| Product: |
Red Lobster (Toronto) |
| Date: |
22.07.06 (1939 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: superb food, lots of food, service, prices
Disadvantages: none
As a seafood and fish lover, I am constantly on the look-out for good restaurants that serve a variety of these species. One of my favourite places in the United States for seafood has also been Red Lobster - and naturally I was more than excited to have the opportunity to frequent this chain of seafood restaurants on a recent trip to Toronto.
***The history***
The first Red Lobster branch was established in Lakeland, Florida in 1968. The founders' ambition was simply to provide great service and delicious seafood to diners. As the concept was very successful, Red Lobster rapidly expanded in the South East of the United States during the early 1970s. Some of the dishes found on Red Lobster's menu today, such as the infamous popcorn shrimp, snow crab and key lime pie, have indeed been around since these early years of establishment. Today there are more than 350 Red Lobster restaurants across the United States and Canada.
***Location***
There are three Red Lobster branches in the greater Toronto area, however, the one that tourists are most likely to visit during their time in Toronto is located in the Atrium, located at Dundas Street and Bay Street - but also accessible from Yonge Street and Bay Street. If you do not know about its existence, it is easily missed, as you are more likely to walk on Yonge Street than on Bay Street and might be distracted by another interesting restaurant, the Pickle Barrel.
***Ambience and décor***
Unlike Red Lobster in New York, this branch is rarely crowded and we never had to wait for a table. Upon arrival, a hostess will take you to your table. The restaurant contains a mix of either wooden tables and chairs or diner-style booths. The wooden tables are a little ackward, especially for couples, as they are rather large and bulky and make you feel far removed from your other half. Much more comfortable, cosy and private are the diner-style booths, which shield you nicely from other diners.
The décor of red Lobster attempts to reinforce what is on the menu by keeping the interior in brown tones and attempting to recreate the feel of being on a wooden ship, especially around the bar area and with the design of the washroom doors. The ambience is quiet - there is no annoying loud music to overpower the words of a conversation. But Red Lobster is far from a classy or a romantic establishment - it is essentially just a step above a fast food seafood restaurant. A true family-style kind of place.
***The menu***
On the menu, you will essentially find everything seafood that you can imagine. A lot of the seafood is fried or breaded, but there are healthier options available - and Red Lobster has introduced a "Lighthouse Menu" listing those dishes that are healthier and low fat and giving details about their nutritional value. However, even with this clear get-out clause from pigging out on popcorn and coconut shrimp, it is extremely difficult to avoid the delicious unhealthier food.
To give you an idea of the menu, for appetizers you could select from such delicacies as lobster and seafood stuffed mushrooms, jumpo shrimp cocktail, mussels, calamari, island coconut shrimp or coconut pizza. As a main you could select from crab legs (both snow and king crab), live Maine lobster, fish and chips, various seafood pastas and fish. Red Lobster is most famous for their seafood platters, where you are able to select two or three seafood treats a feast from a number of items such as fried shrimp, garlic shrimp, sea scallops, stuffed sole, shrimp pasta, crab alfredo and sometimes even crab legs. The options simply never end.
If after all that food there is still room for dessert, Red Lobster still delivers the classics, such as key lime pie, cheesecake, apple pie and chocolate cake.
Red Lobster also has an extensive beverage menu - including a vast selection of beers and Canadian wines, spirited specials and smoothies.
***Our experience***
We visited Red Lobster three times during our stay in Toronto. Upon arrival, we were seated and shortly thereafter our waiter or waitress would approach and take our drink orders. It is useful to know that at Red Lobster soft drinks and ice tea come with free refills - so if you want your money's worth of drinks, I strongly recommend drinking quite a bit before your main arrives so you get at least a second glass.
I always found the waiters and waitresses to be extremely helpful, offering assistance in making a choice from the menu and giving you as much time as you need to select, always with a smile. Some were quicker than others - one even being so efficient to bring over the refills of ice tea the moment you finished the last drop.
