Hot N Juicy Crawfish, Woodley Park and Downtown Falls Church

[darkstar965]

Funny name. Funny...but not so great...place.

Six of us tried this new "local food" spot in Woodley with a bit of hesitation. It's the 2nd outpost of a Vegas based concept centered on crawfish, a product of the Gulf Coast. It's half bar, half restaurant. The tables are all covered in plastic. Most of the food is served in plastic bags dropped onto the tables.

Crawfish: this is what drew us. The crawfish were a bit overcooked and not really in season quite yet.
Steamed Shrimp: best item tried. A plastic bag full of decently spiced and sized shrimp cooked correctly.
Chicken Wings: ok as far as deep frying can take a wing
Sausage: also served in a plastic bag. forgettable.
sweet potato fries: thin, oily

OK, it's a bar and this is all meant to be bar food...I guess? All in, it came to $35/person including roughly one beer/person in our group.

Ah, and top it all off: bad table service. We were there early before a crowd formed and still waited a long time for food from a confused waiter.

[Ericandblueboy]

Saw the Vegas joint featured on Man vs. Food. I gotta say it looks good on TV. Can you elaborate a little on the seasoning/spice level, what you tried and whether they're good?

[darkstar965]

Saw the Vegas joint featured on Man vs. Food. I gotta say it looks good on TV. Can you elaborate a little on the seasoning/spice level, what you tried and whether they're good?

There are four or five different seasoning/heat levels from which you can choose. Sort of an apples and oranges scale with "lemon garlic" on one hand and "spicy" on the other. The top one is called "hot n juicy special" which supposedly combines all the options so we went for that. It was fine...good even. Our issue was around value relative to quality--especially in connection to the crawfish themselves, wings, sweet potato fries (regular frites were better) and service. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

[hmmboy]

Six of us shared a yummy dinner here last night. We had 2 orders of a very nice etouffee (served in a large styrofoam cup), a pound of clams (Spicy), 4 pounds each of crawfish and shrimp (2 medium, 1 spicy, 1 extra spicy - all w/Hot and Juicy seasoning), corn, potato, and sausages (which they put in the plastic bag along with the fish so it soaks up the spicy sauce), and some chicken wings. We consumed a 6 bottle assortment of Chablis, Riesling and Champagne (no corkage charge). The crawfish are good but the shrimp are definitely the way to go - nice, large, fresh shrimp. $150 for the 6 of us stuffing our faces (plus tip). A unique dining experience in DC, and downtown no less - I will be back.

[DonRocks]

Hot N Juicy Crawfish has opened a second location in Falls Church - here are the details.

Note that this is only 1-2 miles down Route 29 from Chasin' Tails, so there is now some crawfish competition in that area.

[Ericandblueboy]

I went to the Falls Church location some time ago (maybe 2 months).  I'm in that neighborhood once a week for my youngest daughter's cheer-leading class.  While she's getting herself some alphabets, I have been sampling area restaurants with my older daughter (hence Liberty BBQ and several visits to Dogwood Tavern).  The only steamed/boiled seafood we tried was their clams, and it was delicious.  After cooking, they put the seafood in a plastic bag and douse it with your choice of sauce.  They then serve it to you in the plastic bag.  It could get messy but the clams were nicely cooked and the baby spicy garlic butter sauce was fantastic (think garlic butter mixed with some slightly spicy hot sauce).  I need to go back.