Let me just start by saying that I love red lobster. However, last night my husband and I had a late dinner at this store at 9. Let me preface this review by saying that my husband worked as a cook and then manager of a restaurant for a decade before switching careers, and I worked as a server, bartender, and manager before switching careers. So we know the industry better than most. Okay, on with my story. We got there at nine. They close at eleven. The floor was slow, bordering on dead. We were seated immediately. After five minutes, we'd not seen a server. The hostess took our drink order because she didn't know where the server was. I ordered a Bahama Mama. I could make this drink in a coma, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. Wrong. Then the server shows up five minutes after that. My husband was given his Dr. Pepper. My drink is still missing in action. He took our appetizer order. We ordered mozzarella sticks. That takes about three minutes in a commercial fryer. We didn't get our salads, didn't get the cheddar bay biscuits. 20 minutes later, another server came over and asked if we'd been helped. I asked for my drink (we've been there over half an hour by now) and our salads and biscuits. She took our dinner order. Still no sign of our original server. Five minutes go by. We're seated near the server station. The bartender comes over there to our new server, and the server asked about my drink. The bartender said, "After 9:30, I don't care anymore. I give up." Wow... Then the cook makes an appearance and says, "That guy ordered a steak?!" Yeah, lady. He sure did. It's on the menu, and y'all don't close for another hour and a half. He ordered it med rare. Walk it across the grill and put some grill marks on it, and it's done. Geez. So the food comes, but I still don't have my drink. The server goes to check on it. Then five minutes later, it shows up. I don't know how someone who bartends for a living can mess up a Bahama Mama, but it was awful. I asked to see a manager. He tells me that he'll take the drink off the bill. Then he clears the table, and spills ranch dressing everywhere. I couldn't make this up if I tried, folks. The food was okay. Nothing to write home about. Then the original server comes over with the bill. He went to hand it to my husband, and lost his grip on it and ended up literally throwing it across the table. He did apologize for the terrible service. All servers have off nights, and I really hope that was the case, or he needs to seek a different line of work. The manager came over and apologized again. He said that they didn't have a manager at that store. He's a GM for a different store and was filling in. He took my meal off the ticket. All in all, a terrible experience. Probably bad enough for us to not patronize that Red Lobster again.
(1)
Abby S.
With all of that fuss on the Talk threads about chain restaurant food, it must have planted some sort of dirty seed in my brain because all I wanted for dinner last night was crab drizzled in butter. I tried to convince Mike T to take me to the casino for an "all you can eat" buffet, but we quickly realized that neither one of us was in the mood to drive all the way out to Maryland Heights, nor would either one of us really eat $24.95 worth of crab. So we settled for Red Lobster instead. The people who work here are either really nice (like, surprisingly nice) or very strange. The hostess last night was unusually perky and our server looked like he could have murdered someone in a past life. Both did a fine job, it was just an odd juxtaposition. Our food was "meh". It seemed like the crab had been sitting most of the day and they just kept it under a heat lamp. Our plates were scalding hot which also fed into our heat lamp theory. And the mashed potatoes were gross! When in doubt, always go with the baked potato as a side at Red Lobster. But I must say it's tough to find decent crab legs at 8 pm on a Saturday night in St. Louis. And Red Lobster does the trick for me. Although a chain and not the BEST quality sea food, it's kind of a fun place to go and eat crappy food. And feel like poo the next morning.
(4)
Laura S.
Regretfully, I experienced the worst service here last night that I've ever experienced anywhere, with the possible exception of Walmart. My family & I were in for dinner on a very sad day. We'd really been looking forward to some quality time together. We were a table of 12, but my sister got there early & alerted the waitress & even told her why we were there. Things fell apart after that. It took us 30 minutes to get water. My uncle had to get menus from the bar because we never got any. Two waiters divided the table up. When I FINALLY got to order, the waiter moved off before I could even order a drink!! Ok, fine, I really could've used a beer, but obviously you don't need the revenue. It took them 10 minutes to come back out & tell me they were out of what I ordered (head thunked on table). We were so hungry & grouchy when we got our food AN HOUR LATER. Even then, drinks that were ordered never appeared, & they got my nephew's order wrong & had to REMAKE it, & the crab legs were so disgusting that my sisters likened it to "beef jerky," but are it anyway because they were so hungry. The other waitress (the smart one) & the manager DID try to make amends -- fresh crab legs for my sisters & free desserts all around -- but I didn't even stay. I threw cash on the table and left. And I went to my friend's house 5 minutes away, & finally got a beer!! I'd sooner go to McDonald's than back to this location.
(1)
Robyn R.
