on our average visit. I could call this 3.5 stars quite honestly. The one thing that could help them out I think is having more variety of fish, they usually have salmon, mahi mahi or flounder sometimes, tilapia and one other fish fry generic fish like a cod. I would love to see them get things like grouper or sea bass, or ever more tasty fish for a weekly special like monkfish or barramundi. But overall a solid night out for a decent price for what you get.

Red Lobsters Biscuits is what drives me to dine at their restaurant. However, now that they sell their brand of biscuits at Costco, I fail to see why I would ever dine here again.
I love seafood. It’s my favorite food. However, Red Lobster seems to think that the best way to cook a good seafood dish is to drown it in garlic and butter. My goodness, it’s ridiculous how much butter and oil is used in any given dish. I am (was) a huge fan of their Salmon New Orleans. It came with wild rice, broccoli, broiled salmon and shrimp covered in a tabasco butter sauce. I always got the sauce on the side because again, the add too much butter/​oil. Since the dish is super easy to make, I decided to make it on my own with less butter. Viola! Dish turned out better than Red Lobster (IMO which is very bias I will admit) For what you pay to get a good meal, the food is very average while being coated in nothing but butter. Even the salads are iffy.
Their food is nothing special. The most decent cooker can make anything on their menu. I never understood why the lines are always out of the damn door when I drive by on a weekend. Convenience? Must be. However, people must REALLY like it considering the wait time on a Friday or Saturday night can be up to a hour.
If I am to leave one positive comment, the service has always been great in my past experience dining here.

I’m a firm believer in second chances, and although it has taken us about a year to come back, we’re glad we did. And we attribute our satisfied experience to the staff – and based on our last experience there, it was a surprise!
First off, we were greeted by two young ladies in the front. Prompt. Polite. We were already impressed.
Our server was Wes and can I just say, he was the easily the best server we’ve had yet. Everything he did seemed effortless and the attention to small details were not ignored. Very polite, patient, knowledgeable, prompt – he didn’t miss a beat and he didn’t overdo it by constantly coming to our table. It was a seamlessly perfect dinner. At Red Lobster. WHO KNEW?!
We chose the 4-​course meal which was a good thing and a bad thing. Mostly good. The bad was based on the fact we couldn’t get out of our seats.
We started off with soup: spicy chicken tortilla and New England clam chowder. Not out of this world, but still good and perfect complement to the mini-​blizzard going on outside.
I had the shrimp and scallop linguini; rich and creamy but it was a perfect portion. I didn’t feel like it was an overwhelming amount. Thank goodness because I ate the entire thing and I feel no guilt! =)
My boyfriend had the wood-​grilled chicken with portobello wine sauce. That was also a nice portion, and the green beans were well-​seasoned. We could’ve eaten an entire plate of that with no problem. I didn’t get a chance to taste the chicken but he took it home and ate it for a late-​dinner. No complaints from him as far as I know.
Desserts were a triple-​chocolate brownie a la mode and caramel cheesecake. RICH. RICH. RICH. Good gracious – what a way to top off the meal. At first I was a little annoyed by the small portion, but as soon as I took a bite, I was so glad they were that size. I think my pants would’ve hated me.
Huge kudos to the management and staff (especially you, Wes!) for such a great experience. We were already having a somewhat off night and we took a chance to come eat here again, hoping it wouldn’t be like the first time. Not even close.
And I know the exterior was changed but I could swear the inside was remodeled as well. It just didn’t seem like previous experiences at other Red Lobster locations where I felt like I was on a fishery boat. Regardless, two thumbs up!