A familiar name has joined the list of beloved Texas restaurant locations that are now gone: P&J Seafood has closed its original Groves dining room after 25 years. The family business is not disappearing, but the address where generations first learned its mix of Gulf Coast seafood and Vietnamese flavors has served its final customers.
The Hoang family opened P&J in Groves in 2001, describing the restaurant as a dream that could support their family while they served others. The company’s official website now confirms that the Groves location is closed and operations have moved to the newer Port Neches restaurant, about five miles away. The family did not publicly give a specific reason for consolidating the business.
Twenty-five years in Groves
For a quarter-century, the small restaurant on Pure Atlantic Road offered food that felt both deeply local and unmistakably personal. Fried shrimp, catfish and oysters spoke to Southeast Texas seafood traditions, while homemade Vietnamese eggrolls reflected the Hoang family’s own culinary roots. Gumbo, po’boys, burgers and combination platters rounded out a menu designed for hearty appetites.
The kitchen’s promise was straightforward: food arrived hot, crisp and cooked to order. Family-sized fish and shrimp meals made P&J an easy choice when several people needed feeding, while individual baskets and sandwiches kept it practical for lunch or takeout. That consistency turned first-time visitors into regulars and helped the Groves storefront endure for 25 years.
A closing that does not erase the restaurant
P&J added its Port Neches location on Nall Street in September 2025. With the original restaurant now closed, that newer dining room carries the family business forward six days a week. Customers can still order the familiar fried seafood, gumbo, po’boys and eggrolls, even though the place tied to the restaurant’s earliest memories has changed.
The Groves building is already beginning its next chapter. La Salsitas On The Go, from the team behind a Port Arthur Mexican restaurant, plans to bring breakfast and lunch to the former seafood space. No opening date had been announced when the change was revealed, but the incoming operators acknowledged the history of the address and the expectations that come with following a longtime favorite.
Why customers will miss the original
The Hoangs called leaving Groves bittersweet, and the reaction from diners made clear why. Customers remembered years of friendly faces, reliable meals and orders that became family routines. Some promised to follow P&J to Port Neches; others said the new restaurant could be just as good while still admitting that the original carried a special kind of nostalgia.
That is the complicated shape of this goodbye. P&J Seafood remains open, its recipes and family ownership intact, but the Groves location where the dream began in 2001 is gone. After 25 years, one dining room has closed while the larger story continues nearby—an ending softened by the fact that customers can still find the food and family they loved.
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