Red Lobster — Restaurant in Aurora

Absolutely fantastic service on the Red Lobster staff. Not so much on DoorDash's part. Both managers at Red Lobster, last night and this afternoon, were absolutely amazing in ensuring our service was great on their end.

**To preface, my wife and I ordered food to be delivered (food was great, nothing was missing and exactly what we paid for).

Due to COVID, a lot of restaurants use DoorDash which is normally just fine however this time we had a particularly interesting experience to say the least. The driver stopped off ina random neighborhood on the way to drop off our food and stayed wherever they happened to be for upwards of 20 minutes before finally continuing to our home. This resulted in the food being somewhat cold but what put the nail in the coffin so to speak was how rude the delivery person was. We live in a secured apartment complex. That means gates that you need a fob to get through plus locks on the doors to the buildings that you also need a fob to enter. The gentleman looks at me as I leave the building to walk up to him and screams at me as I approach "Why don't you have a code for the gate? I could've been here much sooner! I have other deliveries!" Blah blah blah. I explained that the leasing office reported many people in the complex telling other individuals about said code and people were just parking inside and also a few cars were broken into. He gave me a dirty look and rolled his window down. We stared at each other for a few and he told me to grab my food and get out of his face. Needless to say we called DoorDash to report him only for them to tell us we need to go through Red Lobster since we ordered through their website. We say 'ok whatever' and call Red Lobster. Roderick was the manager on last night and he personally called DoorDash to explain the situation and to try to get them to at least comp the driver's tip which he clearly didn't deserve and called us back afterwards to inform us that DoorDash should be contacting us the next day.

Fast forward to this afternoon and my wife calls them thinking whats the hold up and gets the run around again "You have to go through Red Lobster" "We can't do anything since you ordered from their website" blah blah blah. We called Red lobster again to report what was happening and the manager on today and he again went above and beyond, calling DoorDash for us and ultimately deciding to simply comp the entire meal for us ($70 with tip, delivery, etc) and also contact the corporate offices to inform them of the issue. And no one could explain the 20 minute pit stop our delivery driver had taken either. No other orders were in the queue

TL;DR Red Lobster is fantastic, the staff is great from the kitchen to managers to delivery coordination, etc. DoorDash sucks and won't to jack for you

PS: tried using DoorDash in the past for other stuff. Food kept going missing (stolen), was cold, straight up wrong (someone else's order), etc. Don't use that app, Ubercart and Postmates are...

The food was fine. The table was disgusting because no matter how much you wipe it it's not going to repair the lacquer on the table (that thing needs to be refinished, and it's really really bad it's not something that's like slightly noticeable the texture so bad that the table feels dirty and you can see the wood underneath).

Our server was nice enough but she did not do anything that she said she would do other than just bring us our food and our drinks. She brought us three very small biscuits (which she had stated were all that they had left; she said when they finished cooking the rest of them she would bring them out and she never did). Although she was very attentive with the table across the aisle from us and pretty much doted on that table. It was really hard to get her attention to get the check to leave she brought our check to us in portions, which I've never had happen before.

Also, there was stuff all over the carpet throughout the whole restaurant I saw a paper clip remnants of garbage one of the waitresses dropped a pen next to the booth caddy corner to us and that pen stayed on the floor of the almost the entire hour that we were there and there was various food stuffs everywhere and when we walked into the doorway the front area where the atrium is it smelled bad, it was unpleasant.

We purchased two plates, one per person, and the plate itself was $40.99 for lobster, steak, potato and broccoli. The lobster tail was tiny; it was a quarter of an inch thick and between 3 to 4 inches long (I've never had a lobster tail that small in my entire life). The steak was tough, almost impossible to cut and was stringy and hard to chew.

Honestly pappadeaux's prices are comparable to yours and that is a five-star establishment hands down we never have problems there. We will continue to go there instead.

So, overall we haven't been there in a really long time and probably won't be back anytime soon. I highly recommend a secret shopper for this particular location (it's been a very useful service over the years for me in particular when I have gone into an establishment with this...

Decent experience but the food was literally enraging. I got the "Admiral's Feast". Spoiler alert, if the menu says crisped or golden brown it actually means fried. So I payed $40 for a plate of McFish I could have ordered from McDonald's. I am floored that corporate has chosen to use this deceiving language due to widespread national PR aversion to the word "fried". Thanks, not telling me it's fried won't fix the obesity epidemic, especially when you bring me enough for 2 people (why on Earth 2 pieces of fish?). I was really looking forward to something light and fresh.

Apart from feeling cheated by the chain's disgusting menu, I did not enjoy its food. The biscuits were good. The rice was good. The brussel sprouts were ok, buried under a mountain of fried crispies and a syrupy glaze. Everything fried had no seasoning whatsoever and could only possibly be saved with marinara sauce. The tartar sauce couldn't save anything due to its one-dimensional taste of onions. The fried scallops were ok. The fried fish was ok. The fried shrimp were pounded flat, for some reason, completely destroying their texture. The fried squid was essentially fried bread strips. The fish + tartar sauce and squid was so inedible it wasn't even worth a box. Killing fish just to desecrate it like that... what a chore to eat.

I have fond memories of Red Lobster since as a kid we would always go there for my Grandma's birthdays. I would have enjoyed losing $40 at roulette more and will literally never revisit this chain. Next time I'll visit the freezer aisle. Go have your corporate training at Olive Garden and...