Red Lobster — Restaurant in Brea

This place is really come down to two stars. There are two managers here that are female one of them is wonderful she has blonde hair I don't know her name she's a good manager I heard the other manager not bad but I wouldn't know that I would definitely question that person's judgment this manager has a darker color hair and she's tall she claimed she was going to call the police for not providing papers for her service dog of my friend which takes her service dog everywhere she's clearly wounded but she's struggling and going through difficult times and doesn't have the updated latest paper for her dog and the lady literally stared at her eating the entire time when I came in to go meet her and make sure she was okay this woman is a little bit difficult as a customer I have been mad add her a couple of times in life but she's my friend because she's got a big heart and was treated so rudely by this manager that I'll never go back here again the food wasn't that good I didn't even finish my meal I feel unwanted there I've been there as I work at the mall I suffer from hyperdinitus supertiva and there are times where I get so fatigued and thirsty that I feel like I'm going to collapse and I need immediate cold water sometimes feeling like I'm in the desert and just so thirsty for water. I came in one night so thirsty like this and ask her for water and she looked at me like I was crazy and because I didn't order food there like I had before and had a poor experience that time too she denied me water 💦👁️👁️ 👁️ I don't care who you are or what kind of presuppositions your brain has picture restaurant should have standards to living so you think that you're better than because you sell lobsters that you steal from the ocean do people who like to eat them I don't mind it that your profiting off of the ocean and you wouldn't be in business if there wasn't water really made available to you for you to walk out whenever you feel like it and pluck some lobsters out of the ocean. But when somebody comes in there and politely asked you for water and you deny them and send them out without any water when they have a thirst that you don't understand. You have no soul in my eyes. And it is judgemental people like this that make me want to cleanse this Earth I would never harm this woman in fact her and the other manager kept their eyes on the fire that took place across the street install the girl that lit it and reported that the police and so when it comes to an emergency both of these women are good and did the right thing because when they saw me and the cops searching me to make sure that I didn't have any arson tools when I was walking by in the area they both watch the cop search me and made sure that they stuck around to see if I was let go because they wanted to be sure that I wasn't falsely accused of lighting the fire. Because they saw who really lifted and they gave the information to police. So there is good in this woman's heart but she needs to have a head reconnected to her heart and screwed down tightly because her biased opinions judgefull disgusting eyes as I saw her look at my friend and as I saw her treat me this is two different occasions this person needs a serious sit down and look in the mirror. Water in case you didn't know water is abundant across the Earth and free do you deny somebody a water for them which in reality I am a firefighter and this thirst is really just applied to my gf who has the illness. I worked the time at Red Robin as a dishwasher, my girlfriend will come and pick me up. She also knows the lady with the service dog and also feels she's kind she heard the lady complaining about being harassed about her dog the dog did not misbehaved while in the restaurant. The woman is just biased and stared at my friend eating the entire time from across the room that when I got in there I asked her what is the problem and she said she was going to call the police on my friend for having her dog here but she never did but the fact that she stood there staring with this fuming look...

I had the worst experience at this location while celebrating my father's birthday and it's entirely due to the manager this evening Eileen (not sure if this is how her name is spelled). This will be a long review but it's better to tell the whole story than just say Eileen is horrible with no context.

To say Eileen was rude would be an understatement. She threatened to not seat our party after I wanted the regional manager's information to inform him of the mistakes made by the hostess' when making my reservations. I called the night I made my reservation (Jan 31) and again this afternoon (Feb 10) to confirm my reservation. At no point did the hostess' say I needed to speak to a manager due to the size of our party. They both confirmed the party of 14 was confirmed, however when we got there they had not updated the system and had us down for a party of 6. When the manager came over, she made no attempts to figure out what happened. Instead she just said over and over that I didn't make a reservation for 14 since I didn't speak to a manager. Herein lies the problem: neither one of the hostess' I spoke to when I called in transferred me to a manager when I told them the party size. But instead of checking with the gentleman I spoke with at 1:43 (after showing her my call logs to prove I did in fact call in today), Eileen just kept saying I couldn't have made the reservation since I never spoke to a manager. How would I know I need to speak to a manager if the hostess' answering the phone don't inform me of that?

Instead of trying to see what she could do, she said we could do 6 people or wait an hour. Which we were willing to do. Because I mentioned escalating this error to a regional manager, Eileen went on a power trip and wanted our party to leave. Since it was for my father's birthday, my mother pleaded with her to allow us to eat there, which Eileen would only do if I didn't have "an attitude" with her. I think Eileen may have been projecting because at no point was I rude to her. Asking for the regional manager's information is not being rude. An example of being rude would be when Eileen shouted out to our party "Is she going to be ok or keep arguing" when I walked over to the bar to wait for our table. Because my mother raised me right, I was the bigger person and even apologized if Eileen thought I was being rude, just so we could eat at your establishment. It was then that Eileen confirmed with Darien/Darren (I'm bad with names) that he did in fact speak to me this afternoon and was also there on Jan 31 when I called in to speak with I believe Ella about my reservation.

Instead of having to wait an hour, they had a table ready within 15 minutes. At no point did Eileen acknowledge the mistakes clearly made my the hostess. I understand sticking up for your employees, I've been a manager myself. But if they are the ones who made the mistake, the manager shouldn't blame the customer. Eileen was entirely unprofessional and out of line. We only stayed because that's where my father wanted to go for his birthday.

It is unfortunate that Eileen is representing this establishment because there are better management and customer service representatives at this establishment. Our server Kelsey (again not sure if this is spelled correctly) was a delight and a wonderful server

Lastly, I'd also like to point out that I called after we left to get Eileen's name and spoke with Phillip. He gave told me a completely different policy for booking a large party reservation. I've now been told 3 different things by the staff. Clearly there is a disconnect between your staff and the reservation policy because I have now been told 3 different things when it comes to that needs to...

----07/2024 Update. Corporate has ruined this once great restaurant. Clearly, corporate overhead makes it impossible for their restaurants to do anything but screw the customer at every turn. Food quality is horrible. Service from staff horrible, which is indicative of really poor management. Corporate doesn't care about it's employees and staff can't even pretend to care about the customers either. Never going back. All that's left for this place to do is to go out of business or sell off. If you like high prices and poor quality food, then you'll enjoy this place. Dish prices approaching $50.00 and still the worst seafood I've ever eaten.

----Updated Post responding to Red Lobsters response---- Wow… how comforting to know that you care so much about a client’s one (1) star rating that you have an email robot respond with canned words of appeasement. I'm touched. And now I think we’re all seeing clearly what the problem really is…. Aren’t we?

----Original Post---- The food here is on par with Denny's. The menu prices are upwards to $40.00+ for a number of dishes. Average dish price between $20-$30. I have no idea why they're so proud of their dishes, but has to be pretty much the worst seafood I've ever eaten. The California Fish Grill is 1/4th the price and 10 times the quality. I can only assume that this restaurant is so poorly managed that they have to charge astronomical prices to cover the cost of all the product walking out the back door.

The restaurant was basically empty on a Sunday afternoon. This is typically the busiest time of the week. You'd think they'd cop a clue as to why all the seats are empty.

Who knows, maybe their logic is higher prices, less crowded, then less work for everyone working there.

Always baffles me as what management is thinking when they purposely run a business model into the ground.

I say, ...know your customer. Cut all of your prices in half and have a 100 people waiting in line for a table.

But then.... Everyone would have to work hard. Works for Chick'Fil A.

Take a page from their playbook. Happy customers come...