The
Gumbo Shack is a local hangout in Fairhope, Alabama that was featured on the
Food Network’s show, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. This show, hosted by restaurateur Guy Fieri,
features restaurants from around the country that Guy visits and checks out
their specialties. I liked the show and Sara
and I have visited a number of restaurants that have been featured on it. We stopped in at the Santa Cruz Diner in
Santa Cruz, Gott’s Roadside in St. Helena, Southern Kitchen Restaurant in
Tacoma, and The Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Oklahoma City. Now, all these before mentioned restaurants I
enjoyed, but somewhere on this tour of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives this one
missed the mark.
Now, I
would recommend the Cattleman’s and Gott’s.
I would tell you that the Southern Kitchen is good, but I go elsewhere
in Tacoma. The Santa Cruz Café was good
also, but if I’m in Santa Cruz again I’m going to explore a little more. However, when it comes to The Gumbo Shack, I
don’t list them with these other restaurants.
As a matter of fact, I would never visit this place again. How this restaurant ended up being featured
on a nationally broadcast cable network show is beyond me. Was there no research done on this
place? I know there had to have been some
kind of research, because it was hidden in someone’s backyard. In truth it was behind a running supply
store, I should have got the hint. It
was like trying to find Diagon Alley, but there was no magic wand that was
going to fix this meal.
The place
was just a local hangout, a small bar. I
had no preconceptions about the place and it looked as though it could be a
nice local favorite. Our initial service
was friendly and the bartender was quite nice.
There wasn’t anyone there due to the fact that the Mardi Gras parade was
passing by just outside. Now the
recommended dishes from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives were the Gumbo and the
Jambalaya. Sara ordered the Jambalaya
and I had the Gumbo. Really, the
experience started off good, but then the wait got a little long. It was about an hour which isn’t bad until we
started eating. My Gumbo was not hot and
it was far more tomato based than I would have liked. I tried to keep an open mind, but nothing
about it really made it good. It
resembled more of a marinara sauce with a little shrimp and sausage in it with
rice. What Sara received however was
what really told of the quality of the service that was being provided there at
the Gumbo Shack. Her food was flat
cold. It was lukewarm on the surface,
but refrigerator cold in the middle. A
microwaved dinner. If we wanted
microwaved food, we could have stopped at a corner store or a gas station. This is poor form and this place should never
have made the national stage.
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| Jason's Gumbo
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Concerning
this situation with this restaurant, it was more disappointing because of the backing
of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I
personally want to believe that there are little places out there that are
really good. Treasured locations that
are getting some national notoriety for doing something great. Instead, what occurred is I not only had a
bad dining experience, but I now question the expertise of Guy Fieri and the
quality of all the locations featured on his show. Due to this experience, this was the last
time I referenced Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives for any eating locations. After all, I don’t need the Food Network’s
assistance on finding Hot Pockets.
Jason
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