Red Lobster — Restaurant in Spartanburg

My family and I got to this particular location yesterday (5/3/25) at 6:30pm. They told us it would be about a 30 minute wait. We were fine with that, due to the fact that we were waiting on one other person in our family to arrive anyway. 30 minutes go by and we ask one of my family members to go inside and see if our table is ready....she comes back out and tells us it is, so we proceeded to be seated at this large booth. Our waitress told us that she would be right with us after she was done with this other table she was finishing up with. We were fine with that and then 20 minutes go by....she passes by our table again and told us that she would be right with us yet a second time. Mind you we have yet to order drinks and we were sitting there going on 30 minutes so far. She finally comes by and gets our drinks and it didn't take too long for our drinks to come out. It took her another 20 minutes to come by and get our order for our entrees, once she did, it to a solid 45 to 50 minutes to get our food and the food didn't come all at one time. My daughter is 2 years old and I ordered her mac & cheese and chicken tenders, and her food came out second to last. When you have a kid at a restaurant, there attention span is very short and they tend to get fussy if they are hungry. My husband was very upset at the fact that my daughters food was the second to last one to come out. Everyone's food was cold and some didn't even have everything they asked for on their plate. My husband and everyone just wanted the manager and wanted to just pay for our drinks and leave. She told us she would go get the manager, 30 minutes go by and we are already hungry and irritated and it's going on 9:00pm at this point. We finally got tired of waiting and we all go up and was about to leave, and then the manager finally pops up as we are passing the front desk. We told him what the issue was and that we were not happy with the service and the food. he tried to blame both on the party they had before us and that was the reason behind the wait for the food and drinks. We honestly didn't want to hear it from that point, we were just ready to go home or find another place to get something to eat before places close. We told him we would pay for our drinks and that we would be on our way and that we would never come back to Red Lobster again (all locations). So our waitress and the manager went to the computer to try and take off all the meals for everyone so that we could leave. 20 to 30 minutes go by, at this point my husband and I leave with our daughter because it's getting late and we were hungry and my daughter was sleepy. The next part my mom told me it took one of our family members to walk up to the manager and the waitress while they were on the computer to see what's the hold up, all they had to do was take the meals off and they would be on there way. My mom called and told us they were just now leaving the restaurant and it was 9:45pm, she said they never took her meal off her bill, and that she just went ahead and paid for it anyway even though she didn't approve of it and didn't take it with her. My mom told me she was just tired and ready to go, she didn't want to pay for it but everything was just taking forever for something they should know how to do. So I come here to say, do not waste your time or money on this place, you will be waiting FOREVER to get food that you could have made at home a hell of alot better and cheaper for what they have it for. We WILL NOT BE COMING BACK AND WE WILL TELL EVERYONE ELSE THAT SUGGEST THIS PLACE TO NEVER GO EITHER. (Spartanburg,...

My family and I (5 of us) had been on a long road trip and stopped in Spartanburg on the way to the beach in NC. We were all starving and wanted a nice meal. I was craving the sesame soy salmon bowl, so we decide to go to here. BIG MISTAKE. We arrived at 8:50pm and stood patiently waiting at the host stand for about 5 to 10 minutes and still no host or server came to help us. It was basically empty in there except for like 2 tables. My dad thought they must be trying to save on their power bill because of how dark it was in there. There were lights flashing everywhere. Looked like the bulbs were about to go out. After waiting and still no one coming to greet us, my mom walked up to the first and only server she saw and asked if we should sit at bar since it looked like there were no servers available, but there was also no one working at the bar. So then a hostess actually trying to do her job and another hostess started fighting about which one was going to take us and the one doing her job finally ended up taking us to a booth in the corner. She apologized that no one was at the host stand to greet us and told us that SHE was going to make our biscuits. Isn’t that the servers job?? Or the kitchen’s?? She then turns around to see that our server was already walking toward our table with biscuits in hand. Phew. We thought things would be ok. The server was sweet, but seemed like she didn’t want to be there. Took our drink order. We only ordered waters and a glass of Chardonnay. We also knew exactly what we wanted, so we went ahead and ordered entrees and more biscuits. After waiting at least 10-15 minutes, we finally receive our waters, but one less than we asked for, so my dad and brother had to share. Good thing we were caught up talking or else this experience would’ve felt like we were there for years. After our server took our orders, she left and didn’t come back. After another 20 minutes, we finally get our other biscuits we asked for, but still no wine. My mom asked where it was and the server apologized and said she’s been waiting on it for 20 minutes, but no one is working at the bar. She even said she would pour it herself if she could. Where is the bartender?? After that, my mom was fed up and not willing to wait any longer. She told my dad to go tell the hostess we wanted to see a manager, take the wine off the check, and get our food to go. 5 minutes later, the server comes to our table with no manager and just our check and said she took the wine off and gave us a 20% discount. We thought that was kind of them, so we decided to wait for the food. Another 15 minutes goes by and still no food. My mom decides to go to the car. The rest of us soon followed. We are not a family that usually walks out after being seated at a restaurant, but this was insane. Probably saved us all from food poisoning and a huge bill for it at that. Thank God CookOut was open. We usually love Red Lobster, but this was by far the worst experience we’ve ever had at one of their locations....

If I could leave none, I would. Wait time from arriving 7:24pm to time I stepped out 9:11pm without being served. 2 hosts that didn't communicate with each other. Low staff, tables dirties. And trust me, I understand low staff means wait but I calmly waited without a problem until the wait floor was cleared twice of people being sitted, including people that arrived after us. I had a party of 3 adults and 3 young kids (4,7,8) and they were hosting parties of 4 and 5 adults back, once again those parties arrived after us and sat before us. Female host stated multiple times, wait time was 20 minutes to other parties arriving after us, very out loud, and stepping over male host. During my wait time, I overheard she sat the wrong Jackie party, and the other party came up right after with the text message. So, at that time, both groups were sat. Groups had an equivalent number of party members than us. More parties were satted, and when an hour of wait time passed, I showed the male host thinking he was going to speak to someone or do something, but nothing happened. When 1.5 hours passed, I asked the female host, I wanted to speak to the manager, and she gave me some bull excuse, "People have waited 3 hours to be sitted. (Excuse me ma'am but that's a bunch of false bull) The male and female host then tried to sit 3 parties of two and a party of 4 adults while I was waiting for the manager. Manger took 7 minutes to come out, and when he did, he then tried to sit us without hearing me out first. By this time, my kids were very hungry and in the car. I had to stop manager to inform him of this situation, and all he said was sorry and also tried to give me the spill of short staff. I also informed him of the miscommunication on behalf of his host and little Ms.Sonshines 3 hours bull. Managers face confirmed the liar she is. Seriously, what a disappointment of a visit. There is no reason for someone to wait this long. (Proof picture of arrival time and departed time...