J. Gumbos

Food was good and service was friendly. The food arrived quickly and was hot, not just sitting under a heat lamp. Ask about samples if you’re unsure what to order.

Las week I made my third visit to Jonesboro’s J. Gumbos. My first 2 visits the food was horrible and flavorless. I entered shortly after 12:00 noon, I saw 3 customers in the restaurant started to turn and exit the restaurant which was my mistake if the day. At the recommendation of the young lady working the register I ordered the crawfish étouffée. Within 60 seconds of seating myself I was server with a large bowl containing about 1.5 cups of unseasoned white rice. The rice was covered with approximately ½ cup of crawfish étouffée. The étouffée had an awesome flavor, l lived it, however when I stirred it into the rice my dish was transformed into a bowl of rice with a minimum amount of étouffée. This would have been incredible if there had been 2 parts étouffée to 1 part rice by volume. No other customers entered the restaurant before I left that day. There was however a older person that was obviously a manager or employee who sat down and started checking his cell phone without looking up from his phone. Therefore I have two messages, first to the manager. If you continue at this pace J. Gumbos will be history and another restaurant will be in your location, when you increase your rice to entrée ratio you do 2 things, temporarily increase profits but you loose repeat customers. Any restaurant in Jonesboro Arkansas that’s empty between 12:00 and 1:00 any day of the week will be short lived. Remember that a decreased profit is better than no profit which was better than the low number you hat the day I was there. I really wish I could eat in another J Gumbos somewhere for a true comparison. My second messages is for your current and future customers. This restaurant will not be here in Jonesboro much longer so come and have a meal so you can say you were part of J Gumbos history in Jonesboro. And one last small comment for the manager/​owner, stop allowing your employees to eat in your kitchen, give them a break and insist they come into the dining area. I gave you one star because the flavor was great but everything else was a zero.

I visited for the third time this week and was blown away. Before, the food was good but not great. This week, I had the Zydeco Chicken and Bread Pudding and it was just like being in New Orleans. The restaurant was cleaner, the service more efficient and the food was amazing. The new owner came out to my table to visit and I can tell he’s going to turn the place around (not that it was bad before, but the food was a little overcooked). I am excited to add J Gumbo’s to my lunchtime rotation now, as it only took me 15 minutes from the time I got there until I was done. I will be back this week.

Have tried almost everything on the menu — haven’t had anything I don’t like yet! My favorites are the Voodoo Chicken & Drunken Chicken

I enjoyed the gumbo and étouffée. I liked that they had a list from spicy/​hot to
Mild so you could order based on your tongue sensitivity. Their bread pudding is very very good! I hope this restaurant makes it because it is a nice addition to Jonesboro, not the same olé same old!

I had the crawfish cheese dip, which was great!
I also ordered the crawfish étouffée it was ok.
The restaurant has a great décor, good background music.
I would think about coming back…

Jonesboro is a very backwards city about an hour west of Memphis. It doesn’t have many good restaurants, due to the Christians banning alcohol in the whole city. This place though has a great selection of cajun food. The crawfish étouffée is as good as I had ever.

With a feel and taste of a shopping mall food court, this place had none of the complexity of good Cajun food I was hoping for. Each dish I sampled before selecting were overcooked and overly sweet. The serving was huge, which I ate and regretted. Ya’ll need to visit the bayou and come back with new recipes.

Excellent gumbo! I had the Jean Lafitte, which is sweet and spicy with corn, chicken, green onion. Absolutely delicious with good heat. Wife had the Crawfish Ettoufee, mild and full of flavor, crawfish were nice and tender. Our little one had the Jambalaya, which she really liked. Everything tasted fresh and we will be going back next time we are in Jonesboro. Excellent staff, very friendly and helpful! Did I mention free samples? I’m getting the Voodoo Chicken next time, spicy! Highly recommended, prices were reasonable as the portions are enough for two meals. Microwave-​safe bowls were provided for our leftovers. Go eat this food!

So going in I was a bit nervous since I’ve never had this type of food but no worries! Free samples!!! Awesome! But… we didn’t actually specify what we wanted? The woman asked if we like spicy or mild and we said more mild and then she tells a waiter a few options to go back and get. I would have preferred to just look at the board and pick what I wanted to sample. After we tried the few samples I did end up asking for another. I ended up getting one called Chicken Zydeco. It was a bit of a sweet and spicy mix. It was good but after a while I got tired of the sweetness. Also we add to salt because it was like the rice wasn’t seasoned at all. I guess the meat was supposed to do it all lol. The side piece of bread was amazing and I enjoyed getting a bit of the rice and chicken and eating it together. Also the portion were pretty big and there was enough left over to take home. I can see myself visiting again but I will make a point to ask for the samples that I actually want rather than just something random.

My friend and I went around lunch time on a Tuesday. There were a few other people in the restaurant, but it should have been packed! Everything was very reasonably priced, considering the HUGE portions. I’m no amateur eater, and I could barely finish my Red Hot Buffalo Chicken Po’ Boy. The chicken was fantastic, but the bread was my favorite part. Perfectly crusty and soft, just like a fresh French Loaf should be. I definitely loved every second of it!