I know you didn’t specifically say it was GOOD sushi, but in a thread knocking RL as “bad”, anyone that eats gas station sushi deserves whatever scorn or food poisoning they get!
I wonder how much of the chain-bashing in threads like these comes from people who live in big cities. The oft-heard “There are so many better local places” is more true in some locations than in others.
I think I might try and see which stores do well or at least ok (they can’t ALL be tanking), and try and figure out why. My suspicion is that the ones that still do well are ones that either have a captive market for seafood- their original scheme.
Assuming I figured it out, I’d double-down on it- if it was because they’re the only seafood game in town, I’d try and modernize the menu and bring it more in line with what other places serve- lighter seafood dishes, more varied preparations, and an emphasis on sustainability. The idea would be to make their restaurants vital again in markets that they already have a good beachhead in, and abandon the ones in places that are already well-served by other seafood restaurants.
They’d have to get used to less profits and growth, but less is better than none.
That was a serious question, because IMO mexican food tastes the same pretty much across the board, whereas seafood is either greasy-ass mess (Cap D’s or Silver’s) or made a higher quality like RL does.
I’m sure you’re a wonderful poster and a great family man, but if you think Taco Bell and Chipotle taste anything like each other…
I did a quick google search on this. The thing I saw mentioned a lot was that demand is down. Attempts to cut price to bring in more consumers failed. As far as I can tell, there’s been no real sea-change in the restaurant business. Yes, the economy sucks. But it’s not like print newspapers or video rentals or anything.
I suspect that this is just the lifecycle of the chain. Tastes have changed. This is intuitive when it comes to certain products. You come out with a new video game, or book, or a shamwow or whatever. People buy it (if it’s successful) and then sales peter out. I think this is probably what happened to Red Lobster, and it’s not good or bad. The product is simply entering the final phase of its lifecycle.
Or that either taste anything like really good Mexican or Tex-Mex…
Yep…there are often good restaurants in the most out of the way places. (This place is amazing, for instance: http://www.angrytroutcafe.com/ - if you are ever in Grand Marias, Minnesota. I dream of their trout). But grilled octopus is not a staple of most mid-sized towns in the U.S. and it can be hard to get a good restaurant off the ground in a small to medium sized town.
My sister lives in a town with a pizza place, a diner, a “family saloon,” a Dairy Queen, and a coffee shop. They got a Subway - they rejoiced. There is no cute independent thai place, or seafood restaurant operated by a local chef, or even a place to get a good steak (the diner’s meatloaf is pretty good, and the Catholic church does a fish fry on Friday during Lent). The nearest place with more restaurants is 45 minutes away - where they have a Red Lobster.
Red Lobster has a tarnished image.
I haven’t been to one in 10 years, but when I think of RL, I think poor quality\overpriced. Hey may have gotten better over the years (not from what I have heard), but once you get a bad reputation, it’s very hard to shake it.
And it is very true that you can find really good, interesting food for a lot cheaper in unusual places. I had a lobster roll and claim chowder off a food truck in the San Fernando Valley that cheaper and better than anything I ever got at RL.
Hell, there’s a sandwich joint in a Chevron Gas station that has the best tomato soup and the best cream of mushroom soup that I have ever tasted, and cheap. Seriously, I live 8 hours away and I still think about it.
Have you ever been to a real Mexican restaurant? Because they have items which Chipotle (which I like) and Taco Bell (which I abhor) don’t carry.
40 years ago Dead Lobster was a reasonable choice in the middle of Illinois. But it seemed out of date even then. I haven’t been to one in easily 20 years, but none of their marketing makes me think they are any better. Shagnasty’s typo about Medicare food is quite brilliant, because people on Medicare now remember it as a place to get food they couldn’t get anywhere else.
As for OG, I actually used to like the place, but now there are tons of better Italian chains and OG seems to offer a very limited menu - chicken in place of veal and you got a new item. We haven’t been to the one within walking distance of our house for maybe five years, and we used to go fairly often.
Thanks, Yogi.
Even this is going to be tough. Do you really think people in Fargo don’t expect fresh seafood? Think again. The foodie revolution didn’t overlook the Midwest. I’m in Des Moines, which is about as white bread as it gets, and nobody I know eats at Red Lobster (except with kids, who seem to like it). Even if you won’t try the local seafood restaurants (notably, The Waterfront in mid-range cost and Splash which is pricier), you’d go to Joe’s Crab Shack if you want a “reliable” chain experience. Same prices, more options (with actual spices), better taste.
Des Moines has changed a lot food-wise. Yes, the country rubes still come to town to eat at Olive Garden (though Cheesecake Factory finally moved in and stole a lot of their thunder) and to some extent Red Lobster may still be okay in that market. But the Midwest is getting more sophisticated just like anywhere else. When I moved to central Iowa in '95, we were considered pretty cosmopolitan for going to the bagel place every week like we did on the coast. Now, some of the closest restaurants to my suburban home are what would have been considered breathtakingly exotic just a few years ago (Vietnamese, Ecuadorian, sushi). Ethnic food used to be getting cheese enchiladas at a cookie-cutter Mexican place, now everyone’s grandma is happy eating pad thai and you can get pho and banh mi at the mall. Nobody wants to go to Red Lobster for an anniversary when you can’t throw a rock without hitting a cute little bistro or another quirky local place.
Flying in seafood daily is a pretty regular thing in a lot of restaurants, especially the sushi places (Miyabi 9 is, I’m told, good enough to be on par with many big cities’ offerings). The room in the market for drenched-in-butter frozen-months-ago seafood is ever narrowing, and frankly those folks are increasingly likely to save the bucks and go for Long John Silver’s or go to someplace with more pinache. Frankly I think they should go for the kid market since those are the only people I know who seem to like their food that much.
Still, Des Moines may well count as a big city for the purposes of this discussion. (By contrast, the last time I ate at a Red Lobster, it was in Peru, Illinois, a town of just over 10,000 with no larger cities particularly close by.)
Now I know even the moderators don’t read my posts. I am invisible.
No you’re not. When I read it, yours was the last post and ninja’d me
Sure, but I’d argue Fargo (at over 100k) is closer in environment to Des Moines (200k) than Peru, Illinois. Both are basically the “big city” in their immediate area.
Most sushi, even in the very best restaurants in Japan and New York, use previously frozen fish. I believe the FDA requires it of fish that is to be served raw, to kill any parasites. The one exception is tuna, which swims constantly in deep, very cold water and does not pick up parasites easily.
You sound like you’re in the same boat my wife was in when she met me. To her, fish always tasted “fishy”, and she didn’t like seafood, because all she’d ever had was funky frozen fish badly prepared, or stuff at places like RL, LJS or CAPT D’s.
Now, after nearly a decade of exposing her to extremely fresh and well prepared seafood, she’s a convert.
You sound like someone basing your opinion of Mexican food on Taco Bell, Del Taco and Taco Tico alone.
Good question. There are also plenty of local places in the greater Little Rock area that just absolutely sucks ass. I’d rather eat at Chili’s or On the Border rather than some of the local eateries.