Red Lobster — Restaurant in Florence

Our dinner on Saturday September 7, 2019 was by no means a grand experience. We eat here every time we travel to Florence which is often and have never experienced anything close to our recent encounter. There were 6 of us and upon entering we put our name on the list for a table. We were quoted a 5 minute wait at which was not the case. After half an hour we were finally taken to a table (after another party of 5 who arrived after us were seated) however in another area of the dining room there were 4 open tables that could have easily been combined to accommodate our party. Ok fine, it is what it is. We arrive at our table and sit down and wait to be greeted. The building is fairly busy so we expect it to be a few minutes. He arrives, takes our drink orders and proceeds to check into whether or not they have a heavily advertised new drink. Returns and says no that’s only in Canada. He checks again and returns to tell us they do in fact offer the drink in Alabama. Fantastic, family member orders that, a corona, 3 ice waters, and a Shirley temple. It was easily 10-15 minutes before getting half of our drinks. It takes another 15 Minutes before we get any service and at this time we are given a different server who retakes the drink orders and prompts for our dinner order. We place our order for dinner appetizers, and soups. Some time passes and we get our appetizer of mushrooms and the 3 soups. Our lobster bisque was horrible! The cooks curdled the soup but we weren’t planning on saying anything however the server asked and we just informed her that she may want to advise the kitchen. Now being a server I know what the items I’m selling should look like and wouldn’t allow anything to go out that looks like that but hey everyone overlooks things from time to time. We order another Canadian drink for the table. It arrives and is nothing but bitter and ginger beer and can’t be consumed. It has to be returned but we were still charged for it and the corona ordered to replace it. At this point we’ve been there for over an hour. Half an hour after our appetizers the table receives the salads. Now it’s nearly 8:30ish or so before we finally get our meals and we arrived at 6:15. As a server your job is to accompany your fellow servers in making sure tables are prebussed, given refills if needed, and lending a helping hand to those who get in a bind. I watched not one, not two, but four servers stand and sit in the booth at a table directly next to us with a fellow employee who was there to have dinner. I watched them eat food off of his plate, I watched him get his food and service in approximately 15 minutes total time. I was appalled at the fact that these employees stood there while my glass sat empty for 20 minutes and my sons glass was empty almost the entire night. They walked by dirty dishes that covered our table from bread plates and soup bowls without the slightest interest in clearing them. Our server was great considering I’m sure she was tossed into a table outside of her allotted section. She did the best she could and we are thankful for her efforts. However the others, well there’s just absolutely no excuse for their actions. I could continue on with this review for quite some time but I’ll end it by saying our $90 dinner (the soup we were not charged for) was very much a disappointment. The dinner was a birthday celebration which the birthday guy received a free ice cream in light of the occasion but I can honestly say we will most likely never make the 45 minute drive one way to have dinner at Red Lobster again. We finally left around...

My husband and I went to Red Lobster for a mid-afternoon lunch after running errands and didn't have a lot of time. Brenden was our server and welcomed us with a smile, great attitude, and warm basket of cheese biscuits shortly after we were seated. We explained that we were in a bit of a hurry and he said he would take care of us. We ordered our food and drink and took our order without writing down anything, even with some minor changes. He repeated it to us correctly and left to get it working. He was back before we could eat a biscuit with our drinks, remembering "no lemon" in my tea, and lemon in my husband's water. We talked with him for a bit and found out a server that loves what he's doing and has been doing it for 10 years. I was very impressed with him and enjoyed talking to him. He knew when to come and when to go also! It wasn't long and he was bringing our food out. The hot food was hot and the cold food was cold. My husband got the admiral's feast and he said it was very good. I got coconut shrimp (always) with extra pina colada sauce and it was amazing also. I took a bite of my slaw and it tasted very strong of a seasoning - possibly celery salt. I don't know if they use that, but that's what it reminded me of. It wasn't pleasant. When he came to check on us a few minutes later I told him about it and he offered a different side. I accepted a baked potato - to go - because I was getting full. He brought it back in a container with a bag and the bag opened. It's the little things that show how good a server is and how much they care! He brought the check before we were done eating since we were trying to hurry, which I appreciated. One of my pet peeves is having to wait to pay a check when I'm done eating. Brenden was the highlight of our visit, even though the food was very good. He is in my list of servers now so I know to ask for him when I go to Red Lobster. If you want excellent service, go see Brenden at Red Lobster in Florence - and enjoy some seafood while you're there! Side Note: Make sure you tip him accordingly too - they work very hard for their tips. Our kids were servers in college and we learned how important tips are to servers. They usually make $2-$3 hourly plus tips and they have to share their tips also. So when you tip a server, keep that in mind. A good server is worth a lot...

It's a Red Lobster, so certain quality standards and expectations are present. Even so, the night was very drawn out and less than ideal. Our only reason for staying was because one member if the family was dead set on Red Lobster for his birthday dinner.

While our main server was wonderful, they received very poor support from the rest of the restaurant team, and it threw a hitch in the whole evening.

We were told a 5 minute wait for a party of 6 while a table cleared, but when they took their time to leave we were forced to wait while numerous other families were seated. We'd have been fine with 2 tables shoved together, but that didnt happen, so we waited.

We were finally seated, drink orders taken, and the they switched servers, who had to take drink orders again. The other server was seen elsewhere around the restaurant, so I'm not sure why that needed to happen.

The lobster bisque was curdled, meaning it was overheated, and it tasted burnt. We weren't charged after mentioning it.

It took over an hour from seating to salads. To their credit, drinks were kept full and they kept shoving Cheddar Bay Biscuits at us to keep everyone nibbling. The entrees were tasty, but by the end we just wanted the bill so we could go home after a long night of waiting.

Everyone on staff needs to work on improving their coordination and teamwork. That was the biggest complaint of...