The Gumbo Diner

Gumbo Diner is one of those little *casual* Galveston spots that just feels right the moment you walk in. It’s small and cozy inside, with that classic diner charm and a good mix of locals and beach visitors. The staff is always kind, welcoming, and quick to take care of you, which makes the whole experience feel easy and relaxed. The food is exactly what you want when you are by the beach. The gumbo is rich, hearty, and full of flavor. You can taste that it’s made with love and fresh ingredients. The crab balls and po’boys are excellent too, and breakfast here is a hidden gem. Everything comes out hot, fresh, and seasoned perfectly. The best part might be the view. The diner sits right across from the beach, so you can look out at the water while you eat. It’s such a nice, simple pleasure that makes the meal feel special every time. It can get busy since it’s a local favorite, but it’s always worth the wait. The prices are fair, the service is great, and the atmosphere is pure Galveston charm. If you want good food, friendly people, and that perfect beach view, Gumbo Diner is the place to go.

Hands down best breakfast I’ve had in a long time! The food is top notch quality and the service the same. My wife loved the seafood omelette with pancake and cheese grits and I had the 3 egg breakfast with sausage and cheese grits with pancake. It was all delicious!

Okay everything I tried there was good. That locally made sausage was awesome! They're pancakes are different but cool. I had the seafood omelette which was delicious. My son had some other kind of shrimp dish which was really good. The only thing that was kind of weird was my boyfriend got pancakes and my son's friend got pancakes but one set tasted different tasted off the texture was off but the other one was perfectly fine. But after we brought it to the tension of the staff the pancake kept giving funny looks too my boyfriend. Other than that, it was a great experience that I highly recommend and I can't wait to go again!

Stopped by for lunch to get a quick fix. The place is small can get crowded quickly. The servers are pretty quick so be ready to order (they're not new). I order the seafood platter, and it's alright sometimes the the oysters 🦪 are very small. The main thing here is the breakfast 🥞. The pancakes are thick! I had them before and couldn't finish it! They make them homemade right in front of you! (At the bar). It's not a bad place if hungry for breakfast, you will leave stuffed! 😵‍💫

The food was outstanding. Everything we ate was delicious down to the last bite! The atmosphere was welcoming, especially the manager. Prices were reasonable for the quality of the meal. We came on a Saturday afternoon and there was plenty of parking and no wait for a table for two. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed the seafood gumbo. I didn't enjoy the crawfish Po Boy because I wasn't a fan of either sauce used in the sandwich. But there was a good amount of crawfish. Next time I will order my Po Boy dry and just use the Texas Pete from the table to give it some moisture and a little bit of heat. I also want to go back to try the seafood omelet. The service was great and I always enjoy looking out at the water when enjoying a meal.

Run, dont walk to the Gumbo Diner!!! This quaint little red building with ocean views will leave you begging for more! As soon as you enter the doors you are greeted by Giovanni and his infectious smile. Our waiter Bobby made this a family meal that we will never forget. Bobby and the entire staff here, make you feel like family instantly!!!! We spent 3 days in Galveston and two of them were spent endulging on the GENEROUS portions and unforgettable flavors that this menu has to offer! Thank you Gumbo Diner staff for everything!!!!! Cant wait till we are back in town. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!!!! -The Clark's

Diamond, our waitress, was super sweet! The chicken fried chicken and chicken fried steak were melt in your mouth. Catfish was hot and fresh and fried shrimp was so good! The flavors were spot on. The reason I gave the food a 4 was bc the seafood gumbo was so salty and we barely ate any of it. Flavor was okay too. Reaux tasted a little burned. Would not order that again, but everything else was tasty.

Service by Carmen and Martina- excellent. Rest of staff welcoming and friendly too. Sat a the bar, had a Pinot Grigio which complemented my delicious Crawfish etoufe. So good- that I order a second one for tomorrow. . The beignets are delicious too. Highly recommend!

The good: Generous portion of crawfish in the etoufee. Good flavor. Staff was sweet. The not-so-good: My etoufee was barely warm. They brought my toddler's food several minutes after ours and we watched it sitting on the counter. My husband did not love the catfish because he said it was mushy and still had the "silver strip."

The atmosphere was fun. Our server was pretty good for how busy they were. I ordered the catfish dinner and hubby ordered the plate that had a little of everything. For the most part, the food was good. The catfish was good, but a little bland. You couldn't eat the fries that came with it unless you like drinking grease, but overall I think the fish made up for it. The Hubs said his was good the étouffée was really great, but the gumbo was not. You would think a place with gumbo in the name would be better. Overall, I would eat here again and enjoy it. You can't have things perfect every single time.

