Red Lobster — Restaurant in Town of Big Flats

35/3/24 Update: We tried to give it another try. Place had 4 customers for dinner! We got seeated and nobody came to see us, at all! Prices are through the roof! $50+ dollars for breaded crap, get real Red Lobster! We walked out, they said thanks. Thats why they are closing all over!! P.S. Went to Texas Roadhouse, great service and great food.

Big complaints: We asked about one items GF status. Twenty minutes later waitress came back with a grungy 20 page list of all menu items. The wait staff should be trained to know, and not disappear for a long period and come back with no answer! And on the topic of Gluten Free, is Red Lobster serious?! Its 2022 and virtually no gluten free options. And thanks for bringing a basket of rolls to someone that's gluten free! Hello, options!? A side salad and salmon is Not a gluten free menu! Noodles please!? Maybe a white sauce without flour? Perhaps not fry everything! Is this a fresh seafood restaurant or a bar?! Probably wont be back anytime soon. And clearly ,others agree. Parking lot is quite empty lately! I dont care to spend $100+ on poor service, long wait time, poor quality food, and rediculous lack of healthy choices. Shameful that a giant chain cant adapt to this century! I would love to have a personal response from management. But won't hold my breath...

2/24/21 Update: Been a while since we had been here. Service was fast and friendly. Everyghing was clean. Our food was mostly quite good. The shrimp were cooked perfect and seemed larger than before, a much needed surprise. My wifes steak was cooked to Death unfortunatley. But it was quickly replaced with a new one cooked perfectly. Drinks were tasty, but not as good as Richards. Two things to address; Gluten Free noodles! And price, its getting Really high. All in all, pleased and will be back, soon. 7/29/19 Update: Glad to say , dinner was great! First of all, Richard makes the best margaritas maybe anywhere. My salmon was cooked perfect. And a small improvement on the GF front, the scampy is now made in-house and GF! And it tastes better to. Now for those noodles!!!! Service was great also! 3/26/19 Been a while since we came back...two bad experiences will do that, the last visit a disaster. Pleased to say that was not the case this time. Gal was SUPER friendly and attentive-great job! All the lobster and shrimp were Perfectly cooked. The star was surprisingly the grilled shrimp! I gotta try and do these at home this summer. Prices are still creeping up- $30+ a plate, and no gluten free noodles- that's a corporate thing. Need to fix both. I like where things are heading food wise, hope it stays this way! Consistency in food and prices are the main issues. Side note: get the windows cleaned asap. 9/16/18 We went for all you can eat shrimp on a Monday. Our waitress was not good, at all. First disappointment, we have had some great waitresses here. We had to wait for everything. I got the grilled salmon, because they have almost nothing that is gluten free, still! I asked that it be cooked to the rare side, it was cooked to dust! She never came and checked if it was cooked right. But I was not surprised because she didnt question the plate of brown, gross lettuce we picked out of our salad. Getting another order of all-you-can-eat shrimp was like pulling teeth. After the meal my wife asked me, in front of her, "how was your dessert?" She did not even get that it was said because she never asked if we wanted any!! Poor service, poorly cooked food, and no gf options, shamefull. Red Lobster needs to address these inconsistencies. The bartender who's name eludes me, continues to be a highlight. 9/23/17Just had the best meal I have ever had there. Good service. A bit slow, and it wasn't busy. A nice place for a casual dinner date. Just had one (3!) the best margaritas ever! Have to get bartenders name as he always makes a good one. Emily was our server. Super good job! Still can't believe that a national chain does not have any Gluten Free pasta, or breading options-it is...

Some businesses are handling COVID regulations in a dignified way, and some just aren't. Red lobster's attitude toward customer frustration with policy is to return frustration without clarifying the reason for their rules. Because it's only 4 per table, and they are at lower capacity than normal, I assume they are having trouble keeping staff happy and are imposing rules on customers that damper the experience. But if customers are so put out by your self-imposed rules, they aren't going to choose your restaurant. For example- we came for my mother's birthday and had a party of 4 and a party of 3. 2 of the party of three were running late- and the birthday girl really just wanted to sit down and order drinks and appetizers to start celebrating her birthday. They refused to seat us- even as separate parties, because we wanted to sit next to each other and they couldn't hold a table in that waitresses area (even for 15 minutes). We offered to accommodate by ordering the missing parties meal so the time would not be lost and ended up having to argue with a manager over it before she finally agreed. It put such a cloud over our evening and it took a lot of effort to pick up my mother's spirits for her to enjoy her birthday. It just broke my heart to see her upset on her birthday. She just lost her mother (who's birthday is the day after hers) and it was important to me that she get out and have a great time. Covid has caused stresses on us all and I urge businesses reopening to please be flexible with the flex you do have and to be kinder when explaining the rules you are obligated to follow. The night ended much happier, with us spending $300 and the waitress was in no hurry to get us out because there were always open tables in her section. However, I would choose a different restaurant if I had to do...

*Updated on Saturday 10/19/24 Decided to give this Red Lobster one more try since they are supposedly under new management. As far as I could tell not much has changed except that there are not many customers. Got seated at a table right away. Then waited, 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge that we were at a table. Took our drink order as well as our dinner order. Another 5 minutes go by and she comes back with drinks, but of course the Biscuits are in the oven. 10 minutes later she comes back to say that what two of us ordered is no longer available, what else did we want. Still no Biscuits! Salads came along with dinner, and finally some Biscuits! Two of us ordered the 1 pound of snow crab legs. Maybe we got 1/2 pound each, setting on top of very over cooked fried greasy potatoes. Cracking greasy crab legs is not easy. When we were almost done she finally brought crab cracker. The Quality and Quantity of the food at Red Lobster does NOT equal the price. I believe the crab is now $29.95 with one side and no choice of the fried greasy potatoes. Red Lobster either get your stuff together with service, food and prices or just close your doors. Stop lying and telling all of us about the changes you have made. They have NOT BEEN MADE AT THE HORSEHEADS LOCATION, I am sad to say.😠😠

For a Monday night neither the kitchen, wait staff nor management could not get their act together. Got my baked potato and biscuits after I finished my crab legs. Mangers came out after we asked to see them, but at that point a little to late. In fairness they did give a discount but for the price of their restaurant you would...