Gumbo Jumbo

Came here awhile ago on a week night around 8:45 PM. Gumbo Jumbo’s closing time is 10 PM. The restaurant itself is fairly small but pretty comfy. The ambiance was so chill and I would definitely come here to just hang or have a drink :) For a party of 3 here’s what we ordered:
–Sweet potatoes, corn and okra fritters
–Dungeness stuffed crab mushrooms
–Jambalya
For a quick bite it was ok. I wouldn’t say it was the best I’ve ever had. However, the service and ambiance makes me want to come back to eat and chill. Overall, try it but they are closed now!!! WOW

Came here twice so far. Both great.
Love the garlic prawn noodles. YUMMY.
Pretty cute restaurant. Like the décor. Reminds of New Orleans.
FYI, i’m from the south so this made me felt like i’m back home. :)
I want to come here again sometime: D

I like it not so spicy. :)
It is true that there are no more happy hour or fat Tuesday special. But I am happy with the free mini cornbread. And I think there’s a price drop in the entrees. I swear they were $ 18-​$ 25 but now they’re around ~$ 14-​$ 21.
We had the jambalaya, blackened catfish, and coconut bread pudding. I would’ve like some condensed milk for the bread pudding but everything tasted good.
3 stars for now because ~$ 15 is still pretty expensive.
The waiter was very nice, very professional, friendly, and helpful.

Iv been here 4 or 5 times. This place has the best ambiance possible, and is great for larger groups.
Food Critic:
Sweet potatoes, Okra, Corn fritters — 4 stars
Catfish– 4 stars
Shrimp– 5 stars
Overall this place is awesome! The last time I was here, my food turned out too spicy, so you may want to taste test once you get your meal. Just be honest if it’s too hot, or not spicy enough, and they will help you best they can.
Customer service here is pretty awesome. I have yet to have a bad or rude or unhelpful server here.
This is a great place, just so long as your with good friends!

Came here last week during SJ Dine Downtown. It was my first time eating Cajun food, such as Jambalaya. Their Happy Hour menu had good deals. We started off with Cajun Fries and they were pretty spicy as I expected.
For this Dine Downtown, they had a 3 course prix fixe menu. For starters, I had their Dungeness Crab Stuffed Mushrooms. It was okay. Nothing too fabulous. For my main dish, I had the Seafood Jambalaya. Good thing our server suggested to go «mild» because it was pretty spicy for a mild. Portion was big. The flavor and seafood was good, but for me, the rice was too mushy. I guess that’s how jambalaya is. My husband had the Garlic Noodles for Prawn. This was good, but the sauce was a little sweet. For dessert, we had beignets. It came out fresh and hot. YUM! This 3 course menu was $ 30. I think the beignets was the best part along with the service. The service was excellent. Our server came by constantly to refill our waters during our long 2 hour stay. At least, I came to try this place, but I don’t think I’m a fan of Cajun food. :(

Party of 3 had 3 drinks, Duck salad, Jambalaya and Tiger Prawns in garlic noodles– $ 98 before tax. Was it worth it?
Duck salad– The duck is shredded and so salty that I can not taste the duck, it could have been chicken and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. The citrus dressing however is refreshing and makes this salad the best of the bunch.
Jambalaya– full of filler rice and disappointing ingredients– it’s neither fulfilling in taste nor portion. Also, watch out for the spiciness, the wait staff will not warn you.
Tiger Prawn garlic noodle– you got to be kidding me, this looks straight out of a $ 5 noodle place. Noodles are literally the typical stir fry noodles you can find on common steam tables.
Atmosphere: I was looking forward to live band Gumbo Jumbo has on Friday/​Saturday night. Which the website lead you to think that you’d be enjoying jazz or blues. My experience? a marginal talented girl was singing solo with her creepy bf staring at her the entire time, a serious sigh of relief when she goes on her break.
I’m wishing upon a ZERO star for this place.

