HOUSTON – Good Friday is the last Friday of Lent, when many Catholics abstain from eating meat. It's why seafood is popular this time of year. And on Good Friday, foodies are looking for their crawfish fix.
Consumer Expert Amy Davis went on the hunt for the best prices and best restaurants to satisfy your Good Friday crawfish cravings.
The crawfish are crawling at Calliope's on West Bellfort near Fondren, where owner Celine Lee is getting ready for big crowds.
"On Good Fridays, we see more large parties, like families, especially at night," she said.
A mild winter and a lot of rain made for more crawfish earlier in the year. Calliope's started serving them in January. The supply has held steady, and the size of the crawfish this season is impressive.
"Some of them look more like lobsters than like crawfish or mudbugs," Lee said.
Boiled crawfish at Calliope's will cost you $6.99 a pound. That's about a buck less than last year for bigger crawfish. KPRC 2 found that is the average going price for boiled mudbugs in and around Houston this Good Friday.
Bluewater Seafood in the Champions area has them for the same price as well as LA Crawfish, which has 10 locations.
BB's Cafe has the highest price of the places we checked at $7.95 a pound.
You'll pay less at The Boot on West 20th Street in the Heights, where crawfish is $6.50 a pound, and $5.95 a pound if you order 15 pounds or more from the Crawfish Shack in Crosby.
The lowest price we found is at Wild Cajun, with three locations -- two on Wilcrest and one on Bellaire. If you order boiled crawfish between noon and 4 p.m., you'll pay just $4.99 a pound.
Wherever you get your fix, Lee says come hungry and come early.
"You don't want to wait too late in the day because we might run out," she said.