Yeah, we love the holidays, but when it comes to food it’s really hard to beat peak crawfish season in the Bayou City. If you’re not throwing a crawfish boil of your own, you can get your hands dirty – and belly full – at our 10 favorite crawfish joints in Houston. [Featured image: @cajunkitchenhouston]
1. Crawfish & Noodles
If you hadn’t heard of Crawfish & Noodles, the James Beard Award-winning restaurant, you might’ve seen it on David Chang’s Netflix doc, Ugly Delicious, Food Network, or the Travel Channel. The Chinatown favorite is renowned for its Viet Cajun crawfish, plus with some knockout noodle dishes, and oxtail hotpot to boot – it’s an absolute must.
2. Boil House
The Louisiana-born Boil House in the Heights cooks up authentic no-frills cajun crawfish. Order at the counter and eat on the patio, or take a bag to-go and boil at home. Boil House also serves traditional New Orleans Gambino’s King Cakes during Mardi Gras season to follow the savory with the sweetness.
3. 88 Boiling Crawfish & Seafood
Here’s a laidback crawfish shack and seafood restaurant where barreling through a few pounds of crayfish isn’t going to break the bank. Throw in some crab legs, or pick off other parts of the menu that include wings, gumbo, and seafood platters.
4. LTK Crawfish
Once in a blue moon, LTK Crawfish off of North Eldridge Parkway reprises their “Stoooopid” special, that is, a bonkers deal of $3.99 for a pound of crawfish from Monday – Wednesday. LTK’s Crawfish comes cajun seasoned or boiled with cajun garlic butter. You can also get a one-pound sack of live crawfish to-go for only $1.89 – forgetta bout it.
5. Cajun Kitchen
The Cajun Kitchen crawfish hotspot has garnered its fair share of accolades over the years, even landing a TV spot on PBS’s Mind of a Chef. Here, crawfish isn’t boiled in a cooker, but rather prepared in a wok so that the oils and spices make it into every last savory bite.
6. BB’s Tex-Orleans
Cajun, but make it Texas. The BB’s chain prepares its crawfish in traditional Louisiana flavors with a Texas twist. Now, customers can get crawfish The Lousiana Way, that is, clean and spicy. You can get all the fixings here, too, with corn, red potato, smoked chicken and apple sausage, spicy alligator andouille sausage, and/or sweet & spicy pineapple sausage. What what??
7. Crawfish Cafe
Crawfish Cafe is cooking up crawdads with a whole host of flavors. With Lemon Pepper, Garlic Butter, Thai Basil, and The Mix – a mix of lemon pepper and garlic butter – on deck, cooked with sugar and real deal butter, the crawfish here is way too enticing to sleep on.
8. Ragin’ Cajun
After over 45 years, the big shiny red crawfish on Richmond Avenue is still raging. RC started back in 1974 with a handful of po-boy options on the menu, now, they’re a go-to for hot boudin, half-shell oysters, fried seafood platters, and buckets of boiled crawfish.
9. Cajun Crawfish #1
This no-nonsense traditional cajun and creole restaurant on Veterans Memorial doesn’t play around when it comes to cooking up crawfish. Get yours spicy, extra spicy, or 6x. Can you do 6x?
10. LA Crawfish
If you live in Houston, then you’ve seen an LA Crawfish around town. The flavorful franchise got its start with a small stand back in 2010 and is now booming across the Lonestar State. Their menu is deep, even carrying Fusion Pho Bowls, but the house-favorite dish definitely their House Cajun Rub crawfish. Also it’s BYOB so holla at that.