12 Dishes You Should Never Order At Red Lobster

We all love going out to eat and enjoying time with family and friends around a table loaded with delicious food. But with restaurant prices seemingly at an all-time high, you'll probably want to make sure you get your money's worth at the restaurants you visit. That means you should have a good idea of the kinds of dishes you should order, but it's perhaps even more important to know which dishes you shouldn't order. If you're visiting a local restaurant, you may be able to read reviews to get a good idea of what you're in for, but when it comes to chain restaurants, dishes can be variable from location to location.

That being said, by checking out this list of the Red Lobster dishes you shouldn't be ordering, you may get a better sense of what on the menu is actually worth splurging on. That way, you can ensure you're going to have a good time without breaking your budget for no reason in the process. Let's take a closer look at these 12 dishes you should never order at the iconic seafood chain Red Lobster.

If the only dish you'd ever tried at Red Lobster was the crispy dragon shrimp, you probably wouldn't be shocked to find out that the Brownie Overboard is also way, way too sweet. This one is less offensive than the shrimp, of course, because a brownie is actually meant to be sweet, and that's probably what you want if you're ordering dessert anyway. But it's definitely possible to go too hard on the sugar, and that's exactly what's happening in this dessert dish.

When we tried this dish, we found that they basically just pile some brownies with every sweet ingredient they have stocked in the kitchen. It starts with a few big scoops of vanilla ice cream that add nothing of interest to the dish and then comes the caramel, fudge, and whipped cream. Why a chocolate brownie needs fudge on top is beyond us, but the result is not good. Plus, the size of this dish is absolutely massive, so it's really something you'd ideally want to share with a few people. We love personal-sized desserts that offer just a little sweet treat after the main course, and this brownie is absolutely not it. You might want to stop for an ice cream on the way home if you're craving a dessert that's a bit more restrained.

There are few dishes on the Red Lobster menu that feel as random as the lobster baked potato. Sure, a baked potato is a nice, albeit simple, side dish, and it feels like the kind of side that would be offered at a place like Red Lobster. But we really don't get the point in smothering it with cream sauce-infused Maine and langostino lobster. The flavors and textures don't really go well together, and overall, it just feels like more of an afterthought than a coherent side dish. Since you're likely to be ordering seafood as your main course, anyway, putting even more lobster on a baked potato is kind of gimmicky.

You can also probably safely assume that you're not getting the best-quality lobster in this baked potato dish, as they're likely to save that for main-course lobster dishes. In the end, we found that this is an overpriced baked potato with some sad lobster on top that you're better off skipping. Ask for the baked potato without the lobster, or order something else entirely.

It probably doesn't even have to be said, but if you want the freshest, highest-quality lobster you can get your hands on, you're going to want to get it at a lobster pound by the side of the road in a small town on coastal Maine or somewhere else where lobsters are fresh, abundant, and caught nearby. If you've had lobster from one of these places before, then you know just how good it can be: The meat is plump and slightly sweet, and every morsel feels like you've been blessed by the seafood gods.

It should not come as a surprise, but we found that you're almost definitely not going to have an experience like that if you're ordering lobster at Red Lobster. Sure, it's what the chain is known for, but at the end of the day, it is a chain, which generally means you're not getting the best quality. That might not matter much when it comes to a burger, but it makes a big difference on the lobster front. Most Red Lobsters are not located on a waterfront where the lobster is sourced, so it's not going to taste as fresh as the stuff you can get from a top-notch seafood joint. We're not saying that you have to skip the lobster completely, but just keep your expectations in check.

If you want to get the most bang for your buck on the crab leg front, you might not want to go to Red Lobster. Some Reddit users are claiming that the crab legs used to be a great deal at the restaurant, so it was an easy way to splurge on a meal that might be on the nicer side for many of us who don't eat seafood on the regular. But now, they say that things have changed. Restaurant prices have gone up in general, so it's no surprise that many diners are seeing higher prices at Red Lobster as well. But they're also saying that the quality of the crab legs has decreased and that you don't get as much meat as you used to.

Obviously, this seems very variable, and the reality could be quite different at your local Red Lobster. That being said, ordering something like crab legs is already a gamble; you never know what kind of quality you're going to get, particularly when you order them from someplace like Red Lobster, which is a huge company with locations all across the country. If you're willing to take a chance, go ahead and order the crab legs. Otherwise, there are safer menu options to choose from.

By now, you've probably heard about Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp deal. It's exactly what it sounds like: Unlimited shrimp until you can't possibly eat any more. There are different types of shrimp to choose from, although we suggest those that are lacking in breading if you want to get the most bang for your buck. But do you even want to order the Endless Shrimp, anyway? If you're super hungry and are looking to meet your protein goal for the day, it may not be a bad idea. On the other hand, though, if you're the type of person who tends to overeat and feels terrible afterward as a result, this is a deal you might want to skip.

When you order most dishes at Red Lobster, there will come a natural stopping point where you decide you've had enough. When it comes to the Endless Shrimp, though, there's a good chance you'll just keep eating as much as you can until you feel too full. If you want to avoid that heavy feeling that leaves you with a crippling stomach ache, look for something else to try from the menu. Red Lobster isn't exactly known for its small portion sizes, so it's likely to fill you up just fine.

Listen, we get it. Sometimes, you just need an appetizer to hold you over until you're ready to dig into the main course. And in a moment of weakness, we have ordered the mozzarella cheese sticks at Red Lobster. But believe us when we say that it was a huge, huge mistake. Were the cheese sticks particularly bad? No. Messing up a mozzarella stick seems hard to do, and these tasted just fine, like frozen mozzarella sticks you might buy at the grocery store. They come with plenty of marinara sauce, which hides all cheese sins. But was it worth the money or the room it took up in our stomachs? No.

When you go to Red Lobster, you're in it for a seafood meal. Out of all the items you could order off of the appetizer menu, why on earth would you choose something as commonplace, as pedestrian as mozzarella sticks? There are countless restaurants you could go to for a great mozzarella stick (and you could even make your own), but Red Lobster just doesn't seem like one of them.