Red Lobster — Restaurant in Chattanooga

On a business trip to Chattanooga, TN. I had been in Chattanooga all week. No problems with dining at other restaurants. You think you know a brand and then…

Thursday night - September 2021:

Upon entering the restaurant around 7:45pm, I noticed it was virtually empty… no customers. This was very surprising. I also noticed the building is dated and dark. Not at all appealing to the eye.

I actually asked the greeter if I was going to have a good experience because the lack of customers seemed odd to me. Of course she reassured me.

After being seated, sanitized my hands with hand sanitizer, I shot a video of how empty the place was and I started worrying that there might be a problem with the food here.

FOOD I proceeded to order. I Ordered a trio: Shrimp Scampi, Walt’s shrimp, and a 7 oz sirloin steak (medium), with green beans and broccoli for the sides. I don’t drink anything but water, so I requested water as my beverage.

When the meal arrived I noticed the shrimp scampi was not steaming hot nor were the fried shrimp. I cut into the steak and it was as expected ( pink in the middle). The broccoli was lukewarm and harder than normal for steamed broccoli and the green beans were lukewarm too.

I was very hungry and I ignored these bad signs. I ate 100% of my meal. I gave a generous tip and left.

Two hours later in my hotel, I began feeling nauseous. I vomited 🤮 repeatedly for about an hour. It took me About 4 hours to finally fall asleep because I kept having gaseous 😩belching.

When I awoke around 6:30am the next morning, I continued to 🤮 for another 10 minutes. I suppose that was the remaining food I had ingested.

Worst experience I have ever had at Red Lobster. I had a similar experience about 15 years ago at a restaurant in Alabama…. Common theme Was Fried shrimp.

Until I can get a Feeling of trustworthiness and cleanliness from the restaurants in the COVID World, I think I will be using my Nutribullet more when on the road for business, and do less eating out. It appears my instincts were right. I had a problem with the food.

SERVICE The service was good. However, I also noticed the attire of the staff. One greeter had on severally worn out black jeans. The other greeter was dressed in a pressed and conservative manner. My waiter was dressed fine. All persons wore masks. That made Me feel comfortable that they took that precaution.

I did not see any hand sanitizer on my table nor was I offered any. I never noticed any of the staff using hand sanitizer. I started getting concerned.

I also noticed no one cleaned the table in front of Me until I finished eating and just before they brought a couple to the table. The greeter that seated me only sprayed a cleaner on the able top and wiped it. She did not wipe down the chairs. It also appeared that she used an already used rag to wipe down the table.

That’s when my antennas really went up ! I got Concerned that a lack of cleanliness could lead to 🤮

I’m done and I...

We went to Red Lobster for my mother's birthday, because for some reason she likes this place. I remember it being a "destination" when I was a kid, but haven't ever considered wasting a meal there in the last 30 years. We were seated quickly and gave a drink order. Soon another server came to the table to tell us that they were out of the only sauvignon blanc on the menu, and did we want to sub riesling or chardonnay? Ugh, no.... so we order cocktails.

The rest of our party arrived and they took our order. Drinks arrived. My husband's margherita had a little plastic shot glass attached to the glass with about a tablespoon of tequila in it, which I guess they put in the separate cup so you'd know it had some alcohol in it. My cocktail was supposed to have bourbon in it. I'm pretty sure it didn't. No water brought to the table.

The appetizer arrived. The crab queso was pretty good, but didn't have enough chips for the amount of dip, and the tiny dab of pico de gallo served in a separate little cup was confusing... it wasn't enough for more than one person to taste, so we just put it on top of the queso, and I think my mother got it all with one chip.

We wait, worried that by the time the food arrived, it would be my mother's next birthday. My stepfather's baked potato was forgotten. I was handed a plate of crab legs, and it wasn't until I picked up a crab leg to try to figure out how I was going to get to the meat that the server said she was going to bring me a crab cracker. I settled down to wait while I watched the server do other tasks in the dining room before getting the crab cracker; I was worried that everyone else would be done before I got it.

My son got the coconut shrimp. The "pina colada" sauce with it tasted like sweet, bland glop. Would have been so much better with a sweet chili sauce instead. He liked the french fries.

Everyone was complaining that the cheddar bay biscuits were too salty.

My mother got the crab carbonara. I tasted some. It was a huge portion, really rich, and a bit bland tasting. She liked it, though, and since it was her birthday I'm glad she was happy.

My husband got the steak oscar. It was cooked to med rare as requested, and he said it was "pretty good".

No plates were ever cleared from the table. Instead of coming to the table to ask if anyone wanted dessert, the server caught my eye from another table. Mom ended up getting a dessert to go. It just seemed like too much to ask for a dessert to eat amid all the chaos.

Overall, not the worst meal we've ever had, but we have no desire to ever go back. The server was nice, I think meant well, but wasn't very competent or wasn't trained to bring water, bring all items necessary to eat with the meal, clear plates as they're used, ensure the food is correct before bringing it to the table, clear remaining plates and ask for dessert order. The food was mediocre and the service was not good....

This particular visit to the Red Lobster located near Chattanooga's Hamilton Place began pretty well, my wife and I were waiting in line to be seated and use the Free Veterans Meal Card that I was given by this location on Veterans Day and that morning the wife reminded me that it was about to expire so we drove over to take advantage of it. The wife and I usually split our meals since we've both been trying to keep the extra weight down during the Holidays and typically we will get a main entree with sides and order an appetizer to equal two smaller meals that usually fills us both up. Let me also state that I do appreciate Red Lobster showing a token of their appreciation to the military veterans by handing out these vouchers.

While in line to be seated I had to head to the men's room since as I've gotten older my primary doctor had prescribed a water pill to assist in controlling my blood pressure and anyone taking them knows after drinking any amount of liquid beverage you better know your surroundings and where the restrooms are located.-LOl... When I got back to the table the wife had already passed my Red Lobster Vet card to our server which happened to be a young man. When he came back to the table I ordered an appetizer of Coconut Shrimp and a Cola and Water to drink. The meal included a Beverage of my choice, an order of Walt's Shrimp with French Fries and Cole Slaw. And at this point I would say the meal and appetizer were very good as I had expected from a Red Lobster...

We both could tell the server was not on his normal game plan by how long to it took to get a couple of requested items delivered to our table but I had told the wife that for the tip it would be expected and rightly so to add the free meal cost to our appetizer and plan the tip accordingly even though we have had much better service in the past from our other past Red Lobster Restaurants visits. When he brought the ticket, although he had been given the card and my wife had noted to him about the particular meal being at no cost he had included the cost of the Vet meal and beverage to our ticket but he was quick to acknowledge his error and went to rework the ticket. I again headed back to the men's room and when I returned I asked the wife if she had the revised ticket and she explained that the server had left the cola on the ticket since I let her drink it and I drank water and he explained to her that the Red Lobster Manager had instructed him to leave the charge. I thought how petty of the manager and to me it violated the spirit of the free meal with beverage gift to begin with but I didn't make an issue of it. Had the server rang up the ticket to begin with, correctly, and not had his mind away from performing his primary task all would have gone well but it will be quite a while before we think about eating at this Red...