Recently I began to be seriously disturbed by the fact that I had never eaten at a Red Lobster.  I did not expect that the experience would be a good one, but avoiding the experience seemed . . . well, it seemed un-American.

My nephew Harry's current visit to Las Vegas offered a rare opportunity to enlist a companion for a visit to a Red Lobster, because Harry is mad for seafood.  Despite his profound lack of enthusiasm for this particular venture — he had eaten at a Red Lobster once before and had found it underwhelming — he agreed to it in a spirit of scientific inquiry and patriotism.

The results of the inquiry can now be reported.  The decor of a Red Lobster is predictably generic.  The service at a slow hour was acceptable.  An appetizer plate of fried calamari, clams and broccoli was appetizing.  The recently-live Maine lobster I had was red, and perfectly fine.  The crustaceans on Harry's Ultimate Feast platter, a lobster tail and snow crab legs, were tasty — the fried shrimp edible, the shrimp scampi not so much.