James Brown’s Gumbo House And Grill

FABULOUS!!! We were passing through and found this awesome little place! The staff was wonderful and friendly! The food was delicious! The chicken and dumplings was a close contender to my grandmas’!! Which is a childhood favorite of mine! The fish tacos were outstanding! We will definitely make this a regular stop on our way to and from Houston from now on!

The best gumbo this side of the Sebine. They use a smokey black rue that makes the best dark gumbo. They think there potato salon is great they serve it with everything. It is OK but not my favorite. The popcorn shrimp is good and the Trio is great. The trio is popcorn shrimp, gumbo, and potato salad. The dinner Salisbury was great with real lettuce not just iceberg lettuce.

I am confused. Is it a church or a café? I shudder to think what goes on inside. Do they hold prayer meetings too?

When James first opened the restaurant, they had a tough time getting things right. Now they have it right.
If you’re looking for fancy, this may not be your place. If you’re looking for great food and service at a value, this is a good place to go. Keep up the good work, thanks for a great dinner.

Love this place! Love the atmosphere, excellent staff, excellent food! Nice hometown environment and someone who is not afraid to promote a good Christian value! Excellent catfish, grilled chicken, smoked sausage, amazing sweet cornbread… I could go on but now I’m hungry!

The food here is pretty good. We had the popcorn shrimp and it was big and fried lightly. My salad was grainy and the homemade thousand island didn’t taste like thousand island at all.
The atmosphere is awful, it seems dirty, cluttered and just a bit trashy. There are random decorations on every inch of the place. The bathrooms have a sink that is outside the bathroom doors. So if you go to the bathroom then you have to wash your hands inches from other people’s table. GROSS. The place is so tiny and crowded I felt like I was sitting on top of people. The service was ok but mostly just teenagers without much manners or skill in serving. I wouldn’t recommend.

I’ve eaten there 3 times and each time the food was great but the environment was poor it was loud in the restaurant and the waiter acted like children throwing stuff at each-​other and playing if it wasn’t for that it would be a ok place

While the atmosphere leaves a lot to be desired the shrimp is awesome. The fried shrimp basket with onion rings is my favorite. The shrimp are big and tender and the onion rings melt in your mouth. I can’t tell you about much else because that’s all i ever order!

Every time I go home to visit my family I ruin my diet by going here. The catfish is seasoned to perfection. Reminds me of how my mother cooked. Thanks for the comfort food.

«Yeah, James Brown was our meteorologist for about twunny years. An’ he cooked a lot. An’ I was thinkin, ‘He’s gonna get on TV, or open a restaurant.’ He usedta cook for the Vidor Police, now they all go into that restaurant. .. Yeah, he does greet everbody. Now he’s the cook. An’ sometimes it gets so busy in there, he cain’t tawk to everbody. But we’ve eaten there, an’ he’s come out an’ tawked to us.»
So said my father-​in-​law. Brown has a great reputation in town, and people have talked about his Gumbo House like I must eat there some time. I did today, and I agree, it’s great stuff.
The hunny and I went there for lunch. It’s a medium-​sized building, and we got the last table, it was filled up with diners. Most looked like a cross-​sample of Vidor; two tables were used by Vidor’s Finest. Halfway through the meal, the man himself led the restaurant in singing Happy Birthday to Officer Ralph.
I had the buffet (Mondays = grilled chicken and sausage), the hunny had the trio sampler («it was wonderful»). The chicken had a TexJoy-​type seasoning on it, was tender and juicy, tasted fantastic. The sausage had an unusual taste to it, mild spiciness, and I wanted to have more. James saw me going back for more, and told my hunny, «I’m gonna need to make some more sausage for this boy!» Large glasses of Coke to wash it all down.
Granted, I live on the Left Coast, and there’s not a lot of Southern cooking around San Francisco, except in several spots in the inner East Bay. I can’t say with knowledge that James Brown’s Gumbo House is the best in Southeast Texas. But it’s the best I’ve had. My hunny likes it so much that she got his cookbook. Vidor certainly needs something positive to help it get rid of a reputation from its past that does not resemble its present, and I hope this restaurant can help in that effort. Guy Fieri, here’s a diner for you to visit.

