Jogging My Memory

My Spring Break started Sunday – it would have started Friday, but we had a final paper due at 5pm on Sunday. Being the ultimate procrastinator I am at times, I didn’t finish the paper until about 4pm on Sunday. Better 4pm than 5pm right?

Being that I didn’t have any other plans for Spring Break (flying to MI to see Tyler wasn’t an option due to $$), I was very excited when Erica from Darden Restaurants emailed me with an invitation to a blogger event at the local Red Lobster here in Sacramento.

Now, I’ve never been Red Lobster’s biggest fan. In fact, when I told Tyler about the event he said something along the lines of “Don’t you hate Red Lobster?” Hate is a strong word. I responded that I didn’t hate them and was interested to see what sort of changes the restaurant was undergoing.

Well, if you couldn’t tell from the title, Red Lobster has made some pretty significant changes. These changes included remodeling all of the Sacramento locations in a style inspired by the coast of New England and the addition of the wood-fire grill in the kitchen, which in turn has resulted in some new and inspired menu options.

Yesterday evening, I headed to Red Lobster for the event. There were three bloggers, Catherine, Kimberly, and myself, in attendance, along with Erica, Kate, and Red Lobster’s Executive Chef Michael LaDuke!

I sipped this Sangria throughout the evening.

After spending a little time getting to know each other and hearing some information about Red Lobster, this Lobster Pizza came out (as did the cameras)!

The pizza was topped with tomatoes, basil, langostino lobster meat, and mozzarella. All the ingredients tasted very fresh, especially the basil which gave the pizza a great flavor! I would definitely order this again!

Next up were the signature Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

These were fresh and warm, and I could have eaten the whole basket.

The next items were what really surprised and impressed me. Before, when I thought of Red Lobster I pictured fried shrimp, fried fish, butter-drenched seafood, and pastas with cream sauces. These are foods that I typically avoid for health reasons and because I prefer to actually taste my seafood. Now when I think of Red Lobster something more like this comes to mind…

I’d like you to meet the Maui Luau Shrimp and Salmon. The salmon and shrimp had a sweet and spicy glaze which Chef Michael commented was similar to a Thai Chili Sauce. The flavors were great including a nice amount of heat in the sauce. They provided extra sauce on the side, but I found that I didn’t even need it.

After that little wonder we moved on to another item off the Seaside Starters Menu, the Mango-Jalapeño Shrimp Skewers.

These skewers were loaded with yummy shrimp (no skimping here). For anyone that might be concerned about the heat factors in this dish, have no fear. The jalapeño flavor wasn’t overly strong, in fact I would have preferred the dish to be a little spicier.

The next item we tried, Maple-Glazed Chicken, was, if I remember correctly, inspired by Chef Michael’s upbringing in New York.

The chicken was topped with a sweet maple and cherry glaze. The chicken also wasn’t overcooked or dry like grilled chicken in restaurants often is.

My favorite dish of the night was this Tilapia with Spicy Soy Broth.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe this item is available on the menu – you can however find the recipe on the website here under Entrees. It had a reduced soy broth sauce with some wasabi! The tilapia was cooked perfectly, it was light, flaky, and tender, and melted in your mouth like good seafood should.

After trying these dishes we spent a little more time chatting – like discussing what one item we were most proud of cooking – mine was my mom’s Chicken Curry.

We also looked over the menu and picked two more items to try.

The first was the Wood-Grilled Shrimp Bruschetta off the Seaside Starters menu.

I was again impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the bold flavors of the shrimp topping.

Last, but not least was some dessert. We all agreed upon the Warm Chocolate Chip Lava Cookie.

This was a hybrid between chocolate lava cake and a chocolate chip cookie, and it was delicious. Chef Michael told us the story behind this chocolately cookie wonder which you can read in Catherine’s post.

This is definitely a dessert to share, unless it is about the only thing you plan on eating for most of the day. The small piece I had was just enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but it would be helpful to have someone else there (ahem Tyler ahem) to polish off the rest.

After dinner we took a little tour of the restaurant to check out the new decor, which I personally thought was very nicely done. They added some nice nautical touches including paintings of boats, artwork featuring nautical flags, new fixtures which reminded me of being on a ship, and a new darker stain on the wood. The restaurant was designed to look more like Maine, and I think they nailed it.

We also got to check out the new outdoor patio!

I LOVE all the rock details and the open feel of the patio.

Overall, it was a great evening, with good food and fun conversation – I love chatting with fellow foodies! I now have at least 3 new blogs to read

I have a few general observations:

• Most of these items (the entree options) were from the Wood-Fire Grill menu, which is something the restaurant is trying to emphasize. This is a healthier way of cooking the food, and tastes amazing!
• Red Lobster has online nutrition information! This is great when you know you are going here in advance and can pick something healthy ahead of time. The Wood-Fire Grill options all come in under 760 calories except the Steak Lobster-and-Shrimp Oscar (1170 cals).
• I was impressed with the sides that came with the dishes – they consisted of veggies and wild-rice pilaf. It didn’t appear that the vegetables were cooked with any extra butter or oil, which I appreciated.
• All the old favorites (see fried) are still on the menu for the people that love them, but for those of us that are looking for lighter and healthier options, Red Lobster has a lot of them and they taste great!

I can’t wait to bring Tyler here next time he is town and sit out on the patio – I know he’ll be excited because he was already a Red Lobster fan, and with these new options I know I can go there and get a great-tasting and healthy meal.