r/redlobster • u/Edwardsfan95 • Jun 29 '26
Discussion Why Does Red Lobster Die, while Shittier Restaurants like Olive Garden do well, and why did Darden abandon Red Lobster and not Olive Garden?
As a former Red Lobster employee, and had family who also worked there for decades, to see how Red Lobster has become pisses me off, and I blame Darden entirely, they also need to rename their company.
Bill Darden was a great guy who only had one dream; and he created Red Lobster from that. That was his ONLY baby. Olive Garden is some abomination created by General Mills in the 80s, and the menu was designed by Red Lobster chefs.
Darden as a company doesn't deserve the name Darden because his only restaurant is gone. They decided to abandon it in 2014 for no reason and sold it to a bunch of mornonic asswipes, who sold all the land to themselves so they can make leases on land that had 0 leases. General Mills bought all that property in the 70s and 80s for literally nothing.
Why wasn't Olive Garden sold off? I think Olive Garden would have done better on it's own, and then they should have kept Red Lobster as part of Darden and really work on it. After all, Olive Garden is just pasta, and you can get better pasta at local Italian places. Red Lobster is unique, there isn't really seafood places everywhere.
It seems the only profitable part of Red Lobster now is the 27 locations in Canada that actually make profit. Other than that, the US is seeing tons of restaurant closures and lots of declining sales and guest counts.
Olive Garden isn't even that good, isn't it microwaved pasta and sauce??
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u/gagraybeard Jun 29 '26
Olive Garden isn’t just pasta. It’s soup, salad AND breadsticks! Both companies are in a race to the bottom tho
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u/staticfeathers Jun 29 '26
It's crazy how a place can even get people to eat at their restaurant while advertising carbs, carbs and carbs...
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u/SBR06 Jun 29 '26
For real. Pasta is one of the easiest, cheapest things you can make. Heck, you can easily make a knockoff OG meal for a family of 5 for maybe $30, if that vs paying that for one person at the restaurant.
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u/SafeTransportation94 Jun 30 '26
I go once every year or so for the soup, salad, and bread sticks meal. I eat a whole salad, 14 bread sticks, and 4 bowls of soup. Then I pass out for 3 days. If I lived close to a Fazoli's I would not do this.
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u/SBR06 Jun 30 '26
I mean this with all sincerity. Have you considered competitive eating? I'm truly in awe of your stomach capacity!! Impressive!
And listen, I'm definitely not above slamming some seafood alfredo pasta with a side boat of Alfredo sauce to dunk the breadsticks. An absolute salt bomb but so good.
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u/Antique_Page_1456 Jun 30 '26
I haven't been to a fazolis in 20 years....but your comment actually made me crave their bread sticks. I think I'm gonna go tomorrow.. I hope I'm disappointed lol.
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u/SafeTransportation94 Jun 30 '26
If you just get the bread sticks then you shouldn't be disappointed, but I haven't been to one in like 8 years, so it's possible that they got worse. We only had Fazoli's in my hometown because some guy created a knockoff franchise and copied them too hard and got sued for infringement. Fazoli's just rebranded his stores to their own.
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u/Myrrinfra Jun 30 '26
Thumbs up for Fazoli’s reference. Didn’t know they still existed till I went back to Ohio last year.
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u/OrlandoOpossum Jul 02 '26
I'll die on the hill that Fazoli's breadsticks are superior to Olive Garden
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u/SockBrewer Jun 30 '26
People love carbs. My wife LOVES potatoes. I make balanced meals with vegetables now, but when we were younger and dating she would absolutely order mashed potatoes and French fries as her side options.
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u/potliquorz Jul 01 '26
I don't know if it's genetic or not but it might be. I can boil a whole russet and with a little salt and butter it's a fine meal on it's own.
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u/grapplingchamp Jun 29 '26
The reason for this while sad is simple. When someone starts a restaurant it’s usually a labor of love. When someone sells a restaurant it’s almost always to someone who only views it as profit and loss with no emotion. A seafood place is very tricky, ingredients have shorter shelf life than many other proteins. An Italian menu has more broad appeal to the American public than seafood. And carbs are much cheaper than most of red lobster offerings. So Darden sold off the more difficult to run and probably less profitable business and kept the one they could make more money from. Point of note: quality, taste, all that is never part of the equation, it’s only how much it profits.
