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I went to red lobster in Toronto yesterday as a "lets save red lobster Canada" idea I had in my head, they came to Canada the year I was born and my dad was obs

by neom 2y ago

I went to red lobster in Toronto yesterday as a "lets save red lobster Canada" idea I had in my head, they came to Canada the year I was born and my dad was obsessed so I have a lot of nostalgia. Came out thinking: let em burn. Worse than mediocre rubber for $200 after tip and tax.

hnthrowaway0328 2y ago
Is it the same sh* like Tim Hortons? RIP then...
- neom 2y ago
  Overpriced bad food? Bingo!
- jjice 2y ago
  Very tangential to the quality of chain restaurants that have decline in quality: I'm from the US, but on the Canadian border, and Timmy's was the dominant coffee shop growing up. Even if you didn't drink coffee, that was the hang out. We had a Dunkin that was probably less than 100 meters away from it that had a fire and never reopened. I definitely think it was a ploy for insurance money because they never had _any_ business. Tim Horton's dominated. Then something happened around 2017 and their coffee became awful (it was never incredible, but it got much worse). Then their prices began to rise significantly. Whenever I go home, I get a cup of Timmy's coffee, but it's never good. Turns out having nostalgia for a large food company doesn't play well in the long run. I'm sure the same applies to Red Lobster, but those kinds of places become part of your memories growing up and you want them to do well, maybe as a way of preserving those memories. Probably half of my friends and I had their first dates at Tim Horton's growing up. As much as I wish I didn't feel the need to drink their swill a few times a year, there's something that still draws me.
  - maxsilver 2y ago
    > Then something happened around 2017 and their coffee became awful (it was never incredible, but it got much worse) Tim Hortons got acquired by Burger King (Restaurant Brands International / QSR) in December 2014, and the quality started to decline over the next year or two
    - jjice 2y ago
      Ah I didn't even consider the time correlation there. Makes sense. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same company that operates Burger King (and their god awful Seattle's Best coffee) would also decrease the quality of another food business.
      - kalleboo 2y ago
        I thought Seattle's Best Coffee was Starbucks, but apparently since 2022 it's Nestlé, gross
- jjkaczor 2y ago
  Man, I wish Tim Hortons would die... But, it's like the 'default' addiction for Canadians and crappy coffee (especially after they switched their coffee supplier to a much worse grade). Before that, it was removing their in-house bakeries and supplying flash-frozen donut offerings. (And then after shifting the "overton window" for a couple years - reducing sizes, but keeping prices the same - they sold that as "healthier") They moved their yearly promotional contest to an "app-only" mechanism - and have had major errors in notifying winners for 2-years in a row. (This year, my wife was notified that she won a $70,000+ boat+trailer... well, apparently so did a quarter-million other Canadians...) And then there is the ever shifting introduction of nightmare food offerings - they keep shuffling the chairs around like something is going to be a big "hit". The latest is crappy "cardboard flatbread pizza" - and they seemed to have removed the simple "grilled cheese" to accommodate that. Their franchise owners blatantly abused the TFW program for obtaining minimum wage workers - and now they are abusing the student visa changes, because the TFW program was tightened. They need to go. (The conglomerate who owns them, not the franchises - or workers)
polotics 2y ago
Did you read the article? In there you will find the explanation of why you had a costly low-quality experience. Maybe this will clarify who the "'em" is. (It's not anyone you saw at the restaurant...)
- neom 2y ago
  That was exactly the point, I experienced what the article said first hand. So let em burn! Also: 9th up from the bottom: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
> I went to red lobster in Toronto yesterday...Worse than mediocre rubber for $200 after tip and tax...Came out thinking: let em burn. My homeless ex wanted RL for her bday last year. All of us and the families took her there for dinner. For me it was comparable to Walmart canned and frozen. She was happy enough with it but then she fixates on things.
moralestapia 2y ago
I had a really bad dining experience the one single time I went to Red Lobster; happened at the same place probably (Toronto, the one in Bay Street?) hence why I want to share. I came in to the restaurant and there was no one at the front desk, but the place seemed to be operating normally so I just went on to seat at the nearest table I found. Waiters just started ignoring me; at some point I realized this was on purpose. Wtf. Anyway, after like 20 mins. I stand up and ask one of the guys "what's going on?". He tells me that they knew I was there (!) but decided to ignore me because no one "seated me at that place". I tell him, well, do that now ... the guy just tells me they don't want to do that anymore because I should've done it when I entered the restaurant, then just like that asks me to leave the place (wtf x2). I tell him that's ridiculous and he just says "I'm calling security" and walks away. After a few minutes, two huge guys come to my table and ask me what the problem is (they were actually quite polite). I tell them, I just walked into the restaurant, sat here, and just want to order something. They look at each other a bit confused (who knows what the waiter told them), ask me if that's it, "yes", ..., "ok, wait here a bit". After another like 10 mins., a different waiter comes up and starts catering to me. Everything was normal afterwards, but that was super weird. Imagine getting beat up for walking into a restaurant and wanting to get some food. Needless to say I never came back as the food turned out to be quite average, definitely not worth fighting for it, lol.
- neom 2y ago
  Same location and I also had an amusing experience, I asked the lady who brought our drinks over if she had any idea if the Canadian locations would be ok, and she said she knew about as much as I do, and then out of nowhere randomly said "you look rich, you should buy us!" - my wife almost spat our her drink laughing at that.
- pfannkuchen 2y ago
  I think depending on staffing levels a restaurant at certain times does not have the capacity to handle all of its tables and so some are considered inactive. If you sit at a table that is not active it would be treated as equivalent to not sitting at a table at all. It seems like once the bouncer types got involved they thought the reason you were ignoring their system might be because you were crazy or high and they might have to kick you out. Once they determined you weren’t either of those they accommodated you. Chain restaurants especially seem to be very process oriented and the staff would not be as good at improvising as those at a local place.

