Red Lobster
reviews and complaints

I took my mother in law out to eat for her birthday, we order $170.00 plus dollars worth of food. The waitress came to the table with one of the orders that I wasn't satisfied with so I told her how unsatisfied with the serving of food I was, as she debated with me and became very rude and aggressive I asked to speak to a manager. The next thing I know a woman is charging towards me pointing her finger at me in my face telling me she's the manager and I better not talk to her and her staff in any manner and she wasn't concerned about my dissatisfaction. As a bunch of people surrounded I became fearful and began to get away from the crowd and speak to a staff member whom was more reasonable and understanding. The gentleman heard me out and just printed up the receipt of the items that we did eat so he can bring some sort of resolve. As I was going to pay and leave, I was confronted by police officers who handcuff my fiance and forcefully handcuffed and arrested me. As I am asking why I am being arrested he told me the manager and another person said I assaulted them one of them went as far as to say I punched her in the face. I am aware that your establishment has video cameras and I would like for you to review the footage to see that I was wrongfully accused and arrested after taking my mother in law out to eat for her birthday. I've been coming to red lobster for years and to think one bad employee could cause such an uproar and bad business for the company. I would appreciate you look into the matter and are aware of the people representing the red lobster brand. I never experienced anything so degrading and humiliating in my life and to think I spent almost $200.00 on a meal and to be treated like that was inexcusable and inhumane. The officer said he knew I didn't hit the woman because he was standing right there but he had to arrest me because his superior told him to and then he let me go with an appearance ticket.

Since the new owners take our Red lobster the employees find it hard to make ends meet. They are so money hungry that the become a nickel and dimming company which force us to work under stressful circumstances. One person doing four persons job and is treated like a slaves. Golden Gate is not a good company to work for they make it hard for us to keep the benefit they wrote us and tell us that we will be terminated immediately if we don't get thirty hours per week but don't give us a chance to work we barely work twenty hours per week so its hard to buy health insurance else where. Now the they are telling us they are going after our tips to pay the rest of their staff because they don't want to pay them for what is required for the jobs the apply for. working at Red lobster is not enjoyable any more and I hope that new jobs open up because this is one company that will be spending its money and training because no one will stay with them. they don't care about employees and how they will pay their bills always taking from us. I really hope the owner and share holders read this because they have to take care of their bottom line employees because if they do they don't need to worry about their company a day in their lives. I would love for them to take a few days and visit their restaurant and see how hard we work for them not to give us thirty hours per week such a shame.

The restaurant refused to honor the coupon when I tried to use it yesterday.

I purchased $100 gift cards and received two $10 coupons (code 65) at Montclair, CA Red Lobster at on 12/12/2016. I mentioned they expired so soon when I got the coupons. The manager was working at the bar told me they would honor the $10 coupon regardless the expiration date which was 2/5/17. I believed his promises. But they refused to accept it at the same restaurant when I tried to used it yesterday. I felt that I have been tricked. I'm pretty disappointed the way they run the business.

Roxanne Su
[protected]
[protected]@hotmail.com

I came to eat and order take out at red lobster on my birthday April 18th, 2017 around 6 pm. I ordered the lobster bake, clam chowder and key lime pie. All the coworkers were excellent. They were respectful and took care of my needs. The bartender was especially polite and warned me about the salads not being in good condition that day. I ordered the lobster bake, clam chowder and key lime for 43 and tipped the bartender $3 for his warning. When I got home I got my food and ate it. I was very satisfied with the meal. However at about 1 am the same night (7hours Ayer eating) I became extremely nauseous and committed on several occasions. I also have diarrhea for a while. I had to take off work tomorrow and may see a doctor if this continues. I am writing this about 2am just so I don't forget. I am not angry with the company as I understand things like this happen. I also just wanted to let them know to keep an eye out for any other potential complaints from customers. Hopefully I can prevent a few more unfortunate situations. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

