The Chain Restaurant With The Hands-Down Most Affordable Lobster Tail In 2026

Lobster tails have not been known as an affordable food in a long time, and even chain restaurants usually can't offer much relief. While you've probably heard stories about lobster being a food for prisoners and the poor in the past (like oysters), those times are long gone. Continuous high demand combined with slow growth rates and difficult farming conditions have fully transformed this crustacean into a luxury food. So what are lobster lovers without massive bank accounts supposed to do? Well we've researched the chains where you can get lobster tail at the most reasonable prices.

Looking at popular national chains, there was one clear winner for most affordable individual lobster tail, and that's Red Lobster. However, there are some chains where you can get a cheaper one under specific circumstances. We checked menu prices across the upper Midwest, which offers pretty average national prices for food and dining out (prices do vary significantly by location), and found that Red Lobster had the best deal with its Classic Maine Lobster Tail coming in at $22.99, but it's also the only reasonably priced tail you can buy on its own. 

Single lobster tails by themselves as entrees or sides are rare on chain restaurant menus, so there are some combos where your cost-per-tail can be a little lower than that. A few chains like Outback and Bonefish Grill only offer two lobster tails together as an entree, and in Outback's case the two tail meal is $39. So while you'll pay more overall, you get more bang for your buck than at Red Lobster.

In fact, the best option for ordering lobster at a reasonable price at a chain restaurant is as an add-on or combo with a steak. Fogo de Chão for example does not offer the option of buying a lobster tail on its own — however, as an extra with the classic churrasco experience, you can add a tail for only $18.

This is actually the way to get the cheapest possible lobster tail we could find. At LongHorn Steakhouse there is no lobster-by-itself option either, but you can add a grilled lobster tail to any steak order for only $14 at the locations we checked. This was possible on even the cheapest steak options, like a six-ounce sirloin. The next cheapest was also as an add-on, this time at Outback, where you can add a steamed lobster tail to a steak order for $17.

Finally, there is one last way to squeeze in some affordable lobster tail, which is at Sizzler. Unlike Outback or LongHorn, Sizzler doesn't offer lobster tail as an add-on to any steak, but there is a six-ounce sirloin steak and lobster tail combo on the menu for only $26, which is cheaper than the LongHorn steak plus add-on tail by $4. Unfortunately for cheap lobster hunters, after decades of store closures at the Sizzler steakhouse chain, the restaurant has been reduced to only 74 locations, mostly on the West Coast. So for a truly national chain, LongHorn and Red Lobster remain your best two options for lobster tail, depending on whether you prefer a combo or stand-alone tail.