Restaurant Review : Bubba Gump Shrimp in Gatlinburg, TN

My fiancee loves Forrest Gump. It is definitely in the top running on the list of his fave movies. I am not as much of a fan, but I do love shrimp. And I do love Bubba Gump and his accent. And if anyone knows about Bubba, you know he loves his shrimp! But of course we know these are all made-up fictional characters. Lucky for us though, the movie lives on at Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. 

We dined here while vacationing in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for our 10 year anniversary and engagement celebration this past May. It isn't a fancy kind of restaurant. It is more based around family fun and good times with friends. It isn't really a quiet setting, but not a bar setting either. But it is a boisterous kind of restaurant where the servers are pleasant (maybe it's that Southern hospitality?), with adorable country voices and great attitudes to match. It was sometimes hard to understand our waitress because she had such a thick accent, but we still loved it! She explained that we just had to flip this here license plate sign to "Run Forrest Run" whenever we needed her, and to flip the sign to "Stop Forrest Stop" when we wished to be left alone. I liked the system and thought it was a clever but effective communication tool. I also loved the willingness of other waiters and waitresses to help out when necessary. It seemed like a working team atmosphere, where everyone pitched in and helped whatever table had their "Run Forrest Run" sign up. These Tennessee folk know how to treat their customers!

I will tell you a little about what they offer on their menu, and also what I ordered. They have smoothies and other drinks with clever names, and even some that you can purchase with a Bubba Gump glass you can take home with you! And of course they offer other seafood items like clams, crab legs and hush puppies. If you aren't in the mood for shrimp (maybe you came to the wrong place?!), then they have sandwiches/burgers and salads for you. And as you guessed it, their main focus is.... wait for it.... SHRIMP! A vast selection of it, some being shrimp specialty items - a few I would love to try are the Shrimp & Grits, I'm Stuffed Shrimp which has crab stuffing and cheese (YUM), and the Kentucky Bourbon Skewers. I had the pleasure of ordering Lt. Dan's Drunken Shrimp with shrimp, andouille sausage and bourbon sauce. It came with a side of mashed potatoes and some fried potato sticks coming out of the top, which made a very cool-looking presentation. It was pretty good with a little spice. Of course I have had better at fancier restaurants. But this holds its own. Sorry yall, I didn't take the picture until after I had already dug into my meal. This was in my pre-blogging days. So you can't see the pretty presentation. But visit their website if you really wanna see it!

For the life of me, I can't remember what my man ordered. It was some months ago and I didn't think I would be blogging about it so I didn't take a picture of his food. But it must have been some sort of sandwich (he sure does love to order sandwiches, even at a shrimp place!) because I see a bun and fries in the background on the above pic lol. If I remember correctly, they also have writings on the tables which are little sayings from the movie. And I remember someone getting on top of a table and embarrassing themselves singing and dancing, maybe a birthday celebration? I just can't remember why. It was a fun dining experience. I was happy to have experienced that with my fiancee... another fun time together with good food and laughter. Another memory to add to our long list  :)