10 Meals To Avoid Ordering At Red Lobster According To Reviews

An iconic chain known for shellfish specials and Cheddar Bay Biscuits, Red Lobster recent financial turmoil has shaken the brand to its core. It famously went bankrupt in 2024 due to its "Ultimate Endless Shrimp" promotion. Having grievously misjudged middle America's ability to consume mass quantities of farm-raised crustaceans, the company suffered tens of millions of dollars in losses. Declining sales over time, rising food costs, and a revolving door of management have all also played a role in the company's operational struggles.

In an effort to stay afloat, the brand has clearly cut corners in the kitchen. Portions have shrunk, ingredients have been swapped for cheaper alternatives, and once reliable menu staples have become underwhelming and, in some cases, inedible. For a brand that built its reputation on perceived freshness and flavor, the slip in standards is even driving away regulars, a group it desperately needs to keep.

Customers have taken to social media to voice their frustration with the country's largest seafood chain, posting photos of rubbery shrimp, overcooked lobster tails, and entrees that look nothing like what's advertised. While some dishes have fared better than others, many menu items seem to consistently miss the mark, especially now that the company is tightening its belt.

Whether you're one of the rare longtime Red Lobster fans or someone who's been thinking of giving the chain another try, it's worth knowing what to avoid. Let's break down the 10 worst dishes to order at Red Lobster, based on customer reviews.

Once considered the magnum opus of the Red Lobster menu, the quality of the Admiral's Feast has taken a nosedive, according to a number of frustrated diners. Stock photos of the Admiral's Feast promise a deep-fried cornucopia of shrimp, bay scallops, clam strips, and flounder, but recent photos shared by diners paint a different picture. It now often arrives at tables overcooked and greasy — a sad facsimile of its once bold image.

Customers have reported soggy breading, untoward aftertastes, and portion sizes that feel more like a sampler than a feast. Rubbery textures abound and the fries served alongside the seafood are cold and limp. Quality control, it seems, has become an afterthought.

Multiple online reviews also noted inconsistency from one visit to the next, with some meals arriving nearly burnt and others undercooked. With its price point inching upward, the Admiral's Feast no longer feels like the value it once was, and it's become a frequent example of how cost-cutting measures are hurting the chain's reputation.

Given the Lobster Bisque deals directly with the chain's namesake crustacean, one might have high hopes for this dish. After all, it is a major feature of Red Lobster's Lobsterfest, a months-long celebration of all things lobster. Diners beware: this promise of lobster-laden delights is riddled with disappointment.

Many diners describe the bisque as thin, overly salty, and lacking in both texture and taste. Instead of a velvety, lobster-forward soup, what's often served is a watery, orange-tinted broth with barely a hint of seafood. Some say it tastes more like generic, canned cream soup than anything inspired by the ocean. In fact, there seems to be a noticeable absence of lobster altogether. Customers report finding little more than a few tiny shreds of meat — if any at all — floating in their bowls.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. As Red Lobster huddles from its swirling financial storm, cheap premade soups are an easy way to ensure that quality and cooking time is consistent across its various locations. The only problem, of course, it that the quality of the dish is poor. It's an unfortunate hiccup in an otherwise sensible business move.

Shrimp Scampi is a classic dish, one that calls a particular vision to mind: plump shrimp, rich butter sauce, perfectly cooked pasta. It's a time-tested icon on Red Lobster's menu, as well. Unfortunately, for many customers, the chain's Garlic Shrimp Scampi has become a dish that misses the mark on nearly every front.

The shrimp themselves are often the main point of contention. Instead of the tender, juicy shrimp you'd expect, many diners report receiving overcooked, rubbery shrimp that are tough and bland. They also report receiving far less shrimp than they used to, surely a stinging remnant of Red Lobster's "Ultimate Endless Shrimp" debacle.

The sauce has become an equal cause for concern, with many customers complaining of vapid, movie theatre butter-flavored liquid with an overwhelming garlic taste that seemingly meant to cover up the dish's various shortcomings. Instead of a bold, flavorful scampi sauce that complements the shrimp, what's often served feels greasy, one-dimensional, and borderline offensive.

Given the dish's high price tag, diners expect a little more than what's served. What should be a rich, indulgent meal often ends up being an off-putting, overpriced bowl of pasta.

Let's first address a glaring infraction in the world of food fusion: Cajun pasta is a cheap swipe at originality. Simply seeing the words "Cajun," "chicken," "linguini," and "Alfredo" used in tandem should leave diners deeply unsettled. There is a small window of opportunity for acceptance, of course, if the dish happens to be delicious. In the case of Red Lobster, as with so many of its dishes, it simply is not.

Expecting Red Lobster to make a true Alfredo sauce is surely a fool's gambit, but it seems even the cream sauce it employs is a profound disappointment. Customers frequently cite the Alfredo sauce as having a gluey texture and a plastic taste. Even worse, the supposed "Cajun" kick is usually nowhere to be found and tastes no different from a standard chicken Alfredo, minus the quality. The chicken itself is another sore point. Diners describe it as rubbery, overcooked or oddly chewy, suggesting it was likely microwaved rather than grilled.

For a pasta already on thin ice conceptually, Red Lobster does itself no favors by phoning in every aspect of the dish.

Beware the temptations of Lobsterfest! Another feature of this year's seasonal celebration, Red Lobster's Lobster Roll should be a celebration of everything the chain promises — buttery lobster meat packed into a soft roll with a touch of seasoning. For many customers, this dish is all letdown, no luxury.

