Best Seafood in Kemah, TX: Gulf Oysters, Crawfish and Boils

The best seafood in Kemah, TX is split between the Kemah Boardwalk on Galveston Bay, where Landry's Seafood House and the Aquarium Restaurant serve Gulf oysters, redfish and crawfish étouffée, and the Lighthouse District a block or two inland, where VooDoo Hut boils crawfish and shrimp late into the night. Our eight picks run from those bayfront dining rooms to a 1970s burger counter and a barbecue joint with a full seafood menu, and every one was checked as open on its own official website.

Here's the surprise most day-trippers miss: in Kemah, crawfish isn't only a spring thing. VooDoo Hut's backyard menu lists live Reserve Red crawfish, cold-water river crawfish it says are available daily from summer through fall, the months when most Houston boil spots have packed up their pots.

In Kemah, oyster hour starts at sunset and crawfish runs past midnight.

How we define Kemah here: the City of Kemah, the small bayfront city along State Highway 146 on the south side of the Clear Creek channel, including the Kemah Boardwalk, the Lighthouse District around 6th Street, Kipp Avenue and Bradford Avenue, and the Highway 146 strip. Every pick prints a Kemah, TX address on its own site. Seabrook across the channel, Clear Lake Shores along Marina Bay Drive and League City to the west are out; see our Clear Lake seafood guide and League City seafood guide for those.

The quick list

• For Gulf oysters with a bay view: Landry's Seafood House on the Kemah Boardwalk.
• For dinner beside sharks and stingrays: the Aquarium Restaurant.
• For crawfish and seafood boils: VooDoo Hut in the Lighthouse District.
• For a seafood boil with the kids: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
• For a po'boy and a craft beer: Skallywag Suds N Grub on 6th Street.
• For a fried seafood platter with barbecue on the side: T-Bone Tom's on Highway 146.
• For a budget shrimp sandwich: Tookie's Burgers.
• For surf and turf: Saltgrass Steak House on Kipp Avenue.

How we chose

We picked places inside the City of Kemah that put real seafood on their own menus, whether that's a raw oyster, a pound of boiled crawfish or a fried catfish po'boy. Each one had to show current hours or a current menu on its official website when we checked in November 2026. We read each restaurant's own menu for the dishes named below.

We left out places we couldn't confirm. Crazy Alan's Swamp Shack on Texas Avenue has no working official website, and The Flying Dutchman no longer appears on the Kemah Boardwalk's dining page. Joe Lee's Seafood Kitchen on Marina Bay Drive has a placeholder site with no hours or menu, and its own Facebook page lists it in Clear Lake Shores.

Hours and menus change, and crawfish depends on the season, so treat every schedule as typical and check the restaurant's site before you go.

On the Kemah Boardwalk

The Kemah Boardwalk is free to walk in, and its sit-down restaurants sit right on the water. These are the three where seafood is the main event.

1. Landry's Seafood House

1 Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah · typically open daily from 11 a.m.

Landry's Seafood House on the Kemah Boardwalk is where to eat Gulf oysters with Galveston Bay in front of you. The menu offers Oysters on the Half Shell and Fire Roasted Oysters, and its dining room and patio look out over the Boardwalk and the bay. What to order: a round of oysters, the New Orleans Crawfish Bread, then the Gulf Coast Classic, which puts blackened redfish, crawfish étouffée and grilled andouille with red beans and rice on one plate. Landry's Gumbo comes with shrimp and crab, and the po'boys come with shrimp, fish or oysters.

Insider tip: the weekday happy hour, typically 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., is served in the bar and lounge only, so walk straight to the bar. Our Kemah happy hour guide has the details.

Best for: a classic Gulf seafood dinner at sunset.

