Red Lobster — Restaurant in Concord

Honestly wish I could give you zero stars for my curbside order yesterday. It was supposed to be ready at 12:13 and other than the reply text I got at 12:14 no one acknowledged me until about 12:40. The phone number on the signs by the to go spots is a New Mexico number and when I called at 12 35 I was apparently 4th in line so that was obviously not going to get me far. Someone finally came over to me while I was in the midst of pulling up your actual phone number, Thank goodness she had to futz around in her car for something (yes, done before acknowledging my existence) or I would still be there today. In all seriousness, I would have gone inside after 10-15 minutes under normal circumstances but I had a stroke in May and currently walk with a cane so it would have been difficult to stand for a long period of time and walk through a door with a large bag of food. This is the whole reason I chose the curbside option.

She told me my food would be right out. I asked if it would be hot and she said it should be. She did wait while I checked my food, which was cold btw, and offered to remake it. I initially said yes to that but then logic kicked in - the food that was supposed to be ready 32 minutes after I ordered was going to be ready in 15 minutes? I just wanted it to be over at that point because I didn't want to wait another 30 + minutes or even worse receive a rushed order from people who are ticked off they need to remake it.

Got my cold food home and overall it was just mediocre. I think I would have really liked the crab stuffed mushrooms. The lobster bisque was good but I ordered a bowl and I am fairly certain that I received a cup instead. My entree was a lobster tail and shrimp scampi. The lobster tail was honestly the smallest I have ever seen and while there was a lot of shrimp it was rubbery. The side was a baked potato. This made me laugh - literally a whole potato just rolling around in the tray - not even sliced open. Pretty sure when you dine in it comes with butter and sour cream? Nothing in my bag. Boyfriend thought the burger was good. Definitely not worth the money spent, though. I hope the non-existent takeout person enjoys their tip.

It is completely unacceptable to wait that long. You were not busy. Literally one other person pulled up in a takeout spot but he went right in and came out about 10 minutes later. Unless you had a mad rush of people who all came in the other side of the parking lot, and then parked over there as well, it was quite dead.

If I was a manager and knew I didn't have a takeout person I would either block takeout orders or I would be looking out the wall of windows at around the expected pickup time for the fool in the curbside spot with their hazards on as directed. I would also let other employees know to be on the lookout for people in those spots - someone was cleaning the glass in the door right in front of me for a good 5 minutes and if they knew to let someone know I was there my wait could have been cut in half.

Oh, and I got a text for a survey last night - tried to do it this morning but they apparently don't want the whole truth because there is a character limit but they don't tell you how many characters you are at - I had to keep deleting and hoping for the best until I...

The one star is simply for the food. I've had the absolute worst experience at this establishment at the hand of the horrible manager named Alexa Shelton.

I came in on a Monday night with four adults and 3 children (2 kids were high chair aged) at 8:13pm we were told to wait for our table would be 45 minutes to an hour. Despite the restaurant being very empty, we were told they were shortstaffed, and that was the cause for the delay. Many of my friends we've worked in the service industry throughout our lives so we were understanding and we waited.

The time was 9:35 and we were beginning to get a bit antsy, especially being that they kept holding us and other places nearby were closed so we were expecting to be seated soon. We asked to speak with a manager as we noticed there were other customers also complaining that there was no AC on a 93° weather day. When we asked the host to grab the manager, she disappeared for another 15 minutes.

At this point, we have multiple parties of guest at the front looking for anyone that works there as not, even servers were coming by. By 9:45 pm We asked multiple employees from the bartender to servers to please find their manager.

One server said "I just clocked out, but I'll go ahead and see y'all and get y'all started" His name was Marvin, and he was absolutely amazing. He saw that there was an issue not being handled and took it into his own hands. After we got seated, he took care of us. Some of the servers were sympathizing with us as they shared that their manager goes missing quite often and even they can't find her when they need her on multiple occasions.

After Marvin and Desiree took care of us by the time we got our food it was past closing time so around 10:15 PM, at this point, the manager, Alexa decides to come in approach our table. She doesn't apologize or anything. She simply immediately starts throwing her employees under the bus and claiming no one came to get her or pull her aside to tell her there was an issue.

I've worked in the service industry for many years of my life and I know when there's a bad manager and there's a bad server and I feel so sorry for all the individuals who have to work under her as you could clearly tell this was an unprofessional inefficient, horrible manager. I even told her that this behavior as a manager was unacceptable and for her to tell a guest that all six of her employees are lying about trying to pull her was absolutely absurd.

For a manager to not even touch the floor for over 2 1/2 hours is absolutely crazy as the whole point of a manager is to maintain quality and assurance throughout the restaurant.

Thankfully, the food was great and fresh because everything had to be made on the spot as we were the only table in the building. We tipped our servers graciously because we knew they were really trying to help the best they can while having to deal with such horrible management.

Alexa Shelton will be the downfall to this establishment! She's a horrible manager and extremely inefficient, I simply wouldn't let her be in charge of...

In case anyone ate here around June 26th 2025 and feels sick, or is experiencing an actual illness and don’t know why……. Let me explain why based on my June 26th experience:

(Side note, I’m convinced they were either bribing or paying people for good reviews. There isn’t anything that could convince me otherwise).

Walked in to see a live lobster tank in the lobby Spotted a lobster with its head shell partially detached from its tail and noticed how insanely cloudy the water was. I didn’t even know there was more than two lobster in the tank until one came to the front to fight the other one that appeared alive. Asked hostess to confirm it’s alive. She was confused and asked the other hostess (maybe she was new and was shadowing her). That hostess insisted SEVERAL times that it was alive, even after using a rake to lift it up and it dropped to the bottom of the tank on its back. I explained why the dead one was concerning. This being due to the decomposing lobster in the same tank as lobster that was waiting to be sold and served to customers. The bacteria had contaminated the live lobster, making them unfit for human consumption. Neither of them cared or notified anyone. They brushed it off. The same rake used to lift the dead lobster, was used to actually lift a live lobster from the tank. The hostess grabbed the lobster off the rake to show a little girl who I didn’t even realize was there. She lowered the lobster and allowed the little girl to touch the lobster. Now the bacteria was on the child’s hands, which I’m sure she then used to each her food with. The waitress put the lobster back and didn’t wash her hands at all before returning to her station. Who knows what all she cross contaminated. I asked my waitress about it and she didn’t seem to care either. She did however point out the dishes to avoid if we didn’t want to order a live lobster. The only reason we even still ate there was because the waitress assured us our meals would be fine because they don’t use live lobster from the tank in them and it was getting late. I picked at the biscuits and barely touched my oily pasta with broken sauce.

I hope that small child is okay, as well as anyone else who ate there. I did end up emailing their corporate office and made sure to CC the health dept. and several other organizations including animal cruelty places in order to avoid anyone from getting sick further. It’s June 27th and I never got a response, and I requested to be updated on the matter. I didn’t go to the manager about any of this directly due to the lack of care every employee in the business seemed to have. Usually that lack of care starts with the head of the business. So they must have been trained tho not care, and/or aren’t held accountable for anything, leading to them knowing they don’t have to care, therefore don’t.

If you’re sick after eating here, maybe take measures to make sure someone is aware. Maybe it’ll speed up the...