Red Lobster

[gymnastjlf]

Hey all.

I know at one point a former Red Lobster employee was around the board, and so I'm hoping someone here will be able to answer my question. My dad wants to go to Red Lobster for his birthday dinner (he got gift cards for the restaurant), and considering he and I are the only ones that eat seafood in the family, he doesn't want to go unless I can eat something. I tried contacting corporate, as their website suggests, regarding "allergies". I get the basic we-can't-do-anything-gluten-free response from them. Well I think that's just ridiculous, there's no reason they cannot do steamed fish.

So I called the individual restaurant I would be going to and spoke to the manager. Very friendly, somewhat familiar with gluten, very familiar with allergies. She thought (and later confirmed via ingredient listings) that all of their seasoning blends have gluten (with the exception of the garden blend which did not have an ingredient listing... though I'm assuming this is a no-go as well). The one thing that seems as though it could potentially be okay is their buttery sauce/blend that they put on the vegetables and fish. The only question would be the natural flavors. Can anyone confirm/deny this as gluten-free?

Regardless, I will be going to Red Lobster with the family in the next few weeks, and am pretty comfortable with the fact that they can prepare steamed veggies, steamed fish, and a baked potato for me. I'm thinking maybe I'll bring along a few seasonings myself, to throw on the fish when they bring it out. But regardless, this manager was very helpful and told me to ask for her when I come, she'll make sure things are done right:-). She definately took the better-safe-than-sorry approach.

I just wish Red Lobster would get with the program, is it that hard to at least keep some gluten-free seasonings on hand? I mean, it's SEAFOOD, for crying out loud. Oh sometimes America makes me mad:-P

[eKatherine]

I just wish Red Lobster would get with the program, is it that hard to at least keep some gluten-free seasonings on hand? I mean, it's SEAFOOD, for crying out loud. Oh sometimes America makes me mad:-P

Salt and pepper?

[kabowman]

We eat there occasionally and I don't have any problems. I always order my food unseasoned and no butter/dairy. Last time I had the shrimp coctail without any sauce and it was fine. I often order plain fish and have had their steamed veggies, plain, no seasoning, no butter.

I just show up and talk to the manager/server about my issues and have always been OK - I have even gone a few times when they were busy and didn't get sick.

[celiacgirls]

I recently went to Red Lobster and asked to speak to the manager. He seemed to know about food allergies and said the butter sauce was pure butter. He brought out the butter package so I could make sure there were no natural flavors in it. I had steamed lobster with the butter sauce, a baked potato, and probably the garden salad with oil and vinegar. I didn't notice any problems but I am fairly new at this.

[MallysMama]

I ate there a couple weeks ago with my family and had no noticable issues (however I'm not always very sensitive...sometimes I don't have any reaction at all). I dont' remember exactly what I had... but I think one of the items I had was shrimp scampi (the lemon butter sauce)....and like I said, I had no reaction. So, not sure if that was just my body not responding - or if it was really safe to eat? But I agree with them being so slow to get with the program! They are owned by the same people as Olive Garden - and it's like the entire company doesn't care at all about any type of allergies. Major restaurants like that - expensive ones especially - should be able to make things however you want them providing they have the ingredients IN the restaurant. (That's how Outback works - thank goodness!!) When you're paying that much money to eat there - they should all have the "No Rules" approach to it - and aim to please the customer (no matter how demanding)! Good luck and I hope you have a good experience anyway!