It has had the reputation at least since the 1990s. I used to ask to go there as a kid. My grandma was the only other person I knew who really liked it.
@chenille They were a Darden group restaurant until 2014. Longhorn, Olive Garden, and the like are doing fine, but they couldn’t make Red Lobster work and sold it off. So whatever was causing its decline can’t just be about private equity. They were sold to private equity because they were declining. The sale just delayed the bankruptcy a few more years and changed who benefitted and who lost out.
