This Ice Cream Comes With a Whole Crawfish on Top—and Yes, You’re Supposed to Eat It

I’m sorry… a what spoon? Not a waffle cone shard. Not a little pink plastic guy. A crawfish. A whole crawfish.

Videos by Sporked

Hold. I’ll explain.

What is crawfish ice cream and who is the mad GENIUS that came up with this?

This very real, very popular flavor pops up every spring during crawfish season in Houston at Red Circle Ice Cream, and it’s been around since 2019. The base is inspired by Viet-Cajun crawfish boils, which is one of the more popular style of seafood boils in Houston. The ice cream is basically a whole lot of butter and Viet-Cajun seasonings… that gets cooked with crawfish to infuse a bit of seafood flavor in there. 

The ice cream shop owner Nickey Ngo came up with the concept after a family boil in 2019 and turned it into a seasonal menu item basically overnight. And despite some haters in the community who criticized her for putting this on the menu (um, get a life), it’s become one of their most talked-about and frequently sold-out flavors since its inception. 

Important clarification: You are not biting into frozen chunks of seafood. The crawfish isn’t mixed into the ice cream. It’s just placed on top.

Like a garnish. A garnish that stares back at you. And yes, the crawfish is your spoon. The shop literally tops each scoop with a whole cooked crawfish, and customers are encouraged to use it as a spoon. You eat the tail, crack it open, and then use the shell to scoop up your ice cream. Sorry, am I reiterating that too much? I just think it’s important information we all need to have. 

So… does it taste good?

Duh!!! It sells out for a reason. Reports say it’s sweet, buttery, salty, a little garlicky, and mildly spicy. It honestly sounds heavenly. I once again curse the gods for giving me a shellfish allergy. But if Sporked could get their hands on this ice cream, you better believe we’ll review it for ourselves. Okay, toodles!!