Red Lobster

I love Red Lobster! I’m not sure why it gets so much flack, really, because when you consider the options in Richmond for any kind of half decent sea food, it’s pretty good! Now, don’t go comparing it to some sea side joint that gets it’s fish right out their back door, but for a decent sea food dinner in Indiana, you want really complain.
Normally, I get the grilled tilapia with broccoli and rice (but I never eat the rice… That’s just too much food!). Today, I tried their new wood grilled fish tacos and I was pleasantly surprised! That was some tasty crap! My husband always gets fish and chips and loves it. I’ve also had the rainbow trout… It tasted pretty good but… It had a tail. Ok, I’m weird like that; I don’t like my food to resemble its living form. Sorry.
You’ll pay anywhere from $ 9 – 15 per person, they’ve got an ok kids menu, the staff are always nice and the food is good. Why complain?

I haven’t been to a Red Lobster in years so I’m not sure if my experience was indicative of the chain or not. The staff was very nice and friendly, and the restaurant itself was perfectly nice. The food, however, was gross. The crab legs were fine, I suppose. The mashed potatoes had obviously come from a bucket of pre-​made with an ice cream scoop. The salad was dripping with salad dressing, so much so I couldn’t eat most of it (and I tend to overuse dressing!). Even the famous cheddar biscuits were just all right.

I am not much of a chain-​goer, but halfway between a road trip from Columbus to Chicago we were hungry and really not in the mood for fast food in the car. We were starving, spotted Red Lobster and headed on in.
We were greeted by a couple of super friendly servers. We joked about how we were going to tear apart a basket of cheesy biscuits because we were so hungry. One of the greeters ended up being our waitress and rushed a basket right over to us. Awesome, except… they were still raw in the middle. Biting into a raw biscuit is maybe the grossest thing I’ve experienced in awhile. We got a new basket and she was very apologetic, but it’s just weird it would even happen in the first place. They even looked raw…
Bf and I both did the make your own combo option. He went with salmon and shrimp scampi, I did fried coconut shrimp and grilled shrimp skewers. There was nothing super wrong with our meals, really. It just seemed so much lower in quality than I remember Red Lobster being. And the prices do not reflect that. I am not one to complain about paying for a good meal, but it was truly just sub par.
Our salads were okay, just a mix of iceberg lettuce. Mine had some bad pieces I picked out. His salmon looked a little overdone but I didn’t try it. He raved about the scampi, but c’mon… butter & garlic solve a multitude of kitchen sins. My coconut shrimp were very tasty, but more batter than shrimp. The skewers were alright, but a little underdone. I was so stuffed halfway through my meal I didn’t even touch the baked potato.
The restaurant itself looked a bit rough and could have used a deep cleaning. Walking to the bathroom I passed a server station that just had that gross kitchen/​grease/​wet smell that I realized was coming from the carpet. I know it was near the end of a busy Friday night, but I know that didn’t come from just one night either.
The service was good, I just wish the food & restaurant could kick it up a notch.

My Papap’s request: «I want lobster tonight. Where can we get some lobster around here?» (Please note that he is from a very populated part of PA). A snicker follows amongst the group and we all respond that the nearest place within an hour is Red Lobster in Richmond. So, Red Lobster it is. Being allergic to seafood, it had been eons since my last visit with my seafood-​crazy family.
The restaurant was very empty — which probably isn’t that odd for a Monday night in Richmond. Our group of 10 was promptly seated and served by two friendly waitresses. After cracking open the menu, I found that Red Lobster has definitely ramped up their selection of fishless options. I ended up selecting the veggie kabobs with rice pilaf — which was delicious but the amount of buttery sauce ladled on top cancelled out my efforts to make it a healthy meal. Everyone else seemed pleased with their meals other than both the soup and coffee being brought out ice cold — odd for both?

Nice remodel! Along with remodel came the smallest dinner salads Id even seen. Steak gets a c– in my taste. Tuff and dry