Bubba Gump restaurants
 

Hi! As an Aussie who loves to eat shrimp, I am interested to find out about this eating place. Is it a mainland US chain or a Hawaiin thing? What is the food like? Is there more than just shrimp on the menu? Will be visiting Hawaii in January so would love to hear from somebody who has experienced Bubba Gump. Cheers! Kimbra

Hi-- <BR>There are Bubba Gumps on the mainland also. I ate at the one in Chicago. I had a good meal. The only part of the menu I remember is the seafood, which is my favorite food! I'm sure they have non-seafood items as well. Maybe they have a website? Do a search on Yahoo! and see. Have fun in Hawaii!

Hi, <BR>Ate at Bubba Gumps in breckenridge Co. <BR>Seafood is the bulk of the menu. Pretty good. Prices are quite reasonable. Probably better than Red Lobster.

There's one in Miami at a tourist trap called Bayside. The food is good, if overpriced. The servers are great and they make it a lot of fun. They grill you on Forrest Gump trivia. If you've seen the movie hundreds of times (like me) you'll do well. I answered so many questions I ended up talking them into giving me free dessert!

Please, Lord - say it isn't so?

Yes-it's so! There's also one in New Orleans. We didn't eat there, but we walked inside. Lots of stuff on the walls and TV's with the movie, Forrest Gump playing.

Kimbra- <BR> <BR>I'm sorry to say that the Bubba Gumps in Monterey, CA provided me with one of the FOULEST restaurant experiences I've had within the last few years. Not one of the four of us had a decent meal. <BR> <BR>The seafood was either completely flaccid and waterlogged, or tough and rubbery- signs of having been frozen and overcooked. Most dishes were bland. <BR> <BR>Service was indifferent at best. In fact the whole place seemed more an outlet for movie related trinkets (T-Shirts, mugs) with food service as an afterthought. <BR> <BR>If the Monterey franchise is comparable to the others (I have no reason to think it wouldn't be) I would only recommend that you steer a clear path around it. <BR> <BR>Since you'll be in Hawaii, I think you'll have plenty of opportunity to eat great seafood without having to darken the doorway of this poor excuse for a seafood restaurant.

I think most of these restaurants are situated in touristy kind of places. Only reason I went in Miami is because an out-of-town cousin insisted. The food and service were very good but I can't vouch for the restaurants in other cities. I would probably have to agree though that you can get much better seafood at other restaurants in Hawaii. <BR> <BR>Oh, and for the record, I loved the movie!

I had the unfortunate experience of eating at a BG in San Francisco at Pier 39. Horrible food - bland, tasteless and outrageously overpriced. The worst insult were the crab legs (in SF no less!) They were awful! The servers were rude and sloppy. The restuarant was too noisy to have a decent conversation. The "decor" was overwrought and tacky. A restuarant like this doesn't even belong in Vegas. My advice is once you're in Hawaii, ask around (at the hotel, locals, etc.) where the best seafood restaurant is. Have a drink at BG if you love the movie, but please don't eat there.

Aloha Kimbra...we meet again.. <BR> <BR>Yes we have a BG on Maui..right on <BR>Front St in Lahaina...I have not <BR>eaten there but they always look busy.. <BR>If great seafood is what you are after <BR>Please try a real landmark here in <BR>Lahaina...Kimo's they have great <BR>fresh fish and seafood and a 32 OZ on <BR>bone prime rib that is to die for. <BR>You must try the Hula Pie...its what <BR>the salors swam ashore for.... ;-) <BR> <BR>Hope this helps... <BR> <BR>Have a Maui wonderful day... <BR> <BR>Mahalo, <BR>[email protected] <BR>

One of the previous respondents described BG's (where I've never eaten) as being a bit better than Red Lobster. If you haven't eaten at Red Lobster than you don't know how truly mediocre the seafood can be at a chain restaurant in the U.S.. I've eaten there with friends who insisted that we go and oddly enough, nearly every single type of seafood on a broiled "sampler" tasted the same as every other type. Definitely try for a locally owned and operated establishment that offers fresh seafood.

Hi Kimbra <BR>We were in Maui October 1998 and ate at BG's <BR>The food was excellent, service excellent and the atmosphere (overloojing the harbour in Lahani is fantastic) <BR>Go around 5:30pm and you can take in the sunset <BR>Highly recommend <BR>we are returning to Maui this November and will be going there again

On our recent trip we found Bubba Gumps to be one of the tacky highlights of our trip. It was a scream. It's a chain run by the Rusty Pelican folks with the Gump stuff licensed from Paramount. The food is TGIFridays in quality and consistent with any "chain" restaurant--lots of breading and fried food, drink concoctions and the like. The place has a lot of engergy and it's fun (you swing your table's license plate from "Run Forrest Run" to "STop Forrest Stop" to get a servers attention). One of the funniest moments for us is when the actor they have playing Forrest comes out to visit with guests--he was a dead ringer for Tom Hanks and had the character down pat. He even carried around a box of chocolates. Maybe it's because My GF and I are such big fans of the movie and the novelty that this particular chain hasn't hit our home of southern California yet, that made it so fun for us. <BR> <BR>Besides we were on vacation and most of Front street is tacky and touristy anyway. The view was awesome too. <BR> <BR>mb

