Red Lobster

We only came here because we had a gift card. This isn’t a place I would expect to get great seafood, it doesn’t have the same reputation it did 20 – 30 years ago… so I naturally walked in with low expectations. My husband immediately commented on the crumb filled carpets. We were seated in the bar area, thought maybe it was just us… hadn’t seen the waitress and the people behind us complained to the hostesses who seemed to not know anything that was going on. That couple eventually left. I guess someone got the waitress who was getting orders from the back. Roxie our waitress told us she was new and wasn’t told that new customers had been seated in her area. She gave us the heads up that dinner service was slow (which reading others comments seems to be a running theme). Roxie was very nice and accommodating. The food was okay. Had it not been for her we probably would’ve left like the other couple because no one else seemed to care.

OK, this place is a joke. Too many things to list, but I will list that the manager should be fired.
Is that really lobster anyway? I’d write more, but I ate some of my lobster taco last night… and I have to go now.

Came here on ²⁄₁₂ at 7pm. Hostess was already saying they were a little backed up because a busser called out. We were sat around 7:10, ordered at 7:15. Took them over an hour and no food was out yet. We had to walk out because we have a movie to go to. This is ridiculous! The manager didn’t even come over to apologize. I fell bad for the waitress as she seemed super embarrassed that we walked out cancelling our order. This establishments needs to know how to staff, especially on a weekend. This is the second time we come to this red lobster and the service is subpar. The waitress was fine, but the managers needs to get his priorities right. Will never be coming back to this place. My husband and I had to leave without a meal to catch our movie.

First of all, we started with a great experience. We came for lobsterfest and the menu looked as if it wouldn’t disappoint. We ordered got our biscuits and salads, then the waitress comes over to inform us they have NO TOMATOES for our dishes! How does a franchise run out of tomatoes before the dinner rush on a Saturday? So then we thought we would maybe be given a discount on drinks or a discount on the meal, but nope! Full charge and just an apology from the waitress. Huge disappointment!

I swear the only reason I am giving this place a 5 star is because of Ethan because that’s what he deserves! I walked in here on a Thursday night and it was dead, me and my bf waited in the front for about 5 minutes and one of the server/​host girls kept looking at us and didn’t bother to offer to help. That’s when Ethan came and he was just amazing. The service he provided was great! Besides that the food is alright, not a place I would go to again.

My wife and I got a gift card to Red Lobster so we went to the Thousand Oaks Red Lobster last Saturday at around 4pm. The place had maybe three other customers in it.
We were seated promptly in the bar area at a table with bench style seats. I sat down and my seat was covered with breadcrumbs and food. They never bothered to wipe the seat off from the last customer who sat there. Filthy!
Ok, so I wipe the seat with several dozen swipes of my hand and then sit down thinking to myself «what are we doing here». The waitress comes over quickly and gives us our linen napkins and dinnerware and takes our drink order.
As I’m sitting there talking to my wife, I begin to notice a foul odor in the air. I immediately realize that it’s coming from my napkin. I quickly pick up the napkin and unroll the flatware out of it and put it to my nose to smell it. I felt like puking. The stench coming from the napkin smelled like rancid grease. My wife picked her napkin up to smell hers and she looked at me in disgust. Both napkins smelled unwashed and putrid. Terrible to say the least.
At that point, I was ready to walk out but our drinks arrived. The glass that my margarita came in was filthy. It had chunks of old caked on food still on it. That glass was probably just rinsed off and had never been washed and they served that thing to their customer. Unbelievable.
I told the waitress to call the manager to my table at once where I proceeded to tell the manager exactly what I thought of her so called managerial skills and how she’s allowing this once very good restaurant to be run into the ground. She begged us to stay an offered us a gift card and a comped meal. We told her we already have a gift card and that we wouldn’t eat there for free. I assured her I was going to call corporate headquarters which I will do in a couple days.
We then walked out and went elsewhere to eat.
My bet is this place will be run out of business by summer due to poor management and lazy, untrained employees.
You’ve been warned.

This was a lovely meal with Sagan as our server. She was knowledgable about the menu and really helped make our dining experience special. The soup was delicious and our favorite part of the meal. The four course meal deal is very appealing and a great way to go!

It was a Saturday night and with reservations it was still over a 45 minute wait to be seated so you have to be patient because the place is packed. Next, because we were able to read the menu while waiting to be seated, we immediately ordered appetizers and drinks. We had the privilege of landing a GREAT WAITER, ALEX!!! The guy rocked, he was polite, courteous and attentive and went «above and beyond» so we want to give Alex a perfect «10». He checked on frequently and was prompt with any request. He also noticed that the grandfather was stuggling with the crab so he offered to help, so much appreciation for this guy. Everthing we ordered was great and to our expectations. It was my step daughters birthday and Alex’s impeccable service along with the good food made the wait all worthwhile!

Tonight I went for the Endless Shrimp. I went in order to attempt to dominate this promotion. When it was all said and done I had consumed 140 shrimp of all shapes and sizes. Two takeaways: the shrimp was and so was good our waitress, however the service for getting our food was horrifically slow. Probably partly strategic by Red Lobster and partly lame. If you are going for Endless Shrimp expect lengthy periods of time before you get your next order.
PS: We sat in the bar area but I don’t think that had anything to do with it.

Came here early on a Saturday night to avoid it being super crowded and glad I did. My fiancé and I were sat immediately, and not two minutes later our waitress came up and took our drink order. She was very friendly and attentive. We both already knew what we wanted and ordered. I got the all you can eat shrimp and my fiancé got the salmon, shrimp and lobster. Everything was amazing! We also ordered dessert. We got the apple pie thing with ice cream. We loved it so much we order it twice. Reason for the four stars is because by the end of us eating it got harder and harder to talk to your waitress. But overall great experience here.

