J. Gumbo's Nashville

Delicous gumbo for $8! They let you sample what you'd like before you decide what to order. Located inside the 4th Street Arcade.

This restaurant came to my office building. Had the jambalaya and it was very tasty. It had a good amount of kick without being too spicy. The only tiny gripe I had was the amount of meat in the dish. I had a couple of cubed pieces of chicken and one small sausage but still was delicious. I would buy it again.

EXCELLENT GUMBO!!! And GREAT staff too!!! Friendly Southern charm. They stay open late too. 😊😊😊

Fantastic experience here! I got the drunken chicken bowl and my partner got the voodoo chicken poyboy and 10/10 fantastic experience. The owner made us feel super welcome and gave our friend a taste of food they weren’t sure of in terms if spice level. Food was absolutely delicious. The owner was absolutely lovely and we will love to come back here next time we are in Nashville!

Update: Third time is almost the charm! In my original review I said I'd give them another chance and I did. Yesterday I ordered the gumbo for the third time. We ordered one with rice and one without. They both came with rice but WOW was it delicious for restaurant-made Nashville gumbo. It was definitely the gumbo this time, not thin and watery, no overcooked rice, not red beans and rice. This was thick and consistent. I bumped up only to 4 stars due to them not leaving rice out of one of the dishes. (There's no way to separate this now that they don't serve the rice as a solid scoop.) Overall, despite the constant errors, the food is really good and I will order there again. Old: Lackluster first and second experiences. I really wanted to like it, because who doesn't love Cajun cuisine? I'd tried a few other places around town that had some issue--bland, too runny, etc. This one comes closest to being the best in Nashville but I still have two gripes about it. The first time I ordered, the rice that came with all of our meals was waayyy overcooked. We were left with mushy flavorless blobs. Perhaps worse, the gumbo was way too thin. A proper roux should make the entire thing thick and stew-like. I make a gumbo with a recipe from a New Orleans magazine and it comes out perfect. Leads me to believe this first time eating here was also a fluke and the roux was unintentionally thin, or J Gumbo's waters down their roux to make it go farther. The second time I ordered, the rice was perfect, but I was given red beans and rice instead of gumbo. The red beans and rice was good but not at all what I was wanting to eat. Both times we ordered takeout and didn't catch the issues until we were home, at which point it was too far to go back and get corrected. Aside from that, exquisite flavors, definitely the best I've had in Nashville. I'll probably give them one more try and hope for better luck.