The Dirty Platter – Twenty pounds of seafood from Headz & Tailz Whisky Bar

The recently opened Cajun seafood restaurant known as Headz & Tailz Whiskey Bar has been around for less than a month but I wanted to revisit it simply for one reason: the Dirty Platter. I saw it on the menu when they first opened and would later see pictures of it on social media. I was joined by Lisa Nguyen and her friend. For many followers of this blog, you may know Lisa from her uber popular YouTube channel, Telehue Food and her constantly growing TikTok channel that has over a million followers. She’s also an avid lover of seafood and was also super excited to check it out.

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301 N. Washington St.
Wichita, KS 67202
316-364-4151

Tuesday – Saturday: 4pm – 9pm
Sunday: 2pm – 6pm
Closed on Monday

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The Dirty Platter is a big twenty pound bowl of seafood. In the big pot is crawfish, shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster and Dungeness crab. There’s also corn, sausage and potatoes thrown in the mix. All the seafood you could want is tossed in and made to order with the heat level you want. We went with medium and also asked for a bowl of their hot sauce to dip our seafood in.

To give you an idea of just how big the pot is, here’s the aftermath picture held by the owner.

Now here’s the before.

It was a glorious feast that kept the three of us busy for the next hour. It was a messy eat where we enjoyed every second of it. One of the biggest challenges for me where many people got a kick out of was trying to break the lobster claw open.

The staff handed a mallet to break it apart. I know my way around tools like I do relationships. I struggled immensely with the mallet and barely got it cracked open. But with hard work comes success. The end result was more delicious food.

The two favorite parts of the Dirty Platter for me were the lobster and mussels. It’s worth noting the Headz & Tailz sauce that is made onsite just takes the food to a whole new level. It was spicy but in a flavorful way with a hint of curry; just a very fragrant sauce that we all loved.

The three of us put the biggest dent we could in the bowl and still ended up with leftovers. I dropped it off over at my parents. My mother literally asked me if it was some special occasion. “No mom, I’m just trying to be a loving son.”

The Dirty Platter isn’t meant for just one to three people unless you’re a competitive eater. It’s excellent for parties of 6-12 people. What makes the platter special is it makes for an awesome experiential meal, a dish meant to be shared with others. Those are my favorite types of dinners; a ton of food surrounded by people who just engage with each other.

So, the big question now is, “What is the cost?” The Dirty Platter runs $200 and could fluctuate if seafood prices go up. I’m sure many people may gawk at the price but for what you get, you’re paying $10 per pound. You have to take into consideration the cost of seafood in the first place which isn’t cheap. The average cost of crawfish at most restaurants and pop-ups serving it cooked already is $11-13 a pound. Lobster by the pound is easily over $10 a pound. Throw in mussels, clams, shrimp and Dungeness crab and the $200 price tag isn’t bad at all….. IF you’re with a bunch of other people.

Probably the ideal number to share this platter with is 8-10 people. If you’re going out to eat seafood, you can already expect to pay around $20-25 a person which is what this ends up being. Just don’t do this with 2-3 people unless you’re ready to drop some coin like we did but it was worth it and we had zero regret.

With my birthday coming up, I’m always looking for fun experiential type dinners that can be enjoyed by all. There just might have to be a repeat of this in the near future.

Here’s the menu which they are still ironing out based on food availability:

Happy Dining,
Eddy

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