Very Disappointing!! We eat at this Red Lobster all the time and tonight I had to question why! We got there at 4:40pm and was told that there was a 20 minute wait. They took us back to our table at 5pm. Ok so everything was good at this point and then it went down hill. Our waiter came and got our drink order and was gone 10 minutes. We placed our order which was endless shrimp and waited. At 5:30pm I went looking for a manager. I explained that our waiter seems lost and that our drink glasses were empty and we still did not have salads. She came and got our drinks refilled and said that the waiter was making our salads and would be out shortly. The manager did bring our salads out and said that she would be checking back to make sure things were better. That was the last we saw of her. Our food did not come out for another 20 minutes. We asked for re-orders on the shrimp right them. Later a girl came out with re-orders. She did not have mine and she could not tell what she was bringing out to know if she had my husbands. Back to the kitchen she went. A few minutes later they came out with mine but my husband still did not get his. We finely told the waiter to please just bring the check that we could not wait any longer. So much for endless shrimp. It will be a very long time before we go back if ever. Clearly the problem starts with the management and works it way down to the staff. Oh and in our section there were at least 4 table that sat empty.
(1)
Robert S.
I had the Admiral's Feast with a lot of fried seafood. The meal was good and so was the service. I had a late dinner and missed the crowd. My wife and I marveled as the dining room emptied and one employee absolutely busted her ass sweeping the floors and wiped down tables. The other employees just stayed out of her way.
(4)
Sonny S.
Service was fast, food was good. I had lobster pizza, raw oysters, and a blue moon. Would defintely come back here.
(5)
Travis F.
I do like Red Lobster but this rating is a one because this experience was Horrible! We waited over 2 hours (should have left I know) spoke to the hostess twice, she didn't seem too concerned, then once we get seated they took forever to get drinks, service etc. The Manager came over and handed us a coupon for a free appetizer, really? come on? They should have comped a few of our meals. We were not happy at all, the food was good don't get me wrong but the service was BAD!
(1)
Mike D.
The staff here is not very smart. Was told 35 minutes for a table and it has been over an hour and a half. Soon Red Lobster will be sold off and all these people will.lose their job. I might smile that day.
(1)
Saucy G.
Sooooooo......i've been meaning to write about this particular red lobster for awhile....this happened over the summer so hopefully new staff. I wouldn't know how the food tasted, or how the drinks were.....because the hostesses/waitresses were full of sh!t..... My best friend is a server (not for red lobster) so i understamd how this all works, designated areas, timing, etc. So i'm not going to b!tch and moan about being puzzled on how seating works...however i wasn't born yesterday either. It was busy but not too busy.10 min wait is what we were told AFTER we were finally acknowledged because they were too busy talking. Ok no problem wait 10 min..... It's now 25 min and we're the only ones waiting. A couple walks in and waits another 10 min with us. We were finally seated! Toward the back...near the kitchen....while the couple who came in after us was seated in the front. There were 2 other tables open not by the kitchen but literally 4 ft away, asked the waitress AFTER waiting at the table for another 10 min for our waitress, if we could move. She said she'd check and see....cool.. Sooooo 20 min go by for her to check on this....no drinks...nothing. We left. I spent an hr waiting. Never going to this red lobster again. Diff location
(1)
Marla K.
Not a big fish/seafood fan to begin with. But I do love a good crab cake. That being said, I didn't find it here...not even during crabfest! The taste and consistency were similar to crab cakes I've tried from my grocer's freezer. And I don't really care for bits of shell mixed in. On the plus side...I could live off the cheezy-garlicy-buttery biscuits, fresh fish I've tried on previous visits was good, portions are plentiful, and it doesn't smell as fishy as it did when I was a kid.
(2)
Caren B.
OMG!!! I have eaten here on occassion for more than 20 years and always thought it was alright however last night was not the case. The best thing was the lobster and artichoke dip. Our salads were very limp, the shrimp seemed like it had been frozen and thawed a number of times my friends lobster was very mushy. I learned that I will never eat here again unless I am in Florida where the chance of getting fresh seafood may be better. They have really gone down on taste but our server Emily was a real sweetheart and tried her best to accomodate us. Nothing was her fault. I will NOT be eating here ever again!!
(1)
Derek F.
I normally don't go to a lot of chain restaurants but I have to say everything was superb at my recent visit for lunch at Red Lobster. The service was great and I thoroughly enjoyed my New England Clam Chowder, Ceaser Salad, and Popcorn Shrimp with Fries. The best part of the experience was the price, it was like $12. For lunch you can't go wrong there! Great service and quality food for a super low price. Bravo!
