Jonathan’s Grill

The place is a little hard to find. It’s in a cafeteria that looks a little run down.
Lumpia — I love lumpia! This was pretty good and for the price they gave you a lot.
BBQ on a stick — Forgettable. Dried out.
Shrimp palabok — The sauce was very thick and the noodles were thin. This caused all the noodles to break.
I’m not too familiar with Filipino food, but I like the lumpia and palabok. Next time I’ll have to try the sisig.
I think the map is tricky. I feel like it’s further in the back, not right next to the freeway.

Ordered Chicken Adobo. Incredibly delicious. Chicken was crispy and saucy. The adobe sauce was yummy and drizzled over the rice too. Perfect! I decided to try a new coconut drink with coconut bits. Sweetness was just right. Highly recommended.

Open cafeteria style food court. Love it!
Their spaghetti and barbecue on a stick are awesome :)
The lumpiang shanghai… YUM

We were super excited about having some nice sisig and Pinoy dishes. Unfortunately we were a little disappointed after driving across town to try it out. The adobo chicken was very good, the palobok was just ok as was the sisig. For the sisig the onions had been thrown in at the end and were on the raw side. Also the sisig was not brown and crispy as I had been hoping. The restaurant is in the sleepy international food court at the opposite end of the strip from the Viet hoa food market. The service was quick and friendly. Overall the food was ok, service was good and the price was a bit high.

Food is very salty but the owner is really friendly. Her pork BBQ was pretty good and the Tocino was good too but the rice was horrible and it is a bit pricy for the quality. I did enjoy the tinola soup and that is why I gave it 3 stars. The location is weird and hard to get to.

Bbque chicken and fried chicken the best!!! Also, the staff is nice. They give you good disposable utensils, good when you eat meat.

Felt like the lady cashier wasn’t having it today… didn’t like that vibe at all. But the guy was pretty nice.

My family and I come/​order from here pretty often. They make consistently great food and provide great service. They have catered a few of my family’s events. Love love love their spaghetti!
Another positive thing is that it’s in a great location, as it in the same plaza as an Asian grocery store.
An awesome place for authentic and delicious Filipino food.

Thank you Tita for creating this place!
Jonathan and his family are always so sweet whenever I come. They have really good filipino food, considering that the Houston Filipino Food market is scarce. Thank goodness.
Palabok 4÷5− This palabok is good, they use a thinner noodle, and it is much saucier. I am so used to the big noodle and would like it to have some more egg/​shrimp, which I hope they will consider.
Chiccaron (Pork rinds) — ⁵⁄₅ Um, I really hope they restock in some of their own homemade chicharones, because theirs is the BEST. It has the crispy fat taste that clogs my arteries into a bliss. Definitely a treat.
BBQ on a stick– ⁵⁄₅ By FAR, the best bbq on a stick filipino style that I have tasted in filipino restaurants
Yea yea, it’s a little pricey, but it’s quality.
And their chicken salad is pretty awesome.

Do you know what Pancit Palabok is? If you do — GET IT HERE! Other than my mom’s, it is the best I’ve ever had here. You have to like it with thin noodles and deliciously saucy. I crave this dish here and it’s a staple so you can get it anytime!
Other goodies — shanghai (filipino eggrolls) and when they have kare kare (oxtail in peanut butter sauce).

Came this past weekend with my husband and loved the food. It was this place or another spot, which will remain nameless on this review, and this place hands down was better. We had a plate from here and the other spot. You always know how good the food is going to be from the rice texture. This rice was so fresh and not too sticky=perfect. I had the bbq stick and sisig. The sisig was just tangy and spicy for my taste. The other place was not even close to being as good.
Definitely come here again. About time more filipino spots opened up.

I have worked about a block from this place for a few years and never tried it until the other day for lunch. It’s in a food court so it’s not a sit-​down restaurant and the prices are very reasonable but that doesn’t stop the food from being really, really good.
The day I decided to try it out, I was in the mood for some grilled meats so I got a couple of barbeque port skewers and some Shanghai Lumpiang. I’m not sure what they put in that barbeque sauce but it was exactly what I wanted without really knowing it. The sauce is an interesting combination of sweet and savory and the grilling technique carmelizes it perfectly. I was surprised with such a huge plate of the Shanghai Lumpiang. Way too many for one person so I took a lot home with me. They didn’t last either.
I enjoyed the food so much that I returned the next day with two co-​workers. I had to try the Chicken Adobo after seeing the full-​color photos of the menu items displayed at the counter. Again, it was like it was precisely what I was seeking without really knowing it. A quarter fried chicken (breast and wing) in a savory brown sauce and served with white rice. Pretty simple yet very tasty.
It’s too bad our company moved out of the area last weekend or I’d have been coming here at least once a week for lunch.

I came here soley for the fact that they have Lumpia, the reviews seemed pretty decent and I was craving and missing the Lumpia my old co-​workers would make for parties and potlucks in the office from back home. Living in California, just about anywhere you work, someone either makes lumpia or they know someone who does so it’s usually pretty easy to find. After moving to Houston, I keep looking for food favorites that remind me of home. Jonathan’s Grill had some great Lumpia and I also tried their BBQ Pork Skewer. The Lumpia looked a little different and it didnt have the little see-​thru rice noodles that are usually in it, but overall the taste was pretty spot on. The portion of lumpia they give you is awesome. I think I had like 20 little lumpia eggrolls. It was too much to eat, so it was easy to share with co-​workers who have never experienced filipino food. Overall my experience was great, and I would definetly come back.