On April 12th, 2017 I was asked to come in for a interview the Red Lobster on 4485 Main st in Bridgeport, CT at 12 noon by a manager by the name Laylah ( if im spelling that correctly). I arrived to this location 15 minutes early, where she had me seated in the back of the restaurant. The Host that greeted me was fabulous, the restaurant was fairly slow this particular day. As i waited for my interview to begin the manager approached me letting me know that she would be with me in a few moments. Unfortunately after waiting for approximately 29 minutes she asked me to move to another area in the restaurant where i then was asked to wait again. So i proceeded to wait for my interview to begin. As i waited i watch as the manager walked past me the whole entire wait walking around talking to customers and i didn't under stand because each customer was being helped and waited on. Business was very slow and there was enough staff to cover the tables while she conducted the interview, instead she walked past me looking around it was as if she was trying to avoid the interview and looking for things to stall time. I ended up waiting for a hour and a hafe before she came over asked me to tell her about myself. I stated how much i loved the company and its food. I love the environment because it wasn't very chaotic and that i was very dependable. The interview was less than 5 minutes. I didn't understand why i was treated like that i was dressed very appropriate i have pictures of my attire, i had my resume in hand and i arrived 15 minutes prior to my interview. It was to the point where several employees one by the name Anthony ( the only name i could remember) kept coming over asking did i get a chance to speak to her and they would remind her i was there. I left out of the establishment literally in tears and wept in the car because i was so excited when i got the interview, and i just didn't understand why i was treated like that. Even if i dint get the job i don't understand why i had to sit and wait for 90 minutes as i watched her walk past me the whole entire time doing nothing. That interview really made me feel terrible about myself. The rest of the staff was great and had wonderful attitudes. I just never want to go on an interview like that again.

Dear sir/mam,

I am a frequent visitor to red lobster and till date I was happy with the food taste and quality but yesterday I was disappointed with red lobster secacus New Jersey.

I ordered the apitizer lobster langastino pizza but I was highly disappointed as it was bland and base was dull not at all fresh and it seemed like soft wet.

I was highly disappointed with the taste and quality and money I. Paid.

Sorry.

My husband and I went to red lobster in reading pa, first the waiter tells us sorry for the wait he was in the bathroom hopefully he washed his hands . Biscuit's to forever to come out appetizer came out before the biscuit's . When our dinner came my husband right away noticed a hair on the plate . This took his appetite away and did not continue to eat. I myself love red lobster so I continued to eat my meal .To find out there was hair on my food as well . I was so disgusted . The manager did nothing but give us a gift card to pay for the meal that had hair on it . Which made no sense, instead of taking it off the bill . This is the worst experience I have ever had at this location . Remind you bathrooms were filthy and menu had old food stuck to them . I have been a regular customer to this chain and after this experience I will never return .

I ordered the stuffed mushrooms and the surf and turf. The worst mistake I ever made. I received my meal before my appetizer and to make matters worse my meal was wrong. My meal was sent back and redone and it was still wrong. The manager Robert Sutherland never offered me any thing. He did not offer to comp me for anything, he did not offer me a discount, nothing. I had to pay full price for a meal that was wrong not once but twice. The only thing that made it bearable were the server's CJ and Troy. They did everything they could to help me out. The service from CJ and Troy was wonderful but everything else was terrible. I had looked forward to going there for 3 weeks and when I finally did I was very disappointed with the way my order was handled. I will probably never go back again. Why should I when they can't get your order right and they still charge you full price. I was highly dissatisfied and disappointed and will probably never go back again. Signed a very unhappy and dissatisfied customer. Bonnie MacLellan

