Red Lobster — Restaurant in Killeen

I am writing to share the experience my husband and I had at your Killeen, Texas location off Trimmier on Friday, July 12. Unfortunately, it was by far the worst dining experience we’ve had at Red Lobster.

When we arrived, it was just a party of two, yet we were told there would be a 30-minute wait even though the restaurant was mostly empty. We asked if we could sit in the bar area, and the host had to check with the bartender to see if she could take another table. The bartender, Jaylyn, was very kind and welcoming and agreed to seat us.

Once we sat down, Jaylyn came over and let us know she would be with us shortly. She was professional and did the best she could given what appeared to be a stressful situation. However, it was clear she wasn’t receiving much support. The manager on duty, Cory, was assisting, but from what I observed, she was not very inviting to her staff and was pushing them rather than helping in a constructive way.

After we placed our order, we waited over 45 minutes for our food. When part of our order finally arrived, a server named Marc came over with only broccoli and asked if we had ordered double broccoli. I explained that we were still waiting on the rest of our meal. He said he would check on it but we did not have double broccoli.

A few minutes later, I watched as he went to another section of the bar and asked other customers if they had broccoli. The manager was standing in front of these customers. When they asked if their order came with broccoli, she said yes and directed them to set it down in front of them. Soon after, the rest of the food came out, but instead of bringing it to our table, the staff placed it in front of those customers at the bar, even though we had arrived well before them.

The customer at the bar actually opened the seafood boil and started handling it. When Jaylyn realized that was our order, she told her Manaer that was not their order and she ordered Marc to bring it to us. I explained I did not want food that had already been touched by someone else, especially with health concerns being what they are today.

When I asked to speak with the manager, she came over but was loud and dismissive, rather than warm or understanding. It felt as if she wanted to make a public scene instead of listening to our concerns privately. She kept interrupting and ultimately dismissed everything I was saying, claiming that what I heard or saw wasn’t correct.

When my replacement seafood boil finally arrived, it was cold, had only six shrimp, no sausage, two pieces of corn, and way too much Parmesan seasoning. The quality was poor, and by that point, the entire experience had been ruined.

I was especially disappointed because we were genuinely looking forward to trying the revamped menu and supporting Red Lobster. Instead, this visit was frustrating and uncomfortable. The dismissive attitude from the manager was unacceptable, and the way she treated her staff was just as concerning.

I strongly recommend better training and guidance for the management team at this location. It is unacceptable to dismiss guests’ concerns or to serve food that has already been handled by another customer.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you will address these issues so no other guest has to go through the...

I’d leave zero stars if I could. First time here, was excited to see maybe 3 tables and another party of maybe 10 people. I had every intention of spending well over 300$ for 3 adults and 4 children. Arrived at about 6:45p after calling to ensure there are no delays or waits etc. 7 of us got seated at a 6 person table… after that was fixed took roughly 15 min for drinks to come out, a bottle of beer took roughly 25 min. First round (2 baskets of 4) golf ball sized biscuits came out about 50 min into our red lobster adventure. I asked for 2 beers this time as it took so long for the first to come and her to realize the drinks were empty… We had questions about the “ultimate family feast”, and We ordered the stuffed mushrooms for appetizer and they’re the smallest I’ve ever seen from red lobster maybe we’re .25c bouncy ball size, even my daughter said why are these so small?? The supervisor walks over to us asking how everything’s going and to inform us he has no clue what this family deal is and made a phone call, shortly after says that he will honor it; okay great! Let’s “feast”…. Well after another 45 min our server walks over with drink refills with another fellow employee who has the audacity to tell our table they cannot honor the “ultimate family feast” because it’s only sold online… Meanwhile my family (especially children complains of sitting so long waiting on dinner and only have eaten 2 biscuits each). I looked at him and chuckled in disbelief asking him “I have a question, who are you? Another supervisor, or the G.M.?” He says “no I’m a veteran server” my eyes opened with shock asking “please explain to me how a “veteran server” can come to a customer table and tell the table damn near 1.5 hours of being here that our order will not be honored? Especially after your supervisor said it was?”

Long story short… we were here for roughly 3 hours, no food until I told the supervisor (Mr. Henry) to tell me what he thinks is fair to pay and we’re ready to leave… he proceeds to tell me that the food is plated in the window, spent another half an hour waiting for it to be bagged, after receiving the bill there was a 31$ discount….

Absolutely absurd, spent 3 hours in a restaurant for my children to have 2 drinks, and 3 biscuits….

gLaD tHeY gAvE mE two 10$ off coupons for next visit….

Finally got home, got the food all out on the table to eat. We were missing food and we had food we didn’t order. The lobster had no taste and was very rubbery, and the...

Me and my wife went to this establishment for a date night expecting to have a good experience leading us to order steak and lobster and crab the crab and say you can lobster for both and properly kept and cooked. Leaving the lobster to have a fishy scent and rubbery texture along with the crab having the same issue with most shells having almost nothing in them. After sending back the first lobster for the scent and incorrect preparation they brought me out another one with a mildly better presentation but still similar issues. I ate it and I was trying not to ruin the night anymore and then the first one had already done leading to food poisoning and being sick the night of and the day after I went to the manager about the situation and called back trying to see if there was any solution that they could come up with for this $87 illness that I've contracted and they told me that there is nothing that they are willing to do about it because nobody else has complained leading them to inform me that they were just inspected by the health inspector and received a 98. While I'm not sure if this is true, a 98 of a health inspection does not indicate proper preparation and distribution of dishes throughout the establishment it only shows that a building is clean, not the employees hands that are cooking it I would never recommend this place to anybody else and I was hoping with the new owner of the conglomerate that there would be some change but I see that nothing has changed other than a couple key items on the menu. I do not see this establishment as a good place to take your family or friends, nor a safe place to eat in general, the managerial staffs disgusting behavior along with the poor preparation of food leads me to believe that this establishment has no interest in serving good food but making money and possibly harming somebody in the process. In my conclusion, I'll be contemplating notifying the health inspector to reconsider this evaluation that they provided because all it is doing is giving a false sense of security to those to come here to eat and expect to not be sick at the end of...