Red Lobster launches comeback menu items in bid to win back fans after bankruptcy
Starting Monday, the fast-casual restaurant chain will bring back its Crabfest celebration, along with various new crab-themed dishes, including seafood boils. Crabfest menu items are expected to be available at Red Lobster locations until September 14.
A seafood boil, a traditional Southern U.S. dish, features a mix of seafood, such as crab legs, and vegetables, all cooked together in a flavorful sauce and typically served in a large plastic bag to be opened out onto a table, usually lined with paper or foil for easy cleanup, allowing everyone to dig in family-style.
Customers can choose between two seafood boils: the Mariner's Boil, featuring a Maine lobster tail, a dozen shrimp, snow crab legs, corn, and red potatoes, or the Sailor's Boil, which includes shrimp, smoked sausage, corn, and red potatoes. Each boil is served with your choice of Roasted Garlic Butter, Cajun Butter, or Old Bay seasoning.
Other new Crabfest menu items include Crabby Stuffed Mushrooms, Crab-Topped Asparagus, Crab-Topped Potato, or Steak or Salmon Oscar, in addition to new cocktails: Purple Haze by Dre & Snoop, Passion Star Spritz, and the Starry Eyed Surprise.
'Red Lobster's Crabfest is the ultimate summer dining experience, featuring exciting and flavorful dishes like our new Seafood Boils,' Nichole Robillard, Chief Marketing Officer of Red Lobster, said in a press release. 'Whether you're a longtime Red Lobster lover or participating in Crabfest for the first time, we've got something to bring everyone joy.'
The new menu items come months after Red Lobster clawed itself out of bankruptcy in September 2024 after RL Investor Holdings acquired the fast-casual chain and ushered in a younger generation to revamp it, starting with tapping a 35-year-old CEO, Damola Adamolekun, to take the helm.
The company was previously forced to close more than 100 of its nearly 650 restaurants amid financial struggles. The company plunged into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2024 after its endless shrimp special got out of hand.
Originally a $20 once-a-week promotional deal, the company made endless shrimp a permanent menu item, leading patrons to eat more shrimp than the restaurant could afford, staying at their tables for hours and lengthening wait times.
The Florida-headquartered chain lost $11 million in the process, filed for bankruptcy, and closed at least 129 locations.
'There were certainly big mistakes made over the last few years,' Red Lobster's new CEO said in an interview with CNN in October 2024, adding the shrimp promotion was 'a very expensive product to give away endlessly.'
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