Red Lobster — Restaurant in Vancouver

I took my wife there for her birthday. Its one of her favorite places usuall weekend... not this time! She got a lobster plate that had a rock lobster tail ,a Maine lobster tail , lobster and shrimp pasta , fries and broccoli for $59.99. She added a scallop skewer for almost $15.00 more and a glass of sangria. The fries, the broccoli and the lobster and shrimp pasta were good. The rock lobster is her favorite she pulled it out of the shell cut it up and tried a bite. It was ice cold and had literally no flavor. She said it was so weird as it usually has a sweet flavor that she prefers over the Maine lobster. Then she pulled the Maine lobster tail out of the shell. It was cold. She cut it up dipped it in the butter it was ice cold raw. So she moved along to the skewer of 4 scallops unfortunately they were cold and not cooked all the way either. So she had a bite of all 3 awful things and could not eat anymore. First of all it was raw so thats not safe I checked it to confirm. I'm honestly confused as to how food like this leaves the kitchen. So its her birthday and she hardly got to eat... thank God for those French fries and biscuits I guess. I had the chicken pasta and it was good. We ordered 2 orders of pasta to take home for later when we ordered our main dinners. One Cajun chicken and one shrimp pasta. They were both good. It kinda makes me sad because we drive all the way to the Vancouver red lobster because the food before this incident has always seemed better than other locations. Our waiter wasn't great but the waitress wandering through helping other tables was amazing. I still left him a $30 tip. He asked if we wanted some biscuits for our pasta we said oh sure thank you. We get home to put the two boxes of pasta away he put a total of two biscuits in there. It was my wife's birthday and I told him. Usually restaurants will do some little dessert. They actually had come out and sang to someone else and brought her dessert. They did nothing for my wife accept ruin her birthday. It was such a terrible end to the nice day I had planned for her. I promised her I'd take her out again somewhere else when I can. The dinner was over $150 dollars....awful awful awful experience. The manager never even came to apologize and our waiter despite seeming to be a very nice young man really wasn't that...

I feel generous giving 3 stars - my initial thought was 2 stars. Ultimately, I feel like my nostalgic feelings of going to the "fancy" Red Lobster from my childhood is getting the better of me and thereby awarding that extra star. The good - the food did taste good and our server was friendly. Though, I have some additional comments about the service, I choose to by pass to the real reasons I won't eat here again.

Why I wasn't impressed with this location: We had reservations but still needed to wait the same time as those who didn't have reservations. It was only frustrating because we were originally told the table would be ready and after standing there for some time (with two people who could barley walk/stand) we figured we weren't going to be seated soon and had finallysat down to wait... so, poor communication. They were out of 3 of things that we tried ordering. I learned that they precook alot of the food earlier in the day and then re-warm it when it's ordered... how did I learn this. Well, I have food sensitivity (autoimmune issues) and ordered double broccoli without the "butter" or oil. But because they already had all their broccoli cooked for the night (we were there at 5:30 pm) and therefore coverd in canola oil.

Why I won't eat at any Red Lobster again: They have no real butter. Everything that they advertise as "butter" or "butter sauce" is margarine or canola oil. They charge a premium for precooked food that is covered in liquid plastic or inflammation triggers. There's not a sweet potato option. I cannot have regular potatoes (they're a nightshade, which I cannot eat.) So, poor food choices for those who are needing to...

After eating dinner here, I remembered why I hadn't eaten at a Red Lobster in 20 years. Plus, enough food for three meals. Minus, so many minus... 1 hour wait in the dining room, huh? It appeared they might not have had full staffing on a Friday night as there were many 2 and 4 tops that were open, with many people waiting. We chose to sit at the bar. Slllowwww service in the bar. 10 minutes before we were asked what we wanted to drink, at least 5 more minutes to get a vodka martini and a glass of wine. A glass of way over priced wine. $12 for the same cheap wine I pay $8 or $9 for everywhere else, and a very light pour at that. Slow service again for our dinners. I think they may have sat under the heat lamps for a while, as the fried shrimp and rice seemed somewhat dry, yet the food wasn't exceptionally hot when it came out. Seafood feast was fine, the fish was okay, not bad not great, exactly what I expected of a chain restaurant. But for the same price, I could have eaten at one of the fabulous local restaurants we have in Vancouver and Portland. And for the same $12 I could have had a better than mediocre red wine. I wouldn't have had enough left overs for 2 more meals, but I also wouldn't have felt the need to write this Meh...