Red Lobster — Restaurant in Union Township

Excuses, excuses, excuses and lies!!My family ALWAYS annually celebrates my January 1st birthday with a live lobster dinner at Red Lobster @616 Ohio Pike, Cincinnati 45245-2141. This year was ABSOLUTELY AWFUL! Within 5 minutes of sitting down, the waitress/ manager-in- training, Kimmy, had my daughter CRYING!!! My child has been coming here since she was in a pumpkin seat. As usual, she ordered the kid's Cherry Slushie drink. Our waitress, Kimmy, said, "My manager said I cannot serve you this. This happened before and the manager said 'No.' " This has NEVER happened before. My child was crying because she was heart-broken, she ALWAYS gets the cherry slushie.  It's part of our meal tradition EVERY time we eat at this Red Lobster. We began scouring the drink menu for an adult beverage equivalent-- there isn't one! Kimmy comes back and she said she still couldn't get my crying child a cherry slushie even after I told her there is no other drink equivalent! I ask to speak with her manager and Kimny says, "I am one of the managers here but I can get another manager." In 5 minutes, Kimmy returns with a Cherry Slushie and says her manager said "yes." Then clarifies that she is a "manager-in-training." I asked to still speak to the manager. The General Manager, Rocky Scarborough, comes over and I explained what had happened and he defensively says, "I said YES to giving you an adult size Cherry Slushie!" I clarified that this was not the issue. My child is NOT an ADULT! Kimmy told us "NO" TWICE, two times! She completely refused to serve my child a Cherry Slushie of ANY size! Just a "no." I ordered my "market price" live lobster. Kimmy has no idea what the price is. She says, "Last time I was here it was $35." I asked the GM, Rocky and he said," I think it is $23.99?" Frustrated, I just ordered my fresh lobster and child's first live lobster. When the lobsters arrive,  there are no metal crackers! Just these flimsy plastic things ( see picture). Kind of useless in trying to crack the HARD claw shells where the best meat is! I ask for a cracker. Throughout my meal, we get these EXCUSES: 1) We don't have any crackers.  These plastic ones work even better. We have 200 on back order.; 2) We only have 2 in our store, customers steal them all! 3) From GM, Rocky "We have ordered 200 and they have not arrived. Usually the cooks will crack the claws for you..".[no offer to do this]; 4) Kimmy came over several times saying,"The GM just sent out someone to buy some! When you get to eating the claws, we should have one for you." 5) We have 2 crackers but the waiters hoard them and I cannot find any!" 6) "Are you okay? Some one is out buying claw crackers." (Kroger is a 3 minute drive away and they carry crab crackers). We finished our meal and had no claw crackers! Frustrating to be lied to and given empty promises. My child's broccoli was salted so heavily that it was completely inedible!! By far this was the absoute WORST birthday meal EVER at this location! Red LOBSTER is a lobster restaurant! Please give guests the proper respect and utensils to actually eat lobsters! Plastic diggers just DO NOT work! Also, as I was walking out, I suddenly started having a gag and vomit reflex reaction. I certainly hope no one spit (or worse) into my food! Advice: BRING YOUR OWN...

This review will be a first for me. I am not a complainer and never have been. Our family (6 adults) visited this location on a Wednesday evening following a visitation service. Shortly after being seated the server came over to apologize and let us know that they are out of Cheddar biscuits, not waiting on more to come out of the oven but completely out. Disappointing, because I love their biscuits, but no big deal. She begins to ask for our drink order and announces by the way we are out of coke as well. Again, no big deal we will have water. She brings our drinks and proceeds to take our order. At this point she says were almost out of rice. In disbelief I started to look around for a camera thinking to myself this is one of those hidden camera shows. My husband says, "wow you seem to be out of a lot of things this evening" and her response was "yeah, I know and we are almost out of silver-wear".

Fast, forward our dinner is served. As soon as I start to cut into my dinner I find a long hair in it. Again, this is just too hard to believe. I send it back to the kitchen and just order a steak. When we asked for extra napkins they brought us paper towels from the bathroom. My meal came with a desert but at this point we are all just ready to leave. We ask for the check and my desert to go. Desert a "Brownie Overboard” brownie topped with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of caramel, fudge and whipped cream. Below is a picture of what I received vs what I ordered.

Now here is the kicker...After taking our checks back to ring them out the server announces that she is missing one of the credit cards. We confirm that each check had a credit card with it. After 15 or 20 minutes of looking - nothing. At this point my bother-in-law (who's card is missing) is getting upset. The manager explains not to worry about it they will comp his meal. Sorry, but that doesn't fix the issue his credit card is missing. The manager then points his finger in my elderly mothers-in-law’s face saying, "We didn't take your card". My brother-in-law calls the police to report that is card has been stolen. They arrive talk with everyone after about 20 minutes the manager comes over to let us know they found his card. Where did they find his card??? In the black receipt holder that he paid with. Something smells fishy and it...

Went to Red Lobster on a Friday evening after a so, so visit a couple of months ago. This visit was worse than the last. It was not crowded, and they seemed to still be understaffed. The decor has not changed since the early 90s, but if you like nostalgia, it will take you back to the "good ole' days." Unfortunately, the food did not follow suit. My wife and I both ordered crab legs (both adding a half of a pound extra to our entrées). The waitress only brought one crab cracker. She said they hadn't cleaned any from the lunch rush.... Our crab legs came out, and we could clearly see one plate had more than the other. The waitress insisted they were the same. So, rather than cause a scene, I just let it go. Our bill was $120 after the lowest "suggested" tip of 18%. It's definitely not worth the money, and it's clear why they are financially struggling. Years ago, people were waiting an hour or longer on any given Friday or Saturday. We walked in without a wait on a Friday evening and had our pick of table or booth. We will not be going back in the future. UPDATE: After communications with the Corporate office and a Manager at the Beechmont, Ohio location, we went back a couple weeks later on June 22nd. This visit was exactly what I would expect when dining at Red Lobster (this visit actually exceeded expectations). Our waiter was Jahon, and the service was great! He was very attentive, checking on us as he passed by. Appetizers came out quick, the entrées came out hot, and our drinks were never empty. It was truly a pleasant dinner experience, and we will be returning when seafood is what we are craving. As far as the decor, it obviously hasnt changed. But the perspective of an atmosphere seems to change based on how the experience is going. With the experience we had today, I would hope to see crowds waiting for a table once again. Just like the "good ol' days." Thank you to the manager for listening to my grievances and showing true concern to make this a...