Delicacies abound at these crawfish joints in Houston. (Courtesy Crawfish Cafe)
It’s the perfect time of year to discover the top spots for crawfish in Houston! Here’s our guide to the tastiest mudbugs in the city.
Smell that Old Bay Seasoning and those Cajun spices? Welcome to crawfish season in Houston, an eagerly anticipated window that generally runs from January through May and means much more to Texans than silly ol’ daffodils and tulips.
Whether you’re leaving H-E-B or driving to one of Houston’s spring events with your windows open, you can smell a crawfish boil (pronounced ball, if you want to sound like a local). They’re all over Houston, and they need to be—we’ve been waiting for them since last summer.
To help you narrow down your choices, here are eight of the highest-rated and best places to enjoy fresh boiled crawfish in Houston.
Texas Crawfish Company
24600 Gosling Road, Spring
When you have as many repeat customers as Texas Crawfish Company has, it speaks volumes, or should I say platters, about just how great your crawfish are.
And if that doesn’t do it, how about the fact that people actually come from as far as Louisiana to Houston just to eat the flavorful crawfish at this establishment. One reviewer said, “I regularly drive 45 minutes, bypassing dozens of other crawfish places, just to come here. After I finish eating, I start dreaming about the next time I can get them.”
Customers even rave about the sides, usually overshadowed by the main course. Yes, the corn and potatoes are cooked perfectly, and the mushrooms are not to be missed.
Texas Crawfish Company is in a food truck park and offers something different from the popular taco trucks. There’s plenty of parking, and a play area in the middle is a great distraction for the kids. Just place your order at the window and wait for the text message that your steaming platter of crawfish is ready.
Crawfish Cafe
Five locations across Houston, including The Heights and Pearland
When Crawfish Café opened its first location in 2013, it couldn’t have known that within the next 12 years it would garner awards and open four more locations across H-Town.
Voted Best Crawfish in Houston by the Houston Press in 2022, Crawfish Café offers crawfish in a variety of dishes. Purists can stick to the boiled version or create a combo that includes other seafood options, like crab legs or shrimp, along with corn and potatoes.
Choose to dine in or take out, but whatever you do, be sure to peruse the menu for every kind of crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster, and more.
South x Saigon
3991 S. Gessner Road, Houston
If you’ve never experienced Viet-Cajun cuisine, you’re in for a real treat at South x Saigón, which, not surprisingly, is also considered one of the best crawfish restaurants in Houston.
This style of cooking originated in the ’90s when Vietnamese immigrant communities formed along the Gulf Coast of Texas, many settling in Houston. Traditional Creole and Cajun cooking techniques were then incorporated into Southeast Asian dishes, creating a heavenly fusion that has become wildly popular in recent years.
Try it for yourself with South x Saigon’s signature Southside sauce. Imagine crawfish boiled in cayenne, garlic, and paprika, then served with Asian sauces of lemongrass, ginger, and citrus. It’s a delicate balance of savory and sour, sweet and salty, and it’s an excellent example of how Houston’s diverse dining scene makes for some very interesting eating. From gumbo and boudin balls to crawfish lo mein, you can’t go wrong.
Hot and Buttered
2702 N. Shepherd Drive, Houston
Enjoy tiki cocktails and bottle service with your mudbugs at Hot & Buttered. This eatery is inside a fixed tent outside of the patio bar Tikila’s at the corner of Shepherd and Interstate 610.
Its location and proximity to Tikila’s make Hot & Buttered a popular hangout, but it’s the taste of the crawfish that lures diners back again and again. Choose among hot and buttered, garlic butter, and Str8 Cajun flavors, and see just how much heat you can take with spice levels ranging from mild to lip burn.
There’s plenty of space for a group, and party packs featuring your choice of seafood served with corn and potatoes make it easy to fill empty stomachs. You can also order wings and other seafood boils made with snow crab, shrimp, and mussels.
As one crawfish aficionado said, “Outside of crawfish in my driveway, it’s the best I’ve had in Houston in years.”
Hot and Buttered is open Thursdays and Fridays from 5-10 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 1-9 p.m.
LA Crawfish
Six locations, including Spring Branch
With a small, curated menu that includes Vietnamese pho bowls in addition to seafood, LA Crawfish has wowed Texans for decades. But LA Crawfish isn’t resting on its laurels. Its goal is to be the top crawfish franchise worldwide, and according to Houstonians who flock to locations across the city, this business is well on its way.
Their traditional and fusion-styled dishes have been recognized by The Travel Channel, Cooking Light (Time Inc.), and Asian Chops, and their garlic butter, Cajun-style, lemon pepper, and hot and sour flavors enhance their crawfish in a variety of tasty ways.
Daiquiris and ice-cold micheladas will temper the spice, and you can round out your meal with fresh oysters.
BB’s Tex-Orleans
12 locations across Houston, including Briargrove and Energy Corridor
What do you get when you marry Louisiana flavors with a Texas twist? You get a Houston institution, BB’s Tex-Orleans, serving fresh crawfish for an extended season from January through August.
Just choose your flavor, add corn, potatoes, and sausage, and try all the dipping sauces for your own smorgasbord of mudbug goodness. Embolden your boil with shrimp or crab, and wash it all down with cocktails and frozen drinks.
If you love the crawfish as much as we do, consider joining BB’s Krewe of Royalty for frequent diners—points and special offers will save on future visits, giving you an opportunity to try out the wings and po’ boys.
Crawfish aficionados may balk at BB’s method of seasoning their crawfish post-boil, but the full tables and happy diners are proof that whatever they’re doing, it’s working.
The Boot
1206 W. 20th St., Houston
This Cajun bon temps restaurant serves up red beans and rice, Momma Dup’s bread pudding, and, of course, boiled crawfish delivered live from Louisiana daily.
Sit inside or outside on the huge patio at The Boot, where you can work off your first pound of crawfish playing cornhole with your new friends. The Boot serves a variety of hard ciders and beers at the bar, and customers praise the atmosphere—it’s laid back, chill, and a fun place to hang out on the weekend.
Note that The Boot is closed on Mondays, but you’ll have the other six days to eat as many crawfish as you can.
Phat Eatery
Two locations in Katy and The Woodlands
Phat Eatery has drawn rave reviews from the Houston Chronicle, which says, “The Katy Asian Town restaurant goes beyond Cajun and Viet-Cajun crawfish with its Malaysian-style curry crawfish, available only during peak season.”
It’s a different kind of heat, and Houstonians are here for it. Start with the roti canai dipping sauce served alongside a crispy Indian flat bread. Once your taste buds are primed, delve into the Malaysian curry crawfish.
You’ll instantly understand why the late chef Alex Au-Yeung earned Semifinalist status for the 2022 James Beard Award. His recipe stems from a combination of his childhood in Hong Kong and his Malaysian food heritage traditions, and the resulting street fare is an original take on traditional crawfish for those who like to experiment.
Even The New York Times recognized Phat Eatery as one of “America’s Next Great Restaurants,” maybe because it dares to serve dim sum right along with crawfish.
So whether you’re feeling bold or just craving the comfort of traditional crawfish this time of year, you won’t have to cast your net far to find crazy-good crawfish in Houston.
