The Red Lobster at 27524 The Old Road in Valencia, California, has closed permanently after service Sept. 20. The chain’s own location page now lists the restaurant closed every day, confirming that the shutdown is not a temporary interruption.
The property already has a next act in development. Local reporting says permits call for demolition of the approximately 8,173-square-foot Red Lobster building to make way for a new Raising Cane’s drive-thru restaurant, with the chicken chain currently targeting fall 2027.
The Valencia Red Lobster Closed After Sept. 20 Service
For Buffet Authority, Red Lobster sits just outside the core buffet category but remains part of abundance-dining history because of the chain’s long association with unlimited promotions — most famously Endless Shrimp, which became both a customer ritual and, eventually, a cautionary business story. The Valencia closure is a restaurant-level event rather than a change to an unlimited promotion, but it removes another large casual-dining seafood room from the map.
The planned demolition means the site will not simply cycle from one full-service restaurant tenant to another. Raising Cane’s uses a much narrower menu and drive-thru-heavy model, representing almost the opposite real-estate logic from the oversized dining rooms built for legacy casual dining.
The Building Is Expected to Be Demolished for Raising Cane’s
That contrast is visible in the building itself. Red Lobster needed thousands of square feet for seated seafood service; Cane’s plans to erase the structure and rebuild around speed, cars and a highly focused chicken-finger menu.
The closure is complete. The replacement is still future tense. If the current schedule holds, the site will spend roughly a year transitioning from cheddar biscuits and seafood platters to drive-thru chicken.