The beignets were SOO good!!! I swear as soon as I walked in I was part of the family. Everyone was so kind! The seating area was rather small but everything was well kept and clean.

This was a perfectly run restaurant. the food, service, an ambience was exceptionally rated. The owner came by and talked to us and the pricing was perfect.

This little diner is great. It's located on the Seawall and has a great menu. I was here before the breakfast crowd arrived. They have a traditional selection of breakfast items, from fluffy pancakes, Belgium waffles, chicken and waffles, omelettes and biscuits. I had the biscuit and gravy combo. It comes with 2 eggs, sausage or bacon, cheesy grits or hash browns. I opted for the bacon and cheesy grits. The biscuit wasn't large, but it was delicious. I really love the cheesy grits.

Decided spur of the moment to try this place out and I'm glad we did! It's got that "diner" feel and our waitress was really nice, and attentive. I got the shrimp po-boy with sweet potato fries. It was good but I wasn't a huge fan of their chipotle may on the po-boy but wanted to try it out. My husband for the fried platter and his catfish was really good and very hot. Kids got burgers and they had a good taste to them. We will definitely be back!

This place is a hidden gem!!! Small, busy, but worth the wait. They move customers in and out at a steady pace. The chicken and waffles OMG!!!! The breading on the chicken was so fresh and crispy, and the waffles fluffier than a cotton ball. The rest of my party of 7 all enjoyed the delicious buttermilk pancakes that are a mile high tall. The link sausage here is 3x the size of your usual diner. Highly recommend!!

So to date within the last 2 months I have been here twice, came upon on it for a "quick" lunch and it was quick, very very tasty, good seasoning. Staff have been there for some time, and know recommendations and good offering if you tell them what you're looking for. When I'm down on the island and looking for a Cajun flavor definitely will try this place more often now. So many things to explore on their menu can't wait, w/o gaining 100lbs ;) Enjoy!

Been here several times and so good each visit! Fresh, hot, small quaint dining room. Delicious food.

Great and I mean GREAT diner style breakfast. Also has mimosa and beer. Diner ambiance and the gumbo smells amazing. Great fast service

We were in Galveston for one night pre-cruise. My SIL was craving shrimp & grits. A Yelp search lead us to the Gumbo Diner. The menu offers lots of fried, blackened, and baked options as well as the shrimp and grits. Our table of five had shrimp and grits, a fried fish platter, a fried seafood platter, onion rings, and jacked up jalapeños. Everything was hot, fresh, and very tasty. Our server was very attentive. If your are looking for fancy, this is not your place. However if you want great food at a very reasonable price, the Gumbo Diner is your place!

Wanted to try this place out and it is well priced and DELISH! I had the bourbon platter which had shrimp gumbo, seafood etouffee, bacon wrapped stuffed shrimp, crawfish sausage and chicken jambalaya and cajun green beans! Holy moly yum! My husband had the fish po'boy and fries which was MASSIVE!!! My son had breakfast and said it was delish. Service was impeccable! Food was amazing!!!! And it was a cute little diner look to it as well!

Excellent customer service the food was excellent good breakfast and good dinner Miss Yvonne our waitress did excellent

We had a party of 7 people yesterday. The fried seafood platter was fried nicely. The oysters weren't overcooked. The etouffe was pretty good. Not super flavorful but nice flavor. 3 of us got the bourbon street platter and we all thought that a lot of the things were overwhelmingly salty. The green beans were sooo salty. The gumbo was salty too. The jambalaya was fine. The bacon wrapped shrimp were good. My mom got the chicken fried steak and it was a bit tough. Not our favorite. Our server was also not very friendly. He seemed annoyed. We would ask for things and then he'd have kind of rude responses. He kind of threw down the straws for us which we thought was strange. He seemed especially rude to my mom for some reason. Most likely won't be back based on the service.

We stopped here after a day at the beach after searching for a casual place. It's right across just about from pleasure pier and it's kind of small but it is a diner so that's expected. We ordered the lil daddy gumbo which was huge and coming from a New Orleanian, was tasty with a rich dark brown roux. We also ordered the half and half shrimp/oyster po boy which came dressed with cabbage, spicy mayo and pickles. It was a good size and the seafood tasted fresh. I ordered a Mac and cheese which was good, and my hubby got a Greek salad with blackened shrimp--it was fresh and delicious. We finished with an order of beignets which weren't exactly Nola style but we still gobbled them down. The service was great; our server Brandon was friendly, helpful and funny.

