These 11 Texas Seafood Restaurants Are the Highest Rated in the State

Here is a hill I will die on: Texas is a seafood state. We have 367 miles of Gulf coastline, a shrimp fleet a century old, and oyster reefs that fed Galveston before it had a seawall. Barbecue gets the magazine covers. Shrimp gets the locals.

So I went looking for the places Texans actually rate the highest, from the Seawall to the Metroplex, and the list below is what I found. Think crackling fried shrimp, snapper pulled from the Gulf that morning, and oysters shucked by people who know the reef by name.

Below, discover eleven Texas seafood restaurants that earn their ratings one plate at a time, with the signature dish you should order at each and exactly where to find it.

1. Gaido’s in Galveston

An Italian immigrant named San Giacinto “Cinto” Gaido opened a sandwich shop inside Murdoch’s bathhouse on the Seawall in 1911. By 1920 it had become the island’s first seafront restaurant to stay open year round. Four generations later, the family still runs it.

The dish to order is the Snapper Michael, a Gulf red snapper fillet dusted in parmesan flour and pan sauteed until the edges go golden. Save room for the crustless pecan pie, which Texans have argued is the best in the state for decades.

The James Beard Foundation agreed with the crowd in 2025 and named Gaido’s one of its America’s Classics. You cannot miss the building. A twelve-foot crab sits on the roof.

Where: 3828 Seawall Blvd, Galveston, TX 77550

2. Lotus Seafood in Houston

Lotus started in 2006 as a you-buy-we-fry seafood market on Braeswood and has grown into five Houston-area locations with more than half a million Instagram followers. The reason is one sauce.

They call it Crack Sauce, a thick garlic-butter blend with a secret spice mix, and it goes on everything. The signature plate is the Loud Pack: Louisiana-style fried rice heaped with boiled shrimp, corn, potato and sausage, all drenched in the stuff. Snow crab clusters get the same treatment.

One Yelp reviewer summed up the experience as “cracked out on the crack sauce.” Order more than you think you need. Everyone does.

Where: 2825 S Kirkwood Rd, Suite 300, Houston, TX 77082

3. Topwater Grill in San Leon

Topwater opened on May 27, 1999, at April Fool Point Marina, on a spit of land between Galveston Bay and Dickinson Bay. The restaurant runs its own fleet of shrimp and oyster boats, which is why the fried shrimp here tastes like it was swimming yesterday. It was.

The kitchen goes through roughly 900 pounds of shrimp a week. Order the fried shrimp platter, lightly breaded with a crunch you can hear, alongside hush puppies and coleslaw. In oyster season, the Galveston Bay oysters on the half shell are the other reason people drive down from Houston.

Pro tip: ask for a table by the water. The boats tie up close enough to read their names.

Where: 815 Avenue O, San Leon, TX 77539

4. The Black Pearl Oyster Bar in Galveston

A few steps off the Strand, this small spot cooks Cajun-style seafood with a New Orleans lean, and the oysters are the whole point. They come raw, fried, Rockefeller, Diablo or Haelen, and the Oyster Three Ways platter lets you taste three styles on one plate.

My pick is the fried oyster po’boy. Reviewers count at least a dozen oysters on the bread, each one fried crisp with a soft center.

The seafood gumbo, sold by the cup or the bowl, became a local favorite almost as soon as the doors opened. Order both and you have a Galveston lunch worth the ferry line.

It is a family-friendly room with a full bar, and it sits close enough to the historic district to fold into a Strand afternoon.

Where: 327 23rd St, Galveston, TX 77550

5. Snoopy’s Pier in Corpus Christi

Commercial fisherman Ernie Butler and his wife Corliss bought a bait stand and burger joint with a 600-foot pier in 1980, right as the Redfish Wars ended commercial netting in Texas bays. They turned it into a seafood restaurant, and the pier is still there.

Snoopy’s keeps its own fish house and shrimp breading operation on site, so the fried shrimp basket is the order. Light batter, sweet Gulf shrimp, a pile of fries, and a picnic table facing the Laguna Madre.

Scoopy’s, the ice cream and coffee shop next door, belongs to the same family. A scoop on the pier after a shrimp basket is the local move, and the walk between the two takes about twenty steps.

One Tripadvisor reviewer wrote that they “died and went to heaven” over the raw oysters. Time it for sunset. The sky over the water does the rest.

Where: 13313 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78418

6. King’s Inn in Riviera

Down a county road on Baffin Bay, about an hour south of Corpus Christi, sits a restaurant that has been feeding fishermen since the 1930s. Blanche “Mom” Wright opened it as Orlando’s, it became King’s Inn in 1945, and it has stayed in one family since.

There is no printed menu. Your server recites what came in, and the food lands family style: a plate of sliced tomatoes with the house tartar sauce first, then platters of colossal fried shrimp, lightly floured and fried until they snap. The avocado salad is the side everyone remembers.

Sides come in bowls meant for the whole table, and when your server offers fried oysters or drum, say yes. Nobody leaves hungry, and nobody leaves without a story about the tartar sauce.

