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| Saying "hi" to the lobsters! |
We don't normally go out for lunch on the weekends - first, our "budget" doesn't allow it and second, it's winter in northwest Ohio so if I have my way we hibernate when it's cold and snowy outside! But we recently had an opportunity to visit our local Red Lobster on a cold and VERY snowy Saturday afternoon for a really great lunch.
I like Red Lobster - and not just because I could eat an entire basket of their Cheddar Bay Biscuits on my own and not feel even a little guilty about it. I'm a big fan of seafood and there are so many choices on the Red Lobster menu that I'm always a happy diner. Of course,
there's more than just seafood at Red Lobster - they have some new menu items on the "Maine Stays" menu. All 15 of the "Maine Stays" items are under $15 every day and include wood grilled chicken with portobello wine sauce (sounds yummy!) and tropical glazed BBQ chicken.
One thing I love about Red Lobster is they take food allergies very seriously. The first time we visited after finding out about Olivia's food allergies our waitress immediately brought us the "allergy menu" which lists all allergens along with possible cross contamination issues. This time was just as "allergy friendly" - we told our waitress about Liv's allergies (peanuts, tree nuts and sesame) and she made a point to write it down and tell the kitchen. Kudos to them!
So let's talk eats, shall we? My kids love calamari so of course we started out with an appetizer sampler plate that included calamari and fried mozzarella. I think I was able to eat one or two pieces of the calamari before the kids devoured it. There were also fried vegetables on the plate ... but my husband ate those.
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| 30 shrimp. Seriously. |
When we visited the current "special" was 30 shrimp for $11.99. Now, I'm not sure which part of "30 shrimp" I didn't hear but that's what I ordered. Think about this...THIRTY shrimp. Yeah. It's a lot of food! I choose the garlic shrimp scampi (love it!) and the new Parmesan ranch shrimp (fried shrimp with Parmesan cheese on top, served with ranch dipping sauce). And sure enough, there were 30 shrimp on the plate. It was delicious though ... even if I only made it through about 15 shrimp total. And the baked potatoes at RL? Love them. They are coated with sea salt and so good.
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| Emma and her fish! |
Kevin decided to go with a bowl of clam chowder and a lobster pizza. Both look and smelled good but I had 30 shrimp to contend with so I didn't even sample his food. Olivia decided to skip the seafood and stuck with chicken fingers and a baked potato. Whatever makes the kid happy! And then there's Emma. She decided last summer during a vacation in the Outer Banks that fried fish was her new favorite dish. Well, the kids menu at RL had grilled fish as an option but that wasn't going to please Miss Emma. So, she ordered off the regular menu - fish and chips. The fish was bigger than her head! But she loved it and that's what matters!
With all that food we were too stuffed to even look at the dessert menu! All in all we had a great family lunch and we even had leftovers for dinner later that night.
In addition to the new menu items and new prices at Red Lobster (more than 60 percent of the dishes on the menu are less than $15!), don't forget their $7.99 weekday lunch special (certain sandwiches, salads, and soup are $7.99) and their 5 for $5 til 6 where certain appetizers are just $5 from 3 to 6 p.m.! Oh and right now..it's
Lobsterfest! Happy feasting!
Disclosure: I was provided with a $75 gift card by Red Lobster for our dining experience. All opinions and thoughts are mine. No other compensation was provided.
