Would You Try Houston’s Own Crawfish Ice Cream?

In Houston, crawfish season doesn’t just fill patios and boil pots… it lights up the phone lines at Red Circle Ice Cream.

Every January, owner Nickey Ngo knows what’s coming. Before the first sacks of mudbugs even hit the burners, customers start calling with one question: When is the crawfish ice cream coming back?

What sounds like a dare turned into a full-blown tradition.

Ngo created the now-famous flavor back in 2019 after a family crawfish boil sparked a wild idea. One bite, one “what if,” and by the next morning, she was in the kitchen experimenting. The result? A creamy base infused with Cajun seasoning, garlic, and what she laughs is “lots and lots of butter,” cooked alongside live crawfish to pull out that unmistakable Gulf Coast flavor.

The twist: there’s no crawfish meat in the ice cream itself. Instead, each serving is topped with a whole crawfish. And yes, you’re supposed to use it as a spoon.

It’s weird. It’s messy. It’s very Houston.

The flavor walks a tightrope between sweet and savory, buttery and slightly spicy, somehow landing in a spot that keeps people coming back. First-timers approach it like a stunt. Regulars treat it like a seasonal rite.

Seven years in, it’s no longer a novelty. It’s part of the city’s food personality… bold, a little unpredictable, and unapologetically over the top.

And judging by how fast it sells out each spring, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Doug O’Brien