4717 i-10
Baytown tx

My name is denes trobridge, I live in baytown tx. It has been a couple of weeks since I visited red lobster, actually saturday, february 11th 2017 to be exact. Busy schedules has just allowed me to take the time to put in this complaint. Haven't been in a while but it's my favorite restaurant. Being from georgia, most of the red lobters I visited were around that area. Most were great, some were not so great but i've never had bad service like I did on this night. My friend wanted to surprise me for valentine's day and take me to dinner in a movie. He had originally chose a different restaurant but it was cars lined down the street. He asked me did I want to go to rl because I had been talking about it for a while. Now he's not big on seafood, so I thought it was very nice that he would do that just for me. When we got there, I guess others were celebrating vday as well, being that vday was on a week day this year and this was the saturday before. There was about a 30 to 45 mins wait time. When they called us to be seated, there was another party of 3 whom they seated right next to us. First thing that happened after we were seated was it took forever to get our salad which should came shortly after our drinks. We waited and waited then finally the waitress came and brought my friend his appetizer. She walked off so fast, I didn't have time to ask for our salad. I said to my friend "maybe she's rushing back to get them. " nope! She never came back. After about 10 to 15mins, I was able to stop her in passing and ask her for our salads. She was like oh! I was trying to wait until your food came out. What? I said ma'am will you please bring our salads. After that, it was ok for a few seconds, then we noticed that the party of 3 got their entrees about 10 mins after we got our salads. When we finished our appetizer and salads, we waited and waited and waited. No food! No waitress! We were so upset by this point. We noticed across the room, there was a big party (Who also came after us) started getting their entrees. We finally stopped our waitress and asked her what was going on? She went to check, when she came back, her response was, "it was because you asked for your steak to be well done. That made no sense! But it'll be out shortly she said. We then waited and waited for another 20 mins or so, then we asked her to get the manager. Worst times 3! He also said, "its because we're waiting on your steak. My friend told him that, that didn't make sense and that a well done steak shouldn't take that long. The manager then changed it and said it was because they had that big party over there and we apologize. So a big party is more important than a small party at rl? We don't argue with people who fix our food so we basically let it go. After another 15mins or so, his steak came out but they didn't have my lobster tacos. The waitress said, "we're still waiting on your taco. "
At the same time, the party of 3 who were seated at the same time as us, had eaten and were leaving. My friend said, "enough is enough!" get your manager back out here! First you said you're waiting on my steak, now you're telling us you're waiting on her tacos. Get the manager. She said ok. We waited for him to come. He never came! He told the waitress to tell give us a discount. What? The waitress kept apologizing and said the reason she stayed away so long is because she was afraid to come back to the table. She said she kept telling them to hurry but for some reason they didn't. They offered us 20 percent off which still wasn't to our satisfaction. This was rediculous! On top of all that, we missed our movie. The food was ok, but we were highly disappointed in the service. The manager really got us upset when basically called us idiots.

My husband and I dined at the Red Lobster in Oxford Al on 2/12/17.
It wasn't busy so we were seated quickly. Our server came to take our drink order. We waited a few minutes for our drinks. We ordered our meals and it took forever to get it! When we did get it my carrot and squash side was so hard I couldn't get my fork in it like had been sitting for a long period of time! The mashed potatoes were cold; our steak was not hot nor the lobster tails we had. All the time we were waiting for our food we could hear yelling coming from the kitchen. We didn't complain at the time because we've never had a bad experience at this Red Lobster but I and my husband was upset over this experience. Our bill was almost $100.00 and we still left a tip for the waiter. I hope it was just an off day for everyone but it will be a long time if I return!

Me and my family get together alot and we love red lobster but this particular day we went to a different one because we had family in town so to accommodate them we went there.first of all we traveled almost a hour there the staff was rude and I kept telling them it was flie flying around well we killed one because it just wouldn't leave next our food was brought out and as we were eating here come the flies one landed right on my shrimp I didn't want the good then we just left.why is it so many flies in there it's cold outside

I attened to red lobster on. 3360 camp creek parkway with my mother in law and newphew. Never had any problems with red lobster before that why we were so eager to return. The waiting time was over 45 mins on week day. By the time we got to the back we were glad to see dinner rolls. The waitress seemed really impatient and once again we waited almost 20 mins for our food. Even after the horriable service i stll left ab ten dollar tip. Im only filing and complaint because i work in food service and i think the company should give this location an second look. I spent almost 100 on my family and i was not satitfied. Please reach out. Thank you in advance.

My husband and I went to Red Lobster in River City, Jacksonville, Florida (don't know the street name because receipt was not given back) on January 24th. We sat there over an hour before getting our food, place was not crowded and I ask the waitress about the biscuits and she said they were cooking them. The biscuit came about 10 minutes later, gave us 3 biscuits and they were smaller than the palm of my hands as a woman. I ordered create your own for $18.99 with an addition $2.49 for fried scallop. I think this was ridiculous when you on gets 4 scallops and 8 shrimps with 2 sides. My husband wanted a bud beer, waitress said the machine was broke, ordered another beer, came back and was told that they had just sold the last one, then he ordered a Coroner beer, then I found out that that one beer was $5.09, this is ridiculous, I could see $3.00 for a beer. Customers need to be inform the price of alcohol or the prices be in the menu by the item. They food also wasn't hot hot as they tells you, it was warm. I was disappointed for the $52.48 that I paid as we were celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary. I really love eating at Red Lobster but this was one time that I was not happy eating at Red Lobster. They must have sent worker home early for people having to sit for so long to get their food and it was not crowded. I got there around 6:30 pm and left around 8:20pm

