Red Lobster — Restaurant in Bloomington

The first time we have eaten at a red lobster in years. What a disappointment this was. To start with, they were not busy at all. Still took 5-7 minutes before anyone even acknowledged we were waiting to be seated. I even wondered if we had come in a back door. When we did get seated, we waited a bit for a waitress to even cone to the table. We ordered drinks and crab queso. They finally brought drinks, and my Mountain Dew was out of syrup. Once the waitress came back, I told her. 8 minutes later, she finally brought me a new glass. We ordered food, my daughter got garlic shrimp scampi, and my wife and I split the sailors' boil. Again, it was a very long wait and still no appetizer, and I even mentioned it twice as the waitress walked by. Finally our food came. Still no appetizer, so I told them we did not want it. For the food, my daughters shrimp scampi came in a Styrofoam container with just watered-down garlic sause but no pasta, which we usually see shrimp scampi with pasta. The shrimp still had tails on, which might be standard but makes a mess taking tails off. The shrimp really did not pick up much flavor from the watered-down garlic sause. Then we opened the boil bag. It looked good but was not as good as it looked. There was no real flavor. Tons of diced garlic spread all over, and another really watered-down butter. The shrimp mixed in again had tails on, so messy getting them off. The shrimp itself was like eating something with no flavor and just texture. I would try to scoop up some of the diced garlic. The potatoes were cooked very well. Good firmness, but again lacked any flavor. The sausage was pretty spicy, so the only thing that had flavor was almost too spicy for my wife. The boil had two quarter ears of corn on the cob, too. This corn was very old or way over cooked. When you bit it, it was like biting mush, not crisp like corn on the cob. All of this great service and food for around $70 before tip. Needless to say, red lobster, in our opinion, has really went down hill from the dining experience it used to be 20 to 30 years ago, when it was considered a little more upscale. Prices still upscale, but the rest is...

Our server was wonderful. Our food was disappointing for the price. (The manager did take care of it). Starter was the mushrooms they were fantastic. Our meals came out and the sides were wrong. We intentionally bought larger meals because we don't come here often and was craving seafood and we were looking forward to the left overs. The server was quick to get the sides, one of which instead of trading in I just asked for butter and sour cream and ate it. The manager came out then and asked about our meals. I told him they brought out the sides so nothing to complain about. The first little lobster tails we both had were great. The scallops somehow had shell or stick as I was chewing, got turned off on that. The brussel sprouts were not bad, but had a mix of way to crunchy flakes, little cooked bigger pieces and the ends not cut off of some, the sauce (ginger maybe ) was a little strong. The other plate was a pasta with crab and shrimp, multiple shells were found in the food and the larger lobster tail didn't have any kind of flavor except a not fresh/fishy/tough to cut or chew taste. I disagree with the managers response of that's just how it was cooked....someone didn't cook it right or it had sat out, been reheated or just wasn't fresh. We finally finished our drinks, I packed up the steak, I had a bite of it, it was very rare but nothing I couldn't fix at home. Needless to say for what each meal was it was not worth it. We will not be going back as I can make it better myself at home. Disappointed there isn't a good seafood place intown that's worth what they are asking for the food.

Once again our server was wonderful, but I would advise that other servers not correct, tell someone to do something or make it seem like they are being corrected right in front of their customers. I hope she enjoyed the tip because we appreciated her.

Just not what it use to be! TO top off the evening. We were going to order another meal to go for our mother in-law who had babysat for us for our date night.....Nope we went to Cheddars and got a 14oz ribeye meal for her cheaper than the cuts they had a Red Lobster and it was still fresh when we...

Everything was very good but the star of the show was Hailey our server. She went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect. It was our daughters birthday and we’re not the people who want a song and dessert but here comes Hailey with a birthday treat, she customized the birthday girls dessert & sang by herself 🩷😂 She made our visit even more special and I hope she gets the credit she deserves! Thank you Hailey!! *The manager (heavy set guy) was so rude to the new hostess right in front of us. He was barking orders at her, “THAT TABLE NEEDS CLEANED, NOW!” The restaurant was not even busy and she was greeting us at the hostess stand & about to seat our party. He could use some people skills and show some respect to his employees.it’s difficult in this time right now to have anyone that wants to work and to be so blatantly rude, especially in front of guest, is just not acceptable at anytime. We all saw it and didn’t appreciate the way he was talking to the new girl, at all. But then, Hailey came over, introduced herself and made our experience a ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ dining experience! She’s a great asset to your company and it was very clear to us that our dining experience was important to her. This is coming from a bartender/server/manager of over 40 years and I’m very aware of how things are to be done. Once again, thank you, Hailey! You are an exceptional server and we all wish you...