My family of 4 tried Red Lobster's $30 family 'meal deal.' It was tasty but we wouldn't get it again.

Earlier in the afternoon, I ordered the meal on Red Lobster's website and chose 5:30 p.m. pick-up time at a nearby Florida location.

I went with the chicken taco deal for $30 before tax, but the availability and price may depend on your location. I could've also chosen lobster and shrimp ($34) or shrimp ($32).

The meal comes with grilled chicken, six tortillas, jalapeño slaw, pico de gallo, lime crema, cilantro, and a side of tortilla chips. While ordering, I also had the option to add menu items like shrimp skewers and linguine Alfredo for an extra charge.

Although I didn't choose from the suggested add-ons, I did add two orders of fries and a half-dozen Cheddar Bay Biscuits to the order to give it some bulk.

The meal, like most of the ones offered, seemed designed to serve four people, but I was a bit skeptical.

Thirty minutes before my scheduled pick-up time, I received a text message from Red Lobster with instructions.

The text said to park in a curbside spot and text "here" to the number to initiate the pick-up process.

When my teens and I arrived at Red Lobster, we drove around for a bit before we located the two curbside pick-up parking spots, as the signs were pretty small.

Once we parked, we responded "here" to our text from the restaurant to start the pick-up process.

We waited just over 10 minutes before receiving a reply that our order was ready and someone would bring it out soon.

Shortly after, an employee walked our bag of food to my car and we were on our way home.

Even as I was carrying the to-go bag from my trunk to my house, I knew there wasn't much food in it.

This was surprising, as my family and I have been visiting chain restaurants quite a bit lately, from Buffalo Wild Wings to Outback Steakhouse, and have always been a bit overwhelmed by the large portion sizes and amount of leftovers we've gone home with.

The first thing that struck me about this "family" meal was that there were only six tortillas included.

My family of four aren't huge eaters, but when I saw how few tortillas we got, I opted to eat my taco toppings on a plate so my husband, son, and daughter could each have two tacos for their dinner.

We also finished the grilled chicken fast. It's rare that any member of my family doesn't have leftovers at a chain restaurant and asks if it's OK for them to finish what's left of a dish.

The meal was supposed to come with tortilla chips but it seems ours were left out of the bag. That said, I'm not sure chips would've made much of a difference in terms of filling us up.

The grilled chicken included with our Red Lobster family meal was very good, flavorful, and full of a char-grilled taste.

Everyone at my dinner table liked the food a lot — we just wished there had been more of it for the price we paid.

In addition to the $30 cost of this family meal, I spent about $10 adding two sides of fries and a six-piece order of Red Lobster's Cheddar Bay biscuits to our meal.

I was glad I did, as the taco meal itself was nowhere near enough food to feed a family of four.

Maybe Red Lobster's other meal deals are better, but at close to $45 with tax, the family taco meal deal and sides I ordered didn't feel like a good value to me.

Had I not bulked the tacos up with a few sides, my family wouldn't have had enough to eat that night.

I was especially surprised by the small portions because I recently spent less on Panera Bread's four toasted-baguette family feast, which left us with enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

Plus, there are several other ways I'd prefer to spend $45 on a Taco Tuesday meal. Instead, we could've gotten pretty great taco-night ingredients at the grocery store or ordered a ton of tacos at a fast-food chain like Taco Bell.

As a working family who is choosy about what we spend our dining-out budget on, the experience missed the mark.

This story was originally published on November 17, 2023, and most recently updated on May 6, 2024.