surf's up(town)

New seafood restaurant freshens up familiar Uptown space with light, coastal fare and expansive patio

The owners of Galleria Italian restaurant il Bracco have more plans for Houston. Balboa Surf Club, a new seafood restaurant from the Dallas-based Western Addition Restaurant Group, will open later this spring.

Described as a Pacific-inspired seafood restaurant, Balboa will occupy the former Masraff’s space that’s also located in the Post Oak Plaza shopping center that’s already home to il Bracco. Western Addition is working with the Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (Uchi, Da Gama) on the design, which will feature an expansive, 1,200-square-foot covered patio that includes a water feature. Other design details include an open fireplace and artwork collected by Western Addition CEO Robert Quick and his wife Mary, Western Addition’s vice president of design.

Western Addition COO Matt Gottlieb tells CultureMap that the company sees an opportunity for a restaurant that’s a little different from the steakhouses and other fine dining restaurants that are popular in the Galleria area. A seafood restaurant will appeal to diners looking for a lighter option for both lunch and dinner, he explains.

“We love seafood,” Gottlieb says. “Balboa is a little different style than we’re seeing done anywhere else. The seafood restaurants we find in Houston are great, but I think our style is a little bit different, a little bit fresher.”

While he isn’t ready to share specific dishes until the menu is finalized, dishes will be influenced by California and Mexico's Pacific coast. A selection of different kinds of sushi will help provide the lighter, fresher options that the restaurant aims to serve. Diners can also expect entree-sized salads, sandwiches that utilized bread baked on-site, and Prime steaks.

Courtesy of Western Addition

An expansive patio will include a water feature.

Since Balboa will do all of its butchering in-house, it will be able to serve different preparations of fish, such as a “baseball cut” swordfish that will be cooked medium rare. Gottlieb says he’s working with the restaurant’s seafood purveyors to supply fresh Pacific swordfish at least six months out of the year.

Some of the lessons learned from opening il Bracco will be applied to Balboa. Known for its elegant, midcentury-inspired dining room and dishes such as spicy gemelli pasta and chicken piccata, the Italian restaurant has been bustling since its August opening. Gottlieb acknowledges that the extent to which Houstonians have embraced the restaurant being open all day has been a pleasant surprise.

“We really enjoy the different times people like to dine and the business throughout the evening,” he says.

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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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