Hot N Juicy Crawfish: One big ‘ol mess of fresh seafood

Hot N Juicy Crawfish, a new restaurant that opened in Restaurant Row (right by International Drive), is a dining experience like no other. This place is about doing one thing, and doing one thing right… eatin’ crawfish the old fashion way.

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Hot ‘n Juicy Crawfish Restaurant in Orlando: Doing it the old fashioned way.

Normally a restaurant would never want you to see a picture of their establishment that looked like the one above. But Hot N Juicy ain’t no normal establishment. They want you to get down and dirty with their seafood. In fact, their wall is filled with photos just like the one above…

Wall of photos.

The concept here is dead simple. Choose a type of seafood, choose a seasoning, and wait for your hot bag of goodness to get to your table:

The important part of the menu.

The delivery.

All the seafood is fresh and flown in daily (except for the shrimp). Before this visit I had never had crawfish before. But since it was in the name of the restaurant, I knew it is what I had to order. Hot N Juicy does have a few other items on their menu for those feeling less adventurous. For example, my wife selected the Fried Catfish Basket. Here is her entree:

Fried Catfish Basket.

Her meal was good, but it was nothing like mine. Have you ever had crawfish like this before? Well, the kicker is that you have to fight the little buggers to get the meat out of them. It is actually a pretty tough process–one of those things that you start to finally get good at just when you are done. If you order the crawfish, your story might go something like this:

Workin’ it.

The prize.

The satisfaction.

The pile that’s left.

Messy, huh? Yeah, this is probably not for everyone. But Hot N Juicy Crawfish has been very successful so far. It is a family-owned restaurant, and they opened their first spot in Las Vegas. After a while the wait time to get seated was so long that they opened a second location–a block away!

Then they opened in Washington D.C., and Orlando is their fourth restaurant.

The surprises aren’t quite over yet. As you probably know fresh seafood isn’t cheap. Our total bill with a 10 percent off hospitality discount (try asking for it) came to right around $31. The majority of that is my crawfish, which was about $10 per pound, and I ordered two pounds. In retrospect I really only needed one, so you can save some money that way–although don’t think you are going to be stuffing your face like it’s Thanksgiving. You are paying for the experience and the freshness.

I also want to add that the servers were extremely pleasant and helpful. Since I was a newbie, I needed a little show and tell, and our server was more than happy to help.

Below you can view all the photos, restaurant information, and location. One more thing: We arrived at Hot N Juicy right when they opened, and we were the first ones there. So that is why the restaurant looks empty in the photos.

Be sure to stop into Hot N Juicy Crawfish and say hello–I definitely recommend it!

Made it on the wall! But no, our photo doesn’t quite catch the eye like CRAWFISH SWAGER

Hot N Juicy Crawfish – map, info & links

View Larger Map

Official website: http://hotnjuicycrawfish.com

Hot N Juicy Crawfish – complete photo gallery

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