Does Red Lobster Have Non-Seafood Options? Exploring the Menu for Landlubbers

Red Lobster isn’t just for the seafood lover in you. It’s also for that picky eater in every group who just wants a simple chicken dish.

The chain that made seafood popular wants to attract more people by changing its menu on October 1. 15 to include more dishes that appeal to diners who don’t want to eat seafood. The chain, which is owned by Darden Restaurants Inc. is also adding more dishes that cost less than $15 to attract customers who have been watching their spending.

There will be 25% more non-seafood items on the menu than there were before, up from 8%. And the number of lower-cost entrees will rise to about 60 percent from 40 percent.

A lot hinges on the makeover. In the casual dining segment, growth has been slow since the late 1980s after a long period of healthy growth. This is because there are too many of these restaurants.

A lot of people are also eating at home more or switching from fast food chains like Five Guys to “fast-casual” restaurants like Panera Bread Co. and Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. that fall somewhere between traditional sit down restaurants and fast-food chains. And it’s clear that Red Lobster needs to make changes: restaurant traffic has gone down 12 times in the last 24 months.

Clarence Otis, CEO of Darden, which owns Olive Garden, was asked about the risks of making such a big change to the menu. He said, “The biggest risk would be not to change.” ’’.

Red Lobster has had at least one chicken or steak dish on its menu every year since it opened in 1968. If people want a salad, the current menu offers a Caesar. That’s it. But diners who aren’t in the mood for seafood likely want a little more variety.

When the chain started to make changes about two years ago, it first thought about how to best fill in the gaps.

Last summer, LaDuke and his team of chefs spent two weeks in Charlotte, N. C. to test about 50 dishes in three restaurants. They wanted feedback from both the customers and the kitchen staff about any issues they had making the food. To keep things fresher, they decided that pineapple salsa should be made twice a day instead of just once.

After different changes were made to the sauces and cooking times, the test was expanded to 40 of its more than 700 North American restaurants. When people ordered the new items, they were given surveys to fill out. The surveys asked if the customers liked the dish, what they would change, and if they would order it again.

One of the dishes that made the cut is a chicken Alfredo with a Parmesan crust served over corkscrew pasta. This is for people who want a more decadent chicken dish. With only 510 calories, the Island Grilled Mahi-Mahi and Shrimp is great for people who want to eat less.

Pork chops are on the menu for the first time. Ditto for the Roasted Vegetable Skewers, the first vegetarian entree that isn’t salad or pasta. That’s right, there are now three salads. The Bar Harbor Salad has blue cheese, pecans, and dried berries.

Bryan Elliott, an analyst at Raymond James, says that this kind of updating is needed for the casual dining industry as a whole to stay alive.

‘‘Food is a bit of a fashion business, there’s change that evolves steadily over time,’’ he said. In other words, he said companies are simply putting on a ‘‘more contemporary set of clothes. ’’.

Think about how the menu has changed since 1968, when Red Lobster’s first menu had separate sections for oysters, clams, and scallops. An order of Florida shrimp boiled in beer came with side of hush puppies — ‘‘you peel um. ’’.

Red Lobster’s latest update comes at a difficult time. People have been eating more meals at home since 2005 and looking for cheaper options when they do go out to eat more.

So, “value deals” that were made popular by fast food chains like McDonald’s are now more common in the restaurant business. Applebee’s, for example, started their “2 for $20” deal as a promotion in the summer of 2008, when the economy was really bad. It was such a hit that they made it a permanent part of their menu the following February. Chili’s made a similar deal a permanent part of its menu in August 2010.

“It’s no secret that consumers are tight on cash,” Sallie Setta, executive vice president of marketing at Red Lobster, said. ‘‘When they do go out to eat, price is much more of a factor. ’’.

Darden, based in Orlando, Fla. , has been slow to emphasize affordability at its chains. Olive Garden says that their “Taste of Tuscany” promotion from earlier this year didn’t work because it didn’t stress value enough. And a $1 price hike for its ‘‘Festival of Shrimp’’ at Red Lobster didn’t go over well either. Sales figures fell 1. 8 percent and 3. 9 percent for the chains respectively in the quarter.

The company’s results have suffered, too. In its latest quarter, Darden said profit rose 4 percent primarily because new locations boosted revenue. But sales at restaurants that have been open for at least a year fell 2. This is a key sign of health because it doesn’t take into account the effects of new or closed restaurants. 6 percent from a year ago.

Darden has since vowed that affordable prices will play a bigger role in its marketing. The company tested different prices for new Red Lobster items at 40 restaurants across the country to see which ones would stick. They found that $15 was a psychologically important level.

‘‘There’s a difference between $14. 99 and $15. 50 and the difference is more than 51 cents,’’ said Dave Pickens, the company president.

The chain does, however, think that there are times when people are ready to pay a little more: the NY Strip Steak 99. And a new ‘‘Four-Course Feast’’ comes with a soup, salad, entree and dessert; the meal cost $15. 99.

Cee Chappell-Bates, 50, from Columbus, Ohio, says she would go to Red Lobster with her husband and kids more often if there were more kinds of food from which to choose.

‘‘As a family, weve gone probably two or three times in the past year. “But they’ve gone without me too,” she said, adding that she hasn’t liked most seafood since she was a child because of the way it feels.

We Finally Know Why Red Lobster Is So Cheap