Red Lobster — Restaurant in New York

Good Afternoon,

I am writing this review to formally address the unacceptable and discriminatory experience my party encountered at your establishment. From the moment we arrived, the visit was plagued with poor service, lack of communication, and blatant disregard for inclusivity.

Our experience began with a phone reservation that, upon arrival, could not be found. Despite this, we were assured that our party of five would be seated within 25 to 30 minutes at most. As my brother uses a wheelchair, we opted to wait in the lobby near the check-in booth to minimize unnecessary movement. However, an hour and 20 minutes passed without any update from staff.

Concerned about the delay, my mother approached an employee named Takia to inquire about our wait time. She dismissively responded, “Well, your party has a wheelchair, so y’all have to wait.” This statement was not only unprofessional but also deeply concerning. When my mother asked for clarification, Takia explained that we required a “special table” to avoid blocking the pathway. If this was a known requirement, why were we not informed upon arrival, after 30 minutes, or even after an hour? Instead, we had to proactively ask, only to be met with indifference.

At this point, another employee, Davina, joined the conversation. As Takia briefed her on the situation, Davina repeatedly referred to my brother as the “wheelchair person” rather than using his name, which had been provided upon check-in. This dehumanizing language is unacceptable and discriminatory.

After waiting an additional 30 minutes, we inquired again about our seating, at which point Davina responded with a dismissive attitude, raising her voice and insisting that we should have communicated differently upon arrival. At our request, a manager named Patricia intervened and finally seated us—after nearly two hours of waiting. To our disbelief, the seating arrangement required no special accommodations beyond standard accessibility, proving that the excessive wait time was unwarranted.

To make matters worse, Davina continued to exhibit unprofessional behavior, intentionally walking past our table while audibly sighing and making snide remarks. She even pointed out our table to a male colleague, saying, “This is them,” followed by laughter.

No person—regardless of ability—deserves to be subjected to such treatment. Whether dining at a high-end steakhouse or a casual restaurant, all guests should be treated with dignity and respect. This experience was discriminatory, unacceptable, and will not go unaddressed. I intend to escalate this matter to the fullest extent to ensure accountability and justice for my brother.

I expect a prompt response outlining how this situation will be rectified and what actions will be taken to prevent such occurrences...

I’ve been here many times but today will be the last time I come back here. I visited red lobster around 8/9pm. Never in my life have I ever been denied a medium steak. I got a surf and turf and asked for a medium steak, the server I did not get her name told me that red lobster doesn’t do medium steaks. Have you ever heard of that before? She told me I have to get the steak medium rare or medium well. So I told her medium well. My fiancé gets his food , no joke 30 minutes before me, and I expressed to the server that his food was getting cold because he was waiting for me or if I can at least get my sides. She disappeared and never came back. Every time I spoke to her I had to literally wave her down or another server, mind you it isn’t busy so I’m not sure what she had going on. My food comes, cold with a rock hard extra well steak. But, since it took so long I just let it go and did not eat it…The best part was when I ordered a margarita on the rocks and I clarified before she got it that it was on the rocks. I asked if I can get mango syrup in it and she brings it back to me frozen and sloppy like it sat there for 20 minutes before it got to the table, which would make sense considering it took about the whole time I was there to get to the table. So now I’m pissed now because the whole service was just awful. Finally after 30 mins without seeing my server because God forbid 2 minute 2 bite was a thing, I asked for the check and to go boxes and if she could take the margarita off the bill because it was just awful. She tells me for them to put the mango flavor in the drink it had to be blended????? I’m a bartender…. Anyways because it took about an hour to get my bill, no joke. I had to ask another server with red hair for to go boxes and for the manager because at this point this was just ridiculous. She brings me the to go boxes and tells me to be calm as the manager comes. I guess she relayed the message to my server because now she was on her toes and is rushing me out so I don’t speak to her manager. I get the check finally and she hovers over us expecting a tip … lol yeah right. Please train your servers that if you’re bringing food out don’t let it be 30 minutes apart where one person is done with their meal by the time mine came out, or not to argue with guest especially when they are clearly new and wrong. Terrible , terrible , terrible… but I don’t know next time a guest asks to speak to management… come out… I paid 130 for the whole thing just...

Food was overall not worth it. I was thinking in my head that we should go somewhere else but my Grand Aunt wanted to go for her birthday. I came from out of state for the weekend for Mother’s Day and my grand Aunt’s bday and ordered the pappardelle and was surprised when I got the order because it looked like it had been heated twice. I’m not one that usually returns food but all I could taste as I continued eating was salt and just kept seeing the oil and eventually I could not ignore it. Usually I see this much oil when I reheat my pasta from the restaurant like a day after it was made because the butter/oil starts separating from the rue. It’s very normal when reheating pasta and something tells me they knew this. The food generally was not good overall and the waiters and bus people have SO MUCH attitude. The busboys came and dropped food off and based on restaurant operations I’ve experienced, I would think that they try to take some empty plates with them as they went back to the kitchen to keep the table light and not cumbersome. they just left everything and walked back with empty trays as the table was full of the starter & bread plates. I also raised my hand, the bus boy looked at me and walked off toward the kitchen. I nonetheless asked to see if they could give me something else instead of the pappardelle and they said I ate too much to return it. Personally, there wasn’t much more pasta that came with that meal. Irrespective, the fact that the meal was visibly a mess would have warranted them trying to do something to compromise instead of leaving me with the disastrous plate for me to take a photo of. I would recommend not getting the lobster pappardelle , or anything with asparagus or broccoli. My grand Aunt said it seemed like they didn’t even put them into pots for them to even cook for a few minutes and instead just ran them under hot water.The veggies are undercooked and everything else is cooked too much. The calamari was over salted. The stuffed mushrooms were good. The coconut shrimp was good. No one finished their meal.

I’m in NYC every month at least 2 weekends and If this is a symbol of what New York service is coming to, I don’t want it. I know it’s Red lobster but I believe in a basic level of CUSTOMER SERVICE and...