I’m not Filipino, so I may have no idea what I’m talking about, but I enjoyed the food here. There’s not much Filipino food in Houston, so I hope this place sticks around for awhile.
I’ve had the sisig and pork barbeque skewer plate twice. My Filipino fiancé thinks the sisig has too much vinegar, though I think it has just enough acidity to enjoy with a side of rice. It’s slightly spicy, and there are just enough crunchy bits in it to create the perfect texture. The barbeque is good too, not too saucy, and the sauce has just the right amount of sweetness and tang.
We also tried the turon, which are bananas wrapped in a crispy pastry shell, fried and glazed with brown sugar. I thought this was just okay, but I can imagine that they’re probably pretty amazing fresh and hot.

Hellllloooo Filipinos!!!
So I had no idea that sisig was pig ears until I saw that post below me. I had no idea, and it was still delicious! I had their pork bbq (which was a bit pricey), but still very tasty! I love the calamansi drink, and the friendly staff! I wish the dishes were a little cheaper, but at least their quality is a lot better than some other filipino restaurants I have been to.

This was my first time at a Filipino restaurant. I decided to stop here for a quick lunch. The lumpia shanghai egg rolls were pretty good, but expensive. For 20 tiny egg rolls (about the length of my thumb), the price was nearly $ 9. For lunch, I find this to be a bit pricey, especially since there was no other food with the meal. For what it’s worth, I probably would go back again and try the rest of the food.
This restaurant is in a food court at the very end of the Viet Hoa strip, so you have your choice of vendors. I did notice someone was setting up for a huge birthday party (tablecloths, balloons, etc) at over half of the tables, if this gives you an idea of how little business this food court has, with only about 3 open food stalls on a Sunday afternoon. Hopefully this restaurant will stay open for a while.

This was my first experience with eating Filipino food so I don’t have much else to compare it to. Well, I did date a Filipino guy in high school but his mama didn’t make food like this!
We sorta came last minute to an event that Michelle V so kindly planned for about 10 of us. The staff was very friendly and attentive. Everything was family style so we just picked at each plate. My favorite item was the pork BBQ skewers and pretty much everyone else agreed. The meat used for those was very juicy and not a trace of fat on them. I also really enjoyed the Palabok, which was rice noodles with fresh shrimp, ground pork and hard boiled eggs with a thick sorta sweet sauce. Oh, and of course there was all the yummy crispy lumpia. I think four of us ordered lumpia so we had a lot to take home with us. We all were surprised when the bill came and it was only $ 8 per person. That was a pretty great deal since we were all very full and had a lot of leftover entrees to take home in addition to all the lumpia .
Finding this place can be a little tricky because it’s located in a food court inside a huge shopping center on the edge of Bellaire Chinatown. It looks like they may do some type of catering or buffet service because they had a buffet on the side but all the pans were empty that Sunday afternoon.

Michelle V brought of few a Unilocalers to this hidden Filipino food spot in Chinatown. We were lucky to have someone familiar to the food to guide us through our food experience! The staff were very friendly and brought our food out to the table. The lumpia were good but after about 4 – 5 I felt a bit queasy from the grease. My husband had the same problem. Food here is definitely full of grease. The best thing I had were the pork skewers. They come on long bamboo skewers and are covered in a sweet bbq type sauce. They were very delicious! The pancit was ok, it was the first time I’d had it so I have nothing to compare it to.
This is in a food court, so just be aware of that when you are heading there. I bet they do a ton of take out business. While we were there, a guy walked in and stole the tip jar from the counter. Some guys ran after him but didn’t catch him. So, make sure to keep your belongings with you at all times!

ok, they are definitely winning me over. I stopped a couple weekends ago to check out their lumpia Shanghai (fried eggrolls) to possibly order for a housewarming I’m having, and they were SO good. Very porky and crunchy. Plus, the owner knew I was a new face so he gave me a turron for free.
When I walked in the food court was filled with a Filipino kids birthday party, and Jonathan’s had catered all the food and decorated tables, set up A/​V for their music and a video of the celebrants, they just set up everything. That many Filipinos in one place? It made me homesick.
This is going to be one of my regular spots. And we did end up ordering 200 lumpia here for my party, and our 30 guests – not a single Pinoy among them but me – finished all but a lucky few which I saved for our lunch the next day. Yum!

The International food court in the Viet Hoa shopping center just got revived.
The Filipino dishes here stem from the Pampanga’s province in the Philippines. I’m probably not the best person to explain Filipino food /​culture so I won’t even bother.
My friend introduced me to sisig a few months ago and since then, I’ve been craving this dish non-​stop. When I went to San Francisco earlier this year, I made numerous trips to Daly City just for sisig. I was upset coming home because there were no places in Houston that served up good sisig and here comes Jonathan’s Grill to the rescue. Looks like i wasn’t the only one with those opinions because there were actually people in this abandoned food court. The owners were even telling me that they’ve had people waiting in lines for an hour just to eat here so that must be saying something.
Sisig is so bad for you but so damn good that I just can’t say no. The sisig here doesn’t disappoint at all, just make sure to get it with an egg. I’ve only been here once so I don’t have much to say about their other dishes but you might have to come early for the longsilog since they ran out of it by 3pm when I was there.
Can’t say that I have any spots that I go to on a weekly basis but looks like things are about to change. Definitely some good stuff.