RED LOBSTER rocks!

This is not an ad for for Red Lobster, truly.   But I had such a wonderful experience there today that I just had to tell people who understand. 

I had my one week post-op meeting with my surgeon this morning.  He started me on a short list of soft foods--woot!  Dr. Suh doesn't have you go through a pureed stage because he says it starts people on bad habits.

So one thing that caught me eye on the list was fish.  Now I love fish, but don't cook it because it tends to smell up your house for days afterwards.  I leave it to the pros.  Which leads me to Red Lobster.

I went in expecting to have a problem with my new and very unstandard needs.  Well, the waitress treated me incredibly well.  I explained about my surgery & that this was the first day I was being allowed soft food.  I told her that I could only have fish.  No sides, jjust fish.  No problem she said.

And that said fish had to be baked or grilled with only the teeniest amount of butter (Dr. Suh's list said fish can be accompanied by a small amount of LF mayo, so I thought a tiny bit of butter should be OK).  No problem, she said.

And said fish had to be a very soft type.  No problem, she said.

And I could only have a very small portion...how big was the child's plate portion?  I'll check, she said.  Two and a half ounces.

I ordered and when it came I told her that I was sorry, but I was going to be taking up their booth during the lunch rush for quite a while with my two ounces of fish.  No problem, she said.

I ended up eating only about an ounce of the 2.5 ounces. What with taking teeny teeny bites and chewing 30 times each for those bites, and taking time between bites it took me about 45 minutes to eat that one ounce of fish.   Then I read for another 20 minutes before sipping on my water while reading some more.

And during that time the waitress and some other servers stopped by to make sure my fish was perfect.  WOW!

To top it all off, when I called for the manager and expressed how thrilled I was a the service they had provided me, she and I chatted a few minutes about RNY & I mentioned in passing that I'd been have a hard time finding just a saucer (not in a set of dishes) to use as my new-sized plate.  She said just a minute, and returned with a saucer that she gave to me with the compliments of her & the other two managers on duty.

Man, I'm telling you I was blown away.  They are going to be getting a LOT of business from me from now on!  I took both the manager's & the waitress's name and I will be calling Red Robin's Headquarters tomorrow to express my appeciation.  I tried when I got home, but they are ET and were closed by the time I called.

Wow, that is good service!  I think it's really nice that you're going to call the headquarters about it.  Employees that do such a good job deserve to be recognized for it. 

I find that most restaurants are pretty accommodating to me, both with regards to my WLS needs and the fact that I do not eat meat.  In some instances they just aren't able to be that accommodating - like sometimes food is pre-prepared with a sauce or something.  But most places seem willing make me vegetarian versions of their entrees even if they don't have vegetarian entrees on the menu and in many cases they've been willing to prepare something for me that wasn't really even on the menu but they'll make it if they have the ingredients.  For instance, I've had several places make me a grilled cheese sandwich even if there was no grilled cheese on the  menu.  Yeah, it's not the greatest WLS option, but it was an easy vegetarian option.

No one has ever given me dishes, though!

What a neat story! We have a Red Lobster here that we go to, but I've never gotten a saucer!

As you go along this journey you'll develope new favorite places and foods to eat.  Ex-GF and I had a few favorites we would eat at that were very "RNY friendly".  One in particular we always sat in a particular waitresses station and she knew to only bring us one small dinner each, two drinks, two piece grilled catfish dinner and an extra plate.

I hope you left your waitress an awesome tip!   That was very nice of that restaurant and these days, a rare display of true customer service.

Yes, I did leaver her a very nice tip

I called the Red Lobster folks this morning to tell them about this great service and they asked the store location and the names of the two I dealt with and will be giving them what the man said was "special recognition." Don't know what that entails.

HOWEVER -- I didn't mention the saucer that was given to me. I didn't want to get the manager in any trouble. LOL

I plan to eat there at least once a week from now on. I do love fish!

I am a very service oriented person, have been doing it all my life and I know great service is hard to come by. Kudos, to this establishement for going above and beyond what they needed to do for you.

That is awesome!  I love me some Red Lobster...btw when you get to the "chicken" stage - they have really good wood grilled chicken that is very tender (at least it is at my local RL)....yes chicken at a seafood place - but I don't do swimmy fish and my pouch doesn't like shell-fish.