Red Lobster — Restaurant in Jonesboro

Well im not very happy with my experience this time. So let's start from the beginning I had a reservation for 6:30pm we got there about 615 and we was seated about 645 which was great since they were telling people it's a 2 hr wait time with out reservation. We get seated they were super busy it took a few extra minutes to get drinks but that's understandable. They were running out of biscuits but we were told that it will be a few. Here's the issues start. We were seated by a register and there was a sports games playing on a phone if I followed games I could have understood what was going on it was so loud. There was several times where the waiters and waitresses were huddled up around the phone hooping and hollering about the score or the play. Then when we got our order taken we had already finished our drinks and took a while to get one of them refilled. When our biscuits had came out they were hot and fresh they were the only thing of our meal we didn't have any issues with. We had already been there for over an hour before our food came out. My husband ordered a medium steak and it came out almost burnt. It was so dry no juices what so ever. The lobster tail was over cooked it was so rubbery you actually had to chew it like a steak.no seasons on it. The fried shrimp was over cooked he had nothing but crunch no shrimp in the breading. The grilled shrimp he ordered was slightly over cooked but not too bad but very under seasoned. He also has a baked potatoes and seasoned broccoli but once again not seasoned and over cooked. I had the lobster tail and it over cooked it was so rubbery I couldn't cut it with a fork. I had the crab legs they were good but they were falling apart and I had to really work at it to get the meat out. The garlic shrimp I had was over cooked it was hard to chew. I also had the side salad and French fries the salad was wilted and I didn't get the fries til I was almost done with my main course. All of this affected the waitresses tip. Now with all this being said we went there 2 years ago and everything was great we actually enjoyed our time we were recreating the date but unfortunately that didn't happen this time. I do think that the service could have been so much better had the game not been playing. I also believe it affected the cooks and that's why our food came out so bad. The service stated out going great considering how busy they were but then there were 5-6 empty tables and the service went down hill. There was a couple thay was seated next to us that had said for the wait time there are too many tables empty. By the end of our meal we were drinking water bc both of our cups were empty and our ice had melted. The waitress hadn't been by to check on us.. im sorry red lobster but you could have done better and we won't be back and won't recommend due to our bad service. The restaurant...

TL;DR: Service ruined the meal, but food quality was not up to par either.

We stopped in on the way home from Memphis, TN and decided that despite eating in Jonesboro quite often, we never eat at this Red Lobster (we prefer one a couple hours North).

We were seated about the same time as the table immediately behind us and had the same server.

It took a bit to get our drinks. We had to ask for straws. And then while the table behind us got biscuits, it was almost ten minutes later that our server notified us that they had run out and we're making more. I got one refill the entire time I was here. And that was after I had my glass sitting empty for a while. When it hit bottom again, we didn't see the server again until we asked for the check. Also, one set of silverware looked like it had been rinsed but not washed and still had food on it (not the usual water marks from air drying).

I ordered the Fish and Chips. It was not what I was looking forward to. The Fries were fresh but tasted off. The cod was slimy on the backside. In my experience this occurs from the fish not being drained of excess grease when taken out of the fryer and then allowed to sit. The slaw was fine, but it's just not my thing.

My wife ordered the Crabby Cheese Fries. Out of all of our party she liked her food, so I suppose I'd recommend it.

One of our party ordered a burger and did not finish it. They stated it tasted like freezer burned burger.

Food aside, if the server had been mildly attentive or not seemingly prioritizing the table behind us I probably wouldn't have cared as much. My only guess is she knew the people at the table behind us. They were asked how well they liked their food and she checked in on them repeatedly. I've rarely seen service this egregious.

Update: An account that has claimed this restaurant has posted a reply asking for a private conversation on Facebook. 👀 I'd advise anyone else against that type of messaging as spoofing third party accounts is fairly easy. On that note if it's actually the business owner or Red Lobster, I don't think there is anything that can be done to "make it right" at this point. I have no interest in going back and if I intend to contact you I'll use an official Red Lobster route (email, phone, or support form) instead of a...

As a waitress myself, I try to be very understanding of restaurants and waitstaff. But I also have basic expectations of what a restaurant experience should be and unfortunately, said expectations weren’t met very well tonight.

To start, we were greeted with “hi, just 2? It’s gonna be 5-20 minutes” which seemed odd, but I don’t mind to wait. We sat there for about 10 minutes, and got sat. The dining room was pretty messy…5+ dirty tables on the way to ours. We got our drinks, and then had to wait 10 minutes or so to order. They weren't very busy, but I figured our waitress may have just been have others elsewhere. I don’t know her name, but she was very sweet so that was nice. The only issue I had with the service was that the table didn’t get pre-bussed at all, so we had a bunch of empty baskets/cups on the table that got in the way. Otherwise, the service itself was fine.

Now, for the food. I was a little disappointed. To my understanding, there was only one cook tonight, so I understand the food being behind, but the order came out wrong (not just ours either because the table beside us had several things wrong as well). Half of the biscuits were amazing, the other half were overdone. The steak was cooked perfect, so kudos. Loved the mashed potatoes, but the crab and lobster tasted off, the baked potato didn’t get all of its toppings, and the coconut shrimp was overdone. Normally, the food is a lot better so I was just shocked at the quality tonight.

It seemed just a little lazy. I know they close at 9, but we came in at 7:30 and I felt like that was early enough to still have a quality experience. I’m not mad, I just feel like i didn’t get as good of an experience as...