Blue, Navy Blue

Aaron Bludorn's team makes waves in Rice Village with true blue seafood restaurant

Chefif Mbjodi Victoria Pappas Aaron Bludorn Rice Village

Chefif Mbjodi, Victoria Pappas Bludorn, and Aaron Bludorn are bringing seafood to Rice Village.

Photo by Michael Anthony

The team behind Bludorn has revealed more details about their plans for Rice Village. Slated to open this fall, the new seafood restaurant will be called Navy Blue.

First announced last year, the new project will occupy the former Politan Row space at 2445 Times Blvd. Chef Aaron Bludorn will partner with his wife, Victoria Pappas Bludorn, and Bludorn general manager Cherif Mbodji on the project.

Bludorn has been a smash hit since it opened in the fall of 2020. Texas Monthly named it to its statewide best new restaurants lists for 2021, and chef Bludorn recently earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination in the Best Chef: Texas category.

Opening a seafood restaurant makes a certain amount of sense for the Bludorn team, as fish and shellfish have always been a major component of the restaurant's menu. No meal at Bludorn would be complete without oysters, which it serves raw, roasted, or fried. Sea urchin spaghetti, various salmon preparations, and a Gulf Coast take on cioppino have become diner favorites — to say nothing of the signature lobster pot pie.

Whether any of those exact dishes show up at Navy Blue remains to be seen, of course, but they inspire a certain amount of confidence that the new restaurant will be a welcome addition to an area that's mostly bereft of seafood options other than Gratify Neighborhood and Goode Co. Seafood. Details like design, whether it will be open for lunch, etc. will be revealed as the opening becomes more imminent.

“We look forward to sharing more details about the restaurant and the team behind it as the new concept takes shape in the coming months. We thank you for your interest, as always,” Mbodji said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to be part of the Houston restaurant industry and all who make it so incredibly dynamic, and we are thankful to all who have welcomed us with open arms.”

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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