Hi Kimbra: <BR> <BR>There is a new BG on the second floor outsitde courtyard at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu (great view). The above posts pretty much sum up the BG scene. My kids like it, and they have a passable New Orleans shrimp salad with remoulade dressing, as well as a pretty good garlic steamed shrimp or spicy steamed shrimp bucket in addition to the fried shrimp options. <BR>Have a fun visit, but while on Oahu, don't neglect to try out some of our other wonderful restaurants boasting Hawaii Regional Cuisine, etc. See this site for other Honolulu restaurant recommendations. An excellent list was provided by another island poster a while back, but the original question asked for "Ohau" restaurants, i.e., Oahu was misspelled in the post. So you'll have to misspell it to pull it up! <BR> <BR>Aloha, kalena. <BR> <BR>

Kimbra: <BR> <BR>Here's that earlier post, cut and pasted below: <BR> <BR>Author: Greg () <BR> Date: 5/21/1999, 4:16 pm ET <BR> <BR> Message: Restaurants from a local's perspective: <BR> <BR> Inexpensive (less than $12 per person) <BR> - Ono's Hawaiian Foods (hawaiian) <BR> - Aunti Pasto's (italian) <BR> - Angelo Pietro (italian/japanese) <BR> - Dai-ryu (japanese ramen) <BR> - Hanaki (japanese) <BR> - Hee Hing (chinese) <BR> - Kyotaru (japanese) <BR> <BR> Moderate ($12 - $20 per person) <BR> - Duke's Canoe Club (pacific/amer.) <BR> - Sushi King (japanese) <BR> - Yanagi Sushi (japanese) <BR> - Paesano (italian) <BR> - China House (chinese) <BR> - Indigo (eurasian) <BR> - Chiang Mai (thai) <BR> - Hale Vietnam (vietnamese) <BR> <BR> Expensive ($20 - $35 per person) <BR> - A Pacific Cafe (pacific/french) <BR> - 3660 on the Rise (pacific/asian) <BR> - Roy's (pacific/asian) <BR> - Sam Choy's (pacific/hawaiian) <BR> - Alan Wong's (pacific/asian) <BR> <BR> Off da Chart ($35 and up per person) <BR> - Chef Mavro (pacific/french) <BR> - Hoku's (pacific/asian) <BR> - David Paul's (pacific/american) <BR> - Padovani Bistro (pacific/french) <BR> <BR> Enjoy!

i think you've got a good smattering of advice...but here's my 2 cents: While vacationing in Monterray a couple of years ago we came upon Bubba's restaurant. Our instincts told us that it was an over priced gimmicky chain restaurant and we were foolish to even think of eating there, especially while in the midst of numerous other local seafood restaurants. Glad we looked and LEFT! I'm sure Hawaii has a great array of wonderful local restaurants...don't waste your money on a cheap corporate chain with high prices!...that's all you get for 2 cents.

I used to live in San Francisco. One day some friends came to visit...they INSISTED on eating at the BG's at Pier-39. Man...what an ANNOYING place to eat! First of all, it was chock-full of tourists. But worst of all...the waiters & waitresses kept asking us trivia questions about the movie. We had a few wise-asses in our group, so we gave the waiters a hard time by acting like a couple of hyper, clueless idiots. After awhile, the staff gave-up and left us alone. <BR> By the way, the food was pretty bad...tasted like stuff you find in the frozen-food section of your supermarket.

Kimbra, <BR> <BR>Skip BG and go for a great seafood meal at Mama's Fish House on Maui. They have an excellent menu, and you won't be subjected to hyped-up, commercial image only seafood. Kimo's in Lahaina (Heidi's suggestion) is also a great choice if your over on the west side.

We ate a BG wile in Maui and had a great time. We come from Boston, so we definitely know seafood, and we thought the food there was very good. No, it is not first class dining, but it is a lot of fun and we found the prices there to be pretty cheap compared to the rest of Maui. Obviously, if you're only going to be in Maui one night, go elsewhere for seafood, but we were there for 6 nights and were definitely ready for some non-gourmet dining. They do have things other than seafood on the menu- my husband doesn't like seafood and he enjoyed it. Have fun!

You can't compare Bubba Gump's to Mama's Fish House !!! Mama's is very high end, Bubba's is not.<BR><BR>Most of the previous posts are prettty accurate in their descriptions of Bubba Gumps. Some like it, some don't, but don't go there expecting anything like Mama's Fish House !!!