Endless shrimp was a successful annual limited-time offer for Red Lobster for 20 years. The new major shareholder in Red Lobster is Thai Union, a canned seafood company based in Bangkok. Thai Union saw the promotion as a way to get rid of the huge amounts of shrimp it was catching and made it an everyday item. (Thai Union became Red Lobster’s largest investor in 2020. ).
Sunday, Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy. This brings to light Thai Union’s part in the never-ending shrimp mess. Red Lobster said it is investigating the circumstances of that promotion, which Red Lobster management opposed.
The filing said that Thai Union chose the CEO of Red Lobster and got rid of two of its breaded shrimp suppliers. This gave Thai Union exclusive rights to supply shrimp to the chain.
That caused prices to go up, and it wasn’t in line with how the company usually chooses suppliers based on expected demand, the chain said in its filing.
Red Lobster said in the filing that Thai Union’s decision caused operational and financial problems for the company and put heavy supply obligations on it.
Endless shrimp alone didn’t doom Red Lobster. Analysts and former leaders of the chain say that the American seafood icon was brought down by a number of things, such as bad management by Thai Union and handoffs between investors and corporate parents.
“Some operational decisions made by former management have hurt [Red Lobster’s] finances in recent years,” the company said in its bankruptcy filing.
Over the past 20 years, fast-casual chains like Chipotle and quick-service chains like Chick-fil-A have grown very quickly and become very popular. This has put pressure on Red Lobster. Red Lobster has had trouble adding Millennials to its core Baby Boomer customer base for years because it hasn’t spent enough on marketing, food quality, service, and restaurant upgrades.
“Red Lobster was the foundation of casual dining. In a previous interview with CNN, Alex Susskind, a professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University, said, “They were powerful and well-known, and they changed the way Americans eat seafood.”
But the company didn’t build on that foundation, Susskind said. “Red Lobster had incredible popularity among Baby Boomers. They didn’t bring in a newer generation. ”.
Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp promotion has become the stuff of legend. This limited-time offer allows customers to indulge in unlimited servings of breaded, grilled, and sauced shrimp dishes alongside crunchy Cheddar Bay Biscuits for a single flat fee. It’s an indulgent dream come true for hardcore shrimp lovers.
But how does this bottomless shrimp bonanza actually work, and what’s the catch? I recently did a deep dive on the fine print to uncover all the details about Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp. Here’s everything you need to know before taking the all-you-can-eat shrimp plunge.
A Brief History of Endless Shrimp
Red Lobster first launched its Endless Shrimp promotion as a seasonal menu item in 1994. It started out priced at just $8.99 for unlimited shrimp dishes and a side salad. Even in the 90s, this was an unbelievable deal that drew crowds. The promotion was so successful that Red Lobster brought it back year after year.
Over time the price crept up to reflect rising food costs and high demand. By 2009 it was $15.99. In 2021 Red Lobster gave into customer wishes and added Endless Shrimp to the permanent menu for $21.99. However, this ended up costing the chain $11 million that quarter according to CNN. Oops!
In 2023, Endless Shrimp returned but with a new inflated price tag of $25.99. Even at 26 bucks this shrimp smorgasbord remains an allure for serious seafood enthusiasts.
What’s Actually “Endless” About It?
The “endless” claim is legitimate – there is no limit to how many shrimp plates you can order during a single sitting Customers can continuously order rounds of shrimp, with up to 3 dishes per round, for as long as their stomachs can handle.
Some hardcore shrimp fans have been known to order plate after plate for hours, demolishing well over 100 shrimp in a single sitting!
However, there are some caveats:
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Endless Shrimp is only available for a limited time each year, usually from August through November. It’s not endless in the sense of being available year-round.
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It’s only available during dinner hours, not for lunch or weekends.
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There’s no sharing! The Endless Shrimp $25.99 price is per person. You can’t order it for the table.
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You must be seated at a table to order Endless Shrimp, not at the bar or for takeout.
What Type of Shrimp is Served?
