Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. — Restaurant in Galveston

Wow. My family and I came down from another state and decided this should be a great place to eat and enjoy ourselves! We were alllll the way wrong. First off, we get told 20 minutes wait - 40 minutes later we were sat. Which is fine, hard to predict when people will leave your facility. No problem. We get to the second floor where we were told to go, and the host told us our table was outside - mind you - we have been at the beach all day. It was hot. We asked if there was any way we could have indoor seating, to which he responds “They asked you that when you made the reservation “ - which they absolutely did not. We stated we would really like to seat indoors as we had 2 babies and 2 pregnant women. The host smirked and said “Well it’s really not that bad outside”. WOW! What customer service. We are flabbergasted that he even would make such a comment but said ok, whatever. We’ve waited this long anyway. We get seated and the waitress comes and gets our drink order and appetizer order. We get our drinks and our appetizers in a decent amount of time. After this, we were completely forgotten about and disregarded. An HOUR & 15 minutes later (with ONE single drink refilled) our food comes out. Obviously cold, and not correct. Bonus: we never even got silverware. So the waitress said she would get a manager to help correct the order. Alex, was his name. What a poor excuse of a manager. He comes out, listens to our concerns and complaints and tells us he will get it fixed right now, and he will have the waitress(who was standing right there) get us some more drinks as our drinks were all melted and warm. He would personally take care of us. Wellllllll, the 40 minutes it takes us to tell them to bring him back since he had not arrived back at our table - the waitress brings other tables more drinks and serves them, to not even look our direction. I am pregnant, hot, hungry, and getting very frustrated at this point. We are not the people to complain or not understand what they endure day to day but this was absolutely ridiculous. We finally get to ask someone to go get the manager. Our waitress proceeded to go to the table of customers next to us and run her mouth about how we don’t understand or consider what her job is and continued to laugh about the situation with our table. Clear as day can hear this conversation. She proceeds to our table a little while later, and we mention our frustrations with the drinks, and mention how we heard her unprofessional conversation with the table near us about how that was not okay. She calls us liars, and wow! Alex finally arrives back at our table. At that point, we are PISSED. My babies have fallen asleep because we’ve been there 2 hours with no entrees and it’s hot. Said he had to have time to “fix the issue” which he realllly did not do. Not an ounce. Not one person in this establishment told us sorry, or they understand. They absolutely did NOT care about my family or the fact we got seafood on a plate that should have NEVER had seafood on it. Then tried to charge us for that seafood as 3x extra when it was not touched nor was that ordered. Hands down, the WORST experience I’ve EVER had at ANY food establishment. We still walked out of there paying $100 for food that we did not eat. Whoever runs this place,...

Restaurant Review: A Disastrous Experience on 06/29/2024

My party of 10 and I visited this restaurant on Saturday, June 29th, 2024, between 5 and 6 PM, and our experience was nothing short of a nightmare. From the moment we arrived, the ordeal began and unfortunately continued throughout the evening.

Upon arrival, the hostess, though polite, struggled with English, making it difficult to spell my name and provide my contact number correctly. Despite her assurance, I never received any text confirming our waitlist status. When I inquired again, she had somehow lost our information, resulting in an additional two-hour wait. This was later rectified by a different hostess/manager who correctly entered our details.

As we continued to wait, my phone's battery was running low, so we attempted to change the contact number with the original hostess. At that point, she informed us that our table was ready. However, when we proceeded inside, we were told that our table had only been "assigned" and we would need to wait another 30 minutes.

Once seated, our server took an inordinate amount of time to arrive. Two members of our party ordered alcoholic beverages, which turned out to be watered down and unpleasant. Upon inquiry, a staff member named Edgar revealed that the drinks had been left at the bar for some time, compromising their quality.

The food itself was subpar, with the Crab Boil being particularly awful as the crab was undercooked. Our server did not check on us until everyone had finished eating, by which point we were eager to leave the restaurant and our terrible experience behind.

The situation deteriorated further when it came time to settle the bill. We had three separate tickets, two paid by card and my $122 ticket paid with $200 in cash. The server returned the checks, including the card payments, but did not bring my change, instead presenting a bill adjusted to $16. After a 15-minute wait with restless children, I spoke with the manager. It became apparent that our server had pocketed the $200 and falsely claimed that we said "keep the change." Only after we mentioned our professions as police officers did she admit to her wrongdoing. The manager then reduced our bill from $122 to $76, but given the circumstances, we opted not to leave a tip.

This experience cast a shadow over our trip to Galveston, prompting us to cut our visit short. Despite the manager's commendable handling of the situation, we left deeply disappointed and upset, feeling that we should not have had to pay anything after such a disastrous evening. We hope that appropriate actions were taken against the server, as her behavior suggested this was not an isolated incident. We will not be returning and advise others to steer clear of this...

Food = 2 Stars. Started with the artichoke dip, which was underwhelming. A smallish bowl of poorly made dip (appeared to be tomatoes, spinach, large chunks of artichoke, mixed together with some sort of velveta-style cheese). Was not creamy or flavorful. Just bland vegetables and bit of cheese. Next was Fish and Chips. The two battered fillets were somewhat rubbery, and the batter was bland. The “slaw” was a cup of completely dry, flavorless chopped salad, with no sauce or seasoning. The fries were average, but nothing to write home about. All told, very sub-par, especially for the price.

Service = 2 Stars. After taking our drink order (sweet tea, strawberry lemonade, kid’s milk), the waiter returned several minutes later and informed us they were out of cups, so we would have to wait until some clean cups were available. We were also informed the lemonade and milk would take even longer bc they were out of it in the kitchen, so it would have to come from the bar downstairs. When my son’s kids meal arrived, the waiter advised we would have to wait for the fries…which ultimately never arrived. We reminded our waiter about the missing food when we were given our check and they gave him a free ice cream to try to makeup for it. I drank one glass of tea, which sat empty the entire second half of the meal. I was brought a refill when the waiter brought the check at the end of the meal. They have these kitschy, full-size, metal license plates that you’re supposed to flip over if you want service (or the waiter said you can just flag him down if you need something). Call me old-school, but I don’t call that service. The point of being a good server is paying attention to your table without having to be flagged down. If I have to put up a big metal sign at my table that says I need a refill, or flag down my server, that’s failed service at that point.

Atmosphere = 5 Stars. The restaurant is located on a pier over the ocean. The balcony seating is literally over the ocean, not across the street on dry land like all the other restaurants. So it offers a fantastic view and atmosphere. We sat on the deck in the evening for dinner and were able to watch the full moon rise over the ocean, which was pretty cool. You’re also right above the waves, which are pretty loud. So you get to listen to the ocean waves while enjoying your meal, which is nice. At many other restaurants across the street from the ocean, the sound of the waves is drowned out by the loud music and all the cool guys with loud cars/trucks/motorcycles racing up and down the street.

Summary: Tourist trappy location with overpriced mediocre food. The price you pay is for the location, so don’t expect to be wowed by the cuisine. Some of the best restaurant views...