Bubba Gump Shrimp Company

Location: CityWalk - Islands Side

Bubba Gump Shrimp Company enjoys prime placement as one of the first restaurants you’ll see entering CityWalk and one of the last you’ll see leaving. If you’re a fan of simple, hearty seafood fare you’re in luck. This restaurant is equal parts southern seafood and movie kitsch.

As soon as you sit down you’ll notice that things run a bit differently here. Each table is equipped with a set of license plates reading “Run Forest Run” and “Stop Forest Stop.” If you want your server to stop by, you just flip to the appropriate sign. The idea being that they’ll otherwise leave you to enjoy your meal. We were forced to go through a lengthy drill of Forest Gump trivia mid-conversation but otherwise the system seemed to work.

As the name of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company would suggest, you can get shrimp served up nearly any way imaginable here from Dumb Luck Coconut Shrimp with Cajun marmalade to “I’m Stuffed!” Shrimp, filled with crab. Cajun spices abound and give an especially tasty flair to the fish in Bubba’s After the Storm “Bucket of Boat Trash”. If the name of that meal seems like a handful, you’ll get a kick out of just reading through the menu. Nearly every dish is named for a Forest Gump movie reference.

In fact, fans of the classic Tom Hanks film will find the kitsch here as enjoyable as the food. Every facet of the restaurant is designed to reflect some part of Forest’s fantastic journeys. The meals themselves are teeming with cute nods to the movie as well, from the newspaper-print papers beneath the fish and chips plate to the cardboard ship, dubbed “Jenny”, that the kid’s meal comes in.

Appetizers range from $4.99 for a garlic bread basket to $14.99 for the Run Across America Sampler. If you’re on a budget, salads are $10 to $12 and sandwiches are no more than $13. The majority of the seafood platters, however, hover around $17 to $20. Overall the food is slightly above average though not stunning. For theme park fare at a spot with a theme, though, it’s a pretty good deal.

Full menus with prices are available from the Bubba Gump website:
Full Adult Menu
Kids Menu