James Brown has certainly fine tuned his cooking and recipes since opening. So, I had to come back and do a new review.
The Southwest burger = simply mouthwatering good. The meat is tasty and has jalapeños cooked into it. The bun tastes like a giant Hawaiian roll and also has some jalapeños in it.
Chicken strips = crispy and breaded perfectly. Yum
Catfish with étouffée over rice… OMG to die for
Sampler Trio consists of big pile of popcorn shrimp, potato salad and gumbo. Again, great!
We love this place for its food, service, and James smiling face!
Loyal regulars now!

Stop here if you want delicious, fresh, local food served by friendly people. The Olympic torch the owner carried in 1996 is displayed. But the t-​shirt … «Sava the flava»!

Great food, service and atmosphere! We will make this our regular when passing through!
Good place James Brown it was great mtg your wife! Sweet lady…

This place is pretty dang good! I have been here a few times all the way from Houston. I do like it that much. I love the fish at this place. It is a fillet of catfish fried to perfection. It has never been overcooked to being even remotely rubbery. It is ALWAYS great fish. The last time I went I had the fish basket. It comes with the fish and either fries or onion rings. I really like onion rings, so I got the onion rings. They are equally as great as the fish. they were not cooked to the point of being soggy limp remains of an onion, but rather had a little crunchiness left to them. Love them this way. The batter was nice too. It didn’t just fall off as soon as you pick one up, but stayed on for most of the time. The service here is pretty good. There has only been one minor issue in the hand full of times I have been there. They are attentive and friendly. I think the owner of the place must instill this in his staff, and leads by example. When he is there he is in there cooking, but he makes time to meet and converse with the customer. Very friendly and outgoing guy.

James Brown was there this day (perhaps he is everyday,) and greeted us, placed the menus on the table, and checked on us a couple of times. He couldn’t be nicer. Our waitress, Sheila, was okay, but the manager, a blonde lady whose name I don’t recall, rubbed me the wrong way. I had been standing in line for 10 minutes patiently to pay behind an elderly couple, and as I was standing there, a gentleman walked up on the other side of them. I had been there for way longer than him, and held my card out to her when that couple walked away. She pushed my hand down and said, he’s been standing here. It was like she had some alternate universe I couldn’t see. James Brown and our waitress were also standing there like bumps on a log. Maybe they should have people pay through their servers instead of at the counter. The place is fairly small, so it’s not like it’s taking too much of the server’s time, and the customer doesn’t have to stand around staring at the walls and being ignored.
Crawfish etoufee is my favorite food IN THE WORLD. And yet, it was terrible. Too much black pepper, and too thick of a roux. My granny’s she ordered as is with rice came on a plate instead of a bowl. I asked for mine without rice, which usually means you get a little more etoufee, but instead, they brought it to me in a tiny side dish bowl.
I sampled all of the fried food had by others in our party. The shrimp were juicy and plump, but the batter was very light in color and in taste. The hush puppies were awesome– except for the one that was burnt to a crisp. The onion rings were sadly the best thing I tried that day. The boudain balls, usually a crowd pleaser, also had some sort of seasoning that I found to be extremely off-​putting and out of place. Perhaps sage, thyme, or rosemary… not sure.
Didn’t live up to the hype. For good Cajun food in the area, I’d head to Vautrot’s off 105 between Beaumont and Bevil Oaks.

Boudain balls were delicious but everything else was subpar. For a place that is supposed to be cajun, their fried food doesn’t come with any flavor. I ordered the corn casserole side, which was delicious, but the green beans & bacon side was disappointing; the green beans were out of a can (soggy) and the bacon seemed like it was just taken out of a box and thrown in the microwave.
They’d do well to add some spices to their fried food and use fresh ingredients in their sides.

The food is nothing special. Eaten here twice. The crab cakes I had the first visit were small, thin and expensive. The gumbo is bland. Second time was a salad. Ehhh. Just okay

Stopped here on the way to coushatta, very cool place. Catfish was out of this world. Service was great, boudin balls were awesome! Will come back hungry!

This place recently had a name change and a menu change as well. The food is still OK, but don’t think for a minute this place serves great gumbo in a variety of ways. They DONT even have SEAFOOD GUMBO! I mean seriously?
For you real gumbo perfectionist, I doubt you’ll be pleased. The Roux is very light, and taste of file and premixed seasoning. Its somewhat a out of the box gumbo, which is fine unless you label yourself a gumbo house!
GOOD BUT NOT GREAT…

Have had lunch here a couple of times over the last 2 weeks. Really enjoyed both visits. Tried the shrimp gumbo available on Fridays on one visit and had a nice salad and a cup of chicken gumbo on the other visit. Friendly wait staff.