Sunday, 24 June 2007

• Red Lobster Seafood Restaurant

  701 Expressway 83
  McAllen, TX 78503
  956 687-7323
  http://www.redlobster.com

  I'm watching TV and Red Lobster is flashing me with imagines of huge lobster tails and suculent shrimps.  Let's be real and understand that you're not going to get that huge lobster tail at a chain and their shrimps are frozen, not fresh.  With that in mind you'll enjoy your visit a lot more.

  

  An interior made to resemble a building by the harbor

  

  It's very casual as you can see with the kids and hoodies.

  Cheddar Bay Biscuits:

  

  Our biscuits came out hot from the oven.  They had a crisp outside and a moist inside.  Unlike the biscuits you get at Popeyes, these biscuits didn't taste too pasty so it goes down your throat smoothly even without a drink.

  The included Caesar salad with an entree:

  

  The included Garden salad with French dressing

  

  Simple sandwich grade lettuce paired with croutons, a few slices of tomato, and slices of onion.

  Shrimps with linguini:

  

  My favorite shrimp dish from Red Lobster is their garlic shrimp.  The shrimps are small but each one is so flavourful from being soaked and cooked in that buttery garlic sauce.  Thankfully my dish was served relatively quickly to our table as the garlic sauce would develop a thin film of oil if left sitting.  The fried battered shrimps were a bit larger than the garlic shrimps (probably a visual trick of the batter and butterflying it) and were very crispy and didn't feel heavy (so the oil they fried it in was relatively fresh).  All shrimps were not really crispy but were likely frozen - it's a chain so it's forgivable.  The steamed vegetables were my way of adding some green to my dish and were flavourless.

  Lobster and crab:

  

  Featuring garlic shrimp and fried battered shrimp again.  The rock lobster tail was a decent size - about the size of my hand, excluding the fingers.  The crab was only half with a claw and 3 legs.  Both were steamed and served relatively fast to us so it didn't cool and turn dry yet.

  I've been to Red Lobster a number of times and I've noticed the quality can vary from time of day and the restaurant location.  Weekend evenings are very busy with wait times averaging 30 minutes so you should make reservations.  This visit was a positive one with everything coming out of the kitchen fresh and hot but if you're on a slow night, you might be left with a cold dish.

  Eric Tummy Points: 3.5 out of 5

  Previous reviews: March 2006

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