Crawfish in Texarkana – Which Hut Has The Best

Three crawfish huts are now up and running in the Texarkana area: Hot Tails Crawfish, Shamsie's Crawfish and J3 Crawfish Shack.

They are all good and each hut has different spices to make their boil unique. My favorite is from Hot Tails Crawfish. Below is what I thought about all of the crawfish huts. You can also find contact information for each hut at the bottom of this blog.

All of the huts have different tasting tails. I suggest trying each of them and deciding what your favorite is. Each hut gets their crawfish supply from different places. You can get them with no extra spice added or extra spicy, whichever you prefer. Try them all and let us know your favorite!

I started off at J3 located at the corner of Arkansas Blvd and Jefferson. $5.75 a pound. They had good white meat that pulled well. There were some small ones mixed in but most were good sized. His mushrooms are portabello which is different from the others. They also have corn, potatoes and shrimp. They have a covered area to sit and eat. Really good flavor but my lips burned more than I like. You know, some like it hot and others do not. I talked to one of the owners today about the hotness. He said they are possibly going to tone that down a bit today. Extra seasoning can be added by request at all of the huts. This is J3's first year selling crawfish in Texarkana.

I then traveled down the road about five miles to see the folks at Shamsie's. $5.00 a pound. They are at the corner of Hwy 108 and Hwy 71S. They also have very unique flavoring, good size, juicy, white meat and easy to pull. Their potatoes are red which is different. They also have corn, but no mushrooms. This is the stand that used to be at Tom's Jug House on Arkansas Blvd.

My next stop was at Hot Tails. $5.00 a pound. They are next to DuJack's on Hwy 71S about five miles out. Their bugs had great flavor, good white meat that pulls very easy. All good sized. Their corn is good and sweet. They have great mushrooms, sausage and boudin too. There is a picnic table if you want to eat them on the spot. They used to set up in front of The Villa Liquor Store on Hwy 71S.

I like to suck the juice out of the head of the crawfish. Yes, I do that. That is where a lot of the flavors are hiding. You miss out on a lot if you don't experience the entire crawfish! I usually tear everything apart after the initial twist and pull so I can get all of the meat out.

There are two other huts that I know of in the area: Beverlys OnTheGo is in Ashdown and Krawfish Kountry is located at the Fish Market in Downtown Texarkana. I didn't venture to Ashdown yet and the Fish Market's hut isn't open yet, they are shooting for next weekend.

Hot Tails Crawfish: open Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 11AM each day. 903-278-4594

Shamsie's Crawfish: open Thursday at 1PM, Friday at 1PM and Saturday at 11AM. 318-470-9447

J3 Crawfish Shack: open Thursday, Friday and Saturday usually around noon. 903-824-3825

Beverlys OnTheGo: open Wednesday 11AM-7PM, Thurs-Sat 11AM. Ashdown off Hwy 71S in the old Brookshire's parking lot. 903-748-0901

Krawfish Kountry: will be open Thursday through Saturday from noon to 6PM. 870-773-0034

Fat Jack's also has crawfish now too! 870-774-5225.

If you wonder why you have to travel outside of City Limits for Hot Tails and Shamsie's now, check out my blog about what the City of Texarkana, Arkansas did to these two vendors.