Aqui Gets a Chef

Award-winning Austin chef taps two rising stars for eagerly-awaited Houston restaurant

Aqui will open this summer.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Paul Qui, the James Beard Award-winning Austin-based chef, has made two major hires for Aqui, his restaurant that will open in Montrose this summer. As he did when he announced his involvement with the project, Qui teased the hires on Instagram, posting this photo Monday night:

team @eataquihouston menu workshop :)

A post shared by paul qui (@pqui) on

Apr 24, 2017 at 5:28pm PDT

The two chefs seen in the picture, Gabriel Medina and Niki Vongthong, will serve as Aqui's chef de cuisine and sous chef, according to a restaurant industry source. The two chefs are working with Qui to develop a menu that will focus on "wood and wok cooking with a heavy emphasis on meats and seafood," as well as a raw bar, according to a statement the chef provided to the Houston Chronicle.

Medina's name will likely be familiar to diners. Prior to his current role as the executive chef at Bosta Kitchen in the Museum District, Medina served as chef de cuisine at Kata Robata and executive chef at Soma Sushi, where he developed several acclaimed bowls of ramen. After leaving Soma in 2015, Medina spent a year at Tokyo's famous Narisawa restaurant, which is currently ranked 18th in world by the prestigious World's 50 Best list.

In addition to his impressive resume, Medina's Filipino heritage also makes him a fit for Aqui. An image that Qui posted of a possible Aqui tasting menu included a number of Filipino dishes.

Vongthong has less of a public profile, but she comes to Aqui after working as a sous chef at Uchi Houston and has also hosted pop-ups at both Glitter Karaoke and Wooster's Garden where she served Thai-style boat noodles. Her current job ties her to Qui's professional history. Qui first rose to prominence when he won a season of Top Chef during his time as the chef de cuisine at Uchiko.

CultureMap contacted Qui's representatives for more information about his decision to hire Medina and Vongthong but has yet to receive a reply. Medina politely declined to comment on his new role.

Even a year after his arrest on assault charges, Qui remains a controversial figure. A review in the Austin Chronicle that suggested Qui had "redeemed" himself through the high quality food served at Kuneho, the restaurant that replaced Qui, drew strong criticism on social media. Whether Qui's past will influence Houstonians' decision to dine there remains to be seen, but hiring two accomplished chefs for Aqui certainly puts the project on a strong culinary footing.

chefs

fit to print

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

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

undefined

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.

news-you-can-eat media