Red Lobster's Street Corn Shrimp And Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi Review: They're Just Meh
Red Lobster's menu leans heavily toward the crustacean that resides in its name, but the chain has always made room for other tasty creatures of the sea on its menu, including shrimp. Since there are so many ways to cook and enjoy shrimp, Red Lobster's menu is loaded with a bevy of shrimp options. With almost too many to choose from, the company practically requires diners to pick at least two of its options to share real estate on a single plate. Two of the latest and greatest options the chain is offering up this spring are Street Corn Shrimp, as well as a Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi.
With these two shrimp dishes competing with six others on the menu for people to choose from, The Daily Meal wanted to see if they were worth reeling in for lunch or dinner, or better off tossing back into the sea. This shrimptastic review is based on taste, texture, value, uniqueness, and overall lovability. Shells yeah!
What does Red Lobster's Street Corn Shrimp taste like?
On a wooden skewer, with a darkened tip, laid six curled-up shrimp, sitting cozy on a bed of corn kernels. The presentation was lovely and inviting, with the corn's bright yellow kernels offset by blackened edges, and grilled shrimp topped off with a mysterious creamy orange drizzle that popped off the plate.
I started with the corn, and was surprised that it was served cold. Once I got beyond that disappointing fact, I had to then reason with why the cold corn was so poorly seasoned. It not only lacked salt and was in desperate need of warming, but was also soaking wet and probably could have used a bit of toweling off. If the street corn was the selling point of this dish, it should have remained on the street. At least the shrimp part came through on its end of the bargain. I couldn't grasp what exactly the drizzle was, but it, paired with bits of either Parmesan flakes or perhaps cotija cheese, helped to give the crisp shrimp a nice flavor.
Street Corn Shrimp's single serving is good for 390 calories, 23 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 140 milligrams of cholesterol, a whopping 1440 milligrams of sodium, 18 grams of protein, and 26 grams of total carbohydrates, with 4 dedicated for dietary fiber, and another 14 for total sugars. It contains the allergens milk, eggs, wheat, soy, sulfites, and naturally crustacean shellfish.
What does Red Lobster's Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi taste like?
While the Street Corn Shrimp part of my dish was colorful and multi-textured, the Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi simply looked like a rectangular wading pool of shelled seafood drowning in a sea of oily garlic butter. Not necessarily a bad thing, as this dish got straight to the point, with nothing for an eater to do but eat it up ... and try not to get the butter on their hands or clothing.
Parmesan is in the dish's title, but it seemed to be absent in the presentation, perhaps sunk in the tank of garlic butter. In this sea bed were four mostly orangey-white shrimp and several teeny tiny dots of pale scallops. The scallops had a shred of tenderness to them, but since they were so small, they barely registered. Despite being drenched, the shrimp's firmness held up well in a bite, and simply tasted like buttered shrimp also in need of a dash of salt, or even some grated Parmesan on the side. It's undoubtedly a shrimp and scallop scampi, but something just feels missing here.
Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi nets 280 calories, 22 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 110 milligrams of cholesterol, 790 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of protein, 5 grams of total carbohydrates, with 1 dedicated for dietary fiber, and another for total sugars. It contains the allergens gluten, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, sulfates, and naturally crustacean shellfish.
How to buy Red Lobster's new shrimp dishes
Red Lobster's new Street Corn Shrimp and Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi are available at participating locations, for a limited time only. The two dishes can be found under "Shrimp" within the main standard menu, and are also listed on the "Shrimp Your Way" table card menu, where you can pick two or three shrimp dishes from the current roster. The two or three-shrimp dish meal deals include the choice of a single side, like rice, fries, coleslaw, broccoli, a mashed potato, or even a baked one. The suggested retail price for a trio of shrimp dishes is $20. At the Times Square Red Lobster location where I dined, the Choose Two option I opted for retailed for $21, the Choose Three ran for $25, and additional flavors after that for $5 each. While I did not see an option on the menu, the hostess told me that one could order a single shrimp dish by its lonesome.
These shrimp dishes are available to order anytime Red Lobster is open, while supplies last. They can be ordered for dining in, at the restaurant or in the bar area, for take out by ordering in person or in advance, or delivery where available. Be sure to consult Red Lobster's website for the availability of dishes, as well as delivery coverage in your area. Delivery is also an option through services like DoorDash and GrubHub, although prices may be higher.
The final verdict
I ordered a plate that included the new Street Corn Shrimp and Shrimp & Scallop Parmesan Scampi, and somehow ended up with a bonus helping of golden brown jumbo shrimp. While the two new shrimp dishes were totally fine and completely inoffensive, their flavors didn't exactly elicit much excitement. I kept getting distracted and lured back to the shrimp that wasn't even supposed to be there — the delightful, flaky, and crispy coconut shrimp. Still, for slightly over $20, the two new shrimp options that provide 10 shrimp at your eating disposal, present a decent value. It certainly wouldn't be a mistake to order these dishes at Red Lobster.
I ate half my plate and took the rest home to see how it would fare in the "to-go" world. Most of the Scampi's juices scampered out of the plastic container and all over the brown take-home bag. What I thought was a mess turned into a happy accident. I had a leftover Cheddar Bay Biscuit in there, and it ended up acting as a sponge for the oily garlic butter. It was a sign of what was missing with that item — more carbohydrates. The biscuit worked well to sop up the excess sauce, and a potato side dish would have done just as nicely. That may defeat the purpose of this low-carb Scampi's existence, but next time I may just skip the weight-watching and just get right to business with Red Lobster's Shrimp Linguini Alfredo.