Crawfish in Seattle?

March 21, 2008 1:49 PM

Crawfish in Seattle?

My girlfriend and I are both Southerners currently living in Seattle. We are dying for some boiled crawfish and, according to the Seattle Times, we have crawfish in Lake Washington.

Does anybody know where to get boiled crawfish anywhere (anywhere! we're dying!) in the Puget Sound area?

posted by bamassippi to food & drink (6 comments total)

This doesn't directly answer your question, but the Kingfish on Capitol Hill does good southern food - sadly, no boiled crawfish on the menu but I can vouch for a lot of the other crawfish dishes on the menu, and maybe if you asked them real nice they'd boil some up for you?
posted by pdb at 2:15 PM on March 21, 2008

If they don't sell crayfish at the Pike Market, they probably sell them at Uwajimaya in the International District.
posted by bolognius maximus at 2:22 PM on March 21, 2008

Steelhead Diner would be another place you might want to ask nicely.
posted by milkrate at 2:46 PM on March 21, 2008

Umm, well you're not getting many answers so I'll just throw this out there. There is an annual Crawfish boil in Richland, WA - May 3rd. Link

The most popular Cajun place I know of in Seattle is Celtic Bayou - but I've never been there. Stranger Review

And, there is a pretty good Cajun restaurant in Everett: Alligator Soul. I've only been there once - but I did have the Crawfish étouffée which was very good (but I'm not from the south, so I don't really know). They have live cajun music every Friday and Saturday.

Apparently, you can have a private dinner arranged by a little catering business in Eastlake called Mudbugs at the Bayou. They just cater, but there is a front room where you can have a dinner made for you if you call ahead. [phone]

As for live ones. I've seen them periodically at Pike Place and I've seen them at Uwajimaya almost every time I'm there - but I think it's something they carry seasonally (verified on their site). Probably you're best shot is to call them: [phone]

I looked around and found this thread on Chowhound that says they're available at Mutual Fish in Ranier Valley - but I can't verify that.

If nothing else you can order live or boiled and have them shipped to you from this place.

I don't think there is a whole lot of interest in them around seattle. The Swedes have their own style which is very different - and the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce and Swedish Club/Cultural Center in Ballarad used to have annual crayfish festivles, but I'm not sure if that's still happening.

Sorry - that's the best I've got.
posted by Craig at 4:59 PM on March 21, 2008

I don't have a suggestion. I am just writing to wish you luck! I moved from New Orleans to Boston and rarely saw them up there. We found them once in a local grocery chain and thought we had found nirvana only to find they had been soaked in some kind of anise-based slurry. Oh My God. Probably the second-worst thing I ever ate. There may have been a place around that had them, but we eventually gave up when everyone kept referring to them as "crayfish" and spared the cayenne in anything labelled "Cajun." Fortunately, in Houston, they are in abundance.
posted by tcv at 6:41 PM on March 21, 2008

I've bought them from one of the fish markets at Pike Place Market before, but I don't recall seeing them in grocery stores.

For restaurant crawfish, check out Celtic Bayou in Redmond. It's a combination Irish brewpub / Cajun restaurant. It turns out that Guinness goes amazing well with crawfish!
posted by Jacqueline at 7:54 AM on March 22, 2008