First Taste

Destination dining in Sugar Land? Blu's sexy sauces give Inner Loopers reason tovisit

The red snapper dish — head included — was worth the trouble it took to eat it.
Chef Jett Hurapan
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Blu Restaurant/Lounge

According to executive chef Junnajet "Jett" Hurapan, one of the main reasons he left Gigi's Asian Bistro was so that he could broaden his culinary repertoire beyond East Asian fare to dishes with global influences. That's what the chef did in New York as executive chef of Ruby Foo's and in Atlantic City at Buddakan, and that's the menu that Hurapan has created at Blu Restaurant and Lounge.

Tucked inside Sugar Land's massive Town Square complex, Blu has a smallish open floor plan, modern fixtures and a huge, illuminated bar spanning the length of the space — with the exception of the ubiquitous flat screen televisions (a leftover from the previous sports bar tenant) it's not hard to see how the restaurant morphs into a lounge in the late evening. But despite a vaguely clubbish style, Blu doesn't feel too slick.

It seems lately every new restaurant seems to lay claim to a vegetable with a dish that no one can match. Blu can lay claim to eggplant superiority.

On warm weekend evenings, the restaurant slides open the doors separating the interior from the patio and Hurapan grills tacos and sliders street-style.

The menu at Blu is described as "Euro-Asian" and includes everything from ceviche to falafel to polenta. Despite the variety, more than half of the entrees reflect Hurapan's South Asian origins, and it's those dishes that I was most excited to try.

I'm usually wary of samosas — I've found they have a tendency towards density when not prepared well — but the lamb samosa appetizer was just the right note to start. The flaky triangles were light, virtually bite-sized and paired with two outstanding homemade sauces offering varying degrees of spicy pain (in a good way).

I was less impressed with a mediocre version of oven-dried beef jerky with sriracha. The beef strips were a little too thick to make the texture workable, and the flavors were muted and totally overpowered by the chili sauce.

Ordered as an afterthought, the side of wok eggplant was the most beautiful dish of the night. Cooked eggplant is always pretty, but the purple has never seemed as vibrant as in this version, tossed in a chili basil sauce and served in a stainless steel bowl.

If the colors were lovely, the flavors were gorgeous. Softly sauteed, the eggplant's hint of sweetness was perfectly complemented by the chili sauce that managed to bring a light heat while balanced by the sweet soy, never letting the spice overpower the fresh notes of basil.

It seems lately every new restaurant seems to lay claim to a vegetable with a dish that no one can match, like Roost and cauliflower. I think Blu can lay claim to eggplant superiority.

If there was a low point in the meal, it was the quartet of edamame dumplings. The tapioca wrap combined with the mild flavor and texture of the soybeans was just a gelatinous mess.

In the entrees I quickly fell in love with the gooey flavors of the crispy fish. The plate features a nearly whole red snapper — head included — fried crispy and curved around a central repository of tomato, eggplant, onions and other veg, all tossed in a thick syrup of tamarind, chili and basil.

I found the snapper somewhat hard to eat. That is often my complaint when a fish on my plate has bones, because I'm delicate and impatient, but combined with a crispy skin it was particularly time-consuming to flake off the meat. Despite the extra effort required, the flavors and spices in the sauce were once again exceptional.

I also tried out the the mix-and-match wok bowls. Choosing between seven proteins (including scallops, beef and tofu) and five sauces, including pineapple red curry and the glorious Thai chili basil that was served with the eggplant. I paired chicken, served slightly dry, with a mild green curry that let notes of sweet, rich coconut take the lead.

At Blu, the inspiration and cultural origin behind many of the dishes is geographically diverse, but one thing they had in common was a particular focus on superb sauces with rich, bold flavors. Everything else on the plate served in a supporting role, and though the execution wasn't always perfect, most things worked.

When it comes to interesting dining destinations, Blu definitely brings something new to Sugar Land — something even Inner Loopers can appreciate.

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Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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