Red Lobster — Restaurant in South Carolina

Throughout my whole 24 years of living I’ve never witnessed or been a victim of blunt racism until yesterday at this Red Lobster. I started out at first trying to give the waitress (Landy I think that’s what the other workers told me) the benefit of the doubt with her first rude antics to me and my family (which was talking over us and not listening to our complete order before cutting us off to talk herself) in our very first encounter, but she made it clear that everything she was doing was intentional and she simply did not want to serve us. After about 25 minutes of watching her purposefully ignore us while servicing literally the tables directly in front, behind and beside us as we continued to wait on only our drinks, but also wanting to order an appetizer we Landy finally did decide to come to our table again we just went ahead and order everything including the entrees to spare time. But then again as we continued to wait on our food and the bread that she had promised us, the sitters kept doing the exact same thing, passing by us to bring the same other tables bread and anything they asked for, but ignoring the “excuse me’s” from our table continuously until finally she turned around as she walking back to the kitchen and says “I’m going to get salads and I’ll be back”, still not caring what it was that we originally wanted but letting me know that she had heard/seen us the entire time and was just refusing to serve us. After that remark, my mom said “no it’s okay, just give us our bill and the manager,” this woman still brings out the salads forcefully putting them on the table, while we’re refusing and ignoring us asking for a manager. We ended up having to just get up and walk away and go to try to seek the manager ourselves, whom after about 10 minutes later came out and expressed her apologies, acknowledged that she already knows and has had similar experiences with the waitress before and “if she could fire her, she would.” Appreciating the managers apologies and gratitude, I still have to look at the overall establishment and question why is it still appropriate for you to employ a known racist that clearly has done this before. There was nothing different about my family and I compared to the other tables around us other than our skin color, which was the underlying issue and the only reason to conclude based off of Landy’s motives. We love Red Lobster and have been coming here for years, but with this type of behavior I will never be back to any other Red Lobster again regardless of the location. I feel like this just reflects the business overall and it wasn’t handled as much as it could’ve been or taken as seriously as it should’ve been and I am not done with making my story heard. It’s crazy to believe that in the year 2024, blunt racism from a business is still something that we’re experiencing,...

I’m not usually one to write a bad review but this dining experience was pretty bad. We came into the Greenville, Tx location of Red Lobster on our way home from traveling, and were excited to stop and eat at one of our favorite chain restaurants. Upon arrival we waited for about ten minutes in the empty lobby, we were then seated and told sorry that the hostess called out so not mad there. But after being seated the server (a male, late thirties-mid forties) kneeled to our table put his pad on the table and asked us what our drink order would be, a little thrown off by the nonchalantness of this we told him, he then proceeded to ask us what appetizer we were going to have, we told him we were okay with just the bread to which he ignored and said “no are you sure look here at this, brand new appetizer, choice of 3 or 6” we reassured him that we were good, he asked if we were ready to order, to which we said yes. My partner got the “ultimate feast” and he told the server which sides he wanted; we received the entrees and figured the sides were coming out soon, but after 15 minutes of not being checked on we started to doubt this. Finally out server made his way over and we asked him if the sides were coming out to which he replied “what sides” we told him what we were missing and he disappeared for another 10 minutes. Once he came back out he dropped one of our sides on the table with such force that the rice spilled onto part of the table, to which he did not apologize or acknowledge . The other side we wanted (hushpuppies) stopped being served earlier and so he improvised by choosing the replacement side for us (fries, which neither of us were particularly happy to receive) We ate the rest of our food, and were ready to just leave, we waited for about twenty minutes, I wish I was exaggerating, but I had so much time that I was able to pre-bus the entire table, and still have to scroll on my phone waiting. Finally we saw him come from outside, he made his way over to our table, reeking of cigarette smoke, and asked us what we were going to get for dessert, when we told him we were good, he again pressed and asked if we were sure. We told him we were ready for the checks. Which thankfully he got to us pretty quickly, but upon receiving the checks he lingered at the table right behind us, which gave no privacy to us whatsoever. I did tip him bc I was raised that way, but I did feel thrown off by him doing this. Once we left, my partner called the restaurant and the manager (Emily) did handle the situation by offering us a ten dollar discount for our next meal at their location, which we won’t be able to use but it was the thought and professionalism that counted, which our server seemed to...

I worked at Red Lobster (different location) for a few years in college and I am very grateful to the managers that I worked with, my GM, and my co-workers, many of whom became life-long friends. I never write bad reviews, especially for restaurants because I know how difficult it is to work in the restaurant industry and also because I owe so much of my undergrad years to the Red Lobster that I worked at. I ate at this location for the first time in a long time and I’m so sad to say that it was an awful experience. Our server was kind, so I don’t want to make a complaint about my server, however, there are many new and hidden up-charges that aren’t listed on the menu. I understand that menu prices change frequently, however, these changes should be reflected on the menu. Many old sides now have crazy up-charges that aren’t reflected on the menu. After the first mistake to our bill resulting in a refunded incorrect charge, I asked the manager about a new charge that was added after our first refunded item and the server was thrown under the bus. The manager wasn’t kind and just said that she’d have a serious talk with the server about her mistake, which I thought was extremely unprofessional and also very unkind towards our server who was very sweet throughout the dinner. My old managers would have never thrown me under the bus like that after making a mistake (which all servers do occasionally make) and I was shocked to hear a manager speaking so hatefully about a server. The manager made no apologies and wasn’t kind to me during our brief conversation, so I just decided to forget about the incorrect (or possibly hidden) fee and to just accept the additional charge that wasn’t listed on the menu. I’m sad to say that I will make the hour long drive to my old Red Lobster location if I am ever really wanting to eat at Red Lobster, but I will not return to...