Red Lobster — Restaurant in Augusta

Just left and the service was a little below average (slow and wrong drinks arrived, colleague never received salad until reminded). First off everything waiter acted like everything was a la carte on the menu. Meaning if one asked for extra croutons there was an upcharge, extra butter, there was an upcharge, bacon bits....etc. I ordered chicken linguine alfredo with an side of broccoli. Had no problem paying for what I wanted which is why I ordered the extra side and salad. Once my meal arrived I took two bites and noticed that it was kind of dry so I asked the waiter for extra alfredo sauce because it was dry and he immediately tells me that there is an upcharge of $3. I then tell him I don't feel like I should be charged for something I feel the meal I paid for is lacking and to get the manager. The unprofessional manager then comes up to me and proceeds to go back and forth with me about portion sizes and how the alfredo meals are cooked and that unfortunately any request for more sauce is an upcharge because the meal is not supposed to be swimming in alfredo sauce. I then proceeded to tell her to take my whole meal back since I was not satisfied with my food and she finally relented and brought the extra alfredo sauce at no charge. This restaurant is always a hit or miss and actually the last time I was there our parties food was comped due to terrible food and service but I have never encountered a manager willing to risk losing a $30 ticket for $3. The manager was unprofessional, lacks customer service and clearly has not been properly trained on managerial skills which was obvious by her professional attire and attitude. On top of that the color of my chicken alfredo was yellow and clearly looked dried out compared to the newly prepared white creamy alfredo sauce she brought out to me in a bowl. Terrible experience....It really just bothers me that the manger really tried to argue me down about portion sizes and ounces as if I work in the kitchen instead of making sure that I was satisfied with my meal as a paying customer at her establishment. I really felt like I was at a fast food restaurant with the service and lack of professionalism. We even had to ask for bags to hold out...

I walked in. There was two parties ahead of me. The hostess took their names and then took a personal phone call as I was approaching the kiosk. I waited patiently for about a minute before she hung up and took my name.

The wait time for a table was about 10 minutes. However as I was walking through the dining area, I noticed that barely half of the tables were occupied. The hostess led me to a table that was still dirty from the last diners who sat there. She quickly wiped down the table as I stared across the restaurant at perfectly clean tables a mere ten feet away.

Upon being seated, a nice young man took my drink order. He then gave me a few minutes to peruse the menu before taking my order. I chose the fried flounder, mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad with ranch dressing.

Approximately ten minutes later, the salad and biscuits arrived. The lettuce was wilted and was swimming in dressing. The cheese biscuits were pretty good. I only ate perhaps two bites of the salad before I pushed it away. Shortly after, my fish arrived. It was very mushy. The potatoes were ok, but nothing to write home about.

Anyways I received the check, paid, and left. Not once was I asked how my meal was, which judging by the rest of the staff's mannerisms, I doubt it would have helped if I did complain. I overheard an exchange between what appeared to be the manager and one of the wait staff. It was apparently in regards to some argument over work hours. I'm sure I did not need to hear that.

On my way to the door, I heard some sort of "gangsta" rap being played. At first I thought it was coming from the kitchen, which would have been bad enough. However I stopped into the men's room before leaving to discover that it was instead being played over the restaurant's audio system complete with explicit lyrics.

Anyways other than my waiter, who was actually quite pleasant, the rest of the restaurant was horribly managed and staffed. I could even forgive the mushy fish being that this is a chain restaurant that is roughly 100 miles from the coast. I cannot, however, forgive the rest of the food nor the behavior of the employees. I will likely not return to any Red Lobster in the...

I had a couple of really terrible experiences at this location about 5 years ago or longer that kept me away from Red Lobster since then

The food was good. The service..... not so much.

Our waitress gave our lobster pizza appetizer to a different table and instead of admitting the mistake she claimed that there wasn't any basil and suggested that we try the lobster dip, which is what the other table initially ordered. She did a pretty good job checking on us throughout the dining experience considering that business started to pick up shortly after we were seated hence the 3 stars instead of one for being lied to. There were a couple of instances in the end that were questionable like saying she would bring to go boxes then us having to ask for to go boxes as well as not bringing the right to go boxes for all the food that was left but it's the lie that was told that takes the cake. My lady said I left too big of a tip, which I did intentionally, but I did so because I understand that waiting tables in a time like this is a risk. Public places involving people and food can spread viruses like Covid rapidly.

Just a tip... tell the wait staff to be upfront when a mistake is made because it goes a long way; or at least be aware of trying to swap appetizers between two tables who are literally right next to each other.

I most likely won't go to Red Lobster again unless it's out of town. What's sad is that I consider this a good experience compared to my last...