Restaurant Review - Red Lobster

Well I am happily back from our min-vacation. I was extremely excited that I was able to take my partner out for her birthday. We are not often able to get out but when we do, oh we love our choices. She adores seafood and I swear I could eat my weight in crab legs. So we generally try to make it out for seafood once in a while. Our normal locations are Chinese or Italian, nothing to spicy. I decided instead of fighting for a topic for today I figured I'd review Red Lobster and see what you all think of it (my review!). Without further ado let me introduce you to my experience at Red Lobster.

What is Red Lobster? Well you might be asking this right now, so how about a little background. It's a high class seafood joint. They stretch across the United States and possibly elsewhere but location is not my cup of tea. (That's for sure peppermint.) The one I want to talk about is the one that is Pueblo Colorado. It was right off the highway and super simple to find with a lot of good parking. It was the first time I didn't have to cross a busy road to get into one. haha. It was a Wednesday at 6 pm and I figured it would be pack, however I was happily surprised with no wait time. While there is no real dress code, it was for sure an upper class type of place. Similar to Olive Garden if you are familiar with that.

The atmosphere was wonderful. All of the staff was very friendly. Fish and sea fair items adorned the walls and it had a wonderful feel too it. A soft almost natural light created a perfect dining atmosphere. It's not really a kid friendly place, but they were very happy to accommodate them with child's place mats and crayons. It was also a very quite environment for how many people were there.

Now that I have you interested in maybe heading over there, let me give you all the juicy details about the menu. They recently got new ones in and it included a wonderful fresh fish menu, consisting of all the fresh catches that were brought in that day. It also held their current promotion, and my personal favorite, Crabfest. There appetizers were all pretty well seafood friendly things like crab dip, and lobster pizza, but they also had simple things like general mozzarella sticks. Their dessert selection was slightly lacking, but luckily not fish related. Simple things like cheese cake and apple crisp were there just in case. Now while most of the menu is seafood don't worry there are also some wonderful chicken dishes. Not a lot of variety there but at least they are on it. I personally enjoyed the wonders of crabfest while my partner enjoy what's called seaside trio. It was a dish containing lobster, crab, and shrimp. As far as any other specialty diet need like vegan or what not, I would ask the location about it prior, it didn't seem to accommodate things like that. It was also interesting to learn all the shrimp is fried together. So be careful if you have any allergies especially to coconut. All of our meals however did come with salad and choice of side.

The meal we ate was generally simple, no crazy special orders. We try not to make a servers life difficult. All of the food was good save for the asparagus. My Aunt (who was with us) ordered it. It's only available during it's peek season and they still charge extra for it. Now I don't mind paying for something like that, however when it comes to me cooked wrong, I get a little annoyed. It was very woody and fibrous. When we brought up the problem staff was happy to fix it and refunded me the money.

On the note of staff fixing problems, lets talk about them. They are a major part of the restaurant so lets give them their spot light. All of them from hostess to manager was extremely pleasant. All of them had a smile on their face. The manager walked around a few times checking on tables and was very involved with his business. The waitress was happy to fix any problems and kept our drinks full. (To me that's very important.) The food was out quick and was still hot when we got it. All wonderful.

Now for the real thing on everyone's mind. Well how much is this going to cost? I wish I could say it was cheep, but sadly it is for sure an upper class restaurant. Great for a special occasion or just a once in a while treat. If I had a great paying job, well then I would personally make a habit of it considering in Colorado good seafood is not easy to find. The average plate runs about $20, with drinks being about $3. So estimate about $25-$30 per person in the group. For our table of three the bill was over $80. We each got an entree, drink, and a salad. My aunt also got a bowl of soup. That's it, no booz, no appetizers, nothing crazy.

My overall opinion for this visit was wonderful, the kind staff and good food offset the price. Also, it was for a birthday, so the price isn't the important part. We all had a great time and went home full. They also gave us some of their amazing garlic cheese biscuits to take home.

Rating:

Staff: 5/5 They were willing to help work us through a menu that was unfamiliar to us.
Food and Presentation: 4/5
Ambiance and Decor: 5/5
Quality of Service: 5/5
Favorite menu item: Seaside trio
Kid Friendly: No (this is not a place to bring a group of little ones for a birthday party)
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Overall Rating: 5/5

While we did have a problem with one food item they were happy to fix it. So thank you Red Lobster.