I am a fan of this place. This restaurant has character. It is a small place, but the tables are decorated with festive beads, and masks were hung on the walls.
I imagine it would be a great little hot spot in August during the Jazz festival.
Anyway, I went there for lunch, and for 8 bucks, I got a salad, egg rolls, a main dish, and an ice tea! It was a great deal, and the food was awesome.
Some people may say the portions are skimpy, but I welcomed the small plate. It was just enough to satisfy my appetite, and it left me wanting to come back for more! :)

I don’t know why, but I cannot remember the name of this place for the life of me. Mumbo Jumbo, Gumbo Dumbo, Humble Gumbo…
I like that this place is right next to a big parking structure and no waiting for a table. The food is straight up 3 stars. We ordered the Crawdad Won Tons, Duck Salad, Giant Prawns with Garlic noodles, and some gumbo. Don’t ask me which one, we already went over the fact that I’m a dumbo when it comes to gumbo.
There wasn’t enough meat in the won tons for me to identify if there was even crawdads in there. The garlic noodles were delicious, but the prawns were pretty tasteless once out of the shell. The duck salad was a little dry so we asked for more dressing. When the waitress brought more out, it was obviously a different dressing made of tamarind and anchovy instead of the orange base it was supposed to have. She was incredibly sweet and provided great service so I didn’t shoot the messenger nor did I mention it.

I’ve never noticed this place before until my husband said he wanted to try here as he loves Cajun food. Location is convenient as it is right across from the San Pedro parking garage and I liked the atmosphere as we stepped inside — kinda dark and «mysterious», tons of beads everywhere but modern and clean.
I really liked the sweet potato, okra & corn fritters appetizer — especially loved the lightly fried, fresh okra. I was actually full after finishing this dish and it was only for $ 8. What a good deal. Fried catfish appetizer was so-​so.
Then here came the bowl of Seafood Gumbo. I was already full from the appetizer and when I saw a bowl of the size of my head… Too bad I couldn’t eat much of this Gumbo. I ordered mild as I cannot take much heat, but this dish needed more flavor and seafood.
On the other hand, my husband’s chicken and prawns étouffée was pretty good. Excuse my ignorance on Cajun food, but it looked like curry and rice to me… brown sauce with shrimp and chicken over rice. It was very spicy to me (he ordered medium), but this dish had some good flavor to it. I was thinking I’ll order this next time, mild.
Around 6pm on Thursday night, this place was not so crowded yet. Nice and slow live music playing on the back ground, which was pretty relaxing. Service was a bit slow, but can’t complain with $ 2/​bottle Sierra Nevada! No room for desert this time but will come back for Beignets for sure!

OK, I’m falling off — seriously. I went here at least a couple of months ago and can’t believe I forgot to review it then.
Anyway, this won’t be horribly detailed. I think to sum it up in a nutshell… 1) great ambience, 2) good music, 3) tasty food but 4) skimpy portions. Maybe this would be a better place to take a date rather than a group of friends with healthy appetites.
There is a more isolated, private party-​esque table in the back that I think can be reserved. I’m surprised they didn’t offer it considering there were 8 of us in our party.
Overall, a pretty good spot (not that San Jose has many, though) for this type of food.

Came here with no wait…
Pros 1) Great Atmosphere
2) Mango Mojito & Original Mojito *mmmm!*
3) Food was full of flavor
4) Parking structure across the street
Cons 1) Asked the waiter about the « Unilocal promotion», he had no clue
about it and refused to give the free appetizer.

Came here on a date for the first time, and had to come back again for my 25^th birthday dinner.
I believe you can only really appreciate this place if you like Cajun food. Majority of their menu have some type of spice to it. For appetizer, I recommend the crispy calamari and for entrée you must try their Garlic Shrimp Noodles… MmMmmmm… Best part about this place? Its located right in downtown San Jose. Great for a birthday dinner so you can hit up the town afterward :)
If you are not eating on the weekends, you can come here for Happy Hour aka Voodoo Hrs:
Sunday– Thursday: 5pm to 7pm
Wines & Beers are half off
Cocktails for $ 5.00
Appetizers: $ 3.00
Wonton, Eggrolls, Corn Fritters, Cajun Wings, Cajun Fries, Garlic Fries.
I do NOT recommend sitting by the window. People walking by can be very distracting, especially if you are on a date.

3.5 stars. We had the alligator nuggets, mango fish, salt and pepper dungeness crab, garlic noodles and beignets. Everything was good but my crab was the best, lots of meat and really well seasoned.
Anyone who knows me knows that I hate eating with my hands or working for my food. The last time I ate crab, I managed to only use 2 fingers per hand so I didn’t feel like a total sav. I had no such self control this time. I was a mess but very satisfied.
The order of beignets we finished with was huge. I thought there might be 4 pieces but there were at least 8 or 9 with 3 delicious dipping sauces so we couldn’t finish them. They were perfectly airy and light tasting, very similar to Café Du Monde.
The service was great and the décor made me wish I was in New Orleans again. I think it’s time to go back.

