Houston seafood chain opens first Dallas restaurant in Richardson

Richardson’s latest restaurant addition comes from Houston, but its menu is aimed squarely at North Texas diners looking for something beyond a standard seafood boil. Ocean Crawfish Seafood & Grill opened June 11 in Richardson East Shopping Center at 1610 E. Belt Line Road, marking the company’s first Dallas location and its first step into the Dallas-Fort Worth market.

The concept leans into Vietnamese-style seafood, with crawfish, lobster, oysters, clams, snails, hot pot and fried rice among the dishes tied to the Richardson opening. Ocean Crawfish’s own website describes its food as blending bold Asian flavors with seafood and lists items such as lobster, crawfish, stingray, crab, squid and shellfish from its Houston base at 8200 Wilcrest Dr. #27. That mix gives the restaurant a broader draw than a typical Gulf Coast seafood spot and places it in a segment of the market that has shown steady demand across Collin County for casual, shareable dining.

The site choice matters as much as the menu. Richardson East Center sits at the high-traffic intersection of Belt Line Road and Plano Road, in a corridor that already draws shoppers and restaurant traffic from Richardson and nearby parts of Collin County. Commercial listings describe the center as newly renovated in 2025, with rebranding and planned upgrades designed to turn it into a mixed-use retail and dining destination. The restaurant also took over a former Applebee’s space, an indicator that the landlord is using recognizable dining tenants to help reshape the center’s mix.

Ocean Crawfish had previously operated two locations in Houston and Katy, so the Richardson opening gives the chain a foothold outside its home market. That is a useful test case for North Texas diners because it shows a Houston brand sees enough demand here to expand into a city with an established restaurant base and a customer pool used to driving for distinctive concepts. For residents along Belt Line Road and around the former Richardson Square Mall area, the practical result is another sit-down option with a menu built for groups, families and diners who want seafood with a Vietnamese accent. If the concept holds, Richardson could become the brand’s launch point for a larger regional expansion.