Critic's Review
I haven't been to a Red Lobster in 30 years; I put it in the same category as Ruby Tuesdays and Appleby's; a notch below TGI Friday's which at least is a decent place to hang out and watch a game. But the news that Darden Restaurants sold the Red Lobster brand on Friday prompted me to go for a "seafood" lunch.
If you haven't been following along, Darden had been under pressure for the under-performance of their Red Lobster and Olive Garden brands; they also own The Capital Grille, Season's 52, Longhorn Steakhouse and Yardhouse. There's been much speculation about selling either Olive Garden or Red Lobster, with most of the analysts I've heard against the idea. But today it happened; Golden Gate Capital bought them for $2.1 Billion.
Golden Gate is a private company that bought California Pizza Kitchen 3 years ago and recently unloaded the Romano Macaroni Grill to our friends at Ignite (Joe's Crab Shack and Brickhouse Tap and Tavern). They've made some nice changes at CPK, as witnessed by my recent review, so they'll likely do the same with Red Lobster. So here is the "Before":
At 2:30 there were a lot of cars in the lot; most place in this town are dead empty between 2 and 5. Of course there was no hostess; it's a big restaurant so you just can't seat yourself. The decor here is quite dated; would you want to come in here and hang out at the bar?
They do have a lobster tank in the waiting area; if there were smart they'd feature it more rather than it just being there. Despite the name, this isn't a place I think about coming for a Maine Lobster.
It was quite a while before the hostess came out. She tried to seat me at a table in the bar, which I quickly flipped off. I'd like a booth please. Now maybe she thinks she's being smart, but she put me at a bench table but not a booth, even though there was an empty booth right next to me.
When you obtain a restaurant, the first thing you do is dispense with the idiotic hostesses, who think that your money isn't worth as much if you're not in a big group. An empty table makes no revenue; discouraging people from dining alone by putting them at a bad table, particularly at lunch, is hurting your business.
For some reason, the Red Lobster has become a restaurant that's avoided by white people; There were only 3 people out of 20 tables in the restaurant. Maybe there's nothing wrong with that, but one reason that restaurants struggle is because they become tagged as one thing or another. The Olive Garden has become a blue hair paradise; and while I don't have anything against older or black people, it can be uncomfortable. I don't hang out in Wilton Manors either. People gather with like kinds. It's notable because it's the only place along this strip that leans this way.
My server was a very large woman; I mention that for a reason that will become apparent later in the review. I ordered an Iced Tea with extra lemon, which was delivered in ample time.
The menu if very large; there are lunch specials, specials of the day, lunch combos, dinner combos. It's all very confusing. I decided on a lunch combo, priced at $10.49, for which I selected the "hand breaded" shrimp, shrimp scampi and a side of broccoli.
I've heard a lot about the "Cheddar Bay" biscuits, which are part of the deal.
Not very cheddary, but darn good. Light, tasty, I need butter on biscuits, so I just tasted them for now. Included with the under $11 combo is a dinner salad, something that the rip-off restaurants on Las Olas have long eliminated, hoping we won't notice.
The kind of salad you used to get not so long ago, before businessman took over the industry from families and chefs. Good Blue cheese dressing. I left the croutons as this is a big calorie lunch. The combo came out just as I was finishing up the salad.
It came out without the butter; I asked for some for the broccoli. I was expecting the butterflied fried shrimp, but these were decent. The scampi was decent also. The broccoli was a tad underdone; closer to raw than overdone which is the better of the choices. The butter elevated the biscuits also, although I only ate about 2/3s of 1 of them.
So I'm almost done and my server spots the 2nd biscuit that I didn't touch and she remarks "Saving room for Dessert?". I held my tongue, but maybe just maybe I don't want to look like the rest of the people in this restaurant? Being ridiculed by a 300lb woman for not eating my biscuits is pretty rich when you think about it.
Meanwhile, my glass is empty and no refill was ever offered. It's also not the kind of place where they clear the little bits of paper on the table.
No refill costs you a dollar on your tip, People. Make a note.
$15.86 with tip for this. That won't get you just the salad on Las Olas.
Frankly, this was a lot better than I expected; a lot of breaded and high calorie fish dishes; but you can get broiled flounder and wild rice if you're being good. I can see why Golden Gate Capital sees potential here; Darden has lost their way in many ways which is obvious if you've been to an Olive Garden lately. We'll see what they've done with the place in 2 years.