Viet-Cajun Crawl: The Best Spots in Houston
Thanks to our enterprising Vietnamese restaurateurs, Houston has become the best place in the country to sample the phenomenon called Viet-Cajun crawfish. The cuisine took root locally in the early 2000s when a place called Cajun Corner, located just down Beamer Road from the original Pho Binh trailer in South Belt, started selling garlic butter crawfish. Soon, Viet-Cajun joints were popping up all over the city, each selling its own variations, complete with secret recipes and fancy ingredients like French butter.
What makes a Viet-Cajun boil? Unlike Cajun-style crawfish, they are often minimally seasoned during the boil, with spices and other accoutrements added after the bugs come out of the water. These include traditional ingredients like cayenne pepper and garlic, but also Southeast Asian ingredients such as lemongrass, ginger, and Thai basil. Also unlike their Cajun counterparts, Viet-style crawfish is typically tossed with butter after cooking, then served with even more butter as a dipping sauce.
Though Houston’s Asiatown still has the strongest concentration of these spots, these days you’ll find them everywhere from Katy to Pearland. Here are Houston’s best Viet-Cajun crawfish restaurants.
88 Boiling
- Location: Briar Forest
- Description: Nab a seat beneath the covered front patio of this standby for fiery crawfish. Flavors include Cajun mix, lemon pepper, garlic butter, and 88 Boiling, which is a mix of all the above. Try green mussels or snow crab for an alternative boil option.
Cajun Crawfish No. 1
- Location: North Houston
- Description: This is a friendly, no-frills spot with a couple of TVs, inexpensive beer, and both Cajun and Viet-Cajun mudbugs. The garlic butter sauce is more garlicky than others you’ll find in town. As for heat, there’s multiple levels: mild, medium, spicy, extra spicy, and 2x extra spicy (think you can handle it?). Other types of seafood boils are also available. If you’re still hungry, tack on an order of fried catfish with a side of vegetable fried rice.
Cajun Craven
- Location: South Belt/Ellington
- Description: This is the kind of mom-and-pop place that’s a joy to stumble upon. The owner, Henry Tran, is a former shrimper and fisherman from Port Arthur who started doing boils for family and friends out of a trailer in Waller in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The trailer grew so popular, he eventually opened his own restaurant. Tran offers two crawfish flavors: traditional Cajun and a sweet-and-sour garlic glaze called Craven.
Cajun Kitchen
- Location: Asiatown
- Description: The crawfish here are cooked in a wok after being soaked in a Cajun boil, much the same way crab and lobster are prepared in Chinese cuisine, so those spices and oils coat everything and get way down deep in the crevices. The Kitchen Special, tossed with green onion, lemons, orange, butter, and garlic, is sweet, savory, tangy, and wholly original; while the Thai Basil flavor conjures the streets of Bangkok.
Crawfish & Beignets
- Location: Asiatown
- Description: Crawfish & Beignets originally opened in 2000 in Hong Kong City Mall and relocated down the road to Dynasty Plaza in 2019. The crawfish boils here come with three options. There’s the classic Cajun and the Krajun, the restaurant’s version of Viet-Cajun with garlic and butter. But we are particularly obsessed with the Thai Citrus crawfish, made super-tangy and lightly sweet with the addition of orange slices, plus white and green onions.
Crawfish & Noodles
- Location: Asiatown
- Description: Chef and owner Trong Nguyen started offering mudbugs in mouth-numbing garlic butter more than 15 years ago, just as that style was becoming a staple of the Houston crawfish diet. An order of Viet-Cajun medium here is fiery enough, but don’t stop there: Nguyen’s menu includes other non-crawfish dishes you simply cannot miss, like the Viet-Cajun blue crab, com ga xa xiu, and fried seafood gumbo.
Crawfish Café
- Location: Multiple locations
- Description: At all five locations, owner Kiet Duong uses real butter as well as sugar, which makes his crawfish sweeter and, let’s be honest, more addictive. The flavors—Original Cajun, Kickin’ Cajun, Texas Cajun, coco loco, garlic butter, lemon pepper, Thai basil, and The Mix, a blend of garlic butter and lemon pepper—appeal to a range of palates. Or, you can mix and match one of the restaurant’s house blends to cater to your liking.
The Crawfish Pot & Oyster Bar
- Location: South Houston
- Description: The popular House Special flavor—a blend of garlic, butter, and myriad other spices—is far less sweet than anything you’ll find in the predominantly Vietnamese area on or around Bellaire Boulevard. And while the crawdads are delicious, they’re not always the main event. Owner James Duong says that the Hungry Home Platter—a mouthwatering mix of king crab, blue crab, snow crab, sausage, shrimp, crawfish, corn, and potatoes—is a best-seller.
Wild Cajun
- Location: Asiatown
- Description: The flavors here—lemon pepper, Louisiana Cajun, garlic butter, and wild Cajun—are less buttery than at other places, something that owner Lee Ngo says he was aiming for, because too much butter fills you up and makes you want to eat less. And, frankly, since some joints tend to go way overboard with the stuff, we can’t disagree with his thinking. Wild Cajun also snow crab clusters, crab legs, and jumbo shrimp. For an over-the-top experience, choose from one of the fried platters, served with french fries and garlic bread.
Conclusion
Viet-Cajun crawfish has become a staple of the Houston culinary scene, with its unique blend of spices and flavors that set it apart from traditional Cajun-style crawfish. Whether you’re a local or just visiting, be sure to try out some of these amazing restaurants to experience the best of what Houston has to offer.
FAQs
Q: What’s the difference between Cajun-style and Viet-Cajun-style crawfish?
A: Cajun-style crawfish is often seasoned during the boil, while Viet-Cajun-style crawfish is minimally seasoned and then tossed with butter and other accoutrements.
Q: What’s the best way to eat Viet-Cajun crawfish?
A: Try it with a side of butter for dipping, and don’t be afraid to get creative with the flavors and combinations.
Q: Where can I find the best Viet-Cajun crawfish in Houston?
A: Check out the list above for some of the best spots in the city, from Asiatown to the suburbs.
Q: What’s the most iconic dish at a Viet-Cajun restaurant?
A: It’s got to be the crawfish boil, but you can also try some of the other dishes on the menu, like the blue crab or fried seafood gumbo.
