As a Texan native, I've been waiting for a restaurant like Gumbo Jumbo to hit the Bay Area Cajun scene. While not necessarily true Cajun to the core, it fuses Asian flavors very nicely with that of the Louisiana Bayou. The restaurant's decor ... more

As a Texan native, I've been waiting for a restaurant like Gumbo Jumbo to hit the Bay Area Cajun scene. While not necessarily true Cajun to the core, it fuses Asian flavors very nicely with that of the Louisiana Bayou. The restaurant's decor is very tastefully done with a trendy vibe, so that you don't feel like you're eating in an outhouse but in the gradually revamped downtown San Jose scene. The service here is attentive and cordial; I appreciated that the servers gave you your space, especially when you were savagely sucking crawfish heads. And the crawfish here is a HIT with this Cajun lover! It instantly transported me back to memories of crawfish boils during summers in the Texas heat. I highly recommend the garlic sauce and SPICY. You will not feel your lips- or your face for that matter-afterwards, but your taste buds will definitely be awakened. Their blackened catfish and garlic prawns noodle are also must tries- actually everything from the menu looks appealing- and best of all, the prices are extremely reasonable for the quality and quantity of the food you get. I live in the City, but will definitely make the hour plus drive down here again and again to taste what else Gumbo Jumbo has to offer less

I'll start on a positive note and give this place koodos on the good food. I may be no expert in Cajun food, or Cajun Fusion for this matter, but I must say I enjoyed the food. Very tasty and rich in flavors. However, the food is not the only fa ... more

I'll start on a positive note and give this place koodos on the good food. I may be no expert in Cajun food, or Cajun Fusion for this matter, but I must say I enjoyed the food. Very tasty and rich in flavors. However, the food is not the only factor in my dining experience as a whole. The service here was very sub-standard. I've received much better service from other Vietnamese-owned restaurants that appeared to be much more shabby looking (such as Lee Noodle or Tung Kee) than this nicely decorated and upscale looking establishment. I guess you really can't judge service by the decor of the restaurant. Kind of sad too, since Gumbo Jumbo's "promise" on their website is to deliver the "Best Customer Service." That turned out to be a fat lie. My group and I ordered 4 sides and 2 lbs of crawfish. It took 40 minutes for the very 1st dish to come out, which was just a simple plate of Cajun Fries. Just regular ol' fries with some Cajun powder on it. How hard is that?? Further, maybe it's supposed to be like this I don't know, but the some of the fries were very hard and teeth crunching like they were left in the frier way too long, and some were soft. Given that it was probably more busy than normal, but not once during that 40 minute wait did the wait staff check up on us. Not to apologize for the long wait. Not to see if we needed more water. Not to update us on how long the food was going to come out. Nothing. The rest of the food came out in 5 minute intervals after that. When we finally got the 2 lbs of crawfish though, there was only 1 corn on the cob inlcuded with it. There were a total of 5 of us, but only ONE corn. What we were supposed to do, draw straws for it? Even if they only gave 1 corn per pound, we should have at least gotten 2 corns... but nope, just 1 corn for 2 lbs of crawfish. Having also completely run out of water, and having to take turns offering that ONE corn back and forth to each other, and no wait staff checking up on us, one of my friends had to walk up to the counter herself and ask for more water and see if we could at least get one more corn. It took about 10 minutes for our waters to finally arrive, but they left the empty glasses on our table...adding more to the clutter of filled empty-shell bowl, dirty napkins, and finished side-dish plates that were never taken away. We also ordered another 2 lbs of crawfish (buy 3 get 4th lb free), that took about 30 minutes to arrive after placing our order. To make matters worse though, we started to notice that the table behind us was getting their food out in waves, one after the other. Why? Well, it was the owner's friends and family. It is one thing for a restaurant owner to give special treatment to their friends and family, but at the expense of giving horrible service to their paying customers that came to subsidize their business?? That, in my book, is just plain unacceptable. Overall, did I like the food? Yes. Would I ever come back here again? With all the other Cajun restaurants in the area that I can easily go to, I definitely would NOT come back here. If you do go here though, I highly recommend setting aside at least 2 hours of your day and to not come hungry. less