Northwest Austin Edition | March 2023

DINING FEATURE HappyRito Seafood Restaurant oers a Vietnamese- Cajun twist on shellsh E than Huynh, a south Louisiana native turned chef and restaurateur, opened HappyRito Seafood in November 2021 after years of seafood cooking experience with his father. Huynh’s father was introduced to crawsh when he worked selling crabs to bars and restaurants. Later, Huynh and his father opened a convenience store that had a deli oering crawsh. Huynh sold crawsh there throughout his middle and high school years. Although he still owned sushi restaurants in Louisiana, Huynh moved to Austin in 2019. “I had the opportunity to pay tribute to my dad but then also create something here for this unique community,” Huynh said. “This is a fairly new concept in general. … This concept, Vietnamese-Cajun-type crawsh, is out of Houston.” HappyRito Seafood is named after Huynh’s son, who is nicknamed Rito. The restaurant has a variety of fried and boiled seafood oerings, including shrimp, blue crab, oysters, sh and gumbo. While customers have many options, the restaurant’s bread and butter dish is crawsh, Huynh said. The season for live crawsh—a customer favorite— runs from February through July, Huynh said. The restaurant’s sauces, batters and seasonings are primarily made in-house, and Huynh said he cares most about the consistency, quality and hospitality when serving his customers. “Those are the three things we try to focus on because we have great food; the hard part is doing it consistently,” he said. In the future, Huynh plans to expand the Vietnam- ese-Cajun concept to South Austin. “Come try us out; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed,” Huynh said. “The food will speak for itself.” BY ZACHARIA WASHINGTON

MAKING THE ‘HAPPY STYLE’ SAUCE At HappyRito Seafood, the Happy Style crawsh boil, which costs $30, is considered the whole package, owner Ethan Huynh said. Here are the ingredients used to make the sauce: • Authentic Cajun seasoning

• Fresh celery juice • Fresh orange juice

• Onion • Butter

• Minced garlic • Oyster sauce • Sriracha • Brown sugar • Happy Style spice, a mixture of six seasonings

PHOTOS BY ZACHARIA WASHINGTONCOMMUNITY IMPACT

Lagniappe basket is a combo with shrimp, sh and soft- shelled crab served with sauce, fries and salad ($24).

The snow crab boil includes corn, potatoes, pork sausage and melted butter served with gumbo ($36).

Served on French bread, the shrimp po’boy has 10 fried shrimp, sauce, lettuce and tomato, and it comes with fries ($13).

HappyRito Seafood 11066 Pecan Park Blvd., Ste. 540, Cedar Park 512-660-5111 www.facebook.com/happyritoatx Hours: Mon. 4-9 p.m., Tue.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

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Ethan Huynh opened HappyRito Seafood with the goal of bringing a Vietnamese-Cajun concept to Cedar Park.

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NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION • MARCH 2023