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This evening we are off to the Red Lobster at 1732 KING ST. EAST KITCHENER Ontario.

Great seafood dishes at a good price, the Ultimate feast is my dish of choice whilst visiting Canada.

A tender Maritime lobster tail, steamed Canadian snow crab legs, savoury garlic shrimp and Walt’s Favourite Shrimp

Red Lobster is a U.S. chain of seafood restaurants. It also operates in Canada and Japan. It is aimed at the mid-level “casual dining” segment of the market. The menu includes a variety of specialty seafood and non-seafood entrees, appetizers, salads, and desserts. Red Lobster’s goal is to establish a place in which all guests have the opportunity to experience fine dining.

Red Lobster was founded in 1968 by entrepreneurs Bill Darden & Charley Woodsby. Originally billed as a “Harbor for Seafood Lovers”, the original restaurant in Lakeland, Florida was followed by several others throughout the Southeast. General Mills acquired Red Lobster in 1970 as a five-unit restaurant company. The chain expanded rapidly in the 1980s.

In 1995, Red Lobster (along with Olive Garden and other sister chains) became part of Darden Restaurants, which was spun off from General Mills as an independent, publicly traded corporation. Today, there are nearly 700 Red Lobster locations throughout the United States and Canada, as well as a small number of locations in Japan.

Red Lobster ultimate feast

Red Lobster twice offered an endless snow crab leg promotion. However, in 2003 the promotion resulted in parent company Darden Restaurants taking a $3 million charge to third quarter earnings resulting in President Edna Morris’ departure from the company. The ill-timed promotion was launched amid high wholesale crab legs prices. The chain also underestimated how many times guest would order more. Further complicating matters at the restaurant level was the amount of time guests spent tableside in the restaurant cracking crab legs which increased wait times in the lobby and overall diminished guest capacity per hour. In more recent years, the chain has usually offered an endless shrimp promotion once per year.

n November 2008, the chain installed a new cooking platform, wood-fired grills, in all of its restaurants. The company conducted guest focus groups and studied seventeen different cooking platforms before undergoing this change. They landed on wood grills for their ability to impart flavor and because of their widespread availability. The grills use oak wood, which brings out the natural flavor of seafood. As part of the roll-out Red Lobster trained and certified 3,500 crew members as Grill Masters who are experts at preparing different proteins including seafood, steak and chicken over a wood fire. Servers were also trained as seafood experts. The restaurant also features a section of the menu dedicated to wood-grill entrees. Following the introduction of wood-grills, Red Lobster introduced a Quick Catches Lunch Menu. The menu features nine selections like Shrimp Jambalaya, Coastal Soup and Grilled Shrimp Salad and a Wood-Grilled BLT.