Shrimp and fish are sold by the pound here, not the plate, and the onion rings arrive in a heap that covers the platter. Order a pound of shrimp for every two people and let the rings fill the gaps.

Old rules still hold here. Gentlemen are asked to remove their caps. Call ahead for a reservation, because the dining room fills on weekends with people who drove two hours for shrimp.

Where: 1116 E County Rd 2270, Riviera, TX 78379

7. Sea Ranch Restaurant in South Padre Island

Sea Ranch has been the island’s special-occasion seafood house since the 1970s, and the menu still changes with whatever the boats bring in. This is where island families go for anniversaries and where anglers go to celebrate a good day.

The house specialty is red snapper, wild caught and certified under the Gulf Wild sustainability program.

You choose the fish whole or as a fillet, then choose how it is cooked: fried, char-grilled, broiled, blackened, pan-grilled or Cubano style. I would go whole and grilled, so the skin crisps and the meat stays sweet.

It sits at the foot of Padre Boulevard, so the drive in from the causeway ends right at the front door.

Where: 1 Padre Blvd, South Padre Island, TX 78597

8. Sea Island Shrimp House in San Antonio

Dan and Chrissy Anthony and their friend Henry Reed opened the first Sea Island at the corner of Rector and McCullough in 1965.

Sixty years on, the family still runs it. Dan and Chrissy’s youngest son Barclay is the CEO, and there are now seven locations around San Antonio and New Braunfels.

The signature is the charbroiled shrimp, which the menu bills as World Famous. Big Gulf shrimp hit the grill with a buttery seasoning and come off smoky and just charred at the edges. The colossal fried shrimp and lemon pepper fish are the other two dishes regulars fight over.

Did you know? For the sixtieth anniversary, they ran a 1965 Special combo plate for $19.65. Start at the original on Rector for the full effect.

Where: 322 W Rector St, San Antonio, TX 78216

9. Quality Seafood Market in Austin

On January 27, 1938, an ad in the Austin American announced “Austin’s Newest and Modern Sea Food Market,” a stall in Starr’s Fruit and Vegetable Market across from the Capitol. Chester Husted bought the business in 1958 and moved it to Airport Boulevard in 1970, where it still sits.

It is half fish market, half no-frills restaurant, and the oysters are the reason it makes this list. Order them raw on the half shell or grilled, and check the happy hour for peel-and-eat shrimp. The fish tacos have a following of their own.

One Tripadvisor reviewer titled their write-up “Best Seafood in Austin,” which for a landlocked city is a real compliment.

Where: 5621 Airport Blvd, Austin, TX 78751

10. Rex’s Seafood and Market in Dallas

Rex Bellomy Sr. opened a fresh seafood market on Lovers Lane in 2006. His son Beau, who started working the counter as a teenager, grew it into a full-service restaurant on Northwest Highway near NorthPark, with a proper seafood case and a full raw bar.

The fried oysters are the dish I would cross town for, cornmeal crisp and briny inside, followed by the crab cakes and hush puppies. Regulars on the restaurant’s own site rave about the snapper and the clam and mussel bowls.

In 2023 the Bellomys bought S&D Oyster Company on McKinney Avenue too, so Dallas seafood is now very much a family affair.

Where: 6713 W Northwest Hwy, Dallas, TX 75225

11. Fish City Grill in Allen

In 1995 Bill Bayne bought his neighborhood coffee shop in Dallas’ Snider Plaza and turned it into a twelve-table oyster bar.

He and Lovett Bayne grew that into Fish City Grill, now 17 restaurants across Texas. The Watters Creek location in Allen is the one people north of Dallas rate highest.

Order the tacos. The fish tacos come with well-seasoned fillets and fresh toppings, and the shrimp tacos are just as popular. Then read the chalkboard, where the kitchen writes up limited-run specials built on whatever Gulf seafood arrived that day.

Tip: the Mystic Mermaid oysters and the blackened catfish are the two chalkboard regulars worth asking about.

The Baynes also run Half Shells Oyster Bar, the sister concept with the same kitchen playbook, so if the Allen room is packed you have a backup with the same Gulf oysters on ice.

Where: 1015 Watters Creek Blvd, Suite 150, Allen, TX 75013

Plan Your Texas Seafood Road Trip

Eleven restaurants, one very good excuse to drive. You could string the coast together in a long weekend, from Gaido’s crab-topped roof down to King’s Inn on Baffin Bay, and still have the inland stops waiting for you.

One more thing. Ratings change, but the families behind these kitchens mostly do not. Gaido’s is on its fourth generation, King’s Inn has been in one family since 1945, and the Anthonys still run Sea Island after sixty years. A star rating cannot quite capture that kind of consistency.

Bring an appetite and a cooler, because most of these places will sell you fresh shrimp to take home. Then pick one, book a table, and go find out why Texans rate it so highly.

Featured image: Michelle Sauceda via Topwater Grill