The Red Lobster Menu Staple You Should Avoid, According To Reviews

Red Lobster is a haven for seafood lovers. From shrimp classics to seafood boils, there's a treasure of oceanic options to feast on but according to reviews, there's one menu staple you should avoid: the lobster bisque.

This creamy soup is served with oyster crackers, in addition to the free Cheddar Bay biscuits that come with every meal (a mistake you might be making when dining at Red Lobster is not asking for more biscuits when you run out!). One reviewer on TripAdvisor said, "upon tasting one sip of the soup (after dredging the bottom for a solitary pea sized piece of lobster) I was, for lack of a better word, disappointed. It was quite watery for a bisque, and had almost no lobster in it. It didn't taste good, either. Think drawn butter with pink milk and seafood squeezings." 

Meanwhile, a reviewer on Yelp also complained about the "very thin consistency" of the bisque and that it was not hot when it arrived. On the other hand, a different Yelp reviewer had the opposite problem and said the "bisque was ridiculously thick (probably packed with flour, butter, and heavy cream) and salty," signaling that the consistency of the soup may differ upon restaurant location.

Red Lobster removed the bisque from the menu a few years ago but reintroduced it in 2024 as part of a revamp that also included the roll out of lobster pappardelle and lemon basil Mahi. But over on Reddit, one customer said, "The new lobster bisque is bad. Ever since they changed the recipe it's been horrible. The soup tastes like a red pepper soup NOT the creamy lovely lobster bisque that it used to be."

A lobster bisque red flag to look out for when ordering at a restaurant is the absence of other lobster dishes on the menu. This is because a proper lobster bisque recipe needs to be made with real lobster shells that are simmered in water to make a shellfish stock (years ago, the shells were also ground up and added to the stock to thicken it). If there's no lobster dish to be found on the menu, the bisque will likely come from a can or have been reheated from frozen rather than made fresh on the premises. 

Of course, there are plenty of lobster dishes on the menu at Red Lobster, so this isn't an issue of concern. The allergy guide mentions that the bisque may contain molluscan shellfish, like clams and scallops, as well as crustacean shellfish, including shrimp, crab, and lobster. That said, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of this in the smooth texture of the soup.