Why do some people make jokes about Red Lobster?

The B52s song was Rock Lobster.

 

Seriously? I've been singing it wrong all this time?

(He corrected that? Did I fall into the no-joking zone by accident?)

Where am I going to spend all my jukebox money? (I'm waiting for the Love Shack adjustment any moment now....)

 

I'm partial to sausage and onion, but I've never had a bad slice there.

 

Meanwhile, my favorite fast-food restaurant (Kenny Roger's Roasters) packed up and fled to Asia, although I think there's still one on the West Coast.

 

That rice is a dead ringer for a Hostess Snowball.

 

Ha! It definitely is.

 

Hmm, that sounds good. I will have to try that next time I am out there. Won't be anytime soon, but I will be going back.

 

"But like 'em or not, verily I say unto Canadians: Lowe's and Home Depot ye shall always have with you."

Now you are talking. Those place kick arse! :smile: I got a fancy flag pole base at Home Depot, made from real metal. I had to replace my old base when I busted down my old fascia boards. They also have ready primed fascia boards that are made to paint over right away. I like to use Dunn Edwards paint myself.

 

Yeah, I like KFC myself. I don't usually like to eat fried foods, but I go there once in while as a treat. Plus, that KFC guy kind of reminds me of me late Cuban uncle Pepe (by marriage to my aunt). My uncle pepe used to like to dress in all white a lot of the time just like the Colonel. :smile:

 

KFC is the biggest fast food franchise in China. They are everywhere.

 

Red Lobster's lobster is terrible compared to good lobster. The shrimp? Most often I would describe it as "fine." As in, "How is your shrimp?" "Fine, I guess."

Shrimp is one of the few foods I know of that gives you such a strong visual indicator of when it is cooked versus when it is overcooked. Overcook it and you have rubber. Cook it to the right temp, soak it in butter and it can only really be so bad.

Red Lobster is kind of in a different boat from Olive Garden (despite their common parent company) because pasta is routinely dried and transported. You never judge an Italian restaurant based upon its physical distance from a wheat field. People do often judge a seafood restaurant based upon its distance from the nearest body of salt water.

There isn't really an illusion of freshness. I once ate at a Red Lobster in West Virginia. I doubt it was a fresh catch.

Some of their regular fish dishes are OK, too. I don't mean to say that the place is completely without any redeeming quality. You can get a decent meal there. But if Red Lobster is your idea of fancy or high quality seafood then, well, it wouldn't shock me if you had a couch on your front porch.

 

It's because of when the fish enters rigor. Welcome to random things that you have to learn in culinary school.

It is my professional opinion, that unless you're sure of your restaurant, you stick with big-box frozen seafood. The oversight of frozen seafood is excellent- the stuff you're buying in the grocery case....well, you couldn't pay me.... Same goes for most restaurants. If you ordered something like a Fil-O-Fish from a fast food place, you're almost certainly getting a safe product. If the local gourmet restaurant has a seafood special, you're taking a big risk. That said, if you're in Maine, yes, order a lobster and watch them steam it in front of you. If you're in Iowa.... well, Red Lobster is going to be safer by an exceptionally large margin.

When hubby and I eat out, it's a balance between food safety and quality- somewhere at the intersection needs to be a price that makes sense.

Quality and quality changes in fresh fish - 5. Postmortem changes in fish

 

I still don't turn down sushi in Vegas despite the ocean being a good distance away.

 

Some people cliff dive, some people eat sushi in Vegas. If you really want to up your game, you should eat raw oysters.

 

these results were a bit surprising

Top 10 largest franchises in the world

 

The wife and I have tried oyster bars a few times - definitely not a fan.

 

I made that mistake once. Some fellas talking me in to eating some raw oysters at a sports bar type place many, many years ago back when I used to drink. Boy was that a HUGE mistake! Sick!!! I will never ever make that mistake again. Plus, they are just nasty, I don't see the appeal.

 

Big chains offer a comforting consistency. When I used to travel throughout the Midwest and Pacific Northwest for work I ate at the big chains because, aside from the fact that I was almost assuredly receiving a safe, if previously frozen, product I also knew what to expect. A steak at Outback Steakhouse in Oklahoma is the same as the steak at an Outback Steakhouse in Pennsylvania.

I've learned a very valuable lesson about opinions about locally owned eating establishments; people react more out of emotion than anything else.

Happens all the time. When I first moved to Binghamton everyone swore by a certain Italian restaurant. I went and it was terrible. Not simply inauthentic but downright disgusting. Bounty doesn't make enough paper towels to sop up the gallons of oil that I could drain from my plate. And, as my wife noted, the restaurant "smelled like pee." But people raved. Why? Get into the conversation and you learn that all of these people had been eating there since they were kids. Their opinion of the place was driven by fond memories of birthday celebrations. It was the place they had a condolence meal after Grandma died. They went there for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Arbor Day etc. So the reviews of locals are rather meaningless to me. I am the exact type of person for whom Yelp was created.

Don't get me wrong I eat at local places all the time. And I'm generally willing to give a place a shot if the atmosphere looks pleasant and the menu looks decent.

And you know what? Sometimes you're in rural Wisconsin and you have a hankering for endless shrimp that only Red Lobster can possibly satisfy. I, personally, prefer Bonefish Grill but I would never stack it against a place in Maine steaming up my lobster fresh or a place in Maryland serving me the freshest of crab. But that's OK because neither of those places serve Central Upstate New York.

 

I agree with pretty much everything you say. I ordered the Admiral special, and it was good as far as fried food goes. I hardly eat fried food, so anything fried seems to taste extra delicious to me sometimes. Now, there is a little seafood place on the Redondo Beach Pier, and this little place (hole in the wall) fries fresh caught fish. I have to say the seafood at this place is quite a bit better than Red Lobster. Then there Tony's on the Pier. Now THAT is good food! Good food and nice ambience.