One of the biggest complaints is a lack of lobster. Diners report receiving small pieces of shellfish that isn't even Maine lobster, but rather cheaper spiny lobster meat, which doesn't possess the same taste or texture. That's not to say that spiny lobster can't be delicious — it most certainly can — but the lobster is often cited as being unpleasantly rubbery, likely a result of prolonged refrigeration and overcooking. For a dish that carries a premium price tag, it's left many customers feeling shortchanged.

The roll itself is another weak point. Instead of a toasted, bakery-quality bun, the bread is often described as dry or stale, lacking the softness and warmth that makes a good lobster roll stand out. The reported cold filling combined with a room-temperature roll creates an unappetizing, mismatched bite.

If you're looking for a prime example of how far Red Lobster's standards have slipped, turn your attention to the Fish and Chips. Fish and Chips are a usual suspect on nearly every seafood menu in the United States. If there is any dish you should be able to count on at Red Lobster, it should be this, right? Alas, you'd be mistaken.

Customers have relayed underwhelming portion sizes, often receiving one or two small pieces of fish that look more like appetizers than entrées. When it comes to flavor, the reviews aren't much kinder. The batter is frequently described as overly greasy or soggy, lacking the crisp bite that makes fish and chips such a classic comfort food. Even worse, the fish inside is sometimes bland or dried out, suggesting it's been sitting under a heat lamp a little too long. Much like the complaints about the Admiral's Feast, quality here seems to fluctuate radically, with reports of overcooked fish and undercooked fish being filed in equal measure.

The fries that come with the dish don't help its case either — many diners say they arrive limp and unseasoned, adding to the overall disappointment. For a meal that should deliver a satisfying crunch and a rich, savory payoff, this version often falls flat.

Oh Lobsterfest, when will you stop leading us astray? Red Lobster's Creamy Lobster Mashed Potatoes may sound like a decadent dish, but many diners are finding it to be more vacant assurances of style than substance.

One major issue that plagues the dish, as with all Lobsterfest items, is the lobster. Customers frequently report being served underwhelming potions of cold, overcooked lobster on top of their mashed potatoes, hardly enough to justify the premium price tag. Instead of a rich and indulgent side, the dish often ends up feeling like regular mashed potatoes with a fancy name.

As for the mashed potatoes themselves, diners describe them as overly thick or gummy, with a gluey consistency that overshadows the supposed creaminess, with some receiving cold bricks of mashed potatoes that are nearly inedible. Others have noted a pervading flavor of fake butter than betrays the facade of creaminess the dish promises.

This combination of flaws results in a meal that boasts both unpleasant textures and flavors. For something marketed as an upgrade, it often leaves customers feeling underwhelmed and overcharged.

A kitschy name is rarely a sign of quality and Red Lobster's Crispy Dragon Shrimp has no intention of reforming that assumption. For many diners, it ends up being a messy, underwhelming appetizer that leans heavily on its nondescript sauce to distract from deeper issues.

The biggest problem here is consistency. While the name suggests a crispy texture, customers often report getting soggy, over-sauced shrimp lacking all crunch by the time they reach the table. Instead of a light, crispy coating, the shrimp are frequently drenched in a sticky, sickly sweet glaze that overpowers everything else on the plate.

Then there's the shrimp themselves which are often small, chewy, or noticeably lacking in freshness. Some diners describe the texture as waffling between overcooked and rubbery to undercooked and mushy, which, combined with the thick sauce, creates a less-than-appetizing mouthfeel, not to mentioning a food poisoning risk. For a dish that's supposed to be a flavorful kick-off to your meal, it can feel more like a sugar bomb with a hint of shrimp.

Even the presentation can be a letdown. Guests have mentioned sad-looking garnishes and small portions, making the appetizer feel more like a forgettable afterthought than a signature starter.

Caesar salad is one of the modern world's greatest treasures. It fits on just about every menu imaginable and, while infinitely customizable, is perhaps best when resting in its simplicity. So surely Red Lobster isn't botching this easy-to-perfect salad, right? Unfortunately, it is. What should be a simple, reliable side has become a surprisingly common complaint among guests who expect more from the sit-down seafood chain.

One of the frequent gripes is actually the lettuce, which is often described as tired, wilted, or just poorly chopped, with brown edges and soggy bits showing up more often than they should. Instead of a fresh crunch, the base of the salad is already a compromise. The croutons and cheese have also received a modification for the worse in recent years. The croutons have become increasingly stale, and there are less of them present on the salad. The parmesan cheese, which was once fresher grated, is now akin to the powdered can variety.

With so many easy wins possible in a Caesar salad, it's disappointing to see this dish fall flat. Whether you intend to employ it as an entree, side, or appetizer, this dish may be best served on the sidelines.

Mussels are incredibly easy to prepare, exceedingly affordable, and revelatory when done well. So how do you possibly mess up mussels? Ask Red Lobster, it's doing it.

Red Lobster's White Wine and Garlic Mussels dish receives quite a bit of flack, mostly due to the mussels themselves, which are lacking in both flavor and pleasant texture. It's really hard to overcook mussels, so if they're consistently dense and chewy as reported, it's likely that they're previously frozen and simply reheated — a crime against mussel dishes everywhere.

The sauce, much like the Shrimp Scampi reviews, is reported as being devoid of genuine wine or butter flavor and instead appears to be a fake butter alternative. The salt content and garlic flavor as well are reported as being overpowering and unpleasant, surely as a maneuver to cover up the lack of complexity or pleasant flavors in the dish.

Additionally, the presentation often leaves much to be desired. The dish can appear sloppily put together, with mussels served in a pool of unappetizing sauce, lacking the elegance you'd hope for in a steamed mussel dish.