Posted on 11/03/2014 1:57:16 PM PST by C19fan
Struggling restaurant chain Red Lobster is going back to its roots with a new menu that’s set to feature more dishes featuring lobster. A revamped menu announced on Monday removes several poorly received non-seafood dishes including Spicy Tortilla Soup and a Wood-Grilled Pork Chop. These non-seafood dishes had been added by the chain's previous owner, Darden Restaurants Inc., in the vain hope of attracting people who don't like seafood as sales declined.
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I don’t care for seafood and would never go to Red Lobster to eat non-seafood. Anything there would have a fishy flavor and I am not interested.
Good move on their part to go to their roots. If that doesn’t work, then they need to die.
I liked the endless shrimp too. The only sticking point was that they refused to take the old dishes off of the table the last couple of times I went. Was their ‘policy’ to remove them at the end.
Every Darden owned restaurant is mediocre at best.
They are the General Motors of chain food The difference between most of these places and McDonalds is that they have to take it out of the box before they microwave it.
small portions,low quality,poor service and high prices havent been back in 5 years
Champagne.
Good post.
The clam strips - MY FAVORITE. But I get a baked potato, not French fries.
And a diet coke! (I put Sweet N Low in the coffee I have with the carrot cake)
If we want great seafood, we drive 3 hours to Newicks, on the New Hampshire coast.
My husband is from CT, and when we go back there to see family, I want clam strips for almost all my meals out. I believe RL is the ONLY place around here that has them.
I love seafood and have run kitchens in some really good seafood restaurants.
I last ate at a Red Lobster in the late 1980s. It was crap seafood then and it’s crap seafood now.
What kind of seafood is chincy?
Probably their way of shaming customers into not ordering more.
Sort of. Red Lobster does a kind of middle of the road seafood that most people like (lobster, shrimp, salmon, mild white fishes) and they should focus on that with an improvement in their sides, less concentration on quantity and more on quality (make sure the fish is really fresh, for example), and a more modernized presentation. The hokey “old timey” things don’t attract anybody anymore.
There’s a small chain down here, Bonefish Grill, that does almost all seafood (they have a couple of meat dishes) and is reasonably priced but popular with middle aged and younger people because it’s modern feeling, cheerful, the menu is modern classic, and you don’t feel that people only come there for the “twilight special” or whatever they’re calling it. Red Lobster has kind of a depressing, mass produced feel, and nobody likes that.
I live in an area where you can get good seafood, but for people who don’t, Red Lobster could fill a need. The only problem is that they have such a dreary reputation now that it’s going to be hard to rebuild the brand.
My observation is the restaurant draws low income daters. Which is cool when you’re 16 and trying to impress.
LOL! Yes, that’s one of the problems. Everything is heavily breaded and drenched in oil. And I love fried food, but not “drenched” food.
I used to love RL, but I think the quality has gone down to keep costs low. Last time I went was about a year ago for their Shrimpfest, all the shrimp were small, rubbery and had no flavor. When restaurants are in trouble it’s almost always because the food sucks. Serve great food and people will eat there.
And in JCPEnneys case, much of the damage they suffered, they brought onto themselves. aka catering to the 1% perverts of america/ellen watch the lesbian dance.
Red Lobster is showing signs of “Chain Restaurant Death Spiral”. In an effort to stem the bleeding, corners are cut. Quality and service goes down, prices go up, and people stay away.
I’ll give RL credit for trying to expand its appeal beyond seafood. And also for not going the “fun” route. I *hate* theme restaurants that try to entertain you. I hate them with a passion. If I want entertainment with my meal, I’ll do dinner theater.
New owners changing the plan isn’t really throwing in the towel, it’s new owners making new decisions. It’s good to have a couple of non-seafood items on the menu, helps with large groups. Just like how every Mexican restaurant has burgers.
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