Posted on 12/20/2013 5:17:15 PM PST by zeestephen
Owner Darden Restaurants says the seafood chain is underperforming and wants to sell it. Red Lobster has failed to attract the number of higher-income diners that both Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse have.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.msn.com ...
Have Olive Garden offer the Cheddar Biscuits as an alternative and I’ll be fine.
Some people say it is good and others say it is crap. I imagine it depends on what star level of restaurant you desire.
You might be able to get away with it in the Midwest, but you can’t just microwave some frozen lobster in butter and serve it to Mainers.
Red Lobster Sucks!
One of those Obama-loving lefty companies wants to sell off a major chain....
Her attempts at drawing in anorexics and orthorexics that will pay for the all-you-can-eat meal and maybe grab one, perfect shrimp at most, failed miserably.
Faux Italian food that's one step up from Chef Boyardee, yet marketed as the real deal.
Their problem is that they don’t turn their tables over fast enough at dinner time an they are not a lunch place like Olive Garden (better price & chick food) or Longhorn (sandwiches and burgers).
When we’re in Maine, we cook our lobsters and eat them at home. They’ve been pretty cheap recently, and if they’re still alive when you drop them in the pot, then you can be sure that they’re fresh.
We generally buy straight from the lobsterman, whom we’ve known for a long time, on the day of the feast.
“Olive Garden has “high end” diners? Seriously? Is this from the Onion?’
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You beat me to it.
.
Lobster tails are one of the easiest things in the world to prepare in a microwave.
Just split them down the middle, fold back the shell and inside meat. Place some butter in the crevice.
Microwave until it turns white then stop.
Eat.
I don’t use businesses that cater to welfare people. I have to pay a little more, but that is the cost of staying out of the cesspool.
Another trick is I have a map that shows where there are Septa bus routes. I stay away from those areas. It works really well. The restaurants have neighborhood kids and people with cars working for them. No bus trash.
I have a choice of three Home Depots. One is in Philly — it is just a shell so they can say they have stores in the city. One is right next to the city — it has security like a prison, and every customer and employee is black. The third is out a ways — employees and customers have to have a car to get there — it has no noticeable security, it must do five times the volume of the other two combined.
Not that bad if you have coupons. Certainly not as high as Ruth’s Chris or Morton’s. And you don’t have to get dressed up either.
Gee, I wonder why Red Lobster is under performing....
ping
When I worked for civil service I would sometimes have to travel. The last I recall before I retired, per diem for rural areas, small towns etc. was $35 for food.
At the time that would allow a pretty nice meal if you just ate cheaply for breakfast and lunch. I would then go out and have a really nice supper.
I often got bad service and had no idea why as I was always friendly and courteous. One day my Brother ate with me and he told me the reason I was getting poor service was that I dressed a bit like a slob.
I then started to wear nicer clothes when I ate and he was right.
A bunch of us happened to be in Vegas when Darden opened their Bahama Breeze restaurant there, and it was right across from the hotel where we were staying. We decided to try it and were glad we did. Both the food and service were excellent — I think for the 6 days we were there, we ate at Bahama Breeze 5 times. No idea how they are now, or if they’ve gone corporate like Olive Garden, but they were sure good back then. They had a seafood pasta dish that was excellent, pork medallions that were really good, and fish (don’t recall what kind) cooked in paper with vegetables that was excellent. Their cocktails also were great.
My extended clan likes it because you can get a table for 20 and stay there for two hours. I get the baked sole and the bruschetta appetizers.
Their BBQ or glazed shrimp and such aren't my cup of tea, but I don't like sweet glazes anyway. Their blackened catfish was also decent. The cost is on the high side for casual dinning, but I guess the food isn't bad in terms of being chain restaurant seafood (which is tough to do well).
I love seafood. I love English fried fish. I love mackerel sashimi. I love grilled swordfish, pickled herring, peel and eat prawns, salt and pepper shrimp with the heads still on, etc. Baltimore crabs in season are awesome. I've bought lobster off a guy on the rocks in Maine. I've bough conch off the dock in Nassau. Clams and Oysters on the Jersey Shore, or Long Island. I've had friends go clamming for a clambake, and cooked them on the beach. Those things aren't RL’s game. You want Lobster in Kansas City, or Shrimp in Boulder, 360 day a year. It's going to be in transit, and RL is going to be better than what I could deliver you in my car.
That said, I don't feel like I get value at Red Lobster (compared to my local fishfry place that serves Cusk in season, for $8 for a platter. I'll pay $50 for a great ribeye. $30 for Lobster doesn't do it for me, and $20 for 12 decent, but not great fried shrimp doesn't do it either. Long John Silver's does slightly worse shrimp for, what $4 per dozen? And frankly, the difference in service between the two isn't big enough.
On that subject, Joes Crab Shack should be out of business. I'd go to Red Lobster over them any day.
I cannot stand seafood personally
canned tuna occasionally is enough for me
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