I've been to this chain of restaurants before, but now there's one right in the heart of Times Square. This restaurant is based on my favorite movie of all time "Forrest Gump". The restaurant has Southern American cuisine, which is very good but not as good as it tastes in the South, of course. Throughout the restaurant they have costumes, set pieces and props from the movie. It also has all sorts of neat little things like signs and random junk from the deep South.

The service was really good on this visit. The waiter was one of those struggling actors who was really fun to talk to. The food was pretty good. I had a shrimp po' boy, which I've had much better in New Orleans, but it was still good. My friend had a nice chicken Caeser salad, and my brother had "Shrimp New Orleans". The Shrimp New Orleans is sauteed shrimp in a really good sauce with rice and bread. The best part is dunking that delicious bread into the sauce. For dessert, I had their bread pudding, which was okay. I felt like it had to much whiskey in the sauce and the pudding was too cooked. Try it if you want, but go somewhere else for dessert.

At the end of the meal, the server quizzed us on our knowledge of the movie. It was fun to see how much we knew, although I wish there'd have been a small prize.

I did not "research" ahead where I would eat lunch, so I just picked a restaurant when it was time for lunch. The Bubba Gump Restaurant right in the middle of Times Square was a good choice. As I was walking down the street, the hostesses of the restaurant were enticing people inside. Why? Because this was the Grand Opening of Bubba Gump in New York City! The Grand Opening added to the excitement and atmosphere of my lunch experience.

The popular Forrest Gump movie led to the opening of the Bubba Gump Restaurants. I found the menu very funky and brought back memories of the movie. If you visit the web site, you will reminisce also. Some of the movie dialogue is interspersed with descriptions of the food. The names of the food items are also very non-boring. Why list "Fish Sandwich" when you can name it "Dixie Fishwich"! I selected the BBQ Pork Sandwich with their special sauce. It was not the best pork sandwich I have had, but that is consistent with other chain restaurants (Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Café, etc). In other words, food quality is not the number-one feature of the restaurant. You enjoy the restaurant for the other intangibles such as atmosphere, décor, mood, etc. I especially enjoyed eating at a window seat. From that vantage point, I was fascinated by all of the pedestrians on the sidewalks. Also, the billboards at Times Square are huge, full of flashing lights, and fun to read! Since I was on the second floor, I had a second-story view of Times Square.

In addition to eating lunch, I also visited their gift shop. That is where they sell what they call "Gump Gear." The gumpism T-shirt (with the infamous chocolate saying) was a perfect gift for my sister!

Click here for the restaurant’s web site. Click on the menu for lots of laughs. I hope that you will have audio so you get to hear the funky music!

Bubba Gumps is the stereotypical tourist resturant. It's based on a big-name movie. It's located in the highest tourist-populated area of the city (Times Square/Broadway). It's loud and gaudy. With that said, it was great. Our group decided to skip the wait and sit at the bar. This was a smart idea, as there was quite a wait for a table. Shawn, our bartender, was hilarious. He was told us that he was a long-time resident of NYC and a student of Juilliard. Personal touches like that really help make things great when relaxing after a long day of touring the city. He also makes a mean Delta Sunset (aka raspberry margarita).

We also chose to have dinner at the bar. I ordered the fried shrimp (you can't go to Bubba Gumps and not have shrimp, right?) with fries and a side Caesar salad. Needless to say, we over-ate, but everything was so good. So if you are in Times Square or Broadway, go to Bubba Gumps. Even if it's for a drink, you will have a blast.