Bud Jones Bayou

I love this place! They have the best fried oysters anywhere and they’re really big. The fried shrimp and onion rings are also to die for. I’ve had their grilled shrimp several times and it’s wonderful. The remoulade sauce is excellent too. I just tried a cup of their etoufee and it was delicious. I don’t care for hush puppies but theirs are mouthwatering!

Went here based off Unilocal recommendations and it did not disappoint. The gumbo and boiled shrimp were terrific! My husband loved the onion rings and hushpuppies. So glad we stopped in. Service was great and super friendly. Would go back just for their gumbo any day! Give it a try.

Excellent food and service. Had gumbo étouffée and boudin and hushpuppies. Not a thing was negative! Highly. Recommend

My family and I were visiting from Los Angeles and stumbled upon this gem. The fish is SO FRESH. I can’t express enough how great the seafood is here. Everything is homemade and made by wonderful people and you can tell in the quality. I will definitely be coming back on my next visit. Great food and customer service! Thanks guys!

Best place to eat in Tyler, if you want fried shrimp. Everything is fresh. Hand cut potatoes, onions, nothing frozen. Highly recommend you get here FAST!

One of those great local Tyler places. You know it is good when it doubles as a garage. Bud’s is a great seafood place. Try the fried shrimp. They are huge.

Best seafood in East Texas. I’ve eaten here many times for lunch and the quality of food is always excellent. The restaurant is a hole in the wall that isn’t much to look at, but the good is top notch. The Po Boys are huge and seafood is always fresh. The gumbo is fantastic.

This place is amazing. It is tiny and attached to a repair garage of all things. I have to say this is the ONLY real cajun food I’ve had in town and the freshest seafood as well. The spicy boiled shrimp with corn and new potatoes are amazing. My hubby wolfed down his fried shrimp and catfish before I could try them. I wanted 6 more hushpuppies. And the gumbo? Devine crawfish laden yumminess. Go treat yourself and thank me later.

The food here is really great. The oysters are sweet and taste fresh. Probably the freshest I have had this far from the coast. The shrimp taste fresh as well. The onion rings are some of the best I have had and they give you enough for several people. The hushpuppies are really great too.
The only bad here is the size of the place and the service. They try really hard and are really friendly but service can be really slow. They only have one waitress and things slow down fast. Overall a really good place but I recommend calling your order in and taking it to go.

This place came with very high recommendations. We have some pretty high expectations and we were not let down. We had a variety of items ordered but really loved the blackened shrimp po-​boy and the boiled spicy shrimp. The onion rings were awesome. The batter was not overpowering and you could actually taste the onions. One of our party ordered the burger and for a Cajun food establishment again we were very impressed. The dining area is small so make sure you go early but the food comes out quickly so the tables turn over pretty quickly.

At 1^st glance — I almost reconsidered my choice to eat here. It’s a small dive with only five tables (and a window unit for the AC), a kitchen in the middle and then if you walk outside opposite of the kitchen, there’s two more tables on the other side of the kitchen. And you have Bud Jones Garage at the far end of the building. Seafood and auto service just don’t sound appealing to me. Given I was short on time, I decided to venture in anyway. I opted for the lunch special– 4 fried oysters, a cup of gumbo, a side and a hush puppy for only $ 8.99.
The oysters were plump and cooked to perfection with the perfect batter. Hush puppies were very flavorful and slightly sweet. I tried a bite of the gumbo given I had ordered so much food. The gumbo was good — it had large pieces of sausage in it. I love boudin so I went ahead and added a link for $ 1.50 just to see how it tasted (you don’t find boudin in Dallas too often.) It was good but a little undercooked — I was surprised at how large it was given the price.
I would return next time I’m in town just for the oysters alone. Not only can Bud repair your car, but he can cook up some pretty good food as well.

You really need to try this place. Seating is really limited so get there early. The folks are friendly.

Was in town with the kids and a friend to visit the zoo. We were looking for something different to take the kids and fired up the ol’ Unilocal and found this little gem. The shrimp are giant and fresh. The po’boy was giant and filled with over 8 giant shrimp. The hush puppies are giant and have just the right amount of heat. When I am in the area again I will definitely seek this place out. Te only down side is the dining room is small, but the food is great.

