Red Lobster - Raleigh

Review summary

1. S

   Stefanie

   Unspecified1 review

   1.0

   Dined 3 days ago

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   We celebrated a birthday with a large party (18). In all fairness our party size increased on the day of the dinner, so I was happy they were able to accommodate us. I was given the heads up that during the week they can’t guarantee much as it is loosely based on servers and how many are at the restaurant to dine. Our server was pleasant but not able to handle a large party. We had missing food items, orders that were completed wrong, and most in our party waited over an hour to get their food (which was wrong). We brought a cake in and they brought it out at the end (as I requested), but then said they don’t sing. Mind you, they had just performed a birthday song for a table not far from us that we heard. Needless to say our experience was not the best. I’m willing to understand if the restaurant is packed, but it was not. I don’t think their servers are equipped nor prepared to handle more than 2-4 people. I never saw a manager, although I spoke with him earlier that day (nice and professional). In times like these it pays to have a manager on duty when things fall apart like so.
   

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2. OT

   OpenTable Diner

   Raleigh1 review

   1.0

   Dined 7 days ago

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   We had high hopes for a great date night, and while there were some positives, the overall experience left us disappointed. Our server, Nia, was excellent—friendly, attentive, and quick with drinks and our order. We also appreciated being seated right away for our 6:15 p.m. reservation, especially after hearing the hostess tell walk-in guests there was a 45-minute to an hour wait. However, we noticed the restaurant was nowhere near full, which made us wonder if staffing challenges were causing service delays. Unfortunately, our food didn’t arrive until 7:10 p.m.—an hour after ordering—causing us to miss most of our movie. When we checked with Nia around 6:50 p.m., she let us know the kitchen was running nearly an hour behind. Had we known that earlier, we could have made different choices. We rushed through our meal and spoke with a manager, who was polite but only offered about $3 in compensation. Given the impact on our evening, this felt inadequate.
   

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3. OT

   OpenTable Diner

   Raleigh1 review

   1.0

   Dined on 4 March 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 1

   Made a reservation for 6pm. Arrived at 5:53pm and was sat quickly. Front desk man was very pleasant and nice. Sat down about 5:55pm at 6:20pm we were still sitting had not been greeted asked for drinks nothing. The restaurant was not busy so i did not understand what was going on. I had my children with me I was taking to try the new items on the menu and could not continue to wait. Was definitely a bummer.
   

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4. K

   Kevin VIP

   Raleigh6 reviews

   1.0

   Dined on 1 March 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   Service was beyond slow. It took 40 minutes to get our entrees. Our dinners were over cooked and dried out. Extremely disappointed, I’m never going back to this location.
   

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5. OT

   OpenTable Diner

   San Francisco3 reviews

   5.0

   Dined on 15 February 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   Amy was our waitress. She kept our drinks filled and got our order correct. She did a good job taking care of us. The food was hot and so delicious!! Definitely left satisfied.
   

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6. C

   Corinna

   Raleigh2 reviews

   1.0

   Dined on 15 February 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 1

   This restaurant was overbooked. People were hungry, angry and very tired. Booking 10 to 20 people to the same time slot was not cool and very unfair. It was also capitalistic because the end game was to pack us in and make the most money. It was a horrible experience. Once seated the wait to receive food was a whole hour. This came after the reservation wait was more than an hour. Pathetic!!!
   

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7. OT

   OpenTable Diner

   Raleigh1 review

   1.0

   Dined on 15 February 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 2
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 3

   We arrived for our 7 o’clock reservation at about 7 o’clock, and when we walked in the lobby, it was absolutely packed, we checked in and found out that they hadn’t even sat all of the people with 6 o’clock reservations at that point. When I asked the hostess, what the point of a reservation was she said“it just guarantees you a seat“. The hostess had clearly not been trained well because she could not estimate wait times to anybody that asked and at some point, a manager had to step in and start doing part of her job because things were so mismanaged. Let me emphasize that the hostess was doing her best, but had not been given the tools to do the job well. They also was no busser in the restaurant that i could see, and servers were having to bus their own tables which slowed down service, which meant that people were waiting longer. Our 7 o’clock reservation was seated at 8:10. our order was taken at 8:18 and my drink didnt arrive until about 8:27. We didn’t get our food until 9:05. When I did get my food, the lobster bits in my pasta were rubbery. I didn’t even bother telling anybody because at that point waiting for food to be remade would have just taken longer. We openly heard servers complaining about the scheduling. To me this doesn’t point to an issue with either the host or the servers, this points to a management issue. On a holiday there should be 3 to 5 hostesses for seating and checking the restaurant, there should be a time limit on tables that people are informed of ahead of time, there should be at least two bussers and people should not have to wait more than 30 minutes for their tables that they have reservations for, and that’s if something bad happens and there’s a huge delay. We will definitely not be coming back because of this and it certainly put a damper on our Valentine’s Day.
   

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8. G

   George Wayne

   Raleigh5 reviews

   2.0

   Dined on 15 February 2025

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 4

   We had 7pm reservations. Arrived at 6:50pm. We were not seated until 8:18pm and not initially served our meal until starting after 9:15pm. We were not done until 10:45pm. Not enough workers and apparently not enough cooks!! That wait time for someone with reservations was unacceptable!!
   

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9. E

   Elise

   Raleigh1 review

   1.0

   Dined on 14 February 2025

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 2

   We got checked in right away and was told they were running a little behind and would seat us as soon as we could. We ended up waiting well over an hour and had people arriving later than we did seated before us. When we were finally seated, we had to flag someone down to get our order in as our server was nowhere to be found. We hardly saw our server at all during our dinner. We waited over an hour for our food and weren't made aware of the wait time until almost an hour went by and we asked someone. My lobster was good, but my steak was almost raw in the middle. They did take some money off our bill. We were extremely disappointed.
   

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10. A

    Alonzo

    Richmond1 review

    3.0

    Dined on 14 February 2025

    1. Overall 3
    2. Food 2
    3. Service 4
    4. Ambience 5

    There customer service was excellent however on one of the busiest date night they were not prepared for the numbers and it showed in the quality of food. I had to send the mushy lobster back and could not do the wait again so I got a refund.
    

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