Dine-in Date: 9th November 2015

The first Red Lobster branch that I saw was at The Curve, and I heard that the price was up to RM200+... but since I don't always travel around Damansara area so I didn't have a chance to see what Red Lobster offer until they are open in Mid Valley.

Unfortunately, I do not get to experience dining in Red Lobster from the time when I'm still working around Mid Valley, and I do not have much time to go back to Mid Valley to try this. Well, at least now I'm able to do so thanks to my leave day.

About The Red Lobster

The Red Lobster is one of the largest seafood restaurant chain around the globe. The first restaurant was originally established in Lakeland, Florida in the year of 1968. Today, The Red Lobster has more than 750+ branches worldwide. The Red Lobster is under the company of Darden Restaurant, which is also the same for Olive Garden.
The Red Lobster is a casual-looking restaurant from the inside-out but except that they serve high quality seafood cuisine. They might not look too special from the outside. But they say you can't judge a book by its cover. And since you know it's a restaurant that specialize in lobster, you can't expect the price to be ordinary. As you may expect, The Red Lobster is one of those restaurants that you might pay more than RM200++ for a single dish if you want.

In Red Lobster, you either find 100% seafood dishes or seafood dishes merging with other type of food such as meat and salad. So dining into Red Lobster, you can only have seafood unless you order sides. Food range from pasta, pizza, soup, salad, cakes, and drinks such as coffee, tea, fruit juice, milk shakes, and mock tails.

They offer "value lunch" but do look closely to know that not all listed in the lunch set menu are RM19.90, there is only one pasta that cost RM19.90, and the rest cost much more than RM19.90. Some even cost more than RM100. This is one of the expensive lunch set I seen out there. The set included a soup and a bottomless drink.

Despite being "value lunch", it's not the type of set meals that allows you to try out some of the food because it's cheaper or look for some cheap set lunch to save some money because there are only 3 type of dishes in the lunch menu that is under RM50. How common it is to find set lunch that cost more than RM50? Probably that's why they mention "value lunch" in the sense that the value is based on their good food quality, not set lunch. But if you are looking for a slightly expensive or really expensive set lunch, here is the place for you.

The Red Lobster started their operation in Malaysia's KL City since 2014 and established few branches within a year. Up to this date, The Red Lobster has several branches in Malaysia which located at The Intermark KL, Gamuda Walk, Quill City Mall, Sunway Putra Mall, The Curve, and Mid Valley.

About The Food

As included in the set meal, this mushroom soup is nothing special. The garlic bread is quite nice, good to have it for breakfast. Quite tasty when you dipped the garlic bread and eat along with the soup. But not a bowl of delicious mushroom soup that I'm going to miss.

The Cheddar Bay biscuit is soft & crunchy, except that it's a little dry and lacking of aroma and taste. I was expecting the top layer to have some crust and nice bites but it doesn't. I can only taste some salty flavor in each bite.

Caribbean Salmon and Shrimp (RM59.90) is one of the recommended food in the menu. As a huge fan of salmon and shrimp, this one caught my attention a lot. But it's actually just aroma rice, pan fried salmon and prawn, served with mango & pineapple cubes. For the salmon, it's a huge letdown because I can cook better than that and I'm not joking. The only thing that it's good is because it's fresh, well cooked, and it's big. On the other hand, it's quite dry and the taste is kind of lacking so I need eat with the mango and pineapple cubes just so that it's not too dry and has some taste.

The shrimp is pretty good, full of flavors, tasty, well cooked, and crunchy. It's kind of cover up the taste of the salmon after eating the shrimp.

Seafood Marinara (RM29.90) is one of the item that we order from the lunch set, just so that we can get the soup and drinks. The spaghetti is good, nice to chew, soft and smooth. The tomato basil sauce is really good. Great taste but not too over, creamy texture, nice to eat with spaghetti and seafood. The satisfying part is the pasta covered up by lots and lots of nice chewing, full of flavor and well cooked scallops, shrimp and mussels.
Here's the price of each type of lobster per 100 grams. Apparently, this 3 type is the lobster "breed" they have. Not a huge fan of lobster and don't know if the price is reasonable or not.

Contact & Location

Monday to Sunday: 10am - 10pm

Lot G (E) -009 & T/L (E) - 09/01,
Ground External Floor,
Mid Valley Megamall, Lingkaran Syed Putra,
59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Main Website: Click Here
Malaysia's Website: Click Here
Malaysia's Facebook: Click Here
Mid Valley Branch's Phone Line: 03-2201 4241

The Red Lobster in Mid Valley is located at the spot where Beyond Veggie used to be. It's at the outside of Mid Valley facing the Gardens Mall direction, same location as ground floor Starbucks around the center court, Nichinan Jidoriya, Old Town White Coffee Express and Kim Garry. The exact location is between Nichinan Jidoriya and Old Town White Coffee Express. If you are around Delicious, Antipodean, Chilis, Yeast or Maybank, The Red Lobster is at the other side.

Other Facility

Payment type: Cash and Credit Card
Wifi: Not Available
Power Cable Availability: Don't think about it
Smoking Area: Yes

Nearby Option

For nearby restaurant options, there are too much of choices so it's hard to recommend. If you are looking for seafood restaurant that serve lobster, I don't recall any good one around there. But if you are specifically looking for restaurants that offer seafood cuisines, here you are:

1. Franco (Try their squid ink rice/pasta)
2. Manhattan Fish Market

Rating

Quality

Good. The overall quality in terms of taste is good, although not up my expectation. The letdown is not just the salmon, is because despite the good tasty seafood quality, it's not something that has the "wow" feeling and there is nothing really special about the dishes. This comment is being made without trying the lobster of course, but my rule stated that a food is available in the menu so they have to be good.

Portion

Good. Portion is quite okay, I don't feel too stuffy finishing the pasta sauce, just slightly stuff. The Caribbean Salmon & Shrimp has good portion. For big eater, perhaps need more rice.

Cost

Not Worthy. The price is really too much for foods that are not really special and the quality is not really that high. You can get much better choices out there with lower price.

Service

Good. Friendly staff, but perhaps need some improvement in English speaking. And always available when we need to call for them. Not sure if you are sitting outside. The serving speed is quite fast too, sides and drinks arrive within minutes, and main meals arrive within 10 minutes.

Environment

Good. Typical relaxing and chit-chatting place. Good for ordinary lunch, tea time, and dinner, as well as celebration. Overall decoration is quite classy and comfortable. Soft music and peaceful even when lots of people in the restaurant (unless people are shouting of course). More than enough to have a good feeling that you are dining in a decent restaurant for tasty seafood.

Next Visit?

....Nope. Unless I'm in the mood of trying their lobster. But recalling the price in the menu always demolish my thoughts instantly