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Popular Houston crawfish restaurant readies for DFW debut in Richardson

Plates of garlic butter seafood at Ocean Crawfish

Garlicky, buttery seafood awaits at Ocean Crawfish.

Photo courtesy of Ocean Crawfish

A popular Houston seafood destination called Ocean Crawfish & Grill will bring its buttery Vietnamese seafood boils to Richardson later this year.

The restaurant is set to make its debut in the coming months at 1610 E. Belt Line Rd., taking over a former Applebee’s. It’s part of a major revamp for the shopping center being redeveloped by Victory Group. Broker Cameron Mai, who represented both tenant and landlord in the deal, says the group is set to invest “millions of dollars” into the development, turning it into an “international dining and entertainment destination.”

Ocean Crawfish & Grill brings its signature Vietnamese-style seafood boils to the location, serving crustaceans like lobster, Dungeness crab, and, of course, crawfish. Fried shrimp, raw oysters, and other seafood staples are also on the menu, along with a selection of Vietnamese seafood dishes that are less common across Dallas-Fort Worth. Those include finger snails stir-fried with basil, garlicky grilled blood cockles, grilled oysters topped with scallion oil, and sweet snails in tamarind sauce.

It’s the first Dallas-Fort Worth location for Ocean Crawfish, which currently operates two outposts in the Houston area — the original in Houston’s Alief neighborhood, and a suburban outpost in Katy.

Mai notes that the Houston-based restaurant is a favorite of star jeweler Johnny Dang, the self-described “King of Jewelry,” who’s known for making blinged-out “grills” and other diamond-encrusted jewelry pieces for stars like rapper Paul Wall, Beyonce, and Dallas’ own Post Malone. In a photo posted to the restaurant’s Facebook page, Dang can be seen standing in the restaurant’s kitchen, holding a plate of massive king crab legs.

Johnny Dang is a fan of the restaurant.Photo via Facebook

In addition to the arrival of Ocean Crawfish, Hui Lau Shan, a popular Hong Kong dessert chain, will also open at the Richardson East development. The chain first made its DFW debut in Carrollton in 2024 and is known for its extensive menu of mango-centric desserts and drinks, ranging from boba tea to Hong Kong-style egg waffles stuffed with the tropical fruit. A third location is set to open near Fort Worth, in Haltom City, in February.

Ocean Crawfish & Grill hopes to open its doors in Richardson by May 2026, though that timeline is “still subject to construction and permitting schedule,” Mai says. Hui Lau Shan is targeting late spring or early summer for its Richardson debut.

Pizza News

Yonx Pizza seduces north Dallas suburbs with New York-style pies

Yonx

Yonx Pizza, by the slice.

A pizzeria with a dedicated following has debuted in Melissa: Yonx Pizza Bar & Co., an indie spot that does New York-style pizzas as well as pizza by the slice, has opened a location at 1521 McKinney St. #700 — an address that had pizza history as it was home for nearly a decade to a Palio's Pizza, which closed in 2025.

Yonx is from Robert Hede, a restaurant veteran who was previously involved with the Village Burger Bar chain, where he was a partner. He switched from burgers to pizza in 2022 when he connected with NY Pizza and Pints, a small local pizzeria chain, opening a location in Wylie at 1125 FM 544 #800. After two years, he broke off from the chain to found Yonx at the same address.

Yonx does the kind of New York-style thin-crust pizza that Dallas-Fort Worth loves, in a standard 14-inch, as well as a massive 24-inch "Kong" size. They also do slices, which can be ordered as a lunch with a Caesar salad for $9.99.

Varieties include familiar favorites like pepperoni, as well as slightly gourmet options with New York-inspired names such as:

Balsamic on Bleeker St., with garlic sauce, mushrooms, shaved ribeye, mozzarella cheese, arugula, and balsamic drizzle
Bronx Bomb, with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, meatballs, mushrooms, and ricotta cheese
Brooklyn, basically a meat-lovers with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, sliced ham, chopped meatball, beef, & pepperoni
Greenwich Garden, a vegetarian with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, red & green bell peppers, white onions, mushrooms, spinach, & black olives

Prices range from $16 for a 14-inch cheese pizza to $46 for a NY Giant Supreme Soho with Sicilian marinara, mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, beef, red & green bell peppers, white onions, sliced mushrooms, & black olives.

Yonx Pizza soup in a bread bowl.Photo courtesy of Yonx

There are also sandwiches on house-made toasted focaccia such as the Italian tower with melted provolone cheese, sliced ham, salami, lettuce, red onion, pepperoncinis, & sundried tomato aioli.

Appetizers include comforting soups served in a bread bowl including tomato basil and jalapeno cream soup with charred jalapenos. Plus wings, garlic knots, and "Brooklyn Ballers" — their signature meatballs in marinara, made in-house. topped with whipped ricotta and Parmesan, served with pesto and focaccia ends.

A full bar features frozen margaritas and frozen mojitos made with agave gold tequila. The best day to order those is "Frozen Fridays" from 11 am-10:30 pm when the blueberry mojitos are $6 and the margaritas are $5.

The Melissa location opened in January, with the same menu as the Wylie original, and has been met with an unprecedented wave of positive reviews on Facebook: one comment after another raving over how great the pizza is, and what a godsend it is — positive reviews that began to stack up even before the place had officially opened, the likes of which have been rarely seen.

Hede, who has been hands-on at the Melissa location since it opened, says he's all-in on these northernmost suburbs of Dallas.

"I like this area — I feel like all the growth is heading out in this direction, there's just a lot of activity up here," he says.

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