J Gumbo’s

I loved it! We’ve now come twice and both time had awesome experiences. The food is awesome, my personal favorite is the Drunken Chicken! The staff is very friendly at our location, they offer samples of their dishes and made my little guys Mac and cheese fresh! My family and I will keep coming!

The Drunken chicken was my favorite. Pretty good food for the price. Definitely worth going if you like gumbo or jambalaya.

Great place for lunch! Lots of choices. I had the drunken chicken. Delicious. Comparable experience to chipotle. Good bluesy /​jazzy voodooie art on the wall.

TL;DR review: If you like Cajun food, try them out (but no crawfish!?)!
I’ve had the Voodoo Chicken (which, to be honest, was too hot for me to eat without internalizing the fact that I’m actively destroying my stomach), the Bourbon Street Chicken, the Bumblebee Stew, the Jean Leffite Po-​boy, and the gumbo. I’ve got to say I find it a little strange that a place who uses a crawfish in its trademark only has one dish that contains crawfish (the étouffée). If you want a po-​boy that would be recognizable as a po-​boy, this isn’t the place. A po-​boy here is more like their entrees between two halves of a buttered, toasted baguette, rather than fried bits of chicken, crawfish, fish, or shrimp with lettuce and onion on baguette.
The Jean Lefitte po-​boy was good, but it’s more like a really thick stew or a really runny casserole on baguette. Jean Lefitte in particular is pretty spicy, because it’s Voodoo Chicken mixed with Bumblebee Stew. I’d order it again, but probably as a bowl, because I ended up eating it with a fork anyway. You can’t pick it up like a sandwich and eat it without covering your hands with it.
If you’re less than excited about spicy food, try the Bourbon Steet Chicken. It eats very «homey.» It reminds me of something your grandmother might feed you when you’re sick to get you feeling better. There’s not a lot of texture, other than shredded chicken. Even so, I’d eat it agian.
You can expect to pay around $ 10 for your lunch at J. Gumbo’s, and after you eat it, you’ll be full, most likely.

This review is based on one very limited sampling.
Last week, my stepdaughter wanted to stop at the Tropical Smoothie location on Cantrell, just past Sam Peck. When we pulled up, I noticed J Gumbo’s next door. I hadn’t eaten yet, and my wife was out of town, so on a wild hair, I walked in.
The guy behind the counter was friendly and gave me the time I needed to check out their menu. I ordered the chicken and sausage gumbo and nothing else. It was a «to go» order. The transaction was reasonably priced and quick. As a former resident of south Louisiana, one thing I appreciated was that they include a piece of fresh french bread with the gumbo. Not something that you’ll find just anywhere, because french bread is notorious for going stale quickly. (Theirs was fresh.)
Kept it in the bag until we got home, and when I opened it I was pleasantly surprised. The gumbo was almost seasoned enough and had plenty of solid food, as opposed to those gumbos that are mostly roux.
I did add a couple of dashes of Tobasco and a shake of Tony’s, but I can’t fault J Gumbo’s for catering to the Arkansas clientele that may not be used to spicier food.
Haven’t done it yet, but I need to go back and sample more of their offerings.

We ate there on Sunday and the food was great. The staff was friendly and offered a sample before a decision was made to purchase. My spouses family is from south Louisiana and this was comparable to what her family prepares when we go to visit. I will go back again and recommend to others.

Decent gumbo (and other dishes) that’s fine for a quick lunch but not worth a trip out of your way.
This is a chain restaurant and everything is pre-​prepared and kept in chaffing dishes behind the counter. This is great if you’re grabbing take out or in a hurry, but don’t expect your socks to be knocked off. Gumbo (and all the other stew-​like dishes they serve) are amenable to this set up, so it’s actually the best possible ‘fast food’ I can think of. The rating of 2 stars is based on an overall comparison to all restaurants (and the literal Unilocal description of ‘I’ve had better’). If I were comparing it to restaurants of similar price ranges it would be 4 stars. Compared to other ‘fast food’ restaurants it is 5 stars.
If you’re unsure of what to order, you can ask for samples of dishes as if you were in an ice cream shop.
As a post script, I don’t like the rice that is served with the entrees.

Love. Great place awesome people and fantastic food.
I’m not going to compare to Louisiana because that is the heart of creole and Cajun so nothing will ever mount to that unless your from there and cooking at j gumbos ya self.

I didn’t think I’d like this place since I don’t like spicy food, but the bumblebee stew was perfect. It was sweet and savory. You can sample the gumbos before buying. The portion was huge. The peach cobbler was delicious. I wish they had locations closer to me.