Please note: Happy Boil Seafood House has closed on Mercer Island – as of June 2022.
The nautical decor and bright, blue walls telegraph the focus of the Happy Boil Seafood House, which replaced Tiger Garden in early 2022, bringing Casian (Asian-Cajun) seafood boils to Mercer Island. The crossover cuisine came out of the Gulf Coast, where Vietnamese immigrants worked in the fishing industry, eventually creating a hybrid of local crawfish and shrimp boils and the big, spicy flavors of their own culinary heritage.
Happy Boil’s eponymous dish comes with corn, potatoes, and a variety of seafood options, including shrimp, three types of crab, lobster, and crawfish. Diners then get to pick their flavor (house special, garlic butter, Cajun, and lemon pepper), and preferred spice level, from not at all to extra hot.
Along with the boils, the restaurant offers plenty of fried options (both as appetizers and in seafood and chips baskets), and, leaning toward the Asian origins of the cuisine, a few types of fried rice, which is where non-seafood eaters will find an option, as well as on the kids’ menu.
Happy Boil Seafood House is located at 2885 78th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA. Learn more at www.happyboilseafoodhouse.com.
Photo credit: Happy Boil Seafood House
