Boil Seafood House Swings Open With Vietnamese-Style Crawfish on the Menu

Boil Seafood House has thrown open its doors with a menu that includes the once-elusive Vietnamese-style boiled crawfish. Hieu Doan, who also owns Namese Vietnamese eatery in Mid City, is behind the new restaurant.

Situated on the bustling corner of Magazine and Louisiana, in the longtime home of the Louisiana Music Exchange, the new cafe is slinging a variety of boiled seafood preparations, and the Vietnamese style is just one of them. The eatery is serving crawfish, crab, shrimp, lobster, mussels, or clams with Vietnamese, Cajun, garlic, or Caribbean flavors, plus diners get to choose how spicy they want their seafood.

The menu also includes crawfish and shrimp breads, chargrilled oysters in traditional or Asian flavors, raw oysters, fried crawfish and boiled seafood salads, chicken wings, bang bang shrimp, among other items.

The Vietnamese-style crawfish boil was popularized in Houston, which has a large Vietnamese community. It’s flown under the radar in New Orleans until recent years. The boil includes Vietnamese cooking staples like lemongrass, but one of the biggest distinguishers of this style is that it’s tossed in a spicy butter before it’s served.

It’s noteworthy to say that this butter treatment comes at a price at Boil. It rang in at $10 a pound recently.

Opening hours are Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Here’s a look inside the new seafood house:

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

Josh Brasted

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