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The Tail Trail: Where To Find the Best Crawfish

Co-op Country offers a bounty of mudbug options

Brookshire
Repka’s Grocery

What started as a 1940s icehouse and convenience store, Repka’s, a member of San Bernard Electric Cooperative, serves Cajun-style cuisine year-round. If you blink, you’ll miss the nondescript building even though it is packed during crawfish season. Wood-paneled walls boast bar swag and autographed headshots of famous diners, including country music star Tim McGraw.

Pool tables, vintage arcade games and a jukebox add to the dive bar vibe, and patron-inscribed dollar bills adorn the ceiling. Plan on trying fried gator, crawfish étouffée and homemade pork cracklings.

Crosby
Crawfish Shack

One could argue the Crawfish Shack is Texas’ most popular BYOB boiling pot restaurant. During peak season, loyal patrons lug beer-filled coolers and happily endure 200-person lines to get their hands on Dan Meaux’s savory mudbugs. During the season (typically January–June), the Crawfish Shack serves more than 6,000 pounds of crawfish daily. The open-air, red steel building exudes a garage-party-meets-sports-bar energy characterized by football memorabilia on the walls and sports on big-screen TVs. Get ready for boiled crawfish, shrimp, snow crab and sausage with corn, potatoes and mushrooms.

El Campo
Pinchers Boil’n Pot Restaurant

With lakeside dining on a large deck and fresh-daily crawfish from their farm, Pinchers is a cut above your average crawfish shack. Just off U.S. Highway 59 South, the restaurant’s conspicuous yellow facade and sparkling blue lake beckon passersby to a trifecta eatery, fuel station and RV park. Visitors are greeted by a life-size shark and a large sign inviting them to “EAT TAIL.” The novelty lake, complete with ducks, geese and light-up palm trees, sprawls across the restaurant’s front. Patrons can walk the adjacent pier, feed the catfish and koi, or watch as the staff bags the purged crawfish.

Fannett
JuJu’s Cajun Crawfish Shak

JuJu’s does one thing and does it right. Along a pastoral stretch of FM 365, 15 miles southwest of Beaumont, JuJu’s serves boiled crawfish, corn, potatoes and sausage. Ambiance of the modest red building is defined by exposed plywood walls and a blackboard menu. And it’s BYOB. For those who like to get saucy, JuJu’s offers three dipping options: red sauce (ketchup and spices), pink sauce (ketchup, mayo and spices) and melted butter.

Galveston
Benno’s on the Beach

On the island’s far east end, Benno’s serves fresh Cajun seafood on an outdoor patio with unencumbered postcard views of the Gulf of Mexico. Sea gulls and pelicans soar on the briny breeze while diners enjoy crawfish, shrimp po’boys, grilled oysters and deep-fried Cajun crabs.

Groves
Larry’s French Market & Cajun Restaurant

There’s nothing like Cajun food and live Cajun music to spice up an evening in the Golden Triangle—an area known for its Cajun influence and anchored by Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange. Tables covered by checkered cloth define the front half of Larry’s. Walls are clad with vintage photos of local fishermen and mounted trophy fish. The restaurant’s back half enshrines a dance floor featuring live music under a neon glow. Reserve a table on the dance floor and order crawfish in season or step up to the year-round Cajun seafood buffet groaning with fried seafood, frog legs, boudin, étouffée and barbecued crab.

Port Aransas
Crazy Cajun

This no-frills hot spot for Cajun cuisine has been a favorite among locals and tourists since 1987. Stepping inside the unassuming teal and pink hut reveals a boisterous atmosphere as patrons enjoy heaping mounds of steaming seafood on white butcher-papered tables. The menu is mostly à la carte but features the Hungry Cajun—a spicy sampler of boiled crab legs, crawfish, shrimp, corn, potatoes and sausage. It’s also known for gumbo, shrimp Creole and fresh sourdough bread.

Rockport
The Boiling Pot

Strings of colored lights, neon beer logos and loads of kitsch create a partylike setting in this lively establishment celebrating 35 years. Every surface, from the corrugated steel exterior to the inside walls and ceilings, is adorned with graffiti, art and caricatures. Hungry diners don white plastic bibs, smash open crab legs with wooden mallets and polish off loads of Cajun seafood, family-style.

It has a sizable beer cooler offering more selections than typical seafood joints. One block from the beach, the fishing pier and marina are also within walking distance.

Santa Fe
Pook’s Crawfish Hole

In addition to boiled crawfish, this BYOB shack, about 20 miles west of Galveston, offers deep-fried boudin balls, crawfish pie and gumbo. Expect Pook’s to be packed with patrons at wooden octagonal tables peeling crawfish or cracking open huge snow crab legs while listening to live music.