Bubba Gumbo’s — Restaurant in Tybee Island

My family and I were excited to eat at Bubba Gumbo’s after reading the (mostly) great reviews. We were in town for our son’s baseball tournament in Savannah and wanted some good seafood. When we arrived at around 6:00, we were told to sit where we wanted, so our party of 7 decided to split between two picnic tables (4 adults and 3 teenaged boys). When the hostess came over, she asked us if we wanted to squeeze into one table, three on each side and one on the end because we were in two separate sections. We told her we would rather stay where we were because cramming together into one table would be uncomfortable and we didn’t want someone stuck on the end in the way of people walking by (plus, it is June and we were sitting outside). She did not seem happy about accommodating this request and walked off.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, a waitress finally came over to take our drink order. We decided to order our food at the same time because we figured it would probably take awhile for her to come back, which was smart on our part because it took her 15 minutes to come back with the drinks. Our side salads came out about 20 minutes after that. She eventually made her way back over and refilled our drinks. At this point we asked for some crackers because we were all hungry. We then noticed that another large party that had arrived AFTER us had gotten their food! We mentioned it to the waitress and she said they got their food before us only because they were given another party’s order! She brought one of the boys (age 13) another sweet tea and when he took a sip, he said “I think this has alcohol in it.” Upon tasting it, it definitely had a strong taste of alcohol. We told the waitress, she tried it, and agreed that it did and apologized. We told her it was ok, no biggie. We didn’t want to make a big deal about it and get anyone in trouble. She came by about 15 minutes later with a few packs of crackers, which upon opening were very stale. She later passed by and saw that we had become impatient and said as she walked by, “it’s summertime in Tybee Island” as if that made it ok. At no point did she say anything about the progress in the kitchen or apologize for our very long wait.

Once it got to be 7:30 and we had basically been seated an hour and a half and STILL no food, we had had enough and got up to leave. At this point she came back by and asked us why we were leaving and that our ticket was next in the window. When we told her we had had enough and were leaving, she asked “you’re just gonna leave and not pay for your drinks?” To which we replied that we had left a $20 on the table. The audacity to ask about paying for four sweet teas completely baffled us! The very least they could have done was comp the drinks! She told us to let her check on our food one last time and they could box it up for us to take. Did not offer to comp any of it. At this point we were not willing to wait because who knows how long that would have taken and we were absolutely not going to pay for it. We told her no and that we were leaving.

As a business owner myself, I understand that things happen and that there are sometimes mishaps. But from the moment we stepped in to this restaurant, we were not made to feel welcome but rather to be a burden because we were in two different sections. The waitress was nice enough but was very flippant about the situation and acted like it was the norm and that we just needed to deal with it. The customer service was atrocious. I honestly don’t know how this place stays in business. They definitely don’t have “the customer is always right” mentality. Which is a shame because we were excited about eating some fresh seafood and I bet it would have been delicious. Now we will never know.

I am usually not a complainer, but if I could give this restaurant zero...

Hi,

A YouTube reviewer highly recommended this place. I got the chance to dine in at this place because we were traveling to FL from NC.

Appearance: The restaurant is old and worn down. I expected it to be updated and clean because of how popular this place is. Hopefully they will remodeling in the future.

Seating: Apparently, it’s open seating and you can pick your own table. So, it was simple to do.

Service: The waiter Rob recommended various meals because it was our first time eating there. He brought our water. He was kind and respectful. I had to go to him for my side dressing. He couldn’t answer my questions about how the gumbo is cooked. I even recommended to him to visit Louisiana because there’s good food and the gumbo is soupy and delicious.

Food: The food was cold and wasn’t very flavorful. The grilled shrimps were ok, bland coleslaw, and the fries were crunchy and good but cold. I wish we have known the gumbo was a stew. It wasn’t soupy. The waiter could have explained this to us because we wouldn’t have ordered it. It wasn’t good because it lacked seasoning and it was too thick for gumbo.

I was disappointed because I had high expectations for this restaurant, but found that this place doesn’t serve good food. I don’t recommend this place if you’re looking for good hot flavorful food. If you want cold food, then this is the place for you.

I wish the waiter would have more empathy for the food being cold and asks us if we wanted to speak to his manager. It would have been nice to have been comp or discounted our ticket. Instead he said why I didn’t inform him because he was somewhere else. I traveled more than 2-hours, so I was hungry. I would have to wait longer for my food. I didn’t feel like driving somewhere else, then wait again for food. So, I added salt and ate the food.

Hopefully the owner reads...

Best seafood on the Island. I ordered the Red Drum, and my sister ordered the Tile Fish. Mine was grilled and hers was blackened. It was a tossup as to which was better as they were both excellent. The fish was juicy and cooked to perfection with just the right amount of flakiness. I never order fish blackened because it usually comes out dry and overcooked, but my sisters Tile fish was flavored to perfection w/o drying it out. Our hats are off to Evan who cooked the fish and was trained by his uncle Chris. The hush puppies were flavor-able and not so crisp as to ruin them and served with delicious honey butter. The Margarita was perfect as was the Mai Tai. Appetizer was the fried oysters with perfect seasoning. My wife had the scallops that were sweet tender, and juicy with Coquille St. Jacques sauce that tasted home cooked. My Brother in law had the Jambalaya with its spicy sausage, shrimp, ham and chicken was a delightful Cajun dish.

A review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the service. Our waitress Britney was attentive to our every need, smiling, happy and personable. The food came out in record time (we were there for Sunday Brunch). Food Portions more than adequate and as mentioned earlier the fish was thick and juicy.

Atmosphere was laid back, casual, rustic and loud for a Sunday lunch crowd. Air conditioning was weak for a mid August day. Deducted one star for that.

Thank you to the entire staff of Bubba Gumbo's for making my wife's birthday a fun and...