French Fry Diary 435: Red Lobster 2012

We've been doing this over a decade. Longtime friend Marni's birthday gift has always been dinner at Red Lobster, and this year is no different. Of course, the restaurant in Cherry Hill took some getting to, as our dinner fell on the first snowstorm of the year, one week after Hurricane Sandy hit. Not happy weather.

Slow start as we were waiting for The Bride to come from work. Luckily there were the wonderful cheese garlic biscuits to enjoy. I've said it before, and I'll say it again here, the bread things are really the only reason to come to Red Lobster.

I had planned to get onion rings as an appetizer with the peach bourbon BBQ sauce. I had looked at the menu online and was psyched. When it came time to order? All out of onion rings. No onion rings. Really? I waited eleven months for this, and all I got was an empty plate of disappointment. At least I, ahem, we, had bread things.

The fries were pretty much the same as they had been the last few trips here. The natural cut fries, a little over done, very crisp regular cuts with pepper and parsley. They were very good for dipping with the peach bourbon BBQ sauce or the maple glaze from the maple glaze chicken I ordered for my entree.

I might come back sooner but I suppose I'll definitely be back next November. Happy Birthday, Marni, from me and French Fry Diary.

French Fry Diary 326: The Aborted Applebee's Attempt

Let's be clear up front. Applebee's neither cares nor has any pride in their French fries. They are not included in their online menu as a side or an appetizer. You have to hunt them down to even see a picture of them on said menu. I guess if you're ordering online, fries just aren't an option.

It's been a long looong time since I've been to Applebee's. This is due to their always consistent customer service, which was bad. The last time I went to Applebee's was for my birthday about six years ago, and even then it had been a while before then we had gone. For my birthday I wanted a certain volcano fudge cake they had so we went, and from the way they seated us, to the food, to the wait time, to the getting orders just outright wrong, they assured us that their customer service was, as I said, consistent.

My memory insists that I have rarely had a good meal at Applebee's. I do remember once getting some really good onion rings, with Panko bread crumbs and shredded cheese mixed in, but I also recall the service that night being Applebee's standard. The fries as I recall are non-impressive salt and pepper natural cuts, nothing to write home about, and as I said before, Applebee's obviously doesn't think so either.

Further and much closer inspection of the online menu revealed that Applebee's also has crispy red potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, crispy onion strings, and fried onions, although I could not find these items alone, much like the fries. Now you're probably asking why wouldn't I just order those items a la carte, right? Well, those of you asking that question have obviously never experienced the fine, fine customer service at Applebee's. Good luck with that.

All that said, my buddy Ray came down for a buddy movie night. We were going to see the Hindu special effects spectacular Ra. One, and the only real restaurant near the theatre is Applebee's. At first I was hesitant, but seeing as Ray had just gotten back on to Weight Watchers, and Applebee's has a special WW menu, we went for it.

When we got there, it was packed, because it was a Friday night, of course. There was a thirty-minute wait. We weighed our options. Go someplace else, or wait a half hour for crappy service? Applebee's aborted this night, maybe another time. We'll try again.