Gumbo’s Steak and Seafood

This has been one of our favorite restaurants in Bee Cave. The service has been UNACCEPTABLE the last three times. Why would I go back? Two times were with my kids from out of town when my husband was in the hospital. The last time, at an earlier hour, we expected better service, as it had been previously. We had wait staff from Russia and the Ukraine whose language barriers were pathetic. We got only one entrée — had ordered two — and no side accompaniments. We had to reorder the second meal-​and wait. There was no sign of a manager to assist; he was on duty but was not visible. This is the same guy who had been friendly and excellent in the past. Sadly, we will not go back! Unless management addresses these problems the restaurant will not survive!
It does not deserve the star required to post this review.

Yikes! My girlfriends and I stopped by gumbo’s last night for dinner and were greeted by a young woman that barely spoke English and was playing pool on her phone. We asked what time they closed (Saturday night) and we were told 9 because «there are problems in the kitchen.» We immediately asked what she meant and she responded she wasn’t sure. So we ask our server. He basically explains the cooks hate there jobs and won’t cook after nine. He then came back to our table at 8:20 and said I need you to order because the kitchen is closing up. We obviously left right away, without eating. I never saw a manager and there was one server for the entire place.

Gumbo’s downtown is were I had one of the best filets ever. Their seafood has been fairly good. Since I live in Bee Cave we decided to stop and eat tonight. Well in summary, the food was good. Gumbo excellent. Main dishes just ok, Crab sauce on Rockefeller Salmon was dry and needed some saucy consistency.
The problem? Service. Stood at front desk for almost 5 minutes. This place is never busy so no excuse, then we realized the hostess and at least two waiters were either russian or similar. The communication was difficult and getting an explanation on the entrees was challenging. For example we ordered chef’s veggies and were supposed to get squash/​zucchini, but instead received broccoli. We didn’t say anything as were ready to eat. The worst thing tonight was the obvious communication issues. I would say not good for business and will probably drive business away, as I am in NO rush to return.

I will start this by saying I hate to complain. I am usually very understanding of things going wrong in a restaurant. But you cannot charge $ 30+ per plate when the service is this bad or the food this inconsistent. We came tonight for Christmas Eve dinner and waited 30 minutes for someone to take our drink order. It took 10 more minutes to get an appetizer order in and 20 more minutes for us to find out they were out of the appetizer we ordered. An hour in we still only had drinks and an hour and a half later I heard a waiter recommending the appetizer that they were out of. The bill was paid after sitting for 20 minutes waiting for our waiter to reappear. We were trying to get kids to the Lakeway Trail of Lights after dinner and into bed so Santa could come and we spent nearly 2 and a half hours trying to get through dinner. The restaurant was half empty. Some of the food here is really good, but my sweet potatoes came out mostly cold like they came from the refrigerator and weren’t reheated all the way. The stuffed redfish I ordered was supposed to have spinach and jalapeño with a lemon sauce. None of those things were on the plate. My son’s kids plate (a plain cheese quesadilla) was completely missing the side dish of fruit, but we didn’t dare ask for it because it would have taken an hour to get it. The people here were nice enough, but between the cold food, menu items not matching the menu description and painstakingly slow service I just hope I can remember not to come back here. Gumbo’s you could really have a good thing here if you could get your act together, but right now it’s just not worth it.

This used to be a really solid restaurant … The one in RR anyway. Even better was the one on Merrilltown
This location in bee cave:
1. Smells
2. Apparently hosts card night?
3. Slow slow service
4. Average food at best
What a let down. We won’t be back.
We’ve had to hunt down staff for everything…, utensils, drinks, more bread.
All the while we sit at a table with an odd smell all around.
Simply not good

Gumbos used to be so good and it was always a treat to go there but something has clearly happened and it is not good. Wait staff is extremely slow and forgetful — that doesn’t bother me as much as bad food. I ordered Redfish George which was an up barge for the premium fish. When it arrived it looked undercooked but I still had the benefit of the doubt. I was right — fish smelled bad, was undercooked and I don’t even know what kind of crab was on top. It certainly wasn’t lump crab. Looked and tasted bad. I sent it back and the message back from the chef was «All of our premium fish smell and taste fishy.» What!!! It is supposed to be the exact opposite. A manager did not come over, but they did comp the meal so I left with eating two florets of undercooked broccoli. Will not go back.

We used to eat here all the time and loved it, however, when we came tonight and ordered the Jambalaya, it was literally spoiled. We couldn’t find anyone to even talk to… No waiter, no manager, no hostess… Finally, we got our waiter, who agreed that said Jambalaya smelled rotten… In fact, he said he couldn’t believe they even served it. Seriously??? I am hoping we don’t get food poisoning from this meal, but will update this post if in fact, we do. What a disappointment from what was once an amazing restaurant …
I should add the manager didn’t even come out to speak to us… If I could give 0 stars, I would have! Don’t waste your time, unless you want possible food poisoning!

