Avoid Ordering One Red Lobster Side Dish Unless You Want A Mushy Mess - Tasting Table

"And, somewhat surprisingly, one dish you should definitely avoid is their french fries. This is pretty shocking because french fries usually taste better at a restaurant than at home, but this sadly isn't the case at Red Lobster. We were hoping for crisp, hot fries fresh out of the fryer, and what we got instead was a mushy mess. The potatoes they use are anything but fresh, let alone hand-cut."

"It was obvious that they were just frozen fries haphazardly thrown into a fryer with none of the care and precision required of the process. These fries were soggy, soft, and super oily, lacking all of the textures and flavors you'd expect of french fries or even just fried food in general. There was no crunchy exterior to contrast a pillowy interior pulp either. They were also flavorless, a sad reality that not even copious amounts of ketchup could overcome."

Red Lobster's french fries are reported as mushy, soggy, soft, and excessively oily, lacking the expected crisp exterior and fluffy interior. The potatoes appear to be frozen rather than fresh or hand-cut, and preparation seems careless, producing a flavorless result that ketchup cannot remedy. Potatoes in general receive criticism, with the baked potato also described as poorly executed. Customer reviews on Reddit note a decline in texture and crispiness compared with previous years. Some customers speculate recipe or ingredient changes following corporate upheavals such as bankruptcy may have contributed to the decline in fry quality.

Read at Tasting Table