Red Lobster — Restaurant in Ames

Believe me, I know this is long. Stick around it’s worth it.

So picture this: We left a bad review a couple of hours ago. Here’s the story. I used my girlfriend’s phone to call and ask this location if I could order a crab meal to go. The host tells me she doesn’t know but can do crab topping. Ok… I’m asking about a crab meal. So I say you used to be able to do crab meals. That still a thing? I understand crab fest is over, but crab meals used to be on the menu. Poor girl doesn’t know, but there’s crab in the seafood boil and another lobster meal, she says.

It’s now awkward because I have to be that customer who says okay… could you find out? Because your menu online doesn’t say. She asks a server, comes back and says yes we can do crab meals. I ask another question about something, she doesn’t know.

We decide, whatever. We’ll get Texas Roadhouse. Now this is where it gets WILD.

We used to eat here all the time. So we leave a bad google review. Saying, “hey, this place has really gone downhill. And it has been for awhile.” Only with more detail. This is all normal, right? You know what isn’t?

Within an hour, my girlfriend gets a call. From who? Savannah at red lobster. I don’t know who that is. But she feels the need to name drop a worker we know that had nothing to do with any of this. Savannah goes on to say, “we were so disappointed to receive your review! (Worker) said she really loved you!” I’m so thrown off at this point and in the middle of driving. Savanna says the girl I was on the phone with is a new host, and they’re just so busy at red lobster right now.

When I called to place a to go order we contemplated on coming in so we drove by. There were 5 cars in the lot. They are clearly a very busy restaurant. Which is why they were able to read the review, talk to other workers about it, trek through the call logs, find the phone number, tell all of the workers the caller ID, and then call us. They were so busy they were able to do all of this within an hour just to tell me how disappointed they are by the review that we left online. Not by my experience or past experiences, but by the fact that I left a review.

Here’s the thing. I don’t know Savannah. But she didn’t identify herself as a manager. She worked under the guise of, “oh I just wanted to see what we can do!” No you didn’t. You’re not offering me anything. You’re not offering me a free meal. You’re not offering me a coupon. You’re not offering me a discount. You’re not even apologizing for the experience. You are calling because you’re drama hungry. Because you found the number, told your staff who I was, had a conversation about me, called me, excused everything, asked what the problem was, and when I told you past experiences, you said that’s too bad, and we hung up.

Let me be clear. There is nothing wrong with the workers. The host who didn’t know the menu? Not her fault. The worker who was shoved in my face as if using her name as collateral would guilt me into feeling bad for leaving a bad review? An underpaid, good worker. The (maybe??) manager who called me during oh such an extremely busy rush? The issue. The reason the place has gone downhill. If she’s not a manager? Not even her fault. Who is letting a random server call someone who had a bad experience? They can’t do anything they’re just a server. Who’s allowing that? The manager. Who’s allowing an untrained person to answer phone calls during a Saturday night rush? The extremely, apparently busy, manager.

Maybe if she wasn’t trekking through call logs, looking for caller IDs to talk with other staff members about, they could train the poor host on the menu items.

Honestly shocked this location hasn’t...

What a disappointment. My wife and I planned on a nice meal before a concert in Ames.Arrived at just prior to six (concert at 8). Told our wait would be 20 to 25 minutes, which it was just about right on. We were seated, met our two waitresses and told that one was training. Since time was of the essence, we had already figured out our entire order from the appetizer through entrees and drinks. Got our drinks, and waited. Appetizer plate arrived finally and was good. Then we waited. Finally, asked if we'd like some biscuits. Sure. We waited. Finally they arrived, luke warm. Still waiting on our salads. Waitress even made comment about salads should be there with biscuits, but that was it. Finally the salads arrive. I had asked for Italian dressing. Not sure what I had, but it wasn't that. Time was ticking,so I just went with it. Keep in mind we were seated at about 6:25 and our salad had finally arrived about 7:05. About 7:14 the waitress comes to apologize that she forgot to key in our main meal orders, so they weren't even being cooked. What? She apologized and said the manager was going to "make it right" for us. We shared we had a concert at 8 and between traffic and getting to seats we were in trouble. She assured us the manager himself was now cooking our meal and it should be done in five minutes. We told them you might as well bring boxes with the meals. The meals did arrive in about five, brought out by the manager who apologized again and repeated that "he'll make this right for us". Needless to say, we were starving. Did we enjoy our meal? No, as we practically inhaled our walleye and lobster linguini. I think we both ate in five minutes. The bill wallet had been left on our table, and we opened it to find that 'making it right for us' didn't involve money off or an adjustment of our bill. Full charge. Spent an hour and a half between arrival,wait, and finishing meal which was out of order and with mistakes. We didn't even see the managers face again. Only to bring out our meals. Bottom line: very poor customer service and follow up to 'make it right'. Yes, we arrived late for the show by several minutes after speeding to the show. We just threw in money in the bill to cover the cost and didn't ask for change, although this left a tip for poor service. We didn't have the time to wait. Meals aren't cheap at Lobster, and this was few and far between date night for my wife and I. Poor follow up, poor service, poor experience. UPDATE: as of June 2019,we've not returned nor did we ever get any follow up. That's TERRIBLE. UPDATE: Well, after I posted my last update, the manager responded and had some customer relations person send me an email to follow up. I was given a special case number, was told to cite that, and to click on a link to fill out a form regarding this disastrous visit. It said I would be assigned a personal rep to deal directly with my issue and case. Well, I went through all of that time, sent it back, and waited. Waited. Waited. Waited. Get the picture? That was early June 2019. It's now July 19th and we've heard nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Absolute customer service joke. I would stay clear of Lack of Cred Lobster...

First, let me start out by saying that our Server was absolutely amazing. She was very warm, welcoming, and patient with my indecisiveness which she gets extra points for.

We only had a couple of issues. Usually the meals come with Salad and Cheddar Biscuits. Our Server apologized and said they were out of Lettuce. The Salad is one of my favorite parts of the meal so we said "no problem" and continued to place our order. I normally don't complain, but on our way out we noticed the table behind us had Salad. In all fairness, it wasn't a Lettuce Salad, it looked more like a Spring Green Mix (I could be wrong about the type of Greens in it) but it was still Salad. If they would've offered that as an alternative, even if we had to pay extra, we would've ordered it but they never even asked us.

My last issue was our food. For the prices they were charging and it being an almost $200 meal, it was not the greatest. My Flounder lacked any kind of flavor. In all honesty, I've never had Flounder so I don't know what it's supposed to taste like but based on that experience, I probably won't have it again. The Shrimp was salty, the Broccoli was plain, the rice was a little soggy and flavorless. My Scallops were delicious though. Maybe since we haven't been there in a couple of years, our taste buds changed but it was nowhere near what we remembered it being. The Biscuits were also doughy but I still ordered some to go because I put them in the oven at home so no real complaint for those.

Again, these couple of issues does not take away from the fact that our Server was astounding! She was the best part of the whole meal. She even gave me an Ice Cream Sundae to go because it was my Birthday Dinner, which I more than appreciated...