Red Lobster — Restaurant in Houston

Worse experience ever. Where do I even begin.

1. Distance: Many of the chains are closed, so we have to drive almost 40 minutes to reach this location. Would not have mind this if our time/experience was not a huge waste.

2. Service: The young lady that was our server for the evening needs more training and not able to participate in The Saturday, early evening dining (~4:45p). It was not even crowded and she missed so many small details: Drinks without coasters, bread without serving plates or additional napkins, salad served after main course was placed. Never came to check on us (we had to ask another server if she could please grab her attention). She was not good and with that I still left her a tip but told her of the grievances and that I would write a review.

3. Food: Absolutely terrible. Biscuits were crunchy (burnt). We asked for a new batch and it was never bought. Both the Lobster and shrimp special ordered was missing items. They ran out of potatoes...so no bake potatoes which was what we both wanted. It was substituted for more broccoli...and when was presented, only one plate had the addition...why...because they ran out of broccoli so I ended up with additional rice. And we finished it all off with the food being cold! And we were not the only table with cold food, the group near us sent theirs back because it was cold. Drink our soda and received no refills. That's when I asked the server to be flagged down, requested to go boxes, the check and Manager so I could go home and heat up my own food since it's obvious the restaurant did not have the ability/capabilities to.

4. Management: No where to be found. I asked for the check and Manager after the receipt of our food. We were informed the Manager went to Walmart to pick up some potatoes. So no Managers were available in the whole establishment?

There is no need to return and waste another $87 at Red Loster. Used to enjoy all aspects of this franchise...but it has been on a decline for some time now. (Last visit was subpar as well, but I will always try to give something another try.)

Only positive note: The hostess was good. She was attentative to the point of even bussing tables she saw was unattended to for a minute. Kudos to her.

Update 1: 01/08/2024 - TRL reach put per the above thread. I have responded back and agreed with "offline" review discussion.

Update 2: 01/10/2024 - TRL and I have been in continuous conversations. I have to say, they ARE paying attention to these Google Reviews, for they responded immediately. After many transparent discussions, TRL issued their apologies and an e-gift card, asking us to give them another opportunity to make things right (in a nutshell). They also mentioned this will be addressed with all teams to enhance all customers and staff.

Let's see.

Note: If I write a dissertation (aka...a review) I am not doing it to receive something, but to use the voice I was issued. Everyone, including myself, is not perfect, but we ALL SHOULD take pride in what we do while here in this Earthly form. I'm a firm believer that bad behavior will cause one to be resurrected as a cockroach in their next life 🤣. And I don't know about you but I am not trying to get stomped on every place I turn.

• BE KIND TO ALL AND DO RIGHT...THE FIRST TIME. *

Remain safe...

My family and I have went to this location on many occasions and normally have really great service but this time it was definitely not that great! We came there to celebrate my son's birthday because he wanted to try the lobster for the first time. As soon as we entered the restaurant we had to wait several minutes for us to be greeted and then the staff member said that they will get a table for us and which we had to wait again. It wouldn't normally be something I would stress on but there was only a few tables being used and the time we arrived wasn't in the middle of the lunch or dinner rush. We arrived a little bit after 4 pm so the dinner rush hadn't even started. That should have let me know that we were going to be playing the waiting game the whole time we were there. From the time we entered the place, to being seated, ordering our drinks, ordering our food, to getting our food, condinments, napkins, to go plates, and our check. We had to wait at least 20 minutes if not longer for every single thing. The whole time we were there the waiter only asked once if we wanted refills after seeing our glasses was completely empty. One of the main reasons why I always came to Red Lobster is because I love their garlic/cheese biscuits. Every time we asked for our bread to be refilled it was like an act of congress. He would tell us that the cook was getting on to him for getting more. I don't know if Red Lobster has changed it's policy on how many biscuits a table could receive before not allowing anymore if that's the case they need to let the customers know that you will only receive one or two baskets of bread. Before we were done I asked the waiter do they do anything special for birthdays like singing Happy birthday or a piece of cake or icecream ( which I have received previously on my birthday when I came there) and the waiter stated that they don't sing and they possibly could bring him some icecream. ( Which he sounded very doubtful). I'm pretty lenient with waitresses or waiters when they are busy with alot of customers since I had been a waitress before but I also know when I'm not getting good service because either they are bsing around and not doing there job. I'm also a pretty generous tipper when I receive good service but that day I did not receive good service at all so I tipped accordingly. I tipped the waiter less than the standard according to the less than standard service I received. We headed out of the restaurant and we were out in the parking lot saying our goodbyes for a few minutes when the host (I guess that was his role) came to me and handed me 3 dollars in cash and said the waiter named "Sam" told him to give it to me. It was the exact amount that I tipped our waiter. I can draw my own conclusions why he did that but that was uncalled for and he shouldn't be in position dealing with the public. If this is how Red Lobster trains it's waiters then I will not be dining at this...

This is the poorest ran Red Lobster that I have ever been to and there are plenty other bad ones. Our table was dirty and wet, as well as the floor next to our table. Staff was inattentive and sluggish. The host, busses, and wait staff were meandering arrow slowly with no urgency. Our waiter, Awesome, yes that was his name, was far from awesome. He only came to our table to take our drink order and deliver our food. He never refilled our drinks or gave us extra bread that we requested.. My wife requested blue or yellow sweetener for her tea. Instead of bringing it, I had to flag him down and instead of apologizing, he just said they were out of blue sweetener. Then why not bring the yellow? Then my mother, who order snow crab, had asked for crab crackers to which awesome never brought. I went to the kitchen were he was standing there not working, and I asked him about the cracker which he said they didn't have any clean. This statement was a lie. It was excuse after excuse and the waiter was working harder at doing nothing than helping his tables. Instead of giving us something to use right away, I had to go to the kitchen and have him give me a plastic shell separator. He didn't come bring it to me. The manager then told me that they didn't have any crab crackers. How do you have crab fest, selling crab legs, and not have claw crackers. I had to use my teeth to help open my mom's crab. This establishment needs an overhaul of staff and management. Everyone seemed to not want to work hard or improve the store. The busser ignored me at first when I asked to speak to a manager. None of the patrons were a priority and it took forever for the food to come out. Most people's food took 45 minutes to an hour. Avoid this location at all cost. This was the worst experience I've ever had at a Red Lobster. The staff need set expectations and management that is interacting with the and getting them to do more with corrective action. I will never be coming back again for a long time until I know there have been...