Red Lobster offers 7 types of shrimp dishes for Endless Shrimp:
- Grilled Shrimp Skewer
- Walt’s Favorite Shrimp (butterflied and breaded)
- Crispy Popcorn Shrimp
- Crispy Sea Salt & Vinegar Shrimp
- Parrot Isle Jumbo Coconut Shrimp (butterflied with coconut coating)
- Garlic Shrimp Scampi
- Shrimp Linguini Alfredo
The size ranges from popcorn to jumbo. The preparation methods include grilled, breaded deep fried, coconut fried, and sauced. There’s a good amount of variety to please different tastes.
In my experience, the shrimp was decent quality – not the most jumbo or impressive shrimp, but a good size for unlimited platefuls. The coconut shrimp and linguini stood out as favorites. The skewer and scampi were underwhelming.
What Are the Rules and Restrictions?
Here are some key rules and restrictions to keep in mind:
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You must order at least one shrimp dish per round. No rounds of just side dishes.
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You can order up to 3 shrimp dishes per round.
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There is a mandatory $25.99 fee per person to participate.
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Endless Shrimp is for dine-in only, no takeout orders.
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No substitutions or custom orders. You have to order from the preset Endless Shrimp menu.
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There’s a mandatory 18% gratuity added for parties of 6 or more.
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You can’t share Endless Shrimp or take leftovers home – it’s intended for a single diner.
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Endless Shrimp is only valid for dinner service after 4pm, not weekend or lunch.
How Does Payment Work?
When you order Endless Shrimp, there is a mandatory flat fee of $25.99 per person. This gives you access to unlimited orders from the Endless Shrimp menu.
You’ll need to provide a credit card upfront that will remain open on your tab. All additional drinks, appetizers, desserts, etc. will go on this tab.
The $25.99 Endless Shrimp fee and any extras will be charged to your card at the end of your meal. Be sure to budget for tax and tip too!
The benefit of paying a flat fee upfront is that your server won’t hassle you about cutoffs or limits – as long as you keep ordering qualifying shrimp dishes, they’ll keep bringing them out without mentioning the bill.
What’s the Best Strategy for Maximum Shrimp Eating?
If your goal is to get the most shrimp for your buck, here are some tips and strategies:
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Come very hungry! Don’t ruin your appetite with apps,salads, or bread. Save room for shrimp.
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Pace yourself. Don’t gorge too fast or you’ll get full too soon. Take breaks between rounds.
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Get at least 1 grilled or sauced shrimp per round to balance out the fried.
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Alternate dipping sauces – don’t fill up on just cocktail or tartar sauce.
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Eat slowly. Savor the flavors. The longer you take, the more you can order.
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Take think drinks of water between rounds to aid digestion.
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Save heavy sides like fries or rice for the end when you’re getting full. Stick to veggies first.
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Resist dessert! It seems included but ordering dessert too early can sabotage your shrimp eating stamina.
Follow these tips and with some perseverance, you can demolish over 100 shrimp in one sitting and get your money’s worth! Just be ready for a serious food coma after.
Is Endless Shrimp Worth It and Who Should Order It?
At $25.99 per person, plus tax and tip, Endless Shrimp is not cheap. But considering an average shrimp entree at Red Lobster goes for $18-$20, you can easily make up the difference if you can put away 6 or more servings.
Here are some types of customers I’d recommend Endless Shrimp for:
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Bargain-seekers who want to maximize value for money
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Extremely hungry teenagers or college students with big appetites
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Serious shrimp lovers who crave it constantly
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Competitive eaters seeking an eating challenge
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Good friends having fun and wanting to overindulge together
I don’t recommend Endless Shrimp for:
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Anyone watching portion sizes or calories
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People with a shellfish allergy or dietary restrictions
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Folks who don’t actually enjoy shrimp that much
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Picky eaters or those who don’t like the preparation styles
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Couples on a first date (maybe not the best impression!)
The Verdict: Is Endless Shrimp Worth the Hype?
After multiple experiences gorging myself on plate after plate, I proclaim Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp fully lives up to the hype. The value is unbeatable if you love shrimp, and being able to order unlimited rounds without guilt or pressure to stop is a uniquely satisfying feeling.
Of course, the shrimp quality is not mind-blowing. And eating 20+ in one sitting can have some gnarly consequences later on. But as an occasional gluttonous indulgence and break from the usual dining norms, Endless Shrimp is a cherished American tradition worth experiencing at least once!
