Red Lobster brings back the ‘endless shrimp’ deal that cost them millions

Red Lobster’s CEO said two years ago that he didn’t plan to revive the chain’s mega-popular $20 “endless shrimp” promotion because, as he put it, “I know how to do math.”

Well, the all-you-can-eat crustacean pig-out — which was removed from the menu after it cost the seafood chain $11 million in three months — is back.

Damola Adamolekun, who became chief executive in 2024, doesn’t really have to eat his words, though, because this time there are some caveats.

The meal costs $24.99, and it’s returning for a limited time. It also applies just to dine-in orders, and only participating restaurants have to keep shoveling the shrimp until patrons say stop.

“When our fans talk, we listen,” Adamolekun said in a statement on Monday announcing the deal.

Adamolekun, 37, is in the midst of trying to turn around the seafood restaurant company, which was $1 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy. He has said sales are up 10%, but he’s also focusing on cutting costs while trying to get more customers.

Among his ideas was “SpendLESS Shrimp,” which included a plate of shrimp prepared three ways for $15.99 or so. The public’s appetite was apparently not sated.

“Our guests have never stopped asking for it,” the CEO said of endless shrimp.

While Adamolekun had joked on the Today show in 2024 that the math for endless shrimp was not mathing, he also noted that it could make a comeback.

“I never want to say never, but certainly not the way that it was done,” he told CNN at the time. “We won’t have it in a way that’s losing money in that fashion and isn’t managed.”

Some Red Lobster fans are already salivating. “Trying to convince mom to go to Red Lobster because of the endless shrimp,” one wrote on X after the news broke.

Another commenter who said they were a Red Lobster server for seven years had thoughts and prayers for the wait staff still on the job.

“It turns the patrons into demons, and the restaurant into hell. I have never seen any one corporate decision supply more chaos, unhappiness, and disdain for humanity than endless shrimp. Hug a Red Lobster employee today. They need it,” they wrote.