Houston Asiatown food guide: eating along Bellaire Boulevard

Houston is a hugely diverse food city, and the stretch of Bellaire Boulevard southwest of downtown is where that shows most. Locals call it Asiatown or Chinatown, and it is a long corridor of shopping centers packed with restaurants, bakeries and markets. For a first-time visitor it can feel like too much. This guide gives you a way in.

What is Houston's Asiatown?

Asiatown runs along Bellaire Boulevard and the streets around it, with strip centers that hold Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese and Laotian restaurants, as well as supermarkets, bubble tea shops and bakeries. It grew as Houston's Asian communities settled in the southwest side of the city, and it has become the center of a local cuisine as well as a neighborhood. Because everything is spread over a wide area, you will want a car.

What is Viet-Cajun food?

Viet-Cajun is a Houston signature. Food writers trace it to the Gulf Coast, where Vietnamese refugees settled and adapted the seafood boil of Louisiana with garlic, butter, lemongrass and chile. In Houston, large Vietnamese and Cajun communities helped it grow. You order crawfish, shrimp or crab by the pound in a bag, choose a spice level, and eat with your hands at a table covered in paper.

Crawfish is seasonal, generally late winter through early summer, and the menu shifts toward crab in the cooler months, according to restaurant guides. Check the season, because the best crawfish is at its peak in spring.

What should you eat besides Viet-Cajun?

• Pho and bun bo hue, the beef noodle soups of Vietnam.
• Banh mi sandwiches and Vietnamese coffee.
• Sichuan dishes such as mapo tofu and dan dan noodles.
• Dim sum, usually served on weekend mornings and into the early afternoon.
• Korean barbecue and Japanese ramen in the neighboring centers.
• Fruit shaved ice, egg waffles and bakery buns for dessert.

Plan around one or two meals, not ten. A good first visit is a bakery stop in the morning, a bowl of pho at lunch and a seafood boil for dinner.

How do you get dim sum?

Weekend mornings are busiest, and some of the large banquet halls fill with families by 10 a.m. You may be given a number and asked to wait. Carts or paper order forms vary by restaurant. Arrive early, bring a group, share everything and order a mix of steamed, fried and baked dishes. Ask for tea, which is part of the meal.

When is the best time to visit?

Weekday lunch is the quietest time. Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday lunch can bring long waits at popular places, and large groups should call ahead where a restaurant takes reservations. Lunar New Year is a lively time with special menus, but some businesses close for a few days, so check the hours. Crawfish peaks in spring, and weekend lines follow.

How do you manage parking and getting around?

Most strip centers have shared lots that fill at peak hours. Drive slowly, watch for pedestrians and be ready to park a block away. Rideshares are easy, but a car gives you freedom to stop at a market on the way home. Many businesses are cash-friendly, and some small bakeries and stands prefer cash, so carry some.

What about allergies and dietary needs?

Shellfish, peanuts, soy, wheat and sesame are common in the cuisines here. If you have a serious allergy, tell your server before you order and ask about shared oils and sauces. Vegetarian food is available at Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants, including Buddhist-style vegetarian menus, but broths and sauces can contain fish sauce or shrimp paste, so ask.

What should you tip?

At a sit-down restaurant, 18 to 20 percent of the pre-tax total is the usual custom in Houston. At a bakery counter or a boba shop, a tip is optional. At a large banquet hall with a big group, check whether a service charge has been added to the check.

How do you order a seafood boil?

Choose the seafood first, such as crawfish, shrimp, snow crab or blue crab, and the weight. Then pick a sauce, usually garlic butter, lemon pepper, Cajun or a house blend, and a spice level. Mild at a Houston boil is still warm, so start low. Add corn, potatoes and sausage, which absorb the sauce. Expect to wear a bib, use your hands and pay for extra napkins. Bring wet wipes. A boil is best shared, so go with a group.

What can you buy to take home?

The supermarkets along Bellaire Boulevard are an attraction in themselves. Fresh noodles, sauces, snacks, tea, produce you may not have seen and a huge fish counter fill the aisles. Bakeries sell pineapple buns, egg tarts and mooncakes at festival time. Buy a few sauces and a bag of shrimp chips, and you have a gift to bring back.

Want to keep a list of your Houston favorites?

Mosey is a food-first app where diners find places by dish, mood and neighborhood and rate what they actually ate. If you are working through Bellaire Boulevard, a rating for each bowl and each boil will help you remember where to return.

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• Where to eat in Green Bay on a Packers game day
• Dane County Farmers' Market in Madison: a Saturday eating guide

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