To the management:
I’ve tried this place three times and it’s just not good. The service is horrible and the food isn’t much better. There are so many new choices popping up in this area, I don’t expect this place will last. They’ve simply got to get their act together. You can’t keep dropping the ball all over the place. Look at your rating and see that people are TRYING to tell you that you’re doing it all wrong.
I haven’t liked anything I’ve ordered. From overcooked, to undercooked, to just tasting bad, all my complaints have fallen on deaf ears. No one even offered some sort of resolution or to get me a manager to talk to. Your servers are hit or miss and need training and direction.
You have two choices: Either accept what people are saying as true and create a game plan that details out the biggest issues and how to address those issues, or continue down this road where you believe you are all good and people are just victimizing you.
The ball’s in your court.
I won’t be back.

I’m a long time patron of Gumbos. The downtown location was my go to lunch spot until it closed. I live near the Bee Caves location and while it’s never been up to the downtown Gumbos standard I’ve eaten there occasionally. My wife and I ate lunch there today and it was just horrible. Although there was only one other table occupied in the main dining room, service was unbelievably slow. The gumbo starter, which came out 10 minutes after the entrée was served was absolutely horrible-​not even edible. I’ve ordered gumbo literally every time I’ve eaten at Gumbos and this was nothing like I’ve ever tried to eat. The poboy shrimp sandwich was dry and amounted to no more than tiny prepackaged and frozen shrimp served with lettuce on a bun. Despite the fact that neither cup of gumbo had been eaten, the waiter had no apparent interest in asking about the meal when our check came. Just a horrible experience start to finish. Goodbye Gumbos. That’s it for me. Don Gilbert

Save yourself the time and avoid this place. The staff I encountered was friendly but the service was beyond slow. Came for dinner on a Tuesday and the place was pretty dead. Can’t understand why the service was so slow with the lack of guests.
After ordering drinks it took about 10 minutes for them to get to our table and I had to ask him to stay so we could place our order because he was already running off after placing our drinks.
The food then took about an hour to come out and was completely wrong. After they returned it to the kitchen to fix, it still was wrong. Plus the meat was now cold because they took some time to correct the plate.
Do yourself the favor and just drive on by.

Let’s start with being seated to an empty bar. I mean nobody was behind the bar, nobody was at the bar. Nobody.
A young gentleman showed up after a few minutes. Explained that there are only two wines on their happy hour menu. We ordered one red and on white. Fortunately, they weren’t bad. Just wishing there was more of a selection.
It was his first week working here. That showed…
We ordered the Calamari and the Fish N Chips. It took about 8 or 9 minutes for them to arrive. I’m afraid I have nothing nice to say about either one. The fish tasted muddy. It was inedible. We ate the chips off the plate and sent the rest to the trash. The Calamari was rubbery and the batter wouldn’t stick to it.
All in all, our previous visit was better, but I’m seeing why this place gets such bad ratings and why their happy hour is dead. Don’t think I’ll be back here…

I had a great experience. The happy hour has amazing selections for great prices. The staff made me feel at home. Great ambiance and the band was great on Saturday night.

The food was excellent! They had wonderful live music during our meal. The lack of 5 stars is due to the slow service (even though we were one of two parties in the dining room). The waiters were friendly. I’d go back because the food was so great!

First timer at this exquisite Restaurant. The food is over the MOON and the service as well. A treat for all ages and appetites. Have them make there special CHOCOLATE MARTINI for dessert. Les must.
Thank you,
Henry Tarin

It pains me to write a bad review of a place but I do need to call this one out. :-(
Came here with my gf about three weeks ago and we still joke about how abandoned the place was during the lunch hour — perhaps it should have tipped us off!
We waited a few minutes in an empty restaurant going ‘Hallooo?’ until we were seated I have to say that the server was very nice, and the view we got at the window wasn’t bad, there’s a semi-​stagnant creek outside to provide a little green.
The server, while nice, pretty much disappeared after delivering the food, a po-​boy sandwich, beans, gumbo, and jambalaya. All ranged from eh… to…sub-eh. As another reviewer pointed out, the beans are simply the usual black beans you get in Tex-​Mex or Cuban cooking, not this cuisine. The po-​boy was tolerable, though too ‘wet’ and drippy. And talk about running hot-cold…the gumbo was waaaay too salty and the jamabalya had an odd corn-​mush sweetness to it!
Alas, I can’t recommend this place with its taste-​challenged cooking.
This place gets 1 star on the ‘CTJ Scale’, as noted below.
5 out of 5 stars: Come-​to-​Jesus good. Would be OK passing away after finishing a meal here.
4 out of 5 stars: Come-​to-​Mary good. Would be OK being seen eating here by Mother Mary.
3 out of 5 stars: Come-​to-​Joseph good. Would be OK having a beer here with Jesus’ Dad.
2 out of 5 stars: Come-​to-​the-​Apostles good. Meh. Wouldn’t have my last supper here.
1 out of 5 stars: Come-​to-​Nobody good. I wouldn’t have my penultimate supper here, either.