Just come hungry, pace yourself, follow the rules, and avoid smelling shrimp for at least a week after. If you love crustaceans and buffets, it simply doesn’t get better than this – shrimp nirvana awaits!
Owned by General Mills
In 1968, the first Red Lobster opened in Lakeland, Florida, about an hour south of Orlando. At that time, casual dining was just getting started.
The brand was started by southern restaurateurs Bill Darden and Charley Woodsby. Darden owned several Howard Johnson’s restaurants, one of the first casual dining concepts.
“Our motto was informal and family prices,” Woodsby later said. They saw an opportunity to bring seafood to landlocked people at more affordable prices than fine-dining restaurants.
“In most of middle America, you couldn’t get decent seafood. “Red Lobster made it popular for everyone,” said Jonathan Maze, editor-in-chief of the trade magazine Restaurant Business. “Red Lobster was part of this casual dining revolution. ”.
Just two years into Darden and Woodsby’s venture, General Mills acquired the brand. General Mills owned brands like Betty Crocker, Wheaties, and Cheerios. The company also wanted to get into the restaurant business with Red Lobster’s five simple restaurants.
By the early 1970s, with General Mills’ advertising muscle behind it, Red Lobster opened restaurants across the South.
Red Lobster rose quickly and was the first casual dining chain to advertise on network television, according to a Harvard Business School study. Red Lobster also developed the first national seafood distribution system in the 1970s.
“Many diners preferred their seafood fried in those days, and Red Lobster’s hush puppies could be considered an early ‘signature item,’” Joe Lee, the first general manager at Red Lobster and later its president, said in a journal article. “Families were welcomed with high chairs and a 59-cent child’s plate.”
By 1978, Red Lobster had 236 restaurants and $291 million in sales. It had 372 restaurants and $834 million in sales in 1985.
In 1995, General Mills split off its restaurant business into a new company called Darden Restaurants, which was named after Bill Darden, the founder of Red Lobster. At first, the company had the well-known chain Red Lobster and the new chain Olive Garden, which General Mills started in 1982.
But Red Lobster fell behind its sister brand Olive Garden under Darden.
By 2008, Olive Garden’s sales had eclipsed Red Lobster’s. Darden also acquired fast-growing chains such as Longhorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille and Yard House.
“Darden stopped investing in Red Lobster. “Things slowly got worse,” Les Foreman told CNN. From 2002 to 2022, he was director of operations and divisional vice president at Red Lobster. Red Lobster’s sales began declining and Darden prioritized investments in its other brands.
Darden soon faced pressure from activist investors pushing the company to split in two.
Darden responded to activist pressure by announcing plans in 2013 to sell Red Lobster, separating the chain from the rest of its business.
The following year, Darden sold Red Lobster to Golden Gate Capital, a private equity firm, for $2.1 billion. To help fund the deal, Red Lobster spun off its real estate assets in a transaction known as a sale leaseback agreement. Red Lobster had long owned its own real estate but would now be paying rent to lease its restaurants.
In the restaurant business, sale leasebacks are very common. However, Red Lobster ended up losing money because it was stuck with leases it couldn’t pay.
“That produced cost pressures on Red Lobster that they’ve never had before,” said analyst John Gordon. “It became a problem. ”.
While this was going on, fast-casual and quick-service restaurants grew thanks to lower prices, thousands of new drive-thru restaurants, and online delivery. These chains pressured the casual dining sector.
According to Technomic, a restaurant research firm, casual dining has gone down from making up 33.6 percent of all restaurant sales in 2013 to 31.1 percent in 202023.
Red Lobster’s controlling shareholder Thai Union also hurt the brand, say former employees and analysts.
Thai Union was a top supplier of shrimp to Red Lobster for more than 20 years. In 2016, Thai Union took a $575 million minority stake in the brand. In 2020, Thai Union deepened its financial interest in Red Lobster.
Thai Union saw an opportunity to grow its business and also become a bigger supplier to Red Lobster.
To save money on labor, it also tried pushing Red Lobster’s waitstaff to the limit by going from having waiters cover three tables to having 10 waiters cover 10 tables.
A lot of Red Lobster executives left when Thai Union took over, which caused a lot of turnover in the C-suite. Red Lobster hired a new CEO, CMO, CFO, and CIO in 2021 and 2022. All left the company within two years.
