Red Lobster

I'll start by saying that I normally avoid chain restaurants..... But a Christmas Gift card is a Christmas Gift card. The Red Lobster in Castleton does hold some sentimental reverence for me. Growing up as a kid in Fishers in the late 70s & 80s, Red Lobster was considered quite the treat at the time as any sort of "finer dining" was scarce back in the day. Having said that, it's probably been 30 years since my last visit. While the Northeast corridor has grown and changed, and our choices have exponentially multiplied..... Red Lobster remains the same! While I'm sure they have remodeled the building several times over the past 3 decades...the dark and dingy decor is just how I remembered it.

We were there at lunch time and were not looking to gorge ourselves with the dinner time combination platters....we ordered from the lunch menu. I was surprised that they really had no lunch specials to speak of but the normal lunch items were reasonably priced. I ordered the shrimp tacos with a side salad and rice pilaf. (Fish tacos are one of my favorite snacks so I thought this might be a good choice). The salad was ok, one step above a bagged salad with good croutons. The rice pilaf was dry and bland and the shrimp tacos completely missed the mark. The small salad shrimp were over cooked and chewy and were served over basically the same green mix that comprised my side salad. The sauce for the tacos was pretty good but there was so little of it that it couldn't save the dish.

On the plus side: The cheddar biscuits were as fabulous as ever... full of buttery, garlicky, cheddary goodness!!! They saved at least one additional star on this review.

Our server was very nice and attentive. (Maybe too attentive)

The crowd was older (50s & 60s) thought for a moment I was at an MCL cafeteria.

On the whole, Red Lobster serves as a reminder to me as to why I try to patronize locally owned and operated establishments. As I browsed the menu the prices of their dinner items are competing with local restaurants that I know are much better so the value aspect is also a fail for this chain.

Unless I receive another gift card from someone who doesn't know me very well.... I doubt I would ever go again. And even then I might be tempted to regift it.

who doesn't like Red Lobster every once in awhile? I have been coming to Red Lobster since I was a kid and I still like it. The cheddar bay biscuits are pretty good and the server we had was very attentive. We will definitely come back in the future!

For a solid 10 year stretch of my life, I thought that Red Lobster was the fanciest and most amazing restaurant in the world. I asked my parents to go there for my birthday supper every year and was usually allowed to order something that (gasp) came with lobster! Lots of great memories of RL when growing up means it'll always have a special place in my soul. I don't visit often anymore, but when I do, I'm generally surprised at how much I still like the food.

The woodfire-grilled trout is one of my favorites these days, although it was slightly overcooked and not quite as tasty at this location as I've had at other RLs in Indy (3.5 stars of 5). Baked potato was fine (3 stars) and the asparagus was just mediocre (2.5 stars). Cheddar biscuits were superb as usual (4.5 stars). One odd thing is that they've stopped including a salad with your meal ...if you want one now, you have to order it as one of your sides. Weird.

All in all, a good but not great experience. Friendly (but slow) service, solid food, reasonable prices and portions. This location is decent but if given the choice, I'd rather visit the Avon or 38th St locations instead.