Myself my husband my mom my mother-in-law and her aunt went out to eat at Red Lobster ..they sat us in the back by the squeakiest kitchen door every time someone came in an out it was terrible noisey ..the service was so very ridiculously slow and that whole room was empty we were the only ones back there... we all love eating at Red Lobster this was the worst experience we have ever had...we ate at the winter haven fl restaurant..on Jan first around 6 pm...our bill was around 100 ...the food was good..but we almost got up and left because of the door and slowness ...my name is Lucille Bowland phone number [protected]. ..email [protected]@aol.com..address 307 e Pennsylvania St box 87 Amboy Indiana 46911 we would at the very least want another meal please thank you

Melinda Vander Vieran is greedy and She ruins, destroys and tarnishes co-workers lifes, Melinda ruined, destroyed and tarnished my life, Antoine Blutson(Uno), and other co-peoples lives by causing co-workers to quit and to walk out on their jobs at Red Lobster in 1994 and 1995! She got fired for stealing money at Red Lobster! She got what she deserve for what she did at Red Lobster in 1994 and 1995. I hope Red Lobster don't hire her back as the Manager!

Our twins turned 18 k decided to have our annual Birthday family dinner here at Red Lobster this year... We called days in advance and let them know it would be twelve of us...when we arrived our table wasn't ready... I thought reservations meant that everything would be ready for us... We were eventually seated, and our biscuits were cold, I tried to get the attention of our server, but he was busy... It was a Tuesady night and I could count on my hand the number of tables open. Another server recognized my daughter and came over to say hi, but our server let her know he didn't want her in his section. When our food arrived, so did the other biscuits I had asked for.. Mostly all of our food was cold, our whole party was so turned off by this experience, we all got TO GO platters.. We also asked that they sing Happy Birthday for our twins, when we questioned that, they said, I guess we forgot. I am in the customer service business, I have worked in the casino industry over thirty years and I know good customer service and bad customer service when I see it... Our server was of a Indian race and we are all African American, and we were treated that way... I figured maybe he doesn't like black people?. It is a myth that blacks don't tip as well as other races... I work for tips and my wife makes sure we always leave a good tip... But this whole 18th Birthday dinner expierience was terrible and unacceptable... My wife told the manager about this and he said, we should have told him before paying the $150 bill that I already paid! But gave us a couple coupons to make up for it. My daughter dines here refuel you and could not believe this and insisted I write a letter. My server name was Shariful M. Store number 0575 on Dec, 20'2016 at 19:48. Check #32900 table 046. In Mays Landing NJ 08330. At the bottom of receipt. It says to contact James Miles at [protected]. The total on my bill was $148.57. My name is Mark Truss my address is 1059 Ocean Heights Ave unit 1108 Egg Harbor Twp. NJ 08234. I am just very displeased with our twins 18th Birthday dinner expierience. But I do thank you for your time reading this... Maybe my server was having a bad night... We all have them. Do I want him fired? Absolutely not... Just informed

Dinner service 12/14/16 9pm

I am highly upset about the service at dinner last night. I am still shocked and appalled by the location and what has become of it.

I think the staff were "off" at just after 9pm. There were a couple people "hanging out" in the dining area and being very loud and disruptive. Now, I would not be complaining if is was a table full of people enjoying their evening a little louder than I would enjoy, but it happens to be customers and the staff being very unprofessional and loud. I didn't know that the dining area was a place to hang out and be disruptive. They could have easily moved the conversation/party to the bar area. But maybe not since all I heard was a deck brush cleaning the bar floor or something very similar to that.

I have never been here when it felt like the staff was so ready to go at 9pm. I feel like I should apologize for arriving to the location after 9pm, but seeing that other professionals may not get out of their job until after 7 or 8, I find that hard to do. Exceptional service should be given until the last table leaves. Even if the closing time is 10pm.