by neom 2y ago

hnthrowaway0328 2y ago

Is it the same sh* like Tim Hortons? RIP then...

neom 2y ago
Overpriced bad food? Bingo!
jjice 2y ago
Very tangential to the quality of chain restaurants that have decline in quality: I'm from the US, but on the Canadian border, and Timmy's was the dominant coffee shop growing up. Even if you didn't drink coffee, that was the hang out. We had a Dunkin that was probably less than 100 meters away from it that had a fire and never reopened. I definitely think it was a ploy for insurance money because they never had _any_ business. Tim Horton's dominated. Then something happened around 2017 and their coffee became awful (it was never incredible, but it got much worse). Then their prices began to rise significantly. Whenever I go home, I get a cup of Timmy's coffee, but it's never good. Turns out having nostalgia for a large food company doesn't play well in the long run. I'm sure the same applies to Red Lobster, but those kinds of places become part of your memories growing up and you want them to do well, maybe as a way of preserving those memories. Probably half of my friends and I had their first dates at Tim Horton's growing up. As much as I wish I didn't feel the need to drink their swill a few times a year, there's something that still draws me.
- maxsilver 2y ago
  > Then something happened around 2017 and their coffee became awful (it was never incredible, but it got much worse) Tim Hortons got acquired by Burger King (Restaurant Brands International / QSR) in December 2014, and the quality started to decline over the next year or two
  - jjice 2y ago
    Ah I didn't even consider the time correlation there. Makes sense. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same company that operates Burger King (and their god awful Seattle's Best coffee) would also decrease the quality of another food business.
    - kalleboo 2y ago
      I thought Seattle's Best Coffee was Starbucks, but apparently since 2022 it's Nestlé, gross
jjkaczor 2y ago
Man, I wish Tim Hortons would die... But, it's like the 'default' addiction for Canadians and crappy coffee (especially after they switched their coffee supplier to a much worse grade). Before that, it was removing their in-house bakeries and supplying flash-frozen donut offerings. (And then after shifting the "overton window" for a couple years - reducing sizes, but keeping prices the same - they sold that as "healthier") They moved their yearly promotional contest to an "app-only" mechanism - and have had major errors in notifying winners for 2-years in a row. (This year, my wife was notified that she won a $70,000+ boat+trailer... well, apparently so did a quarter-million other Canadians...) And then there is the ever shifting introduction of nightmare food offerings - they keep shuffling the chairs around like something is going to be a big "hit". The latest is crappy "cardboard flatbread pizza" - and they seemed to have removed the simple "grilled cheese" to accommodate that. Their franchise owners blatantly abused the TFW program for obtaining minimum wage workers - and now they are abusing the student visa changes, because the TFW program was tightened. They need to go. (The conglomerate who owns them, not the franchises - or workers)

polotics 2y ago

Did you read the article? In there you will find the explanation of why you had a costly low-quality experience. Maybe this will clarify who the "'em" is. (It's not anyone you saw at the restaurant...)

neom 2y ago
That was exactly the point, I experienced what the article said first hand. So let em burn! Also: 9th up from the bottom: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago

> I went to red lobster in Toronto yesterday...Worse than mediocre rubber for $200 after tip and tax...Came out thinking: let em burn. My homeless ex wanted RL for her bday last year. All of us and the families took her there for dinner. For me it was comparable to Walmart canned and frozen. She was happy enough with it but then she fixates on things.

moralestapia 2y ago

I had a really bad dining experience the one single time I went to Red Lobster; happened at the same place probably (Toronto, the one in Bay Street?) hence why I want to share. I came in to the restaurant and there was no one at the front desk, but the place seemed to be operating normally so I just went on to seat at the nearest table I found. Waiters just started ignoring me; at some point I realized this was on purpose. Wtf. Anyway, after like 20 mins. I stand up and ask one of the guys "what's going on?". He tells me that they knew I was there (!) but decided to ignore me because no one "seated me at that place". I tell him, well, do that now ... the guy just tells me they don't want to do that anymore because I should've done it when I entered the restaurant, then just like that asks me to leave the place (wtf x2). I tell him that's ridiculous and he just says "I'm calling security" and walks away. After a few minutes, two huge guys come to my table and ask me what the problem is (they were actually quite polite). I tell them, I just walked into the restaurant, sat here, and just want to order something. They look at each other a bit confused (who knows what the waiter told them), ask me if that's it, "yes", ..., "ok, wait here a bit". After another like 10 mins., a different waiter comes up and starts catering to me. Everything was normal afterwards, but that was super weird. Imagine getting beat up for walking into a restaurant and wanting to get some food. Needless to say I never came back as the food turned out to be quite average, definitely not worth fighting for it, lol.

neom 2y ago
Same location and I also had an amusing experience, I asked the lady who brought our drinks over if she had any idea if the Canadian locations would be ok, and she said she knew about as much as I do, and then out of nowhere randomly said "you look rich, you should buy us!" - my wife almost spat our her drink laughing at that.
pfannkuchen 2y ago
I think depending on staffing levels a restaurant at certain times does not have the capacity to handle all of its tables and so some are considered inactive. If you sit at a table that is not active it would be treated as equivalent to not sitting at a table at all. It seems like once the bouncer types got involved they thought the reason you were ignoring their system might be because you were crazy or high and they might have to kick you out. Once they determined you weren’t either of those they accommodated you. Chain restaurants especially seem to be very process oriented and the staff would not be as good at improvising as those at a local place.