Takes Reservations : Yes Delivery : No Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch Parking : Private Lot Bike Parking : No Wheelchair Accessible : No Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Casual Noise Level : Average Alcohol : Full Bar Outdoor Seating : No Wi-Fi : No Has TV : No Waiter Service : Yes Caters : No
Darlene E.
Let me just start by saying that I love red lobster. However, last night my husband and I had a late dinner at this store at 9. Let me preface this review by saying that my husband worked as a cook and then manager of a restaurant for a decade before switching careers, and I worked as a server, bartender, and manager before switching careers. So we know the industry better than most. Okay, on with my story. We got there at nine. They close at eleven. The floor was slow, bordering on dead. We were seated immediately. After five minutes, we'd not seen a server. The hostess took our drink order because she didn't know where the server was. I ordered a Bahama Mama. I could make this drink in a coma, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. Wrong. Then the server shows up five minutes after that. My husband was given his Dr. Pepper. My drink is still missing in action. He took our appetizer order. We ordered mozzarella sticks. That takes about three minutes in a commercial fryer. We didn't get our salads, didn't get the cheddar bay biscuits. 20 minutes later, another server came over and asked if we'd been helped. I asked for my drink (we've been there over half an hour by now) and our salads and biscuits. She took our dinner order. Still no sign of our original server. Five minutes go by. We're seated near the server station. The bartender comes over there to our new server, and the server asked about my drink. The bartender said, "After 9:30, I don't care anymore. I give up." Wow... Then the cook makes an appearance and says, "That guy ordered a steak?!" Yeah, lady. He sure did. It's on the menu, and y'all don't close for another hour and a half. He ordered it med rare. Walk it across the grill and put some grill marks on it, and it's done. Geez. So the food comes, but I still don't have my drink. The server goes to check on it. Then five minutes later, it shows up. I don't know how someone who bartends for a living can mess up a Bahama Mama, but it was awful. I asked to see a manager. He tells me that he'll take the drink off the bill. Then he clears the table, and spills ranch dressing everywhere. I couldn't make this up if I tried, folks. The food was okay. Nothing to write home about. Then the original server comes over with the bill. He went to hand it to my husband, and lost his grip on it and ended up literally throwing it across the table. He did apologize for the terrible service. All servers have off nights, and I really hope that was the case, or he needs to seek a different line of work. The manager came over and apologized again. He said that they didn't have a manager at that store. He's a GM for a different store and was filling in. He took my meal off the ticket. All in all, a terrible experience. Probably bad enough for us to not patronize that Red Lobster again.
(1)Abby S.
With all of that fuss on the Talk threads about chain restaurant food, it must have planted some sort of dirty seed in my brain because all I wanted for dinner last night was crab drizzled in butter. I tried to convince Mike T to take me to the casino for an "all you can eat" buffet, but we quickly realized that neither one of us was in the mood to drive all the way out to Maryland Heights, nor would either one of us really eat $24.95 worth of crab. So we settled for Red Lobster instead. The people who work here are either really nice (like, surprisingly nice) or very strange. The hostess last night was unusually perky and our server looked like he could have murdered someone in a past life. Both did a fine job, it was just an odd juxtaposition. Our food was "meh". It seemed like the crab had been sitting most of the day and they just kept it under a heat lamp. Our plates were scalding hot which also fed into our heat lamp theory. And the mashed potatoes were gross! When in doubt, always go with the baked potato as a side at Red Lobster. But I must say it's tough to find decent crab legs at 8 pm on a Saturday night in St. Louis. And Red Lobster does the trick for me. Although a chain and not the BEST quality sea food, it's kind of a fun place to go and eat crappy food. And feel like poo the next morning.
(4)Laura S.
Regretfully, I experienced the worst service here last night that I've ever experienced anywhere, with the possible exception of Walmart. My family & I were in for dinner on a very sad day. We'd really been looking forward to some quality time together. We were a table of 12, but my sister got there early & alerted the waitress & even told her why we were there. Things fell apart after that. It took us 30 minutes to get water. My uncle had to get menus from the bar because we never got any. Two waiters divided the table up. When I FINALLY got to order, the waiter moved off before I could even order a drink!! Ok, fine, I really could've used a beer, but obviously you don't need the revenue. It took them 10 minutes to come back out & tell me they were out of what I ordered (head thunked on table). We were so hungry & grouchy when we got our food AN HOUR LATER. Even then, drinks that were ordered never appeared, & they got my nephew's order wrong & had to REMAKE it, & the crab legs were so disgusting that my sisters likened it to "beef jerky," but are it anyway because they were so hungry. The other waitress (the smart one) & the manager DID try to make amends -- fresh crab legs for my sisters & free desserts all around -- but I didn't even stay. I threw cash on the table and left. And I went to my friend's house 5 minutes away, & finally got a beer!! I'd sooner go to McDonald's than back to this location.
