Red Lobster — Restaurant in Wayne Township

We are just an old couple celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary. We worked all day siding our own over 100 year old home. This is not because we can't afford to hire someone else to do it, but because we want it done correctly. As we worked, we talked about other wedding anniversaries we have celebrated over the years. Fish and chips on the Mediterranean, fish tacos in Hawaii, fresh caught Sea Bass in Florida, Captain's Plate in Alaska, Mexican in San Antonio, and a fun and wonderful date at Red Lobster in Sioux Falls about 10 years ago. Even though we had to stay home that year, our waitress made the event spectacular. We tipped her more than we spent on the food. I still have the receipt with her HAPPY ANNIVERSARY written in color across the back....and a photo. We decided that since we were stuck at home again, siding the house, we would take time to drive into Sioux Falls to Red Lobster. We showered, changed clothes, prepared cash for a very generous tip, drove 30 minutes, arrived at 6:30 on Tuesday evening. We asked for a table for two. The hostess directed us to the bar. We requested a table in the dining room. The hostess was annoyed, there would be a 15 minute wait time. We said fine, we werent in any hurry, but we were really hungry as we had worked outside all day. She clocked us in at 6:34pm and we waited. We were seated at a table before 7pm but waited to order drinks while eating bisquits. We ordered water. The waitress was annoyed. She slammed water glasses, no straws. I asked about an ad from email, she answered quickly and curtly. We waited to order. We ordered that shrimp special, salad, starter, and entrée for $20 ×2. It was really more food than we needed, we planned a big celebration dessert! We watched as our curt and irritable waitress worked her big tables, chatting and refilling. "Strawberry for you, mango over here, and watermelon! Is there anything else you need?" She finally brought us salads. She might have cracked a smile then. We ate salad and biscuits. We stacked the dishes at the edge of the table. We talked and waited. At 8pm our waitress brought out our entrée. We had been at the Red Lobster for 90 minutes. We each had a glass of water, a salad, and three biscuits. The starters that we ordered were nowhere to be found. I asked about the appetizers. "What appetizers?" She shot back. " The ones we ordered??" I answered. Without asking us, the food goes back to the kitchen. As we wait again, my husband says, " she will just set that back and bring it out again later. It will be cold." It has now been a full half hour since we polished off our salads and biscuits. I'm not hungry anymore. I sure don't want to be in the presence of this crabby, irritable server any longer. The food is going to be congealed and cold....or microwaved when we finally get it. Anniversary dessert...which was the original plan...doesn't even sound fun anymore. When the forgotten starters are finally brought to the table. I say "I don't really want them anymore." Oh my goodness! That really set off the poor overworked server. She explained how busy she was...no apology, just excuses. ( Like we hadn't watched her look after her big tables and hadn't seen the contrast??) "Well, do you want to talk to my manager? We can just cancel the whole order! You can just leave. What do you want to do?" " Why don't you just pack it to go. We've been here an hour and a half. It is 8pm and we are tired." So she did. As she brought the ticket, she said " I'm sorry I ruined your celebration." She DID NOT sound sorry. We tipped her 5% because that is what we tip at locations where they pack food to go. A table of 2, drinking water, and spending $40 is probably a $8 tip. She couldn't waste time being kind, pleasant, or attentive when there were bigger tables with higher tabs.

Covid ruined Red Lobster. I haven't had a good experience there since before 2020. Servers must make abysmal wages to feel the need to assess the potential tips and adjust their work...

I’m writing to formally express my disappointment with a recent visit to one of your restaurants. My husband and I, along with our two young children, dined at the Red Lobster located in [City/State] on [insert date], and unfortunately, the experience was far below the standard we’ve come to expect from your brand.

We live an hour away from this location, so dining at Red Lobster is a special outing for our family. We anticipated a short wait to be seated, which was no issue. However, once we were at our table, things quickly went downhill.

Our server, Ashton, was impolite from the start. It took over 15 minutes just to receive our drinks. As someone who previously worked in the service industry, I understand that sometimes servers get busy, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. We placed our order and asked for additional biscuits, as our children were becoming restless. Instead of entering our order promptly, Ashton stood talking with other servers and managers for approximately 10 minutes before putting the order in.

We then waited over an hour for our food. During that time, a table seated more than 30 minutes after us received their meals from a manager. My husband politely approached the manager and asked to cancel our order due to the excessive wait. She apologized and said she would take care of it. Oddly, not even a minute later, our food was brought out — cold.

When Ashton delivered the food, I calmly explained our frustration with the long wait and lack of check-ins or drink refills, and requested the check. Her response was simply, “That’s crazy,” before walking away.

When she returned with the bill, she said she didn’t understand what the problem was. My husband, still calm and respectful, explained that we waited over an hour for cold food. She replied, “I don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to me,” and walked off to get the manager — despite us having already spoken with her.

Things escalated further when Ashton took our card, threw a food rack on the ground, and walked past the POS system without cashing us out. The manager returned and asked, “Is something wrong?” again, to which I replied, “We asked to cancel our food, and it came out cold anyway.” The manager stated she had been watching the food come out of the window, and walked away to retrieve our final check.

When she brought it to us, we had to inform her that our server still had our card. She eventually returned it and offered a basic apology, to which my husband responded: “We come here because we enjoy it, but this was an awful experience.”

This entire situation was incredibly frustrating and disappointing, especially considering we were with two small children who had to sit through an extended, uncomfortable dining experience. We left feeling disrespected and undervalued as customers.

I sincerely hope this feedback is taken seriously. We’ve always enjoyed Red Lobster in the past, but this visit left us second-guessing whether it’s worth returning — especially given how poorly the situation was handled by both the server and the...

Horrible experience from start to finish! They were consistent! Expected a wait to be seated . Approached the Bar to purchase beverages while we waited. Bar was wet and sloppy. The bartender, Dave, approached us and slap down to cardboard coasters and proceeded to take our order. When delivering our beverages, he spilled a fair amount of one of them. He did not apologize nor clean it up. We had to ask him to wipe it down at which time we both picked up our beverages and he only wiped the area of spillage. When the buzzer indicated our table was ready and we proceeded to be seated, the hostess indicated that someone would be with us shortly to take our order. 18 minutes later we had not even been acknowledged by anyone of the staff. We interrupted a server at a nearby table, whose name was Devon, and asked for assistance. He acknowledged that the server assigned to our table was known among his peers as slow and lazy. He apologized and took our drink order and later our food order when he returned with the beverages. In the meantime, another table was seated in our area. When the server assigned to our area did show up he greeted them and took their order and still did not acknowledge us for another 10 minutes. The table next to us which was a larger party had not been cleared or cleaned off and remained that wait for the duration of our visit. Another person delivered our meal. The asparagus was limp and tough. When Devon came back to check on us, we brought that to his attention and he promptly returned with another order, but the asparagus was in the same condition. It was overcooked and wrinkly also. The garlic shrimp also had a strange texture and bad aftertaste. It was just not the type of atmosphere or quality of food you expect for the amount of money spent. Devon did fine, but the others need help! It would be a great place for some customer service training and a great idea to have a manager or other personnel mingling about to ensure a positive experience! There are plenty of other establishments in the area that would provide a pleasant experience and certainly better...