Red Lobster — Restaurant in Johnson City

I love spoiling myself with a day out on the town on my days off work and being able to have a great time at the restaurant I choose is a big deal for me. I entered the restaurant the host was nice. We get seated... we hear a female talking with a table for a straight 5 minutes and so I still haven’t even been asked about drinks. It’s a hot day and I know places are busy but it was a long wait to just get a drink order. Finally my waitress appeared. She’s the female who was talking. She gives me no eye contact and seems she would rather be at any other table. She proceeds to pretty much rush me through my order. I wait once again to even get my drink. She goes back to her 3 main tables they all have older groups dining at them. She also had what seemed to be a younger girl and a friend in her section dining. She not only delivers their salads to another table (I overheard them saying they had ordered before the other table) and she proceeded to put them on one of the older groups table. The girl says miss I believe those are ours. The waitress says no they aren’t and get corrected by the older woman in the group who does say “this isn’t mine.”. Now comes my table. I finally get my drink. She comes back with bread and such. I wait some more I had finished my drink and asked for another she held my drink while once again priotizing an older groups table. I’m finally just realizing that she must think us younger diners won’t tip her like they will (which from experience don’t judge a book by its cover any person can be a heavy tipper). So her as I called them tip tables are waited on and conversed with happily, us younger dining folk are treated like some hindrance that delays her from her tip tables. Now after a lot more of all that the food arrives late because she served an older group that came in after us. Finally food comes and it’s sad to say that some of the food was cold and a bit dry. Only good part was a drink I ordered and my steak and mussels good work to the chef and that’s why I gave 2 stars for that person. So after eating I ask for my check and that takes quite awhile once again. So the tip that was gonna be $25 dropped to below average for my below average service. I won’t be returning. Thanks for the great time Sam I hope next time you realize to be fair and actually treat all your section with the same enthusiasm and care...

Love this place. Excellent food everytime...and how bout em cheddar biscuits. Can't beat it!

Update (5 years later) - Well, this place has really gone downhill. Growing up, I saw this place as a high-end type restaurant. Now, it's a small step above Captain D's or Long John's. We went this time because of the endless shrimp. The shrimp was good (scampi, grilled, dragon, walt's) but having to wait 15-20 mins between orders is unacceptable. I was already prepared for the "short staffed, we got a new guy" excuses, which we did get. I timed our wait between receiving our first reorder, and it took 15 mins to get 4 little grilled shrimp. It'd be different if they actually gave you enough to last more than 1 minute. After our server put it down we complained that it took 15 minutes and she actually said "no it didn't, it took 12 minutes." LOL, really? She started arguing with us about how long it took. To top it off, my last scampi brought out had a hair baked in it. The server did apologize and had 20% taken off our check. I could've stayed for more shrimp, but we had to be somewhere...we were there for 2 hours and only got 2 reorders of shrimp.

Honestly, this type of visit called for a low tip, or no tip even, but I don't like doing that. I served tables years ago, so I know how things work and don't feel it was entirely the server's fault, so I still tipped 20%.

Another note to the owner if reading...take some time and clean your bathrooms. They were disgusting!

We won't be back anytime soon👍🏻

(Update 11-17-22) Red Lobster has contacted me, offered their apologies, and in the process of sending me an e-gift card. I'll update if I give them another shot. I've added 1 star for their efforts for a total of 2 thus far.

(Update 2-20-24) Went back and everything was okay this time around. Not bad, not spectacular. Didn't get the shrimp this time cause I just felt I'd have the same experience as before. I got a steak this time around. Ordered medium well, and it was very bloody. It happens, but they could improve on that. I can see us going back here after a very long period of time. It's just that there's so much to choose from nowadays, Red Lobster won't be at the top of our list. I'll probably get in the mood for it a year or so from now when I hear about the endless shrimp again. But I may skip it, we'll...

We hadn't been to a Red Lobster since our 12 and 14 year olds were small, around ten years. We used to go to the one near Tanger Outlets in Charleston SC a lot. The place was busy but the wait was only 20 minutes or so. The waiting area was clean and neat. There was plenty of seating and even a bar area. The wait staff was busy yet everything flowed really well with order taking and food presentation as well as the Kitchen moving quickly to get so many orders out in a timely manner. Each dish was brought out to the table when you'd expect, like getting the appetizers for everyone out first and then the salads and the personal appetizer that came with my personal meal. I only had two complaints about the entire meal. My first complaint was the number of Jumbo shrimp in my Jumbo Shrimp cocktail. The picture of the cocktail was much different from actual presentation (picture shows nice glass with ice in it with jumbo shrimp in the ice 4 pieces was what was said about the amount in my meal part and the starter menu) actually got 3 jumbo shrimp on a plate with some cocktail sauce in the middle. There was a lemon for garnish/use. I would've loved sharing with my family even though it was part of my meal because I was already getting full from the starters and salad. The fried calamari and the seafood stuffed mushrooms were absolutely delicious and were both quickly devoured by my family especially my teenagers. My oldest accidentally messed up while ordering but other than that the food was very good. We had one small issue that was quickly and efficiently worked out which ended with my husband getting his meal free but it was just one of those things. The wait staff was excellent and they were all neat and clean, kind but efficient. Other than asking for a larger table next time I can't think of anything else I'd change. I was quite pleased with both the service and good food as well as how clean the restaurant was. My last comment would be to update some things. A little remodel and update some fixtures and that would add more je ne sais quoi. Thank you for the great food...