2. Aquarium Restaurant

Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah · hours vary; check the official site

The Aquarium Restaurant on the Kemah Boardwalk seats you around a floor-to-ceiling 50,000-gallon aquarium that it says holds more than 100 species, including moray eels, reticulated rays and shovel-nosed guitarfish. Divers take part in daily shows and feedings inside the tank. What to order: the Fried Seafood Platter with cornmeal-crusted Gulf oysters and seafood hushpuppies, the Sautéed Redfish with lump crabmeat, or the New Orleans Combo, blackened catfish topped with crawfish and served with a crab cake.

Insider tip: Stingray Reef, the touch-and-feed exhibit downstairs, costs extra, so plan it and dinner as one stop.

Best for: families and first-time visitors. See our kid-friendly Kemah restaurant guide for more.

3. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

5 Kemah Boardwalk, Kemah · typically open daily from 11 a.m.

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on the Kemah Boardwalk is the shrimp-first restaurant on the water, decorated with props, script pages and costumes from the movie Forrest Gump. What to order: the Southern Seafood Boil with snow crab, shrimp, andouille, corn and red potatoes, or the Shrimper's Net Catch, peel-and-eat shrimp steamed in beer. Mama Blue's Shrimp Gumbo and a shrimp po'boy round out the Gulf side of the menu.

Best for: a seafood boil for a family that wants a table, not a picnic bench. The menu skips oysters and crawfish, so go elsewhere for those.

The Lighthouse District

The Lighthouse District is the grid of bars and restaurants a block or two inland from the Boardwalk, around 6th Street, Kipp Avenue and Bradford Avenue. It's where Kemah's seafood gets louder and later. Our Kemah bars guide covers the rest of the strip.

4. VooDoo Hut

511 Bradford Ave, Kemah · typically open daily 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. · kitchen open until 2 a.m.

VooDoo Hut, on the corner of Bradford Avenue and 6th Street two blocks from the Kemah Boardwalk, is the place in Kemah for crawfish and boils. Its VooDoo Garden menu, which it calls Kemah's Backyard, lists live Reserve Red crawfish by the pound and a set of Seafood Pots tossed in VooDoo Fire Butter: a Shrimp Pot, a snow crab Personal Pot, a Mussel Pot and a Ramen Pot with crab, shrimp, boiled egg and ramen noodles. You can build a boil with add-ons from corn and potatoes to sausage, artichoke hearts and ravioli.

Insider tip: the menu says you get money off every pound of crawfish when you pair it with a Seafood Pot, so order both. The patio is all ages until 9 p.m.; inside is strictly 21 and up.

Best for: a late crawfish run. Compare it with the spots in our Houston crawfish guide.

5. Skallywag Suds N Grub

600 6th St, Kemah · typically open daily 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Skallywag Suds N Grub on 6th Street pairs a long craft beer list with what it calls scratch-made Southern pub grub, and its po'boy is one of the best-value seafood plates in Kemah, in our opinion. What to order: the Skally Po' Boy with catfish or shrimp, fried or blackened, on a Leidenheimer baguette with remoulade. The Cajun Shrimp Tacos and the Moby Dick, a blackened yellowfin steak sandwich with dill aioli, are good second choices.

Best for: a po'boy, a pint and the game on TV.

6. Saltgrass Steak House

215 Kipp Ave, Kemah · typically open daily; breakfast from 8:30 a.m. on weekends

Saltgrass Steak House on Kipp Avenue, which the Kemah Boardwalk counts among its restaurants, is a steakhouse, but it's the right call when half your group wants seafood and half wants beef. What to order: the Seafood Fondeaux, a dip of shrimp, crawfish, mushrooms and spinach in a white wine cream sauce, then the Salmon Oscar with lump crab or a strip steak topped with grilled shrimp.

Best for: surf and turf.

