Red Lobster's Secret Menu Shrimp Po' Boy: What To Order To Hack It

When you read about secret menu hacks online, they're usually associated with things like McDonald's or Burger King — not exactly your average sit-down "casual" restaurants. If you were to go into Red Lobster, for example, and try to order off the "secret menu," chances are you'll only be wasting the server's time and patience as you try to elaborate on some kind of obscure seafood dinner you read on a defunct chat room. But this doesn't mean that it can't be done — provided you know what to order.

If you were to order correctly, you'd be able to get your hands on a shrimp po'boy fresh from Red Lobster's kitchens. For those of you who never had a po'boy before, the Deep South Dish describes it as a long submarine-style sandwich on New Orleans French bread. It is usually stuffed with meats such as thinly-sliced roast beef or seafood, such as fried fish, fried oysters, or in this case, fried shrimp. If there's one thing Red Lobster is known for, it's shrimp — just in case the celebratory "Endless Shrimp" buffet making its grand return wasn't enough of a demonstration of how much Red Lobster values shrimp.

It's baffling then as to why Red Lobster hasn't capitalized on the po'boy craze by introducing its own po'boys made of endless shrimp and lobster meat. But, so long as you know how to order and what to combine, you can have Red Lobster serving you up your very own po'boy.

If you've ever been to Red Lobster even once, you've more likely than not had cheddar biscuits. They're those dumplings that taste like a combination of herbs and cheeses that you usually get before your meal. While those biscuits are admittedly good enough to eat on their own, Cheapism hints that these complimentary snacks are key to making your own Red Lobster-style shrimp po'boy. Although Cheapism doesn't give full details on how the cheddar biscuits play into a po'boy, the Krazy Koupon Lady elaborates on how to prepare it. 

Just order the popcorn shrimp off the menu, which means you'll get plenty of bite-sized pieces of fried shrimp. Then, take your cheddar bay biscuits (if there are any left) and tear them open as you would a regular biscuit, stuffing the popcorn shrimp inside. This way, you can make a couple of po'boy sandwiches for only under $10 dollars (considering the popcorn shrimp is about $6.99). The only drawbacks to this approach are that you're getting many small po'boy sandwiches rather than one large sandwich and you have to order from the kids' menu to do it.

Oddly enough, although Red Lobster hasn't ventured into the world of po'boys, it did do something very similar with its shrimp and cheddar biscuits not too long ago.

While you may feel clever thinking you just made your own Red Lobster menu item from shrimp and cheddar biscuits, you may be surprised to learn that Red Lobster may have gotten there before you. In November 2022, Red Lobster announced a new menu item: "Cheddar Bay Shrimp," which was butterfly shrimp deep-fried in a crust made up of Cheddar Bay seasonings just like the chain's famous biscuits. But do these biscuit-crusted shrimp really taste like the promised po'boy, or do they taste any good at all?

YouTuber "Stupid Food Reviews with JIAT" seemed to be on the fence about the shrimp, stating that while it "looks cool" and has a "really nice crunch," the exterior breading is too thick and can dry one's mouth out. While he made no mention of it tasting like a "po'boy," he seemed more or less ambivalent about the shrimp, not loving it but at the same time not hating it. Even if you find a po'boy of popcorn shrimp and cheddar biscuits to not be the "real deal," there are some people who'll find that these bite-sized po'boys may just be what Red Lobster needs.