My family and I went here for the Dine Downtown SJ Event. You must make a reservation at dinner because there aren’t that many tables in this place.
Just go to
to make the reservation.
I ordered the $ 30 option, while my family ordered the $ 20 option. The good thing about this meal was that we were able to try everyone’s dishes!
Appetizers:
+ Sweet Potatoes, Okra and Corn Fritters– Mmmmm. this was sooo good!!! The corn fritters were delicious! The sweet sauce complimented the corn fritters. The okra was cooked perfectly. I always love to eat sweet potatoes fries. The chipotle aioli was pretty good. I would definitely order this appetizer again. I was quite full after eating the fried food.
+ Crawfish Egg Rolls– There were 6 pieces in this dish. Deep frying the egg roll masks the flavor of the crawfish. In addition, the crawfish looked like meat. The dipping sauce had a pungent smell– maybe fish sauce?
+ Dungeness Crab Stuffed Mushrooms– There were 5 pieces, so it was enough for everyone to get 1 piece. You can’t tell that there was crab, but you know that there is some sort of seafood! I would skip this appetizer.
Main Entrees:
+ Chicken Jambalaya w/​medium spicy level– You can taste the kick in this dish. The chicken was cooked well, and there was a lot of good flavors! Dish also had veggies.
+ Cajun Lemongrass Chicken– MmM. the lemongrass sauce was delicious! The chicken was a bit overcooked though. The coconut rice complimented the chicken. I would order the dish again.
+ Chicken Garlic Noodles– Here is another winner! The sauce was sweet, and the chicken was moist. There must have been many cloves of garlic since the flavor is strong. The noodles are cooked al dente too. Yum!
+ Seafood Jambalaya w/​hot spicy level– Okay. you can literally see a layer of chili powder on top of the food, and this dish was spicy!!! It was a bit too spicy for my family, but I loved it!!! The jambalaya had fish, shrimp, sausage, and veggies in it. The flavors were pretty good.
Desserts:
+ Bread Pudding– mmMmm. the bread was soft and warm. The sweet sauce and rum flavor was delicious! Would I pay over $ 5 for a piece of bread as dessert? Probably not, but it was good to try this!
+ Beignets– Wow! I was expecting a couple of pieces, but this was a huge platter and it came with 3 types of dipping sauce (chocolate, strawberry, and caramel). The beignets were not as crispy as I expected. It was more doughy to me. However, they are not bad. My mom hasn’t made beignets in a long time, so it was good to eat them again.
Service is excellent at this place. Our waiter was very patient with us since we waited on another family member to arrive. In addition, he explained our dishes and the sides to us.
There was a jazz playing when we went on Saturday night. Great ambience!

I have to preface this review by saying I am not an expert on Cajun food. Gumbo Jumbo was decorated very nicely. I wanted jambalaya and they had several dishes; seafood jambalaya, chicken jambalaya, vegetarian, and maybe 1 – 2 more.
I ordered the chicken jambalaya. It was a good sized portion. The chicken and sausage were excellent. The rest (rice, veggies, etc) were good.
This is not a traditional Cajun restaurant, but a fusion one instead. You know what you get with a fusion restaurant… nice décor and higher prices. Still, my dish was not priced super-high…about $ 18.

