Well everybody's lined up at my house
my house
And Sarah's girlfriend
is working the door
Got everybody's PA in my house
my house
All the robots
descend from the bus
Another Tuesday... another Taste! This one is a bit of an unplanned, unusual one.
See, I keep a list of places I intend to review for these Tuesday articles. Spoiler but, my initial intention for this week was to try Shelby's Shawarma (there's one semi-close to where I play baseball on Saturdays)... but there were some complications (drinking a lot of beer with the people I play baseball with on Saturdays).
Instead... my mum was in town for a Monday afternoon and proposed she, my dad and myself, meet for lunch at the classic Red Lobster in that atrium on Dundas and Bay street. My mum has a strange thing with places like this: if they offer some kind of "all you can eat" special she is extremely gung-ho about it (Mandarin seems to be another favourite of her's for this reason I suspect).
Anyhow! We three met up for a late lunch, I indeed ordered the 'endless shrimp' special, and now I'm using it as an excuse to review Red Lobster. Why not! Seafood isn't something frequently visited here, in this weird little corner of the internet I call my own... so here's one of the more famous seafood chains in North America.
Recent times have not been kind to Red Lobster, and the future of the company appears murky to put it politely. However, lets dive into its past rather than speculate about their future. The first one opened in Lakeland, Florida (a familiar town if you watch spring training baseball) in the late 1960s and within a short period of time were bought out by processed food conglomerate General Mills.
Interestingly, Red Lobster expanded into Canada quite early on and has maintained a steady presence throughout southern Ontario. Not entirely sure if the company's financial woes are affecting their Canadian outposts as well (there are about two dozen operating in Canada, and none east of Quebec) but enough of my endless backstories lets dive into some endless shrimp.
The famed Cheddar Bay Biscuits. Well, I guess they're famed I didn't even know they had this name until starting to write this article.
As far as biscuits go... these are solid. Bit of a cheesy taste, they break apart nicely, are buttery inside and there's a pleasant flavour and texture to them. Good smell too, and the seasoning is on point. We're off to a good start indeed.
Back to the lead photograph. For my side I went with french fries and... they're pretty meh and generic. Not particularly crispy, they're your standard frozen fry fare. I ate about half of them and wished I'd gotten mashed potatoes instead.
I'm hardly gonna hold a grudge against Red Lobster because their fries are barely passable... so lets get into the shrimp. These first two shrimpy items are their shrimp linguini and what they call "Walt's Special" or something... a breaded shrimp that's somewhat thicker than a tempura batter but much less crusty then it indeed looks.
Both are enjoyable dishes. Not the best pasta I've ever encountered (noodles were a little stiff and undercooked) but the flavour of the shrimp mixed with an oily, garlicy sauce is simple but very effective. As for Walter Johnson's breaded shrimp or whatever the hell it's called (Red Lobster's website is not particularly helpful in describing their menu items)... what makes this work truly is how the batter isn't heavy, overtly greasy, or unpleasantly crunchy either. It certainly shines best with the cocktail sauce, no doubt, but it is breaded and fried in just the right way to allow the soft sea saltiness of the shrimp to truly be the star, and that combination of light crunch and tender shrimp is quite delightful. Probably the best thing I tried here.
How about some garlic fried shrimp? In butter? Look... I'm gonna assume you, dear reader, have read a few of my reviews and thus know my thoughts about buttery, garlicy things and how their mere existence makes our world a significantly better place. These were stupidly delicious and it's not hard to imagine why. If you somehow screw up shrimp, butter and garlic... I don't know what to say.
Nah, we'll talk more about this one... a sweet and spicy Thai fried shrimp. Some lettuce bits, some well placed green onions, and some lightly crunchy (no tails here) breaded shrimp in sneakily sweet spicy sauce. Honestly... pretty good! The sauce hits with some initial bright red chili heat but its creaminess keeps it from overwhelming the tongue. Meanwhile there's a honey-like sticky sweetness that is consistent throughout. This was a secret winner: it was the last thing I ordered from the 'endless shrimp' options and they kindly let me take half of it to go... even cold after getting home from work this was still quite a tasty snack.
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Overall! As I warned above... this is an unusual review in how both this was genuinely better than expected, and also there isn't a whole lot else I can describe in depth. I didn't anticipate it would be awful, not at all... more average-ish and indeed it ended up being on the higher end of that expectation.
There's nothing wrong with any of these dishes (okay the fries aren't good but whatever) and not much really exceptional about them either. Not gonna blow your mind, not gonna leave you with a bad taste in your mouth either. Which is my problem: how the heck can I get into depth about a level of food that is both enjoyable yet extremely not memorable?
That's Red Lobster. Enjoyable yet not memorable. At least, not memorable from a culinary perspective. Seeing your parents for a rare lunch? Both enjoyable and memorable. And eating a ton of shrimp has it's own little joys as well... yeah. There is far, far better seafood to experience and enjoy in this fine city we call Toronto... but Red Lobster tows the line of this middle ground that seems reliably decent.
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Tuesday Tune
Such a catchy song and a funky video as well.
That's all for this week! Until next time... stay safe, stay cool and don't spill that mustard.
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