(1)Robyn R.
Very Disappointing!! We eat at this Red Lobster all the time and tonight I had to question why! We got there at 4:40pm and was told that there was a 20 minute wait. They took us back to our table at 5pm. Ok so everything was good at this point and then it went down hill. Our waiter came and got our drink order and was gone 10 minutes. We placed our order which was endless shrimp and waited. At 5:30pm I went looking for a manager. I explained that our waiter seems lost and that our drink glasses were empty and we still did not have salads. She came and got our drinks refilled and said that the waiter was making our salads and would be out shortly. The manager did bring our salads out and said that she would be checking back to make sure things were better. That was the last we saw of her. Our food did not come out for another 20 minutes. We asked for re-orders on the shrimp right them. Later a girl came out with re-orders. She did not have mine and she could not tell what she was bringing out to know if she had my husbands. Back to the kitchen she went. A few minutes later they came out with mine but my husband still did not get his. We finely told the waiter to please just bring the check that we could not wait any longer. So much for endless shrimp. It will be a very long time before we go back if ever. Clearly the problem starts with the management and works it way down to the staff. Oh and in our section there were at least 4 table that sat empty.
(1)Robert S.
I had the Admiral's Feast with a lot of fried seafood. The meal was good and so was the service. I had a late dinner and missed the crowd. My wife and I marveled as the dining room emptied and one employee absolutely busted her ass sweeping the floors and wiped down tables. The other employees just stayed out of her way.
(4)Sonny S.
Service was fast, food was good. I had lobster pizza, raw oysters, and a blue moon. Would defintely come back here.
(5)Travis F.
I do like Red Lobster but this rating is a one because this experience was Horrible! We waited over 2 hours (should have left I know) spoke to the hostess twice, she didn't seem too concerned, then once we get seated they took forever to get drinks, service etc. The Manager came over and handed us a coupon for a free appetizer, really? come on? They should have comped a few of our meals. We were not happy at all, the food was good don't get me wrong but the service was BAD!
(1)Mike D.
The staff here is not very smart. Was told 35 minutes for a table and it has been over an hour and a half. Soon Red Lobster will be sold off and all these people will.lose their job. I might smile that day.
(1)Saucy G.
Sooooooo......i've been meaning to write about this particular red lobster for awhile....this happened over the summer so hopefully new staff. I wouldn't know how the food tasted, or how the drinks were.....because the hostesses/waitresses were full of sh!t..... My best friend is a server (not for red lobster) so i understamd how this all works, designated areas, timing, etc. So i'm not going to b!tch and moan about being puzzled on how seating works...however i wasn't born yesterday either. It was busy but not too busy.10 min wait is what we were told AFTER we were finally acknowledged because they were too busy talking. Ok no problem wait 10 min..... It's now 25 min and we're the only ones waiting. A couple walks in and waits another 10 min with us. We were finally seated! Toward the back...near the kitchen....while the couple who came in after us was seated in the front. There were 2 other tables open not by the kitchen but literally 4 ft away, asked the waitress AFTER waiting at the table for another 10 min for our waitress, if we could move. She said she'd check and see....cool.. Sooooo 20 min go by for her to check on this....no drinks...nothing. We left. I spent an hr waiting. Never going to this red lobster again. Diff location
(1)Marla K.
Not a big fish/seafood fan to begin with. But I do love a good crab cake. That being said, I didn't find it here...not even during crabfest! The taste and consistency were similar to crab cakes I've tried from my grocer's freezer. And I don't really care for bits of shell mixed in. On the plus side...I could live off the cheezy-garlicy-buttery biscuits, fresh fish I've tried on previous visits was good, portions are plentiful, and it doesn't smell as fishy as it did when I was a kid.
(2)Caren B.
OMG!!! I have eaten here on occassion for more than 20 years and always thought it was alright however last night was not the case. The best thing was the lobster and artichoke dip. Our salads were very limp, the shrimp seemed like it had been frozen and thawed a number of times my friends lobster was very mushy. I learned that I will never eat here again unless I am in Florida where the chance of getting fresh seafood may be better. They have really gone down on taste but our server Emily was a real sweetheart and tried her best to accomodate us. Nothing was her fault. I will NOT be eating here ever again!!
(1)Derek F.
I normally don't go to a lot of chain restaurants but I have to say everything was superb at my recent visit for lunch at Red Lobster. The service was great and I thoroughly enjoyed my New England Clam Chowder, Ceaser Salad, and Popcorn Shrimp with Fries. The best part of the experience was the price, it was like $12. For lunch you can't go wrong there! Great service and quality food for a super low price. Bravo!
(5)