Red Robin is one of the original fancy burger chains, with gourmet burgers and other dishes in a setting that’s still casual and welcoming to everyone. It first opened in 1969 in Seattle, after a restaurateur bought an old tavern/student hangout known as the Red Robin Tavern. Since then, the restaurant chain has grown to have over 500 locations, both corporate-owned and franchised, in the U.S. and Canada.
While the core business of Red Robin is about burgers, the menu offers so much more, with new dishes joining the lineup every so often. The food is extremely popular, but even well-loved chains can have the occasional miss. We took a look at social media and online food reviews to find out which dishes have been not so well-received in the past year in hopes of saving you some time and money. We found five of them, ranging from entrees to sides to dessert.
Whiskey River BBQ Ribs
The Whiskey River BBQ Ribs sure do look good. You get two reasonably sized slabs of ribs slathered in barbecue sauce, along with cole slaw and a side (steak fries seem to be popular). The ribs are served St. Louis style, in which spare ribs (not beef short ribs — those are different) are cut into relatively flat and even rectangles. But that’s only how they look. Based on some customer reviews, it sounds like the taste doesn’t match up.
One person on TikTok said the ribs looked microwaved. He claimed they were excessively salty and disappointing, even going so far as to call anyone ordering the ribs weird and clearly stating that he didn’t think people should buy ribs at a place known for its burgers. Another TikToker was a little kinder, saying that while the ribs weren’t actually bad, they just weren’t that good. Nothing stood out about them that would make her order them again. Yet another TikTok reviewer wasn’t that impressed, claiming the ribs needed more sauce. However, he did compliment the restaurant for serving them very hot. Two of these reviews rated the ribs, and both gave them a 5/10.
Bottomless steak fries
The bottomless steak fries at Red Robin get some less-than-positive reviews not because of the fries themselves, but because the portion size is apparently laughably tiny. Yes, the fries are bottomless, and you can order more. But a small portion means you have to keep ordering and keep waiting for the kitchen to make more fries to be delivered to your table. And if you aren’t at the restaurant for long, that also means you’re not going to get a lot of fries overall for the price. That’s kind of disappointing given that the menu entry states that the fries arrive in a large basket. Note to self: A large basket doesn’t necessarily equate to a large amount of fries. One Redditor suggested telling the waitstaff who serves the fries to go ahead and just bring out another order immediately. You might think it was just a particular restaurant location doing this, but the problem is apparently way more widespread, to the point that you can find people online asking specifically why Red Robin has such small servings for these bottomless fries…