Red Lobster — Restaurant in Columbus

This low review is not necessarily due to the particular location, but Red Lobster as a whole, but this is the location we ate at.

Hubby says we are done with Red Lobster, and I tend to agree. We have eaten here a ton (as well as other locations) but this was our fist time back in a couple of months. I now see why they are filing for bankruptcy. They just got a new menu this same week and prices skyrocketed and you no longer can change out sides (like broccoli for a potato, etc...). I don't eat seafood so I always get the cajun chicken linguini dish and add a side salad.

My husband got the ultimate feast and it is now ridiculously priced at $43!! You cannot change out the broccoli anymore and it no longer comes with a side salad. Needless to say he was very upset! He had the ulimate feast (did not pay to add a salad), with water, and I had the chicken linguini and added the side salad and had one drink (bahama mama) and our bill after 20% tip was $98!! Again this was just the two of us and I didn't get expensive seafood!

The staff is typically great here. Our waiter this time was very attentive, it was like 8pm dinner on a Wednesday and only a few patrons. The host that sat us was a bit of a smartelic though. I made the comment that I couldn't believe how dead it was in there and his reply was "old people don't like to go out when is it raining"! It made me laugh as we are in our mid-fifties and grandparents multiple times over, so I wonder how old is old to this guy. Not to mention, really old people, don't typically eat dinner that late. Either way, I can't image what possessed him to to answer my question that way, instead of saying something like "maybe its the weather". I razzed him about it telling him that I felt like I was older than dirt, and could tell that he was uncomfortable with his previous comment. Good, he should be! Luckily, I brushed it off as a funny, by others might not have.

While we eating, a Hispanic family approached us and the man told us that they needed to feed his kids and wanted us to by roses from him. We obviously told him no and then he said "can you just give us some money then". We told him no again and he left. The kids all looked well fed, groomed, and in nice clothes as did the mom and dad. If you have money to by roses at the store, you can buy some food. Our waiter came over and asked what happened and apologized profusely when we explained. I am all for helping people (and I do), but not like that! Not to mention any decent person trying to get help for their family does not parade the whole family out, kids and all, to pander (and teach them to pander themselves). Hopefully management caught them at the next establishment they went in.

Anyway, due to the new menu, not being able to change out sides that you have to pay for, and the ridiculous price increases, we won't be back. From the looks of how dead the restaurant was, this might be the next place to shut down on Polaris. We have already...

Every week my daughter does gymnastics and this week, I decided to sneak away for nice dinner all to myself instead of doing my normal grocery shopping.

Upon walking in I knew I immediately made the right choice. They were not busy at all. I requested to be seated at the bar and before even ordering water, I ordered a Bahama Mama without shame and started chatting with the bartender. She was a mom like me and applauded my sneak away as she set the famous pipping hot Cheddar bay biscuits down in front of me.

I glanced over the menu realizing I couldn’t remember that last time I had actually eaten at Red Lobster. Well before the Pandemic and probably years before that. Their quality had been declining for years and the prices had been going up, but my kids hate seafood, so I was happy with my choice.

I quickly ordered my meal, watching my time tick by at what seemed like 2 minutes at a time. I was pleasantly surprised to see my go to favorite, the Ultimate Feast, was no longer a set list of predetermined items and instead I could pick from a list of my favorites. The Ultimate Feast now let’s you select two premium items and two shrimp items.

This was especially exciting to me, because I’m a super picky eater. This saved me all the trouble of trying to switch out items with the server and convince her I had done it for basically forever. I decided to get double crab legs, shrimp scampi and coconut shrimp.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see the quality was amazing, everything came out piping hot and reminded me of the Red Lobster on the 90s (minus the prices of course). The server/bartender knew was I was on a time limit, so brought my check right away, so I could finish eating and not worry about trying get it paid in a time crunch.

Was very impressed, and will definitely go again. Maybe I will even bring my...

My fiance and I came here since we both hadn't been in a while and felt like giving it another try. We ordered the lobster flatbread and bisque to start. Flatbread was actually surprisingly okay, but bisque was quite bland and tasted as if it came out of a can. My fiance then ordered the Lobster bay harbor and I ordered the crunchy flounder with a side of hush puppies and mac and cheese. When our food came, my fiancé's lobster was so over cooked it was rubbery and half of her mussels wernt even cooked to the point that they were open. Whatever right? Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. We sent it back without any backlash from staff. My fish however, was even more bland and under seasoned than the bisque was. Cooked decently enough though. The mac and cheese however was a different story. Stone cold everywhere else but the middle (obvious sign of a microwave being used) and the liquid cheese was the same tastelessnes you can get from a bag at resturant depo. Our server brought her manager over so I could explain things. After explaining everything I have previously mentioned, she proceeded to tell me I was wrong, was somewhat sorry and tried to assure me that everything was handmade and fresh by hand despite the obvious. Proceeded to tell me she'd take it off and walked away in anger. When the bill came, even though we got three items that were terrible/wrong, we STILL ended up having to pay 94 DOLLARS for this is excuse for a seafood resturant, let alone a Red Lobster. Will definitely not be coming back here again to this branch or the resturant brand at all. Absolutely despicable way to waste and scam customers out of money, and a deplorable excuse for a resturant and manager. Zaria our server was great...