Red Lobster — Restaurant in Montgomery Township

My Dad wanted to go here for Father's Day because has hasn't been to a Red Lobster in about 15 years.

Well, it was OK, at best.

It was mostly the clearly understaffed, overworked, and untrained (bartender) and servers genuinely doing an amazing job, but clearly Red Lobster doesn't care much about customers spending over $30 per plate.

We WERE there on Father's Day, so we expected to wait. But we went around 3:00PM and there was not even a "call-ahead" seating option.

We were quoted 1 hour, which is tough bc my dad has a bad hip, but we waited it out well past 1 hour.

We all ordered a combo that allowed you to choose 2 "luxury" proteins and 2 regular proteins. So that part was a pretty good deal, but our Lobster was cold. The rolls were cold. The food took forever.

Even weirder (I'm a former bartender and server)...the bartender on duty clearly had ZERO training.

But she also had no one helping her (like a bar-back or 2nd bartender) which is, again...a problem with Red Lobster.

They're only paying the staff $2.83 per hour, but didn't think to have extra staff on Father's Day??

I ordered a basic Mojito from my table, thinking it's easy and a common Summer drink. Well. It took 15 minutes to receive, and when it came to me... I kid you not, it was a glass PACKED to the top with sliced lime wedges.

I tried to drink it, but it was literally just lime juice. I started picking the slices out, and by the time I was done I had FIVE FULL LIMES from 1 Mojito.

There was no elderflower, mint, or anything resembling a Mojito.

I felt badly for the staff, so I just left my table and went directly to the bar to ask for something else.

I waited about 15 minutes to be acknowledged (not by the bartender who was mere feet away), but by a server who saw me standing there with 5 limes in my hand and basically 2 inches of drink in the glass and asked me what was up.

I showed him what I'd received as a Mojito and asked if he could exchange it for the easiest thing I could think of, a Long Island.

He apparently had my server correct it on our bill (great!) and I watched him hand the lime pile and drink to bartender who didn't seem to understand the issue.

I felt so bad for her, I swear I almost offered to help her out (verbally) bc I still have every drink memorized from 20 years ago, but I figured that would get her in trouble, so I just hoped she knew how to make a Long Island.

It looked fine, tasted fine so I returned to my table nearly 25 minutes later and missed most of my meal and just packed it up.

The atmosphere was...well...Red Lobster. No frills, but nothing awful.

The food tasted fine and everything was cooked OK, but when you're spending over $200.00 on 3 people, it shouldn't be such a struggle.

I do not blame the staff, as I could clearly see they were all equally hurried (thus understaffed) and knew people were upset.

So...don't go on a major holiday, I guess.

But for goodness sake Red Lobster Managers and Corporate, STAFF YOUR RESTAURANT and TRAIN your bartenders! It's not fair to them to be thrown into the deep end on a holiday with clearly NO experience making drinks.

Get a bar-back (a person who just cleans, stocks, runs drinks, etc) as a helper for busy days and pay them a reasonable wage, so your bartenders have time to learn/be trained, and to provide excellent service.

If you're that hard up, I'll come train your bartenders myself over a day or 2 and correct this issue.

It's honestly THAT easy to train a bartender on the most ordered, most common drinks if they're given a bit of time to learn.

I won't be returning until I can eat without feeling guilty due to the terrible treatment of staff.

Our server was wonderful and friendly, as was every other staff member I spoke to. You're wasting their talent and hurting your customers.

Get it...

I've been coming to this location for over 25 years but my most recent experience was by far the absolute worst restaurant experience I've ever encountered . Started off with an almost 15 minute wait for my server to come over and take our order . I noticed he was tied up with a larger party of about 8 people when we sat down . Finally our order was taken which was pretty simple , 2 endless shrimp platters and 1 salmon platter . Waited almost 30 minutes for our order to come out ,just for all of our dishes to be room temperature cold and not freshly prepared . When we complained about the temperature and the freshness the plates were taken away just to be returned minutes later and were probably microwaved as opposed to being freshly done over . After complaining to our Waiter who appeared more interested in the needs of the large party he was catering to , we asked for the manager who didn't come to our table for at least another 15-20 minutes. The Manger finally comes out with an apron on and assures us fresh food will be brought out. After another 15 minute wait our endless shrimp platters were brought out without the proper sides and just small portions of shrimp which appeared to be the unlimited portions they give you on your second serving . Finally , I told the Waiter to take these platters off my bill because I was totally turned off and lost my appetite. My check was finally brought out with 2 of the platters taken off but I was still charged for Sodas and salads and the Manager never came back out to offer any type of additional apology or comp. That's OK because I will never patronize this RedLobster location...

I would give 1 star, but the waitress was very nice. I decided to go out with my sister and her friends here. Worst mistake. Apparently there is a Pizza Hut Law where if everyone is not 21 or older and there is not someone 25 or older at the table, they will not serve you alcohol. I am 24 and I was the only one that ordered a drink. My sisters friends are 21 and my sister is 20. When the waitress, whom was a very nice older lady explained this we told her we never heard of this and told her that I would be the only one drinking and that I am not driving, so she went to get a manager to further explain the law. Two people came back and the one that addressed herself as the manager was rude and snotty. When my sisters friend said to US "I never heard of this and I worked in 3 restaurants" the manager said "If you're going to be rude, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." First, no one was talking to her. Second, it was late so we get it, maybe you don't want to work, but we are paying customers and deserved to be treated with respect. I was fine with not getting a drink but to tell us to leave was extreme. We were not loud nor argumentative. It's a natural thing to say that you never heard of something when you haven't. And I feel as though we were treated that way because of our race. We were not given a chance to even tell her it's fine, that I'll skip the drink. Instead, the manager looked for the first inconvenience and asked us to leave. I will never patronize here again and will tell my family and friends the same because they are racist and lack...