Be prepared for huge amounts of food being served up. Main courses come with either soup or salad (choice of either Caesar salad or Garden salad) and with delicious cheesy biscuits. They also come with either French fries, baked potato, mashed potato or vegetables, truly filling the plates to the brim.
The Caesar salad is so large that it could almost do as a main course for those with a smaller appetite. It has just the right amount of dressing on it - they do not skimp on it, neither do they drown the lettuce in it. A generous helping of croutons, crispy refreshing cold lettuce and a good amount of grated cheese tops off the experience. But the Caesar salad simply does not compare to the delicious cheesy biscuits, a roll that tastes more like a savoury cheesy bun, which arrive at the table hot and soft and are so moreish that it is really tempting to fill up on these alone. They have a hint of mature cheddar taste to them, which is simply irresistible.
We always opted for one of the seafood feasts - more specifically the summer feast, because that gives seafood lovers an opportunity to experience a lot of different flavours. Without fail, we always selected the island coconut shrimp, a delicacy that can also be ordered as an appetizer. These giant shrimp are enveloped in breadcrumbs and look more like cookies - and indeed they almost taste like a macaroon with coconut and pineapple flavour which is crunchy on the outside and very moist and shrimpy on the inside. They are accompanied by a lovely pinacolada dip. This might not sound appealing to readers, as it did not sound appealing to me when I first read the menu, but I cannot give them less than ten stars!
If you are a lover of crab legs but do not want to spend all evening peeling them - a good option is to simply have ½ pound of them on your seafood feast plate. They are usually easy to crack, but the crab meat cools down quickly and is indeed very limited in volume.
The garlic shrimp skewer was simply fantastic as well and complemented the overly filling and battered shrimp nicely. Virtually the only disappointment on the menu were the sea scallops - although they tasted alright with a hint of lemon, they came on a bed of rice that was way too salty and tasted too much of stock cube.
As your choice of side I would strongly recommend the baked potato - the French fried are good, but they are not the world's greatest - and the baked potato gives diners the option of having it either plain or with sour cream and butter (depending on how much more fat you wish to add to your meal!).
Red Lobster also has a nice selection of pasta - I would generally recommend any pasta that comes in their Alfredo sauce, whether it contains shrimp, crab or lobster. The large portion is impossible to finish - but the dish is so tasty that you would simply want to try and finish it. The sauce is rich and creamy, with just the right amount of salt added to it - but it certainly is the least healthy option on the menu.
If you decide on ordering a seafood feast from the menu, I would strongly recommend skipping the appetizers. Unless you really have a bottomless stomach or skip the salad and biscuits, you will simply not be able to clear your plates.
If you are a seafood lover and your partner cannot stand the sight of it, Red Lobster does offer a steak or a chicken option. I have never tried these, however.
***Prices***
Prices at Red Lobster are very reasonable. We only ordered a seafood feast each and a soft drink every time we went, but as you are supplied with salad and cheesy biscuits, an appetizer would clearly have been over the top. We paid around CAD $50 (approximately £25) on each visit. To give you an idea, appetizers are all priced under CAD$10 (approximately £5) and mains are anywhere between CAD$15 and CAD$25 (£7.50 - £12.50), apart from such luxuries as the live Maine Lobster, which is priced differently throughout the year, depending on the season.
***The verdict***
Red Lobster is one of my favourite places to eat on this planet - and whenever we travel to a place that has a branch, our first meal and our last meal is undoubtedly here. There is little on the menu that disappoints, the waiters are generally friendly and helpful, the place is welcoming - and I have yet to find a place that serves better seafood. Unless the thought of fish and seafood disgusts you, this is one experience that should not be missed.
Recommended.
***Further information***
20 Dundas Street West
Toronto
Ontario
M5G 2C2
Canada
Tel: (416) 348 - 8938
www.redlobster.ca
Summary: Lots of superb seafood served in family restaurant atmosphere.
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