Restaurant Review: ChòpnBlok in Houston

Fast casual restaurants that specialize in bowls deliver efficiency, convenience and I associate them with quick lunches in conference rooms, but not usually with joy until I went to ChòpnBlok in Houston. Ope Amosu’s restaurant specializes in fast casual bowls, but they are full of West African flavors. One of my favorite dishes was the red stew, made from a base of peppers and onions with this kind of smoky fluorescence from palm oil, and it’s served with sweet, chewy plantains and a heap of rice and beans. There’s some really fun cocktails that kind of feel like an instant vacation. Frozen drinks come out of the slushie machine at the bar. There’s an irie punch made with two kinds of rum. There’s some really delicious buttery meat pies. There’s suya, made with halal beef, grilled so that the outside is brown, but the inside is still blushing and pink. Another great bowl is the Black Star, which comes with yassa, a Senegalese curry, and a bunch of super peppery shrimp. A bowl doesn’t have to just be about efficiency and convenience, it can also be about joy.