Warning! Warning!
Touristy restaurant review ahead
Proceed with caution
Warning! Warning!
Forrest Gump is one of my favourite films. I jumped with unabashed joy when we walked past the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant in Times Square, New York. I had no idea that the restaurant existed and I was determined to dine there. Just to give it a go. Bubba’s dream is alive!
I usually try and stay away from tourist-driven places when on holidays but I couldn’t help but giggle like a japanese school girl when I enter the premises.
The restaurant looks like the Hard Rock Cafe for Forrest Gump paraphernalia. Downstairs is filled with merchandise from the film. T-shirts, shorts, caps, mugs, pens, photo frames are printed with tacky sayings and logos mostly taken from the film.
The restaurant was a little more tasteful and was themed more accurately to the film than the merchandise downstairs. There is a bar area and some semi-private rooms that are decorated like pergolas.
There is a sign on the table with “Run Forrest Run” and “Stop Forrest Stop” when you flip it. It is used to let the waiter know that you need something.
We ate our way through New York City. We gobbled down NY-style pizzas, bought freshly made bagels from food vans, snacked on NY hot dogs, dined at posh restaurants, devoured cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery and visited touristy restaurants like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
The “…Of Course We Have Scampi!” left the biggest impression on me. It obviously didn’t have a dusting of scampi, but was instead littered with shrimp/prawns. It was buttery delicious and was filled with garlicky goodness. My sisters and I couldn’t get enough of it. We had to order another serving of it.
I was experiencing major craving pangs for this when we returned to Sydney. I searched website after website for a recipe remotely similar to this but was not successful. After many weeks of trial and error I have come up with a recipe that is very similar to the real thing. Its not exactly the same… but it is good enough.
Everyone that I have served this to has loved it. I have been asked for the recipe numerous times and this is the first time that I am sharing it.
Garlic Prawn Linguine is an original recipe from cookbookmaniac.com
Ingredients
300g peeled raw prawns, tails intact
250g salted butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
100g pickled capers, drained
4 large garlic cloves, chopped finely (do not use garlic press)
2 ripe plum tomatoes, diced to 1cm cubes
500g dried linguine pasta
2-3 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
1/ Cook linguine pasta according to package instructions.
2/ Pour dry white wine in heavy bottomed frying pan over medium heat. Boil the wine until the alcohol has evaporated.
3/ Add butter. When the butter has melted add the garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Stir the mixture gently until it begins to boil and add prawns. Allow the prawns to cook for approximately 1 minute and turn the prawns over. Let it cook for another minute.
4/ Add the capers and stir the mixture gently. Add the tomatoes and switch the heat off.
5/ Add the parsley and serve.
Tips from cookbookmaniac
* Make sure the linguine is perfectly al dente. The pasta will soak up a lot of the sauce!
* The more garlic you add, the merrier the sauce! You can up the garlic factor by including garlic bread. Do you have a good garlic bread recipe?
* This isn’t the healthiest of recipes, which is why it’s so good!
Please excuse the amateurish photos of the restaurant. They were taken pre-blog
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant
1501 Broadway
New York, NY 10036-5505, United States
Comments
mademoiselle delicieuse
June 23, 2010 at 2:28 pmYum, I love pastas with clean flavours like this. One of my husband’s favourites is linguine, prawns, rocket, chilli, garlic and lemon – so easy to make too =)
All I can hear in my head now is Forrest Gump saying, “But-tocks”!
Forager
June 23, 2010 at 2:41 pmLooks hearty & delicious – but I don’t get it – the dish is called of course we have scampi, but then they put shrimp/prawns in it? Isn’t that just cruel teasing?
Maria
June 23, 2010 at 3:01 pmThis dish looks so fresh and delicious!
Mark @ Cafe Campana
June 23, 2010 at 6:21 pmGreat looking recipe. Prawns just go so well with pasta.
Richard Elliot
June 23, 2010 at 7:58 pmGod Bless America!