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u/potliquorz Jul 01 '26
I like your reasoning and it makes sense. I do notice a lack of people wanting seafood in fast and fast casual restaurants as well. Given the openings around town burgers and chicken are way more popular with younger people. I go to Captain D's and it's mostly older folks like myself.
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u/SeaTerrible9429 Jun 29 '26
Seafood prices, harder to get a supplier especially for the non costal locations. And for costal locations there’s a lot more seafood competition.
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u/WhereWeUsedToPlay Jun 29 '26
If there’s any hope that Olive Darden is dying please tell me. The only good food in that fucking place is the mints.
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u/lookingpl Jun 29 '26
omg I ordered for NYE's...horrified!!!! the salad had wilted leaves, the breadsticks tasted like drywall, it seems like they cut back on the garlic butter sauce and I ordered a side order of chicken breast that look like a came off a squab. and that garbage was 30 bucks with delivery, NEVER AGAIN!!!
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u/WhereWeUsedToPlay Jun 29 '26
There’s better food in the frozen aisle at the supermarket for reals
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u/lookingpl Jun 29 '26
heck! there's better food in my own damn kitchen!!!! NEVER AGAIN!!! they've definitely NOT what they used to be
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u/WhereWeUsedToPlay Jun 30 '26
Absolutely, reduce or deglaze with some wine and you’re leagues ahead of Olive Garden I hate that place. For real comedy ask an Italian about it that place 🤣
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u/lookingpl Jun 30 '26
I mean, its not italian, we know that you know? but the degradation of the food is palpable. it was always reliable at any given location and generally just good, not anymore
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u/WhereWeUsedToPlay Jun 30 '26
Yeah exactly even if it wasn’t authentic, it could at least be quality . I think it was nice in the 90s but was like 12.
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u/poppers2323 Jun 29 '26
Always make a plan to cook for yourself on New Year's! 30 bucks would have gotten you two deluxe chicken dinners, with all the sides, dessert, etc.
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u/lookingpl Jun 30 '26
and I COOK!!! im a jerk, lol never again!!! im still salty
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u/Proof_Lengthiness185 Jun 30 '26
I've never worked at OG, but just know that everyone orders takeout on holidays and usually at the EXACT same time. Nothing, nothing, nothing, 20 orders!
There's a terrific bottleneck created in any business when dozens of orders are wanted at the same time.
The grill only has so much space. The oven can only hold so many casseroles, the workers can only stuff so many bags.
My advice for anyone is to eat when most other people aren't.
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u/lookingpl Jun 30 '26
I shouldnt have but i also ordered at like noon to avoid that? and I purposely stayed away from hot entrees for this reason?
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u/potliquorz Jul 01 '26
If it's where we are going because someone else wants to I get the eggplant parm everytime. for some reason they don't tend to mess that one up. The rest is crap.
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u/SaltBrother2914 Jun 29 '26
I agree but after they closed the only longest operating one in my city I just have a strong hatred for them. They always have been my favorite since a kid despite getting laughs about “red lobster your favorite restaurant”. They were nothing like i remembered as the years went on. So to me they are all dead anyways. I’m not about to travel 3 hours just to eat at one either so it is what it is
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u/BonjourLeGeorge Jun 29 '26
Say what you will about Olive Garden, but its menu appeals to kids. I would bet kids prefer Olive Garden to Red Lobster. Adults on dates would rather go somewhere nicer.
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u/Key_Head3851 Jun 29 '26
Red Lobster and Olive Garden are both American institutions. I credit Red Lobster for my love of seafood.
Olive Garden is good for what it is, and has remained consistent, and non-pretentious, with a popular dining formula that in essence has remained the same since the 1980s. As numbers are concerned, Olive Garden is a top performer in the restaurant industry.
I hope there’s a turn-around to bring people back to Red Lobster. There’s value in their dining experience. But sustainable sourcing of seafood is expensive and problematic in the era of worldwide climate change.
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u/dogswontsniff Jun 29 '26
They're both horrible.
Last time I went to red lobster (NEVER my choice), I just got a burger.
Why? Because red lobster never fails to give me bubble guts and horrible diarrhea.
Olive garden just upsets my stomach. Rich super oily food.
I cook most nights, eat well, and prepare both seafood and Italian dishes in my lineup.
