Jambeto's

609 Dulles, Stafford, TX

All over the area the food scene in the burbs is taking off.  Sugar Land, Katy and The Woodlands have all been noted but you don’t hear much about Stafford except maybe on this blog.  While there are no celebrity chef-driven restaurants in Stafford yet, over the past year I’ve been pleasantly surprised  by the food and the diversity of ethnic cuisines at numerous restaurants.  The little stretch of Dulles just south of US 90-A, the continuation of South Main Street from Houston if you’re unfamiliar, has undergone a remarkable transformation in just the last few months with new outposts of Chinatown stalwarts Don Café and Parisian Bakery and Sandwiches and this new Filipino bakery and café.

I’ve eaten at a half dozen Filipino places around the southwest side of town over the last couple of years.  I can’t claim any great love of the cuisine nor knowledge but every time I see a picture of pancit, I want it. It’s the rice noodles that ring my Pavlovian chimes and so it was that after coming across this place online I immediately shelved my plans to try a North African version of pizza and headed down to Jambeto’s for dinner one night.

There was some miscommunication and they fixed my order to go but no problem, I just settled into one of the handful of tables and dug in.  It’s a small place with a very small café menu, perhaps more of a bakery than a café, stylish and spic and span in a brand new strip center across from Dulles Hi.  There are a half dozen varieties of pancit on the menu, I went for the recommended chicken and shrimp but next time I think I’d just opt for the shrimp.  Not that there was anything wrong with the chicken but why pass up the opportunity for twice as much shrimp?  The dish included green beans, cabbage, carrots and celery and came with a calamondin and a packet of soy sauce and there was banana sauce on the tables, too.  Apparently you can eat the whole calamondin, skin and all - I did not know that.

The empanadas here are snack sized, smaller than a golf ball, and are baked and there are some other tasty looking snacks including lumpia.

I haven’t had much of a sweet tooth for several years now but that has been changing of late and I spent several minutes drooling over the pastry case.  Next time, one of those cakes or some cookies is going home with me.   Check out there Facebook page for more pictures.

Jambeto's