Red Lobster Changing Menu To Remind Everyone It’s Still A Seafood Restaurant

Although it’s always fun to play the field, it seems that flirting with other kinds of cuisine isn’t working out so well for Red Lobster anymore. That’s why the restaurant chain with seafood in its name is returning to its roots with a newly revamped menu, ditching things like tortilla soup and pork chops in favor of more lobster.

It’s right there in the name, so why not play it up? The Associated Press reports that the made-over menu will push more fish and lobster dishes, upping the ocean quotient from 75% seafood on the menu to 85%, in an attempt to woo customers looking for a taste of the sea.

There will be more photos of the food, Red Lobster said, with four of the five new dishes on it involving lobster. The amount of shrimp in the “Ultimate Feast” platter will also bloom by 50% — which will come with an extra $1 added to the price of the dish.

The non-seafood items were a move made by Red Lobster’s previous owner, Darden Restaurants, in an effort to lure diners who won’t like seafood. Trying to get customers in the door that way didn’t work out so well, as sales slumped.

“At the end of the day, we believe that seafood is really why people come to Red Lobster,” Salli Setta, Red Lobster’s president told the AP.

This return to the sea comes after Darden spun off Red Lobster last summer, selling it to Golden Gate Capital, a move which saw the chain attempting tactics like changing the way food is piled on the plate to make dishes appear more visually appetizing, as well as ditching low-price food specials to appear more classy.

Red Lobster changes menu to re-emphasize seafood [Associated Press]

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