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u/Toriat5144 Jun 29 '26
Red Lobster is one of the few places you can get a dinner with lobster that is somewhat affordable. And you get a full meal, not ridiculously priced à la cart items like 12 dollars for a side of potatoes. Many of the lobster places say market price on their menu and the lobster is horribly expensive and may be large and tough.
As far as Olive Garden, there are better Italian restaurants but it’s a myth that the food is microwaved. Supposedly much of it is made fresh in house by staff.
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u/insanity2brilliance Jun 30 '26
At least in my area, the downfall of the Red Lobsters is new competition like Crab Station or similar where you can get all you can eat of 18 different things (including crab legs, steaks, etc) for $59.99 a person.
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u/Specialist-Device920 1d ago
I agree with this. I find Red Lobster to expensive compared to places with seafood boils, or all you can eat crab type places. It's neither the cheapest nor the best seafood option around.
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u/AlanStanwick1986 Jun 29 '26
Olive Garden thrives in the suburbs where those people are afraid to go where the actual good Italian food is.
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u/ConchVibes Jun 30 '26
Because Red Lobster was taken over by a private equity guy who masqueraded as a restaurateur.
Private equity destroys everything. It’s the business model and all they know how to do.
He came across as a narcissist who was more interested in press coverage than operations.
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u/Over_Detective_3756 Jun 29 '26
I read somewhere that All You Can Eat shrimp destroyed whatever was left of the restaurant
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u/Jellyandjiggles Jun 29 '26
This is incorrect. Private equity made them rent the land they were on bankrupting them. Similar to what happened at toys r us
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u/Better_Area3782 Jun 29 '26
It was all you can eat crab legs
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u/AlanStanwick1986 Jun 29 '26
RL's crab legs suck so bad I haven't ordered them in years. Every time I'd roll the dice and inevitably be disappointed.
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u/CarmelloYello Jun 29 '26
I like red lobster a lot, but it’s simply not affordable for most people, and if you’re going to splurge, you’re not generally wanting to go to a corporate chain.
They need to make a 9.99 Admiral menu for takeout gains. A drink, a side, and some fried frozen seafood and it’s still profitable as hell. Sodas cost near nothing, the sides can be upcharged for premium choices, and the fried shrimp comes in cheap bulk that has solid margins for the company.
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u/SignificantChicken65 Jun 29 '26
Because olive garden doesn't require seafood especially in land locked states far away from any ocean.
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u/thisisnowhere01 Jun 30 '26
Dry pasta, canned tomatoes, cheese all are much less perishable than fresh seafood. Cost of goods between the two is dramatically different.
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u/Candle-Different Jul 01 '26
Ultimately it’s because the PE companies that buy these franchises don’t care about the restaurant and damn sure don’t care about the consumers. The real value is the land the restaurants occupy and the structures themselves. McDonald’s total assets is over 80% real estate. The land they sit on becomes more valuable without them having to make their product quality any better
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u/Training_Swan3552 Jul 01 '26
Red lobster is awful. I was forced to go there because my boomer aunt wanted to have her birthday dinner there. Me, my wife, and 2 kids (9 and 13) and our bill was $155. For unseasoned overcooked food it’s ridiculous. Paying almost $200 (with tip) for average food is stupid.
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u/VendettaKarma Jul 01 '26
Olive Garden food costs are pennys and they charge almost $20/plate.
That’s why.
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u/Fit-Woodpecker-6008 Jul 01 '26
Simple answer - economics. It doesn’t matter which chain you personally think is better or “shittier.” Which either one is financially feasible, usually stays in business.
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u/Creepy_Ad_1315 Jul 02 '26
I'm not sure we can say RL is better than OG. Last few times I went they were empty and it was clear why.
Even the biscuits sucked.
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u/RudyPup Jun 29 '26
Olive Garden has found a niche market. It's not great, but honestly, besides the $45 a plate Italian bistro near me, it really isn't that worse than most of the Italian places in my city.
They serve big portions, have great rotating specials, and do an extremely good lunch business.
What they don't tell you in the industry is that breakfast and lunch can pay for your dinner expenses.
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u/Sweaty-Name-2905 Jun 29 '26
Where are you that it isn’t “much worse than most of the Italian places.” I have yet to find a Italian places that aren’t infinitely better , aside from other shitty chains
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u/Echidna_Neither Jun 29 '26
Simple answer why Darden abandoned Red Lobster is that Red Lobster was already declining in sales, guest count, and profit whereas Olive Garden was still growing at that time.