This was the first time my partner had Gumbo in his life, and though it was tasty, it was a little bit on the salty side, so we were not really able to finish it. The greek salad was good, and so was the platter (though the gumbo in the platter was even more salty than the Main course one). My favorite taste was the crawfish etoufee, which was absolutely brilliant and will go back just to get that! Service here is fantastic! They kept checking on us a d refilling our coffees. The place is on the small side, so a few people were waiting outside by the time we had finished.

The food and service was well above par. If you like dark roux gumbo this is the place to go. You could taste the fresh seafood. Then the Beignets were the some of the best.

Phone tasted really good! It was our second visit here. We had a problem with one of our plates, but the manager went above and beyond to fix our issue. Waitress and the manager were both excellent. Thank you for your excellent service! 6/14/25

From the host to waitstaff, friendly, helping each other, and wanting to serve the customer. Sam our waiter knew the menu, had eaten the food and gave great references. My husband and I both ordered shrimp and grits, Sam said it was the best a lot of regulars order all the time. Hot, fresh and needed nothing, the best grits we have ever had. Wish this place was in our home town. When back in Galveston will be our first stop! Thanks Sam!

Great service and great food. When we were wondering what to order we got a sample of the gumbo and ettoufe which made our decision much easier.

Let's begin with the environment, so welcoming and cute. You can see so much going on behind the scenes because it's pretty much an open layout, which is cool. The servers and service was AMAZING! The FOOOD!!!! Omg. AMAZING! I couldn't decide on what to order, so I went with the sampler and it was a great idea! Absolutely would visit again if I'm ever in Galveston again!

Decent food, service, and ambience. Good selection of Gulf seafood but wonder how much of it comes in frozen.

The staff was pleasant and courteous. The Resturant appeared clean and today. Our orders came out fairly quickly and certainly hot and freshly prepared. One of our members ordered the blackened fish. It was not desirable. It was exceedingly to salty. He had to scrape off the extraordinary amount of seasoning in order to try to consume it. Somebody please tell the kitchen. I've had breakfast here before with no issues.

We tried The Gumbo Diner bc of its great reviews and it didn't disappoint! Great food! Loved the sweet tea!

Came for breakfast; food was ok, pancakes were still gooey, service was decent. I don't think we'd go here again.

Nice local spot, we were here on a Monday after school had started so the lack of crowds was a welcome change. Good selection of breakfast staples, and everything was fresh and had great flavor.

A group of us went for dinner on a weekend. We were greeted and seated right away. Two dishes that we got were shrimp and grits and gumbo. The shrimp and grits were not as tasty as before. The sauce and the grits were glumpy. So it was the texture that did not do it for me. The gumbo was surprisingly not as hot as I would have expected. We will probably try it again, but probably the League City location instead of Galveston.

If you like classic diners, this is the place. And with a name like Gumbo Diner you wouldn't expect them to do breakfast but they do and it's wonderful.

I really, really wanted to like this place since I've seen over the years how packed it always is. But after finally trying it, I simply cannot understand why this place is always packed. I have lived on the Texas Gulf Coast for my entire life and this was by far the absolute worst gumbo I have ever had. The service was great and the ambiance was very pleasant. But the food was, for the most part, awful. We ordered a Refdish special which was actually pretty good, but everything else was really bad. We ordered the redfish special, fried shrimp, seafood gumbo, stuffed jalapeños, and fried pickles. As stated, the redfish was good. Everything was so overly salted that after a few bites it was overbearing. The gumbo had a weird greasy texture and was completely flavorless while oddly still being painfully salty. The fried shrimp tasted like it could have been good but was so salty, it was literally inedible. The fried pickles were chips, not spears, and sliced so paper thin it was all batter. Also, unbearably salty. The stuffed jalapeños had very nice fresh jalapeños inside, but the breading was way too much and hard. If it weren't for the fresh jalapeños, I would think this was frozen. It was truly a waste of over $100. Skip this place. We definitely will.

Food is amazing, when it is busy , it is busy!!! Family friendly! Love the music!! I recommend you coming to try the place out!!

What it lacks in ambiance, it makes up for in excellent food. I love the Seafood Platter here, and my Wife loves the breakfast omelettes and the beignets. It's a small place with limited seating, but all the dishes we've tried here are excellent. Parking is limited, so get here early.

