"red lobster" news and stories

Seafood lovers, where are you?

That's the question surf-centric restaurants are asking, from titanic-sized chains like Red Lobster to mom-and-pop clam shacks. Though other types of restaurants are starting to see their sales increase as the country slowly recovers from the recession, it appears that it's going to take more than another all-you-can-eat shrimp special to lure diners in for fish again.

As the Orlando Sentinel reports, sales at America's largest seafood chains during the recession sunk far faster than at other restaurants, in part owing to the fact that cash-strapped customers were shying away from higher-priced fare like lobster tails and seared salmon. While major restaurants overall saw their sales fall .8 percent in 2009, sales at seafood chains dropped 5.2 percent.

Our fast-casual, best of the menu culinary trek continues: First it was Applebee's for appetizers, then Outback Steakhouse for Outback Favorites, then TGI Friday's for Sizzling Skillets. Our most recent adventure was at Red Lobster, to find out which was their best shrimp dish.

Menu Overview: There are 5 main courses in the "Shrimp" section, including Walt's Favorite Shrimp (breaded butterflied shrimp), Crunchy Popcorn Shrimp (fried breaded bite-size shrimp), Shrimp Linguine Alfredo (shrimp in garlic-parmesan cream sauce served over linguine), Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp (fried coconut-breaded butterflied shrimp with a "piña colada" sauce) and Shrimp Your Way (you choose a 2- or 3-item combination plate -- shrimp scampi available in this dish).

Find out our Shrimp Winner, Runner-up, and Loser after the jump.

The whole point of Red Lobster is to eat seafood without having to cook for yourself, but that hasn't stopped the restaurant's senior executive chef, Michael LaDuke, from sharing the chain's seafood grilling secrets with the Internet at large. In the video above, he heads for the grill to prepare Peppercorn-Crusted Salmon with Wasabi Soy glaze.

This is one super-easy -- and dare we say delicious-looking -- meal that's just perfect for a quick and sophisticated taste of the ocean. Grilled asparagus and red pepper are sliced and topped with the peppercorn-crusted fish, a little pickled ginger and a nice drizzle of that wasabi soy glaze.

Oh, if only dining out at Red Lobster were even half this delicious!

Last week I wrote my first post about The Next Food Network Star, having never seen it before. Thanks to those of you who gave me a heads up about show details and juice from past seasons. My plan is to just enjoy the show for what it is, and to try not to harp on the contestants too much. I'll admit that I'm easily entertained (I do sometimes watch old Sesame Street videos on YouTube), but I find the show pretty funny, and it's not like I have better things to do than watch TV and write about it. So join me in celebrating the absurdity of it all -- it could be fun.

I have an odd fascination with Red Lobster.

Actually, it's not a fascination; rather, a depressing history that makes me think about the "Seafood Lover in You" a lot. You see, my family used to go out to eat at Red Lobster a lot when my sisters and I were little. Part of it was that my mother and sisters were bonkers about Alaskan king crab legs (I was never into such messy foods), part of it was that Red Lobster happened to be one of the only "nice" restaurants we could go to in our neighborhood, and part of it was that my Dad thought taking us out to a restaurant in the first place would teach us table manners.

I digress. The point of the matter is that I hated Red Lobster. I don't like the taste of lobster, I don't like the work of eating crab legs, and I thought eating with a bib was beyond ridiculous. However, there was one thing, and one thing only for which I would go back now, as an adult, to Red Lobster: the cheddar bay biscuits.

But thanks to food blog Rasa Malayasia, I might not even have to go back to the horrid restaurant of my childhood. She searched for the "secret" recipe for the biscuits, baked them at home, and has shown the recipe to be just as good as the original, if not better!

Rasa Malaysia, this Seafood Hater in Me thanks you!

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