This restaurant is one of those known in Vegas places that everyone has heard of even if they haven’t actually eaten there. I was excited to try this place especially after I saw it featured on the food network. It’s located on Spring Mountain rd. which isn’t too far from the strip. The concept of the place is simple. You order your seafood of choice by the pound (or ½ pound) and pick the seasoning along with the spice level you want and it all comes to you steaming hot in a sealed plastic bag.
AFTER MY VISIT I WAS INSPIRED TO MAKE MY OWN CRAWFISH BOIL AT HOME
They also offer a couple seafood combos here which give you a variety of shellfish and some of the yummy sides they serve like corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. The problem with the combo meals is that they only allow you to pick 1 seasoning and 1 spice level for everything without splitting the food up. When I visited we were with a couple younger children who obviously weren’t going to enjoy anything with too much heat, so we stuck to the “by the pound” type of ordering. Don’t get me wrong these kids are awesome and had no problem whatsoever shelling whole shrimp with the heads still attached, but spice can be overwhelming for some people that aren’t used to it. They offer crawfish, whole shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster, calamari, and a variety of crab which is seasonal along with various sides and appetizers. They have a small but sufficient drink menu. It’s pretty much picnic table style seating with a fresh paper sheet draped over every table when you’re first seated. You should be prepared for your entire dining area to be destroyed by the time you leave because they don’t offer plates or eating utensils of any kind. They do give you a bib and optional gloves you can wear, but the gloves are those giant generic one size fits everyone things that are more of a pain than helpful.
We had 4 adults and 2 children in our party and we ordered 2 pounds of shrimp, one with “baby spice”, and one “spicy”, 2 pounds of crawfish which were both spiced the same as the shrimp, and some various sides. We had everything seasoned with the “hot n juicy” style seasoning which is incredible. I ordered a side serving of the “extra hot” seasoning just to try it. It wasn’t that brutal, just kind of a spiciness that built up gradually as you kept eating it. Everyone at my table loved the shrimp. They were full of flavor and cooked perfectly. The crawfish were also really tasty but kind of a pain. You have to do a lot of work to extract the meat from the shell and only the tail section is actually edible. You end of getting a piece of meat to eat that is roughly the size of a small garlic clove. Shelling the crawfish gets pretty tiring to say the least. The sides are pretty much those of a traditional southern seafood boil, corn on the cob, small potatoes, and slices of Andouille sausage. They were all tasty.
The only thing that could make this place better would be the addition of a “shelling assistant” as a service option when you order. Imagine how amazing it would be to have an experienced seafood cracking/shelling associate that was fast and had nimble fingers service your table throughout the meal?! I would pay quite a bit extra for a service like that lol. On a real note, Hot N Juicy is flavorful and unique, and it’s most definitely worth the trip.