Red Lobster — Restaurant in Downers Grove

Earlier in the year I dined at this location for the first time for my husband's Birthday, it was a great time and I left a review. Because of my previous experience I returned for another relatives birthday. This time thee "Ultimate Shrimp Special" is happening which translates "CROWD". Again AWESOME EXPERIENCE BUT☝️I have to extend some Special Acknowledgements. One is the reservation staff. There was a gentleman who took my parties name upon my entrance but thereafter another Reservationist Mildred took over. She ensured that all parties including myself were seated in order as they entered despite the crowd, and impatient guests. Also when Mildred seated us, we inquired about another seating area. She accommodated us when in actuality she DIDN'T have too. It was a crowded Saturday evening with a dining Special so first come first serve. For that im grateful and appreciative. Also during the seating guest process her friendly and kind demeanor DID NOT wane.

The next compliment is our server Tra. When she introduced herself as being our server for the evening she apologized in advance for any delay that could potentially happen because she had about 4 tables with large parties. It was a party of 4 myself. We were understanding and patient. All was well. One part during our dining experience we didn't see Tra (checked on by her) for some time. Unfortunately we overheard a situation behind us at another table she was attending. Basically guest was giving her a hard time with intention on skipping out on the bill (sad & ignorant but that's for another post) it didnt take a genuis to figure out what was happening. Thats why she was unable to return to our table for awhile. Just some fyi. The mission was accomplished by that party no payment for food or tip to her😔.

After her & her manager completed that transaction she returned trying to jump back into character of being warm & friendly but let's face it that's hard to do. Me & my Family extended our apologies to her for having to endure such poor behavior and made her laugh. The rest of our evening with Tra was great.

PEOPLE who work in customer service with Lucrative Businesses NEVER receive the accolades they deserve. The Frontline staff (the majority of the time) is overlooked. THIS Red Lobster possess EXTRAORDINARY STAFF!!!

I CANNOT speak for all locations but I sincerely hope that the DM's (District Managers) at this location recognize their staff in a fashion that displays being appreciated.

I'll forever drive to the otherside of town when I desire...

Wife and I went last night for dinner to celebrate our 1 year wedding anniversary. Could've had a better experience. Our waiter (or server) was very kind and friendly, other servers appeared miserable and sounded it too. Wasnt too keen on the little tablet like device they left us with, I feel it just takes away from the overall dining experience. Not big on using the phone during dinner to begin with. Even if we wanted to use the device, there wasnt much to do without paying 1.99 to use it. Food quality and portions were typical of a big chain restaurant, nothing to write home about. Appetizer came out long before our drinks, cant really fault him since he was handling a large party, more or less the fault of the hostess, we should have been sat with someone who wasnt as busy as our server. Was kind of frustrated when the beer I ordered came without a glass and in a bottle. Main course finally came, and the girl who brought it to us was very kind as well. Half way through my meal, after biting into my food, I felt something irregular, I pulled a hair from mouth that had been on my food. My wife and I immediately lost our appetites. I asked a waitress that was passing if she could grab our waiter, which she rudely corrected me with "You mean your SER-VER?" Not sure what the difference is, I thought they were one in the same, regardless maybe say it with a little less altitude next time. Not our fault you hate your job and/or life. Our "SERVER" promptly came and we explained the issue, he was extremely apologetic and said he would grab the manager. About 10 minutes passed and the very casually dressed manager finally gets there, apologised and said she would take my entree off the bill. That was appreciated, but my wife, who had eaten less than half of her food, lost her appetite as well fearing her food may also contain a forgein hair. Can you really blame her? We felt like they could have adjusted the bill to accommodate the little more than half she didnt eat. We didn't feel like waiting another 10 mins for this manager to come back so we just paid the 60 they said we owed and left. We are not going to go back there ever, theres plenty of locally owned seafood places with better quality food...

Yesterday was one of the worst experiences that we’ve ever encountered at this particular location. Usually, they’re on point with everything We had reservations for 6:00 PM. We were seated right away, The waiter step over to take our drink orders and appetizers. I asked him repeatedly for a salad that I never received because he was too busy rushing us to order and walking off without allowing us to complete our orders. One of the appetizers we ordered took us two hours to get it when we finally got our drinks we needed refills. It took for us to hound the waiter down just to ask for refills. We were never asked. How was the appetizers? Did we need anything? We asked to speak to the manager, because he never came back to take our food order a whole hour and a half past when the manager arrives we were explaining to her about how unhappy we were with the waiters service and unprofessionalism we were told by the manager instead of complaining get on with our orders one of the other waitresses rolled her eyes at us we were seated in the rear by the emergency exit where it was freezing. All we got we got were excuses about how they had a party of 18 the restaurant was not overly crowded we were there to celebrate the life of a loved one that we lost and decided to have her memorial at her favorite restaurant just to be disrespected by staff. The food was delicious when we finally received it. We didn’t really enjoy it because it took 2 1/2 hours to get it and by then we were ready to just box it up and leave, which is what we did, this was one of the worst experiences we’ve ever had at this particular location and we will not be coming back as we were leaving. The waiter expected a tip and then got upset because he didn’t get one due to his lack of professionalism and service he asked where we serious for not giving him a tip he never came back to take our dinner order. The manager took Our orders there were so many customers complaining about the service we understand that sometimes restaurants are short staffed But does that mean it’s OK for the employees to be rude to the customer this is...