The impossible!
The unthinkable!
The SHAME!
THEY… RAN… OUT… OF… CRAWDADS!!! =O *faints*
This was not a good start to the night. My group got there around 8:30PM on a Friday. And they were already sold out??? I would expect this place to know how fast their inventory goes out. Total turn off. I was looking forward to the garlic butter crawfish. But I guess not!
But… life goes on…
We had a gift certificate for $ 50 that we bought from
, so we decided to order a few things and eat family style.
For starters…
Dungeness Crab Stuffed Mushrooms: These could have been a whole lot better. They were a little sad looking. And very small. It only came with five mushrooms. The «field greens» they claim are underneath is just your basic lettuce. The dressing on it was tasty though.
Fresh Raw Oysters: Pretty good. The presentation was nice. A few of the oysters were a little on the large side, and they had a little bit more of a «from the sea» taste. Not my cup of tea. I only ate two of them. The oysters at The Fish Market are better.
Since the crawdads were no more, we decided to try some of the other entrees…
Tiger Prawns in Garlic Noodles: The BEST dish I had here. I could actually taste the garlic in the garlic noodles! And it wasn’t super oily like at some other Asian restaurants. The tiger prawns were HUGE. There were five prawns for our enjoyment. I would order it again but it’s a RIDICULOUS $ 17 for it.
Seafood Jambalaya: This was only OK. The portion was kind of small and I was expecting more flavor. I think the worst part was that it tasted the same as our next entrée, the etouffe.
Crawfish and Giant Prawn Etouffe: This was also only OK. I really wish it was better. This even looked like the jambalaya. I was so disinterested that I just stopped eating even though I wasn’t full.
All the portions in general were pretty small. Very disappointing considering all the entrees were $ 17 or $ 18 a piece. Luckily, the dessert and drink I had saved the night!
Lychee Mojito: A very sweet drink. There was tons of lychee syrup at the bottom of the drink. Make sure to mix it up before you drink it! Or else you’ll have a very sweet and thick surprise. It was a good mojito. I just wish the drink was bigger.
Beignet A La Mode: GREAT stuff! If you’ve never had these before, it’s like little square donuts with powdered sugar on top. It comes with three dipping sauces: chocolate, strawberry and brandy. The beignet’s were good with the sauces but it was GREAT when you add the ice cream in the mix. Totally yummy.
I was pretty disappointed with this place. And even though we had the $ 50 gift certificate, it was still an unreasonable $ 28/​person (between four people). That’s no good. I don’t think I would have mind paying that much if I felt satisfied with the food.
I don’t plan on going back. Save your money and go to Crawdaddy if you want some crawfish like I did. At least THEY don’t run out of crawdads.

I was really hoping that this place would be a hit since I enjoy cajun food, but I was truly disappointed. At first, I thought it was weird that there was no one else in the restaurant at 6pm on Sunday, but I’ve been dying to try this place out. Don’t be fooled by the outside look of this place. The interior is nicely decorated with a trendy vibe.
I had the crispy calamari for the appetizer. Pretty basic! Then we ordered the crawfish and giant prawn etouffe, which was good. The main thing that totally turned me off about this place is their crawfish. We ordered 2 pounds of garlic crawfish and it didn’t taste like anything and it’s probably because the bag they served it in barely had any sauce. Being that it’s a cajun restaurant, one would think that they’d serve better crawfish!
All in all, I’d probably take my money elsewhere to get a good meal and come here afterward for the bar. They had a nice drink menu with lots of infused cocktails.

Even though I already had intentions on giving Gumbo Jumbo another shot, Amanda N. (Director of Operations) solidified my plan. As a result of my review, she apologized for any lack of service and asked for details so that she «can make sure to address busing table issues to the staff working that shift.» They have regular meetings and training to ensure the highest level of service.
Amanda also clarified the restaurant’s layout explaining that the lounge area is where a live band plays on Friday and Saturday nights. I can’t wait to check it out…

For a friday night dinner: Service too slow! drinks and food came really really slow. we’re like starving too death and its hard to flag down our waiter. we had a waiter help us out most of the time and sometimes we get a waitress.
the place was kinda nice. we requested the lounge area, but they didn’t write that down, but we still got it. We had two red light bulbs for some lighting and it was still too dark. We couldn’t read the menus in the little amount of lighting, so we had to bust out our phones for lighting. So, we were given a desk light. It was weird, it didn’t match the atmosphere.
There was some techno and dance music playing on and off. Bad dj! Good music though.
Expensive food! The fries and calamari were good. I didn’t like my jambalya burrito. I don’t think I like jambalya very much. The appetizers look really good though, so I’ll come back for them.
The alcoholic drinks were good. My guava champagne was pretty strong, the sex on the beach was a little less stronger, and the margarita was sourish and similar to the sex on the beach. Expensive drinks! $ 10 each!

Probably won’t come here again, this is not what I expected… to me, it was basically a combination of Asian foods, there were no Cajun dishes served
The interior is also weird, are they trying to make it a club and restaurant? Or lounge and restaurant? They’re trying to act too «trendy»
No, thanks.