While shopping today, my wife and I decided to try this place. We got there reasonably early and were seated on their outdoor patio immediately.
I have to say, the patio outside is a bit small, but it has a great view of the pond and the hill country skyline.
Out server, Kimberly, was really great. She was very friendly, got our order right on the first time, and checked back often. She seemed to really enjoy her job and gave us the feeling that she really appreciated our business.
One bummer is they didn’t carry Lone Star beer. This is Texas! How can you not carry the official beer? Had to settle for a cool and frosty Shiner…
My wife had a mimosa… she liked it, although I thought $ 7 for a flute was a little pricey,
The food was also a highlight. I had the grilled shrimp po-​boy and my wife had the veggie enchiladas. My po-​boy was full of great shrimp flavor and the roll it was on was fresh and had a great bite. My wife’s dish was equally as good and she loved every bite.
We will most certainly be back… hopefully Kimberly is working the next time we dine.

Ive never tasted more unrealistic Cajun/​creole food in my life, this kitchen doesn’t ever come close to Tony Chachere’s box meals and that’s sad. I’ve never been to a place where the recipes were so taste blind to the natural flavor a of a cuisine it was serving in my life. As I was experiencing what several other Unilocalers have already noticed the waiter at the table was explaining how their Unilocal reputation proceeds them, and the sad part was that his table couldn’t see why! If your waitstaff has to ask for good reviews and explain how they get instant notification on the reviews along with staff meetings to accompany bad reviews your in the wrong culinary cuisine for your business period! I paid my tab and expressed my opinion to my waiter. I’m now at Mandola’s for all of its culinarily correct redeeming attributes.

Updated review because of course we had to come back again! As always the food is amazing. Be sure to check out the tenderloin and bread pudding. Still by far my fave!
We were seated right away even though we came 20 min before our reservation. Ambiance was nice with the live music, and my steak was absolutely perfect. As always we will be back!

My husband and I hadn’t been here in a while and were wanting seafood. Came out on a Friday night without reservations around 6:30 pm and had no issues getting seated in the main dining room. They had a guy playing in the bar area. Overall an ok experience. I think we remember why we don’t come here more often. The food is heavy and ok at best. Our starter was the tuna tartar and it was wonderful. For entrees, my husband got the lobster halibut special and I got the stuffed rainbow trout. My food fish was warm but the sides were very cold. You could tell the sides were waiting for the fish to be done. My husband’s halibut was ok. I don’t think it was worth the $ 36 we paid. I know halibut is expensive we make it at home and it is usually better. Service was ok. Never really came by to offer us more water or pour our wine for us. It is near our home so I am sure we will be back but wish the service and food was up to the price point. Maybe in the future we stick to starters and cocktails in the bar vs sitting in the main dining area. A bottle of average price wine for their menu ($ 30), a starter and two entrees was $ 113 before tip.

$ 56 with tip on a lunch excursion. At least for the record I gave it my all. I’m quite sad to report that Gumbo’s hit a few high notes; but faltered to its Unilocal average three star reputation by the end of the meal. Good marks started with the server who was quite candid on what he thought was haute items.
The escargot started the experience. The usual garlic and butter with a hint of cheese had stellar flavors. The gumbo which also came out with the snails (poor timing from the kitchen) was a miss. Good flavor from a dark roux, but the fish used was poor quality. Its rare that I complain about even the slightest bit of «fishiness», yet this example was clearly past its prime.
The same could be said of the mahi with my choice of the Pontchartrain preparation. Nice portion with a well composed sauce. Terrible dirty rice surprisingly akin to cajun fried rice. Cold mashed potatoes too. This is where Gumbo’s troubles me. The kitchen was slow as others have noted and your paying a premium to eat here. You’d get better food for WAY less money over at Evangeline Café is South Austin.
If was to go high end I’d choose to drive over to Pappadeaux on the other side of Austin rather than return here to Gumbo’s which is closer to the ranch. The server did kindly replace my cold taters with a togo side of grilled asparagus as I was already over and done with the experience. As for a star rating, I rounded up to three for the escargot. Skip everything else.