Kitchen Butterfly
June 24, 2010 at 5:49 amLove the ‘spellers’ sign/book and the prawn pasta looks delish. Also, I recently saw Sophie Dahl cooking and yes, she reminds ma a bit of Nigela! I am like Nigela though – I prefer most full-fat, real sugar options!
Katherine
June 24, 2010 at 3:22 pmYou have certainly made me miss New York. I love it there. I ate at Bubba Gump all by my lonesome. I remember having the Cajun Spiced Shrimp. Oh delicious.
Iron Chef Shellie
June 24, 2010 at 4:04 pmI still haven’t seen that film… really should do something about that.
Looks delicious, I can almost taste it now… and I’m getting cravings for it now 😛
tigerfish
June 24, 2010 at 6:17 pmI think I saw this restaurant when I was in NYC but we were just too busy to try it!
Anh
June 25, 2010 at 12:06 amThis sounds fun! I have yet been to NY! Need to go, right?
angie
June 25, 2010 at 4:39 amGlad you were able to replicate and produce something close to the original! “Run forest run” is all I seem to remember from the movie, oh and the part at the bus stop with the box of chocolates. Don’t think I was that into the movie though.
cityhippyfarmgirl
June 25, 2010 at 6:56 amYour pasta dish looks damn tasty- my husband would be all over it.
I ate a dish 10 years ago overseas, and its etched in my mind forever. I’ve looked up the recipe a few times before but am not game enough, as I don’t want to ruin the gorgeous memory.
lisa
June 25, 2010 at 9:54 amI love fresh pasta dishes like this, they are my favorite! This looks so tasty! Beautiful dish.
OohLookBel
June 25, 2010 at 4:07 pmOoh, I love the look of your prawn linguine. Now, just imagine it with scampi….. *swoon*
john@heneedsfood
June 25, 2010 at 4:29 pmLooks like a fun place to eat and that prawn linguine sounds delish. Scampi? That’s like calling a mussell an oyster
sweetlife
June 26, 2010 at 6:05 amcute post, love the signs..too funny
your dish look great, I bet it taste as good or even better than bubba gumps..
sweetlife
grace
June 28, 2010 at 5:22 ami ate at a bubba gump’s once and DIDN’T ORDER SHRIMP. can you believe it? for the record, their strawberry shortcake dessert is AMAZING.
Juliana
June 29, 2010 at 4:47 amYummie! Nice pasta dish…haven’t been to Bubba Gump for a while…beautiful pictures 🙂
Betty @ The Hungry Girl
July 1, 2010 at 10:43 pmOoh, I’m going to New York in September! And I love Forrest Gump!! Haha love that restaurant, I don’t know if I’ll have time (and money) to go to all these amazing places there… *sigh*. How long were you in NYC for? Oh,, and your version of the pasta looks better than the one at the restaurant 😉
MissA
July 7, 2010 at 1:32 pmLooks divine! Have added the recipe to my list of must-try dishes and Bubba Gump to my list of must-try restaurants! Now, for that ticket to JFK…
pigpigscorner
July 7, 2010 at 6:54 pm250g of butter!! must be yummy!
Themed restaurants are really hard to resist =P
Joseph
November 26, 2010 at 3:45 pmThanks so much for this.
I went to Bubba Gump in Anaheim & Santa Monica and was telling my girlfriend that we had to make this awesome Scampi dish that they had.
I start looking for a recipe online and look what I find!
Thanks heaps.
DJaina
June 12, 2012 at 5:19 amwow…it taste very delicious…I just eat it 😉
thank you for your effort to create the recipe…
yummy
best regards
Djaina
Alena b
November 4, 2012 at 3:03 am“”Love Love Love this Recipe… Although one day I took a big chance and added beer instead of the Wine? (Wine vanished ) Its was the missing ingredient , OMG Came out Fabulous!!!
Derwood
February 18, 2014 at 12:13 pmHow many people does the recipe serve for the “Of Course We Have Scampi”? Thanks!
Linda Kile
January 28, 2020 at 4:57 pmI just ate this at Bubba Gump’s on Galveston Island. That is what I always order. So wonderful. Can’t wait to see if the recipe is close to the REAL thing. Well, that is, if I can make it myself . LOL