Then came the all-you-can-eat shrimp mishap last year.
Thai Union CEO Thiraphong Chansiri said in November, “We were expecting an increase of 2020% in customer traffic, but the actual number was up to 2040%.”
Two months later, Thai Union said it was pulling its money out of Red Lobster, which cost it $530 million. As well as “sustained industry headwinds, higher interest rates and rising material and labor costs,” the company said the pandemic was to blame. ”.
“I’m going to stop eating lobster,” Chansiri said this year. Ad Feedback Ad Feedback
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Fear & Greed Index
Last summer, Red Lobster made $20 endless shrimp a permanent menu item.
Endless shrimp was a successful annual limited-time offer for Red Lobster for 20 years. The new major shareholder in Red Lobster is Thai Union, a canned seafood company based in Bangkok. Thai Union saw the promotion as a way to get rid of the huge amounts of shrimp it was catching and made it an everyday item. (Thai Union became Red Lobster’s largest investor in 2020. ).
The change cost Red Lobster $11 million.
Sunday, Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy. This brings to light Thai Union’s part in the never-ending shrimp mess. Red Lobster said it is investigating the circumstances of that promotion, which Red Lobster management opposed.
The filing said that Thai Union chose the CEO of Red Lobster and got rid of two of its breaded shrimp suppliers. This gave Thai Union exclusive rights to supply shrimp to the chain.
That caused prices to go up, and it wasn’t in line with how the company usually chooses suppliers based on expected demand, the chain said in its filing.
Red Lobster said in the filing that Thai Union’s decision caused operational and financial problems for the company and put heavy supply obligations on it.
Thai Union did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Endless shrimp alone didn’t doom Red Lobster. Analysts and former leaders of the chain say that the American seafood icon was brought down by a number of things, such as bad management by Thai Union and handoffs between investors and corporate parents.
“Some operational decisions made by former management have hurt [Red Lobster’s] finances in recent years,” the company said in its bankruptcy filing.
Over the past 20 years, fast-casual chains like Chipotle and quick-service chains like Chick-fil-A have grown very quickly and become very popular. This has put pressure on Red Lobster. Red Lobster has had trouble adding Millennials to its core Baby Boomer customer base for years because it hasn’t spent enough on marketing, food quality, service, and restaurant upgrades.
“Red Lobster was the foundation of casual dining. In a previous interview with CNN, Alex Susskind, a professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University, said, “They were powerful and well-known, and they changed the way Americans eat seafood.”
But the company didn’t build on that foundation, Susskind said. “Red Lobster had incredible popularity among Baby Boomers. They didn’t bring in a newer generation. ”.
The Truth About Red Lobster’s Endless Shrimp
How does Red Lobster’s endless shrimp promotion work?
Here‘s a quick rundown of how Red Lobster‘s Endless Shrimp promotion works: You pay a fixed price that covers your meal, including shrimp and sides. The price is often $17.99 – $24.99 depending on location. You‘ll get unlimited plates of grilled, fried, or sauteed shrimp prepared in different styles.
Is Red Lobster’s ‘ultimate endless shrimp’ a good deal?
Sorry, extra large shrimp. All in all, we were impressed with Red Lobster’s “Ultimate Endless Shrimp,” especially in a state like Colorado that does not have access to fresh seafood. At only $20 per person, it’s a pretty solid deal if you’re a seafood lover and can eat a lot of shrimp in one sitting.
Is endless shrimp at Red Lobster a national holiday?
Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster should be considered a national holiday. If you’ve never been to this glorious celebration of crustacean gluttony, you better run over to one right now. It’s $15.99 for all you can eat. No strings attached. One or 100. It’ll be over on November 18, so you don’t have too much time left. Live your life to the fullest.
What is the best shrimp dish at Red Lobster?
There are three classic shrimp dishes that have been there since Red Lobster started this promotion in 2004: Garlic Shrimp Scampi, Hand-Breaded Shrimp, and Shrimp Linguine Alfredo. The two new menu items gracing the Endless Shrimp deal are Sesame-Ginger Grilled Shrimp and Crunchy Fiesta Shrimp. Which shrimp dish is the best, though?