Came here for mimosas and beignets!! Closest to NOLA you can get!! I hear the gumbo is the best! Service top notch. Atmosphere awesome!!

Looks like a regular diner....but the menu is anything but regular...it's straight out of NOLA. Husband had the shrimp platter...it was perfect. I, on the other hand, had a half crawfish half oyster pobpy and a cup of gumbo. The poboy was huge and - who'd have thought it - had the exact bread you get with NOLA poboys. Everything was fried to perfection with a light breading and a sweet remoulade. I added a dash of hot sauce and ate the whole darned thing! The gumbo was the kind with a dark roux and it was amazing. This place is not to be missed.

Stopped in for the beignets. Our waitress Yvonne is friendly and attentive. I love the vibe. Great location. We were able to see the Gulf of Mexico from our table.

BJ is making great pancakes!!!!!! So soft and tasty!!! My husband and I are enjoying Sunday morning here!!! I love this place!!!!!!!

Food was delicious, waitress was super. I wanted to share our experience with staff. When we arrived it wasn't raining but was poring rain when we had finished eating. My husband has Parkinson and uses a walker. A staffer stayed with my husband while I went for the car. This kind man opened the car door for him and even helped with the walker. Poor man had to be drenched. Wish I had gotten his name. Thank you, we will defiantly be back.

This was our first time trying the diner and we wished we had come here sooner. The staff and service was amazing, especially our server Bobby. He was so friendly and humorous. The food was delicious and hot. Great comfort food while overlooking the water. The diner was also very clean and well kept. We came for breakfast but their lunch and dinner options looked delicious as well!

Ran across this while on vacation. They were busy, but service was still good. It's got a nice beachy diner atmosphere. I has a platter with fried catfish over etoufee and it was delicious. My wife had a shrimp dish and loved it. We'll come back when we're in the area.

This place is nothing less than absolutely amazing! The food is excellent. Everybody was very friendly lots of little extras we were told about and it made our visit one of the only reason they got four stars instead of five is that we did have to send something back to get it fixed but other than that 100%, see you soon

This was so delicious I got this Togo on Uber eats and might I say their shrimp po boy is delicious and the portion makes the price worth it!!! Let me just also say a round of applause for the Tabasco infused mayonnaise 10/10

Very affordable. Daniel was the greatest, most knowledgeable server. The shrimp and grits was DELICIOUS. Large shrimp with gravy over the most amazing grits. Mimosas were perfect. Friendly,fast service. Will definitely make the trip back.

This is a place I always try to make when I visit Galveston. They care about their customers, service is great and so is the food. This time I went with the shrimp platter (grilled and fried). Served nice and hot, nothing has been under a heat lamp. All day breakfast is something I need to try next. When in Galveston, Texas stop by and Get Full!

Oh wow! Get the Pistolettes! Excellent gumbo also. Fish was light and did not have an overpowering better. Really friendly staff. Can't wait to go back next time I'm in Galveston.

Decided to head to Galveston to eat today. Yes on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We arrived around d 11:30. Parking is tight but we slid in. We parked along the side on the building. Wait, not long May be 5-6 minutes. Waiter, can't recall his name, was prompt and professional. The place was full. Tables did not stay empty for long. We ordered seafood platter and gumbo. Seafood gumbo was good. The shared the Little Daddy. We ended up taking a lot of it home. Seafood Platter was fried perfectly. Full sized fish filet, 5 shrimp, 6 fried oysters and fries. Every bit of that food was perfect!! Taste, temperature appearance was AAA. We will be back to try breakfast.

Always a favorite place for me. Everything about this place is comforting, the food, the restaurant aesthetic, but especially the staff. I love the staff!! My son loves the chicken and waffles and those "white things" (the beignets).

The food was very overcooked including the pancakes it was burnt on the bottom and they also charge You extra money for a one topping pancake. The manager Robert was rude too.

The Gumbo here is potentially the best on the island. Whenever you want to go, expect the wait. Small, unpretentious spot with great breakfast. Try the shrimp and grits! Pancakes take awhile but are light, fluffy and scrumptious per my Hubs, no gluten free option. Service is fine, well worth the visit. Oh the Lil Daddy bowl of gumbo is too big for one person. Lol

Fast and delicious food, perfect for anytime meal, breakfast til late night. Good choices from chicken with waffles, yum, to shrimp po'boy