The service provided by derrell w was less than stellar. I felt rushed the entire meal. I was never offered another glass of wine or dessert. Waters were not refilled. 2 appetizers were ordered and did not get delivered at the same time. (Calamari and the seaside sampler) while ordering the meal, he stepped away from the table while I was deciding on my side option. (Um, ok.) the dishes were not cleared when the entrées were delivered (Bar harbor lobster bake and lobster, shrimp & salmon). The check was dropped well before halfway through the entrées. The table next to us had a tray jack and dirty dishes there the entire meal. We finished what we wanted of our meal. Asked for boxes and paid. The manager came into the dining room, yelled something and everyone sprung into action. The server came back and asked to remove the dishes I had shoved out the way. Why now? $4 cash tip on a $104 tab. Look it up. Check #63078.

I am sure you hear this all the time... But I used to wait tables. Now here is where my story gets different... Even managed a restaurant. Many of them. I was part of the opening crew that went around and opened new locations. I am very serious when it comes to the professionalism in a restaurant. This was far from it. We used to be required to do table touches to ensure the customer is enjoying their meal. I never saw anything that resembled a manager. Only heard the manager right before we were about to leave. Upon arriving to the front doors, they were locked. Which would be fine since it was 10pm. No one was up front to wish us well.

I will not be back to this location any time soon. And when people offer to go there, I will suggest them go elsewhere. I cannot believe how much this location has changed. I felt like I was in a playground amongst kids. I do not expect a gift card. It will go unused and will not be given to anyone else that I consider important to me.

How to rectify the situation? Refund the amount my extremely patient date paid. We do not get date night very often and this was the worst date night ever.

On November 6th my mother and I ate at Red Lobster in Niles. We both ordered the unlimited shrimp dinners. Our greeting, salads and biscuits were wonderful, as they always are. They were packed for lunch and we waited a very long while for our food. We were were patient with that, however, we understood that they were short staffed for some reason due to the fact that we heard the hostess/manager on several occasions ask servers if they were willing to stay over their scheduled time. There seemed to be no shame in allowing customers to be aware that things were not running smoothly.

We both ordered the fried shrimp dinner. When our meals came to the table our shrimp was soggy and left little to be desired. As we were aloud, we order more of the same type. When it came it was just the same. Again, as we were aloud, we ordered a different kind of shrimp and it was somewhat better because it was not battered. The reason we went there for dinner was that we both wanted the fried shrimp so we were very disappointed. We budget our money, as everyone else does, and we do not treat our selves to expensive meals very often so this dinning out experience for us was not a happy one. We are not "those people that complain about everything" (we know those people DO EXIST) and we sat at the table when we ordered our last shrimp discussing whether or not we even wanted to mention how dissatisfied we were. I am a professional in retail myself and I made the decision that I would want this communicated to me. I asked our waiter to cancel our last ordering of the shrimp and to please send the manager over. She gladly did just that. The manager ending up bringing our last order of shrimp to the table and was very willing to discuss this matter with us. I started by telling here that we were not out to get a free meal but that we did want to explain our opinions. She explained that they were so busy and that the chef was making shrimp so quickly and piling it in containers (which was the reason for it being soggy). She apologized repeatedly. We explained to her that our waitress was wonderful and that we felt bad for her having to apologize to all of the angry customers all day because the shrimp was not being cooked to the usual "perfection" that Red Lobster has the reputation for preparing. She thanked us for our opinions and kindly excused herself from our table without ANY offer of a discount or gift card mentioned. We were sadly disappointed. Red Lobster #0366, Table 1, check # 68870, server was Victoria M., 16:10:12 Thanks for listening. Melissa Allen

On Sunday November 13, 2015 I went out on a date with my significant other to celebrate our anniversary. For our first date 2 years ago we went to Red Lobster, so we both decided to go eat there. To begin with, the wait is extremely long. After we got seated, the table was not properly clean and the chair still had crums. After waiting an additional 20 or so minutes we got asked what to drink and it took another 10 minutes to get our drinks. We then placed our order. My food was not properly cooked correctly and we were never asked if we wanted a refill for our drinks. This has seriously been the worst experience with Red Lobster, and it's very unfortunate because I extremely enjoy eating there.

I bought the 11.99 lunch pick 2 so I ordered the hand breaded shrimp and scampi.to go. To my amazement when I opened the I had 4 little scampi the size of my little finger and smaller also the hand breaded shrimp had 6 extra small shrimp. I will never go and pay for that again and I will tell anyone who will listen to keep away from the RIP OFF