So before I even went to Crawfish and Noodles I had heard about it almost three times in the last month. THREE TIMES! I took that as a sign that I needed to visit this restaurant as soon as possible, and eat some of their delicious food! www.crawfishandnoodles.com. The restaurant’s chef Trong Nguyen was recently recognized for the first time as a finalist for the James Beard Best Chef Southwest Award, and congratulations are definitely in order! I visited the restaurant (now celebrating it’s 10 year anniversary!) and not only was the food fantastic, but the service and atmosphere were both equally wonderful. Crawfish and Noodles was also recently featured in an episode of Ugly Delicious on Netflix, which beautifully articulates the pairing of Vietnamese cuisine and flavors, with Cajun ingredients and spice that is featured throughout this restaurant. The host of Ugly Delicious, David Chang, is the mastermind behind the Momofuku restaurant empire and I plan on going to his first restaurant Momofuku Noodle Bar in NYC very soon, I am very excited and can’t wait to share my feedback.

Now, don’t be fooled that this restaurant is located in a strip mall. I know when I think of award winning restaurants, I often think of white table clothes and fancy uniforms. This place it not that kind of restaurant. It is located directly off a busy street, which ensures that all you get here is delicious food and courteous service without any pretentiousness. Every member of the restaurant team that we encountered was warm and friendly, and our waitress was very knowledgeable and welcoming. The tables are covered in plastic tablecloths, and you wonder why until you realize its because the food is delicious and a little messy, and you’re expected to enjoy yourself without judgement or restraint. And for a lot of us (myself included!) that means a little mess sometimes. Also! I met the chef, Trong Nguyen on my way out, and he was incredibly friendly and very excited that I had seen him on the Netflix show. He was curious to what was my favorite dish, and genuinely thanked me for coming. It was a sweet ending to an overall fantastic evening.

This restaurant is known for crawfish, and Viet-Cajun crawfish is their signature dish. We tried that, and it was delicious. That being said, my favorite dish was their salt and pepper shrimp, it was beyond DELICIOUS! I would drive back to this restaurant just for this dish. Multiple times. Don’t judge. We ordered our shrimp without the shell and the shrimp was both cooked and seasoned perfectly. We also ordered the Cajun stir-fried seafood noodles, and that was also fantastic. Aside from the amazing shrimp and noodles, we ordered fried calamari and fried salt-pepper crabs. The shrimp was definitely my favorite dish, but everything we had was amazing. I will be going back very soon. I apologize that I didn’t take more pictures, its because I ate my food too fast! Also,  I know I should have taken more pictures of the food, I promise I will do that next time. This was my first restraint review, so please grant me a grace period!