A Wisconsin woman has gone viral after claiming Red Lobster served her visibly spoiled seafood and then demanded she bring in her household trash to prove she hadn’t eaten it before receiving a refund. In a series of TikTok videos, she detailed her experience with the restaurant, showing what she described as “moldy, slimy, discolored” lobster tails that left her sick to her stomach.
In her first video, the woman held up the meal to show viewers what she saw. “Red Lobster, I am so disappointed, so disgusted,” she said. “This food is clearly discolored. It is slimy. It is moldy. How dare you serve this to anybody?” The clip showed gray patches on the meat and greenish areas along the shell. “I used to love Red Lobster… I will never be back,” she added.
The woman claimed she later tossed the food in the trash and contacted the restaurant to report the issue. After hearing her complaint, the manager, she said, told her to send photos and videos of the meal for confirmation to process her refund. However, when she followed up the next day after sending in the requested documents, she claimed the general manager refused to issue one without proof that she hadn’t eaten the food. “I told her it was already in the trash,” the woman said. “She said, ‘I don’t care. I need you to bring in whatever you have.’”
According to her, the general manager insisted even after she explained that the spoiled food was buried under diapers and household waste. The woman ended up packing her garbage into a bag and drove back to the restaurant, determined to make her point. She recorded herself handing the bag over to an employee outside the restaurant. The staff took the bag and said they would sort through it and contact her afterward. In a follow-up video, she later confirmed that Red Lobster’s legal team finally reached out by email to apologize and said she would receive a full refund.
What People Are Saying About the Wisconsin Red Lobster Incident
Viewers were stunned by the woman’s story and called the restaurant’s actions excessive and humiliating. “They would rather dig through garbage than give a refund for one single meal is insane,” one comment read. Another person added, “They act like refunding you is gonna [sic] come out their check.” A few agreed it was disturbing for staff to sift through trash at all. “Bro, not giving you a refund and having their employees digging through trash is crazy,” one netizen said. Someone else warned, “Call the health department 👏 you could have gotten really sick from that mess.”
Some people, however, questioned whether what she saw was actually mold. “That’s not mold! It’s called tomalley and is very much edible,” one user wrote, adding that some lobsters naturally contain it. Another commenter said, “I’ve seen that in fresh lobster that’s not mold.” Still, several sided with the woman’s concern about the food’s texture and condition. “I agree some color is not abnormal, however it most certainly should not be glistening in slime,” a viewer said.