Service was great, food was okay. Smaller portions with higher quality would mean more to me than a massive portion of food that was just okay.

I’ve always love Red Lobster, but this staff sometimes just amazes me with their kindness and going above and beyond. My three year old son was getting a little rambunctious near the end of dinner, so mommy took him for a walk. Alex, the host, let him pick a lobster to observe and offered to let him pet. He also gave him a small lesson on lobsters. Good job.

Went there on a Friday night, lightly attended, they stuck us in the bar area with an 8 year old, said they were light staffed. Okay
Took ten minutes to take drink orders. Ordered then waited 45 minutes for substandard shrimp tacos and miniature fish trio.
Pictures of their food must be taken with a zoom lens.
I will wait another two years before I do that again.

I give this place one star we ordered clam chowder that was bad tasting then I ordered the crab the had no flavor no taste and it was just watery I was very disappointed I will never go there again I’ve been to Joe’s Crab Shack and they have better crab there

The King Crab legs that my husband ordered did not have any flavor or taste, they were extremely watered down. They did not taste fresh and The butter that was served at the bottom of the bowl was watered down and the corn on the cobb was saturated with water! for $ 35 ???
I had the Crab Cakes and these did not have any flavor either. The «Aioli» had more flavor (made from mayo), than anything. These cost $ 21.
The crab cakes did not taste fresh at all!

Came here with a friend for lunch the other day. First off we noticed that we were the only customers in the entire restaurant. I’m not sure why this place is so dead on weekdays for lunch but it’s been like this every time I visit. Anyway, we were seated promptly and our server was with us right away. Drinks came out fast and we both ordered their current special — trio of seafood. I asked if they could do the lobster pasta and shrimp scampi without garlic and they were able to accommodate. I didn’t ask for anything special about the coconut shrimp bites and those are what turned out to be way too spicy for me! I’d say a three on a scale of 0 to 10. I could only get through eating two and then discarded the rest. They serve it with a tasty pina-​colada sauce but it couldn’t save me from the heat. :(
My friend and I left without finishing our food, but we were both stuffed. Service was great, cheddar biscuits were good. ²⁄₃ of my seafood trio was fantastic.
I’ll probably come here again when I’m in the mood for some good seafood options and have a bit of extra cash (this place is a bit expensive).

We walked in on a Friday night around 6:30 for dinner. After a brief wait we were seated. Our server promptly greeted us and took our drink order. Next we ordered our meal and opted for the 4 course feast. Includes soup, salad, entrée and dessert. A lot of food and all for only $ 17.99. For starters I chose the clam chowder which was just ok. The salad was a garden salad and it was cold and refreshing. My garlic grilled shrimp was very good. Tender, flavorful and cooked perfectly. No one likes over cooked shrimp! Oh and I must mention the entrée had 20 shrimp! I could not eat it all. The dessert is still in my fridge but I chose the cheesecake. My boyfriend had the hand breaded shrimp and said it was good but was eyeing my shrimp. My BF also ordered the jumbo margarita ($ 9) but he said it was not great and very weak.
We enjoyed our meal here. RL does offer great meal deals and that is what I will return for.

We ordered a dozen oysters crab legs and a lobster bake. We were located in the bar area. We noticed we only had 11 oysters instead of 12. We looked everywhere just in case we lost one lol. When we told the waiter he quickly brought us 3 to make up for the mistake.
The service was very friendly and quick. The food was also very good.

The drinks here are delicious! I love the mango daquiri!
Anyway, onto the food. The food is alright. You can get a good deal and the service is friendly enough. I think it’s a little oily here. I’m not exactly a fan, but I’ll come here if my family or friends want to go.

Ok, I’m going to be honest here, I love Red Lobster. Whoever decided to combine fatty, buttery Italian values with seafood and mass produce it in the a chain store is a genius.
I was pretty excited to chill at the Red Lobster — I had never gone despite living in Thousand Oaks for a while. The store has a sizable parking lot and is in a pretty convenient location.
The restaurant might have been pretty busy when it first opened, but by this point the hubbub seems to have died down. Walking in from the parking lot, we almost had to check the hours first to see if they were actually open — looking in from the windows there did not appear to be a single soul in the restaurant. After walking in it was apparent that they were only seating people in half of the restaurant, since there simply wasn’t enough people to fill up the entire restaurant. This was also 7pm on a Friday.
The cheesy biscuits that they give you in lieu of bread were heart-​stoppingly delicious. They usually give you a menu that has pictures of the food — which I honestly think is more of a disservice for them than a good thing. When you pick your order based on the pictures of food in the menu, it tends to be even more disappointing when it arrives. We ordered the Ultimate Feast, which was neither ultimate or feasty — more like the Subpar Meal-​for-​One-​and-​One-​Half-​People. Compared to the picture, the little shrimp just lazily thrown onto the plate were kind of sad looking.
Everything tasted exactly as you would expect from an American chain store. The lobster was pretty tough (quite overcooked) but definitely tasted like lobster. The king crab legs tasted like crab, and the buttery garlic shrimp thing tasted like pure, melted butter with a lot of garlic and little bit of shrimp mixed in. The chicken alfredo was a massive pile of sodium-​poisoning-​inducing salty chicken and cream. Portions are massive if you order the pastas, or really anything that isn’t the straight seafood.
Service was very nice and attentive. They have more healthier (read: bland) options of grilled fish fillets in a separate menu if you ask for it.