Over-​hyped and expensive. Add plain rude to the mix and that’s Bud Jones Bayou.
Perhaps I expected too much from the other reviews. I visited for lunch on a Friday. Even with just 2 tables filled, the small space was cramped. You order at the counter. No menu is posted, you have to grab a menu and study. While we were looking at the menu, the older white haired lady glared at me and drummed her fingers on the counter.
Brummmmp. Brummmp. Brummmp went her fingers. I ordered catfish and fried shrimp. «What side?» she demanded. I didn’t respond fast enough so she rolled her eyes and stabbed the menu with her pencil. I tried to pay for my meal but Mrs. Personality ignored my attempt.
The catfish filets are tiny. It’s like they took a normal sized filet and then cut it vertically, so 5 small strips really = 2 normal filets. Bland and not exciting. The butterflied shrimp have so much batter it’s difficult to locate the meat. The slaw was soupy and tasted stale. The hush puppies were huge, and made with sweet batter, but greasy. The table/​floor were dirty, and judging from the crap caked onto the sides of the condiment bottles, they don’t get wiped down much.
The other two people with me were equally unimpressed with their meal. I finally got the old Crone to take my money, and she managed to be rude while charging me $ 53 for 3 meals. Holy Smokes this place is expensive.
I typically enjoy dining at hole-​n-​the-​wall places, but I’ll not venture back into Bud’s Bayou again. Want much better catfish for ½ the price? Hit up Wade’s Place in Chandler. They are actually friendly to their customers.

Traveled to Texas from Colorado to photograph the Blue Bonnets, turns out it was not the best year for them Found out about the Tyler Azalea festival and it was too late for peak blooms. So, we needed a lunch spot and found Bud Jones Bayou through Unilocal.
What a hidden gem! This was by far the best meal that we had in Texas! There were 3 of us and we all ordered something different and it was all delicious!
My oyster Po Boy was smothered in Oysters, I had to eat ²⁄₃ of them to even close the sandwich!
We were uncertain how the restaurant worked, but the delightful staff guided us through and were the friendliest people we met.
HIGHLY recommend and would return if it was not so far from home!

This place is incredible. We drove from Dallas to meet family in Tyler and my Mom wanted seafood. These reviews do NOT lie, wow! There were 6 of us and all ordered something different so we tried a little bit of everything. The gumbo was the kind your grand mother would make… except better and more crawfish!
I had the Bayou basket and had the option of spicy or mild. Perfect amount of heat in the large shrimp, corn, potatoes and mushroom!!!
Yeah, there is a bathroom, it’s just in their other area.
If you are even remotely close to Tyler and want some excellent seafood… Make the trip!!!
We will DEFINITELY be back.
We went on a Saturday afternoon so not very crowded, there are only 8 tables but we sat immediately.

This was the best Cajun food I’ve had since I visited New Orleans (and it was better than a number of restaurants there, too).
Got a pound of crawfish (spicy but not too much), a shrimp po-​boy (humongous), a cup of gumbo, which came with a very large hush-​puppy (my wife loved hers), and all were absolutely great. Others in our party got fried oysters, a burger, and some other items, and all raved about how the food rated against the best Cajun they’d ever had.
I can’t thank the older gentlemen at the Tyler Airport Museum enough (his name escapes me currently) for sending me to Bud Jones, but I’m sure glad he did — food was absolutely excellent!

OMG, this place was amazing. Yes, it is next to Bud Jones Garage… he is a busy fellow :) I had the catfish & shrimp basket which was so much food that we had lunch for 2 the next day from the left overs. Excellent catfish! The shrimp were good but a little over battered and not cooked quite enough. The onion rings are the best we have had in a LONG time, well worth the price. The hush puppy was unremarkable but there was so much food we couldn’t eat it anyway :)
It is counter service and the woman working there is a hoot! We loved it and will go back while we are in the area!

I stopped by this restaurant after finding reviews on Unilocal.We stopped by late in the afternoon and there was hardly anyone there.
We ordered fried pickles and onion rings as an appetizer. The pickles were fried spears, instead of chips, and were very flavorful. The onion rings were battered and fried to perfection.
We each ordered one of the daily specials which included three large sized, butterflied shrimp, and four fillets of catfish. These were real fillets of catfish and not tilapia fish. The shrimp were beautiful, as well. I ordered a side of dirty rice, and was pleased with the consistency and flavor.
As we were leaving, I discussed gumbo with the owner and she gave us a cup to try. It was a roux based gumbo and had the right consistency, spices, and flavor. There was okra, which doesn’t bother me, but does bother some people.
The pricing was a bit expensive, but you received quality seafood for the pricing, so I felt it was worth the cost. The place reminded me of some place you would find in South Louisiana. It was clean and the owner was very friendly.
Overall, as a native from Louisiana, I would recommend the seafood highly. Go try it out and I do not believe you will be disappointed.

I ordered the jumbo boiled shrimp and it was amazing!!! My mom lived the fried shrimp. And the catfish as fried to perfection. Hush puppies had a great taste! Customer service was not so bad but could be better! Over all I will be back!