Never Order Lobster Bisque At A Restaurant Without Checking The Rest Of The Menu

Sometimes something as innocuous as soup can ignite a scandal. For Red Lobster, the instigator was its lobster bisque, which, in 2016, "Inside Edition" tested before accusing the chain of making it with much cheaper langostino — a different species than lobster and closer in size to a large prawn. That led to a menu clarification across the country (the company issued a statement saying it makes its bisque with Maine lobster and langostino), but it just goes to show how seriously some consumers — and the Food and Drug Administration — take transparency when it comes to what's in their bisque.

And as well you should. In fact, there are some restaurants where bypassing the lobster bisque altogether is advisable, and one key giveaway will let you know when to steer clear. If the menu is completely devoid of any other lobster dishes, it's a good indicator that there are no leftover shells in-house to prepare a proper stock. That means the kitchen is relying on frozen or canned soup, which would make the bisque taste cheap and inauthentic.

Using a stock made with the crustaceans' shells imparts a delightfully complex brine to the bisque — as if you could taste the air off the coast of Maine. That's a quality that doesn't translate to frozen or shelf-stable versions. Another issue with using packaged bisque is the price point. The French classic is time-intensive — a batch typically takes two to three hours — and restaurants charge high prices to reflect that effort. It may feel as though you're getting ripped off by paying the same amount for a soup that wasn't prepared from scratch.

Fortunately, many restaurants offer online versions of their menus, so it's easy to research before selecting your bisque destination. Some popular chains that do, indeed, offer lobster dishes as well as bowls of the marigold-hued soup are The Capital Grille (Maine lobster served in an asparagus risotto, folded into mac and cheese, and molded into crab cakes) as well as McCormick & Schmick's (West Australian lobster tail topped with shrimp).

Anyone feeling ambitious who would like to try to cook the dish at home can rely on this lobster bisque recipe. Just be sure that you aren't overcooking the stock, which is a common mistake, albeit the biggest one to avoid. Also consider what gives bisque its silken texture — these days, that would oftentimes be a roux or rice cooked to a pulp before it's pureed, but the ingredient used to traditionally thicken the soup is those shells that were ground into a paste.