Red Lobster — Restaurant in Pineville

REVISED 12/5/2023 My wife and I went back for her birthday dinner. The waiter was very good and the food was delicious.

REVISED: My wife and I had a very nice lunch this week. The food was delicious, our server was excellent, and we had a good booth that wasn’t up against someone else so we could easily talk. This is the Red Lobster experience we longed for again. Definitely a favorite of ours once again and back to 5 Stars!

AWHILE AGO: This past Saturday was my wife's birthday and she wanted to get dinner from Red Lobster, a favorite place of hers. Since we are not eating in restaurants now because of the Coronavirus, I downloaded the Red Lobster App and ordered our food which was to be ready about 7 p.m. We really looked forward to the food and so we drove about 20 minutes to get it. I then called the number to tell them that we had arrived and were in a designated spot. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally thirty minutes after arrival I called again, thinking I had given them a lot of time to bring our food out to us. I told the person on the line that I had called after arriving and that we had been waiting for 30 minutes. She said that our food would be brought out right away.

Very soon a guy brought our food out to us and put it in the back seat of our car as we had directed him to do. Then we drove home.

Upon arrival home we found that we had NO BISCUITS! Let's be real, the biscuits are great at Red Lobster and we had even ordered six extra ones to enjoy with our meal of shrimp, shrimp scampi, the shrimp and linguini, and crab legs. NO BISCUITS! How sad. My salad had some wilted lettuce and I didn't eat it at all.

Everything else was not as warm as it would have been and needed heated up, a lot. I think it was probably ready for a long time but just sat there inside until I called the second time.

But anyway, this was not a happy birthday meal for my wife. We like Red Lobster so much that we will probably return when we feel safe to eat inside but we will definitely not get carry out any more.

REVISED: Red Lobster was kind enough to recognize my review and invite me back with a gift card, which I appreciated. So we returned to the scene of the crime, so to speak, and got our food brought to the car in about 7 minutes which was great.

We did get our delicious biscuits and enjoyed them a lot. Hey, Red Lobster biscuits are wonderful for sure! The other food that we got was very good and we enjoyed it.

So I moved the star level from 2 to 4 because they listened and urged us back with free food, and then delivered. Looking forward to more trips to Red...

My mother and I decided to hit up Red Lobster in Pineville while we were out. We were seated immediately as we should have been since there were only a handful of patrons. Our waitress came and took our drink orders. She returned with our drinks and took our appetizer and meal orders. For appetizers my mother ordered the black tiger shrimp cocktail (👍🏽). I ordered the crabby cheese fries(👎🏽) They were supposed to be seasoned fried topped with cheese sauce and lump crab in garlic sauce. There was plenty of fries and cheese... I'm still looking 👀for the lump crab. I mentioned the missing lump crab to the waitress. She seemed confused probably because she clearly lacked menu knowledge but offered to go and get some crab in a cup. She went in the back and returned to informed us that there was crab in the fries because her manager said he prepared the order... 🤔🤔🤔 I guess if I had my readers on...I would have been able to see the lump crab let alone taste it. For our main courses, my mother ordered the Southern Tails which according to the menu should have been a shrimp topped Maine lobster served over creamy grits, paired with a Maine lobster tail over mac & cheese and topped with a bacon bourbon glaze, served with choice of side (see pic). What she got: one anorexic lobster atop of some grits. The other anorexic lobster was served over shrimps in what looked like a cream sauce... no mac & cheese or bacon. When we called the waitress over to inquire about the meal discrepancies, again her lack of menu knowledge was even more evident. She told us that the second lobster was over mac & cheese. If I had my readers, I'd have given them to her. Even after I asked her to get the menu to show her what my mom ordered... she was still confused. We said just bring a side of mac & cheese please. I ordered surf and turf: steak, lobster tail and two sides ( broccoli and mac & cheese). The mac & cheese was salty and greasy from the bacon. The lobster tail also anorexic.

The overall experience was a D minus. The food was an F. The atmosphere dimly lit, a D. The service was a D, when the waitress wasn't displaying her lack of knowledge of the menu, she was no where to be found. Red Lobster Pineville and general manager Jennifer Ochsner won't have to worry about a repeat business ever. And no I won't be going to FB to send anyone a DM or anything else. We're good on Red Lobster....

UPDATE , 4-25-22, changing from 1 to 5 stars, As promised ... my wife talked me into returning, and against my better judgment we went. What a difference, first our server ,Tai, was great ! He seemed to be there whenever we needed anything, very pleasant and fast with anything we asked. Our reorders (unlimited shrimp) were brought quickly and hot and very good. We could not have asked for better service or food.a definitely 5 star experiance. I don't know what they changed, but it was just great, I can Reccomend it now, where before I would have said run away.

ORIGINAL REVIEW, We ordered unlimited shrimp. Every order was barely warm. We should have left. Food, especially shrimp should be hot. Were lucky we didnt get sick. Service was slow, every time the waiter came, it was I'm sorry, its slow, the kitchen is slammed. ( there were maybe 5 people in the restaurant) we should have alerted management, but I just was not in the mood for confrontation, and was not looking for compensation. After hoping it would improve, we gave up and paid the bill and left. We will not be back for a very long time.

RESPONSE, As you can see below, I was responded to, to send a private message. I did this and they replied on Thursday, that they were sorry and to check my email for an e-card to use on my next visit, they wanted to make thing right. Today is the following Wednesday, and no e- card. Just an inept attempt on thier end. If they ever do give me an e- card, I'll update this review... but for now, this restaurant is at the very bottom of our list... bad food, bad service, and now bad follow up by management.

RESPONSE CONTINUED, As it turns out Red Lobster said they did send an E card, but for some reason my email provider thought it was spam and just blocked it. (I found this out after the fact) but in the mean time I told Red Lobster that even though they said they sent it, it never showed up, and they could try again with an alternate email. They did this, and re-sent the card. I believe this shows they are really trying (going above and beyond) , and making a real effort to make me a satisfied customer. We have decided to give them another try to see if that visit was just a fluke. I'll update again with our results, we're hoping for the best, as Red Lobster can be a very...