Texas Avenue and Highway 146

7. T-Bone Tom's

707 Highway 146, Kemah · typically open daily from 11 a.m.

T-Bone Tom's started as the Kemah Meat Market in the 1960s and became a barbecue restaurant in 1974, according to the restaurant. Visit Bay Area Houston adds that it began by selling barbecue sandwiches to the crews building the Kemah-Seabrook bridge. Today its menu has a full seafood section next to the oak-smoked brisket. What to order: the Fried Schooner Platter, which piles shrimp, oysters, catfish and a house appetizer called a Shark Egg on one plate, or the Fried Oyster Platter. The Friday lunch special, typically 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is Southern Fried Catfish with red beans and hushpuppies.

Best for: a group split between barbecue and fried seafood, with live music most nights.

8. Tookie's Burgers

406 Texas Ave, Kemah · typically open daily from 11 a.m.

Tookie's Burgers has served the Bay Area since 1975, and its own history says Hurricane Ike's surge put five feet of Galveston Bay inside the restaurant in 2008 before it reopened. It's a burger joint first, but the seafood order is a sleeper. What to order: Shrimp on a Bun, five large shrimp with lettuce, tomato and tartar sauce, or the Shrimp Dinner with eight large shrimp and a side. The menu says chicken, fish and shrimp come fried, grilled, blackened, lemon pepper or Buffalo style.

Best for: a cheap shrimp lunch. Our Kemah burger guide covers the rest of the menu.

Save this: a Kemah seafood day

This route keeps you on foot from lunch to late night, so you park once.

1. Lunch, 11 a.m.: Shrimp on a Bun at Tookie's Burgers on Texas Avenue.
2. Afternoon: walk the Kemah Boardwalk and catch a diver show at the Aquarium Restaurant's tank.
3. Happy hour, 3:30 p.m.: oysters at the bar in Landry's Seafood House.
4. Dinner: the Gulf Coast Classic at Landry's, or the Fried Seafood Platter at the Aquarium.
5. Late night: a pound of crawfish or a Shrimp Pot at VooDoo Hut, whose kitchen typically runs until 2 a.m.

Pack: wet wipes for the boil, a light jacket for the bay breeze after dark, and a designated driver for the ride home.

When is crawfish season in Kemah?

Most Houston-area crawfish menus run in late winter and spring; our Houston crawfish guide covers the season. VooDoo Hut is the exception in Kemah: it says its live Reserve Red crawfish are available daily from summer through fall. Landry's crawfish étouffée and crawfish bread and the Aquarium's crawfish dishes are on their menus year-round.

Where do you get raw oysters in Kemah?

Landry's Seafood House and the Aquarium Restaurant both list oysters on the half shell on their menus. For more oyster bars around the city, see our best oysters in Houston guide.

Last verified: November 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best seafood restaurant in Kemah?

For a classic Gulf seafood dinner, Landry's Seafood House on the Kemah Boardwalk is our top pick, with oysters on the half shell, blackened redfish and crawfish étouffée and a patio over Galveston Bay. For crawfish and seafood boils, go to VooDoo Hut in the Lighthouse District.

Where can I eat crawfish in Kemah?

VooDoo Hut at 511 Bradford Ave in Kemah serves live Reserve Red crawfish by the pound and says they are available daily from summer through fall. Landry's Seafood House and the Aquarium Restaurant on the Kemah Boardwalk serve crawfish étouffée and other crawfish dishes year-round.

Where can I get oysters in Kemah?

Landry's Seafood House and the Aquarium Restaurant on the Kemah Boardwalk both serve raw oysters on the half shell. T-Bone Tom's on Highway 146 serves a Fried Oyster Platter.

Is there late-night seafood in Kemah?

Yes. VooDoo Hut's full-service kitchen in the Kemah Lighthouse District is typically open until 2 a.m. daily, and Skallywag Suds N Grub on 6th Street is typically open until 2 a.m.; check the official sites before you go.

Do you have to pay to enter the Kemah Boardwalk to eat?

No. The Kemah Boardwalk is free to walk in, and you pay only for food, rides or attractions such as the Aquarium's Stingray Reef.