Red Lobster’s luscious Ultimate Feast menu can make any diner feel like royalty.
But what aren’t they telling you about this cost-effective luxury?
Where exactly do those crab legs come from?
And what the heck is a langostino?
Stay tuned to find out.
Seafood is packed with nutrients, including iron, vitamins B and D, and omega-3s.
So it's little wonder that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends consuming at
least 8 ounces of seafood a week.
When it comes to restaurant offerings, however, there may be more to seafood dishes than meets
the eye.
Red Lobster's Ultimate Feast is a case in point.
The meal is, fittingly, huge, and its overwhelming range of culinary delights are no doubt sustaining
many unhealthy dietary habits.
While the main stars of the Ultimate Feast are lobster, crab, and shrimp, the meal is
also served with melted butter, cocktail sauce, and two sides.
All in all, the dish is composed of 1,190 calories, 72 grams of fat, 465 milligrams
of cholesterol, and 3,850 milligrams of sodium.
In other words, this dish completely maxes out our daily allowance of these unhealthy
nutrients.
If you wanted to burn off the Ultimate Feast, you would have to walk for 331 minutes, jog
for 137 minutes, or cycle for 182 minutes.
Red Lobster advertises that its Ultimate Feast is served with a, quote, "Maine” lobster
tail, which is popular for its tender and sweet meat.
Nevertheless, the restaurant has previously admitted that it actually offers three types
of lobster.
When interviewed, a spokesperson for Red Lobster told Inside Edition:
"Red Lobster ... serves a variety of lobster on its menu, including North American lobster,
Maine lobster, and langostino lobster.
As a seafood expert, Red Lobster understands that the seasonality and availability of lobster
can fluctuate."
The good news is that langostinos, which cost much less than actual lobster meat, are rather
small, so their presence in the Ultimate Feast would be pretty easy to detect.
However, while langostinos may be tricky to disguise as lobster tails, they could quite
easily pose as lobster chunks or morsels.
This is precisely the discovery Inside Edition made when they conducted DNA testing on the
meat in the restaurant's lobster bisque soup.
The testing showed that the meat from one location was langostino, while two others
used a mix of langostino and lobster.
Not all seafood is created equal — that's why it's always good to know the origins of
your fish, lobster, or crab.
According to Today, there's a chance that the snow crab legs, a vital part of the Ultimate
Feast, may have been caught by fishermen from the hit reality TV show, Deadliest Catch.
While it's easy to think that the Deadliest Catch crew is putting their lives at risk
just to entertain us, they are actually working.
And a lot of their snow crab haul is sold to Red Lobster.
Spurred by a commitment to sustainable fishing, the partnership between Red Lobster and Deadliest
Catch started back in 2015.
Red Lobster’s former Director of Procurement, Skip Frisz, complimented his business partners
in Captains Josh Harris and Casey McManus, saying:
"I'm very proud of the high-quality crab Josh and Casey of the Cornelia Marie bring to Red
Lobster."
Another Deadliest Catch crew member, Captain Jake Anderson, further explained:
"There are specific rules about the types of crabs we can catch and how many can be
caught during fishing season."
The Ultimate Feast is one of Red Lobster's most popular dishes.
So when the restaurant raised the price of the platter in 2018, seafood enthusiasts weren't
impressed.
Customers were quick to take their dismay to social media.
One Twitter user, apparently taking a break from the major political scandal of the day,
wrote:
"While Facebook is under much scrutiny, don't let this distract you from the fact that Red
Lobster's Ultimate Feast price went up by $4 and the portions got noticeably smaller!"
Delish even suggested that the backlash against the price hike might have been anti-Red Lobster
bots, due to the similar wording of multiple social media posts.
So, did the price of the Ultimate Feast actually go up?
It appears that it did.
And according to a disgruntled TripAdvisor reviewer, the price hike wasn't the only change:
"When we got the plate it looked bare.
There was no rice like normal, and portions were clearly much, much smaller ... We were
actually still hungry after finishing the plate while normally we would have been stuffed."
This might come as a surprise, but not all of Red Lobster's seafood offerings are delivered
to your table right from the ocean.
In a Reddit post, one Red Lobster employee confessed:
"For the sake of delivery, most of our seafood comes frozen.
This is almost unavoidable as it must travel from sea to our store."
According to the Red Lobster website, some of its seafood is:
"[...] frozen on the fishing boats or immediately at the docks to maintain the best quality
and freshness."
The website then goes on to point out that it's precisely due to this flash-freezing
process that Red Lobster is able to deliver high-quality seafood, even when it's out of
season.
While the idea of eating defrosted seafood may put you off ordering the Ultimate Feast
ever again, it shouldn't.
Flash-freezing refers to the process of freezing seafood shortly after it's caught or harvested
when it's still at the peak of freshness.
The process involves ultra-low temperatures and rapid freezing to minimize the formation
of ice crystals in fish tissue.
The process helps to ensure that the fish retains its original flavor and texture, as
well as its nutrients.
Red Lobster celebrated the holiday seasons of 2018 and 2019 with the launch of a Create
Your Own Ultimate Feast, a spin on the original dish that saw diners mastermind their own
seafood extravaganzas.
The promo allowed guests to select four out of
ten classic and new seafood specialties: one lobster item, one seafood item, and two shrimp
items.
The feast was topped off with a choice of salad, side, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
Former Executive Chef and Director of Culinary at Red Lobster, Dustin Hilinski, said the
Create Your Own Ultimate Feast was brought back in 2019 due to its popularity the previous
year.
So what's the verdict?
A YouTube reviewer called the Classic Maine Lobster Tail, quote, "succulent," the Garlic
Shrimp Scampi, quote, "fantastic," and the Jumbo Coconut Shrimp, quote, "Amazing."
A TripAdvisor reviewer was also very happy with the promo, writing:
"We ordered a create your own ultimate feast consisting of lobster tail, snow crab legs,
Walt's favorite shrimp, and coconut shrimp.
The food was delicious."
The Red Lobster website promises that all of its seafood is sourced with certain standards
in mind, such as:
"[...] responsibility to protect and preserve our oceans and marine life for generations
to come."
The restaurant also highlights that the origins of its seafood are one-hundred percent traceable
to trusted sources, which follow sustainability practices and all applicable laws.
However, a 2021 lawsuit put the chain's claims of sustainability into question.
This class action suit alleges that Red Lobster's Maine lobster and shrimp are, in fact, not
sustainably sourced.
According to the claim, the restaurant's Maine lobster is sourced from the Gulf of Maine
lobster fishery, which has been known to violate the Endangered Species Act, and has had its
sustainability certification revoked.
"Now run!
Run from this place!"
"Dude — the little baby lobster — just order something else!"
The lawsuit also alleges that Red Lobster's shrimp is sourced from farms in India, China,
Indonesia, and Vietnam, which, according to Plant Based News, use
"[...] unsustainable and inhumane high-density industrial farming methods to increase production."
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