Red Lobster — Restaurant in Port Charlotte

I'm giving two stars, instead of only one, because we have had mostly positive experiences here before. Today was not pleasant or enjoyable for us. My wife, daughter, and I ate here Sunday. It was a mess from beginning to end. First, even though the restaurant was 80% empty, we had to wait for a table because they were between shifts (2:45pm Sunday). Once we were seated, it took 5 minutes for a waitress to come by and tell us she was having some problems with two other tables and would be back in a few minutes. Our waitress, Sarah hadn't even taken our drink orders. We waited a long time before she came back to take our complete order. My wife's salad came out as normal, she finished it and the dinners didn't follow. After waiting 15 minutes, we asked the waitress Sarah twice were our meals were. She told us she saw the food was being plated and would be right out. My daughter ate her third chaddar bay biscuit and still no food. Finally, a male server brought two of our dinners. He put my daughters lobster shrimp tacos down and then he dumped half my plate on the floor. My dinner was the scallop and shrimp skewers. The shrimp was on the floor and the server said, "it's been one of those days". He left me the scallops, picked the shrimp off the floor, and said he'd be back with a new shrimp skewer. My first thought was that he's going to take that dirty shrimp to the kitchen, put it on a clean plate, and bring it back to me. I was in the restaurant business for years and saw many gross things, so I'm a bit tainted. My meal was ruined by this. But at least I got a meal. When he returned with the rest of my meal, we asked where my wife's flounder dinner was. He told us she didn't order a meal. She had been brought her side salad, but didn't order a meal? Our waitress came over and said she had entered the order into the computer, but due to a glitch of some sort, the kitchen didn't get it. By the time my wife's dinner was delivered to her, my daughter and I had been done eating for 5 minutes. It is very uncomfortable eating in front of someone who has not been given their food. We had to sit there and watch her eat, because we were done. She tried to rush, but half way through, decided to take her meal to go. The waitress brought us the electronic tablet to pay and then she disappeared again. I wanted to use a dining reward for a free meal and I needed her help to figure it out. Waitress Sarah was no where. My wife even went to the hostess stand looking for her. Finally, after ten minutes, my wife and daughter wanted to go to the car while I stayed to wait. My wife found our waitress hanging outside with another waitress. My wife told the waitress I was waiting for her inside. Sarah came back in and took our reward off the bill. Our waitress was friendly and apologetic but the service...

I have to say that the quality of service and the size of the portions have greatly decreased since Red Lobster separated from Darden restaurants .

First We ordered the New Margarita Wave Plank which was featured on the menue. Took the bartender about 20 minutes to make it. Then we ordered the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer. The food came out about another 10 minutes later and I was NOT impressed. The mushrooms were slightly smaller than a .25 cent piece and the appetizer cost nearly $13. I waited for the server to return but she was still struggling with the drinks. I asked a manager about the food and she apologized and took it away. Then about another 10 min went by and the server returned and asked if we wanted it replaced. Our food order was in and we were sitting there with bread. I told her YES I thought she had already taken care of it but she had not. So the bartender put in another order of mushrooms.

A few min later our entrees came out. I was pleasantly surprised at the generous portions of lobster in the Lobster Linguini and the Lobster Baked Potato. It actually was really great. Every bite from start to finish had a bite of lobster in it. It was great.

A few minutes later the mushrooms came back and again I was surprised. This time I was surprised that the mushrooms actually got SMALLER! The dish was mostly cheese and stuffing.

At any rate my wifes meal was the same. She ordered the Shrimp platter. The coconut shrimp were huge but the dragon shrimp must have been grown next to those mushrooms. TINY.

All in all the foods flavor was nice. We were sad that the discontinued the lobster bisque. The service was 3 out of 5 stars. The restaurant was clean. And the atmosphere was very nice. Oldies music was playing in the dining room.

Not worth $120 for two people though. Most of the entrees were between $20-45. A couple came in and sat next to us and left shortly after. I asked why and they said the prices were WAY TOO HIGH. I agree but...

This experience today was THE WORST experience I have had at any of these chain restaurants in a while. I came a week ago and everything was great. Their GM was in the building so the service and food was amazing.... Now today... the service was terrible. My grand patron margarita didn't come with Grand Marnier, it came with a clear liquor and the server couldn't explain it to me. Some other lady came out and explained that they were out of Grand Marnier, so they were subbing with quantro(?) And said they were the same, which isn't the truth. One is a cognac base and the other is a sugar base. Then, we got our Bairdi crab legs and they were super dry. So we asked for extra sauce and the server said we would need to pay for it, even though the food was dry. The last time I was here everything was saucy and beautiful and they brought extra sauce at no extra charge, since you have to pay for the sauce already at an extra charge. Then I found a huge hard black object in the middle of my crab leg that looked like something out of an Alien movie with a tail and all, and I asked to speak to the manager about it. It took over 30 mins for the manager to respond and she said that's just part of the crab and she would comp my check. She took off my margarita that I already wasn't happy with and $10 but I was still charged for extra sauce.the managers excuse for not responding sooner was that she was on the line helping with food. The entire time we could hear our server talk to other customers asking them for refills, extra biscuits, etc, and we were ignored the entire time during a bad experience....