Please Explain: Red Lobster

We enjoyed some Christmas booty gift card goodness tonight!

One of our presents this year was a Darden gift certificate. In our area, this is good at Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze (one of our FAVORITE places, but it's way on the other side of Cleveland), Olive Garden and LongHorn Steak House.

Ron and I decided to go out to dinner tonight but we didn't want to drive too far. Hence, Red Lobster.

If you've never been to a Red Lobster, let me give you the run down. It's a national chain with decent food. Is it exceptional food? No. Is it good food? Yes. I think it's a little high priced as I've had better seafood for less money, but it's ok once in awhile. Or, when you're enjoying Christmas booty gift cards!!

But, back to the restaurant. What I can't understand is that this restaurant is packed; all of the time! No matter when you drive by Red Lobster, the parking lot is packed. If you do find a place to park, the restaurant always has a line of customers waiting for a table.

I don't get it. Overpriced, albeit decent food but a constant line to get in? The high point of going to a Red Lobster has to be their service. We've been there twice now in the last month and I'm telling you, they have some of the best servers in the business. Each server made sure that our dining experience was the best it could be. She educated us on the choices available, made a few suggestions to help our decision making process and even scored us some extra rolls.

Ok, Red Lobster cheddar biscuits, rolls or whatever they are, are absolutely some of the best things I've ever had! We had a couple left over after dinner and Alicia, our server, suggested a bag to take the biscuits home. When she brought the to go bag for us, she even threw in a couple of extra biscuits for us! C'mon now, that's a SCORE!

So there you go. It was a very nice dinner, a great evening out with my honey. So, location was a deciding factor for us going to Red Lobster, but what about the other 50 people waiting in line to get a table? On a Wednesday night? I don't get it. Tavern on the Green is closing tomorrow but Red Lobster in Elyria Ohio is raking it in hand over fist.

It has to be the servers.