RESTAURANT

Paul’s Seafood offers tremendous food and a friendly atmosphere led by owner Maan Darwish along with Dewanda Carter and Christian Carter.

PAUL’S SEAFOOD BRINGS GREAT FOOD AND ATMOSPHERE

By Van Wade • Photos by Van Wade

VVIDOR – If a family wants to get a quick getaway to find some amazing seafood in a relaxing atmosphere, then Paul’s Seafood in Vidor is a superb place to make the taste buds rise up and take notice and the atmosphere and service is top-notch as well.

Paul’s Seafood, located at 7226 Highway 12 between Vidor and Mauriceville, was started by the late Paul Malin in 2010. Malin passed away of cancer shortly after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 but his fiancé Dwanda Carter and family has kept the business going and flourishing.

“This restaurant was Paul’s dream and we continued to help my baby’s dream stay alive,” said Carter. “He would be so proud of us.”

Carter is selling the business to long-time family friend Maan Darwish, who will look to keep the business thriving.

Christian Carter stands in front of the lunch specials of the day at Paul’s Seafood in front of a nice aquatic setup.

“We’re going to keep it going, business as usual,” said Darwish. “We have the freshest seafood around and we will continue to keep our customers satisfied.”

“Maan will do great things with the business,” said Carter. “He knows what it is all about. Paul was the most amazing man ever and he took half my heart with him. My son Christian (Carter) is going to still be involved here at the restaurant and he just loves this place.”

Diners can kick back on the porch of the log cabin-styled design of the restaurant or they can dine inside.

The porch is larger than the inside of the structure and there are plenty of picnic tables in the open-air dining area.

The aroma of fried shrimp and fried fish awaken the nose senses, making you want to bite into the amazing seafood as soon as you enter.

When you get inside, there is a superb looking aquatic mural and a nautically themed totem pole, which makes you feel like you are right at home or even on a fishing boat.

There is so much that is offered on the menu that can fill up anyone in the family, even a hungry dad.

“We’ve always offered a wide variety, that’s for sure,” said Carter. “The seafood platter has always been the favorite, and it will definitely fill anyone up.”

All of their dinners come with two sides and hush puppies.

Some of Paul’s featured dinner plates include catfish, shrimp, oysters, scallops, frog legs, BBQ crabs, stuffed crabs, boiled shrimp and crab cakes.

They also have seafood combo meals along with family meal deals.

They are well-known for their crab cakes along with their fish tacos.

Also available are the non-seafood items such as hamburgers and steak dinners. The Surf N Turf is popular that features an eight-ounce sirloin and six shrimp.

They also make some delicious Po-Boys that include shrimp, oyster, catfish, mahi-mahi and scallop.

Paul’s also serves sandwiches such as patty melts, Philly cheese steak and BLTs and they also have wonderful salads like chicken salad and garden salad.

There are plenty of “starters” as well like boudain balls, cheese sticks, cream cheese

poppers, egg rolls and fried pickles.

Paul’s Seafood also has a Seafood-To-Go Market as they

sell items raw by the pound and crawfish boiled or live in season by the pound.

Paul’s is also known to play host to several local bands that come and set up on the porch to play for patrons. It’s been the first Thursday of each month but when crawfish season comes along there are even more live performances as customers get their bellies full of the mudbugs.

Many people across the area know how nice and quaint dining can be at Paul’s. It may be off the beaten path but the atmosphere is superb, the food is great, and it’s a tremendous restaurant to just kick back and enjoy a staff with amazing hospitality.

Paul’s Seafood hours are generally 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information and to get pick-up orders, the phone number for Paul’s Seafood is (409) 745-3379. 