jollibee restaurant review essay

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You don’t have to be a Philippine expat to appreciate the unique joys of Jollibee

The immigrant experience in America is frequently told through food, often by adults reflecting on the embarrassment they felt when unpacking a homemade meal in the school cafeteria, as peers mocked their sushi rolls, steam buns, pork dumplings and other dishes that have basically become staples of our diet in the 21st century. But as Jollibee, a Philippine import, begins its rapid expansion across our land, I realized there’s another chapter to the oft-told tale of the immigrant “ lunchbox moment ":

The cynical dismissal of a foreign fast-food concept without first understanding its importance to the people who love it.

Like its chef and owner, Caribbean Plate in Falls Church is good at many things

I saw this play out in real-time as I started to scout the first Jollibee to land in the D.C. market, right next door to a Jersey Mike’s Subs in a strip center that’s set apart but somehow still part of the Westfield Wheaton mall. When I started posting photos to the usual social channels, most folks were genuinely excited by the prospect of a Jollibee in their neighborhood. But there were a few sniping comments that grated on me perhaps more than they should have: that the menu looked like nothing special; that no one should ever stand in line for fast-food chain; that they’ll file Jollibee under the category of Places a Professional Critic Can Visit So They Don’t Have To.

I mean, how hard is it to understand the joy of reuniting with a favorite food — even if it’s just junk food — that you haven’t tasted since childhood in a land far away? All I had to do is imagine living overseas and the thrill I’d feel at discovering a Runza outlet around the corner. Come to think of it, I’d do cartwheels if I found a Runza outlet within 90 miles of Washington, which, last I checked, is still considered part of the United States, no matter how foreign you might think it is.

Paolo Dungca, one of two Philippine chefs behind Pogiboy in downtown Washington, freely talks about how Jollibee has influenced their fast-casual concept. Two of the chain’s signature dishes (the Jolly Spaghetti and the Chickenjoy) have been reimagined at Pogiboy by Dungca and Tom Cunanan, the former chef at Bad Saint, where he won a James Beard Award for his exquisite takes on Philippine cooking. Both businesses — the giant multinational Jollibee and the modest Pogiboy counter inside the Block — like to blur, and maybe even erase, the lines between American and Philippine comfort foods.

4 mashup dishes worth trying in the D.C. area, including pulled-pork pupusas and Chinese burritos

Of course, any discussion about Jollibee’s influence is incomplete without understanding its cultural impact, too. Even before Dungca and I sat down to a spread of Chickenjoy, Jolly Spaghetti, burger steaks, adobo rice and peach-mango pies, the chef told me about his childhood trips to Jollibee, whether in Pampanga (his native province) or Cerritos, Calif. (where his mother and stepfather, Madonna and Rudy Garcia, transplanted the family in 2004). He told me about sleepovers with his cousins and how they would gather at Jollibee the following morning for a highly anticipated feast. Or how his mother would come home late from her shift at a Disney resort with a bucket of Jollibee chicken, which truly was a form of Chickenjoy. Or how he’d celebrate birthdays at Jollibee.

“For me, this is childhood nostalgia,” Dungca said as we stood in line, a common experience at Jollibee.

And yet it’s more than nostalgia. When he moved to the Los Angeles area as a boy — a stranger in a Mickey Mouse world — he found comfort in the Jollibee locations that had popped up in Southern California. Yes, they offered a taste of home, but they also made the transition to the United States easier, as if Jollibee’s very presence was tacit acknowledgment that Dungca was welcome here. These were feelings powerful enough to build bonds, stronger than iron.

It goes without saying that I have no such bond to Jollibee. But one bite of the chain’s chicken — so crisp, so juicy, so American — and I realized I didn’t need a backstory to appreciate the drumsticks and thighs buried in a bucket of Chickenjoy, their breaded flesh spiked with just enough soy to deepen the pleasures. Dunking the chicken into Jollibee’s gravy, a viscous preparation with a noticeable surface gloss, might sound obscene, but you absolutely must do it.

The same gravy comes ladled over the burger steak, which Dungca rightly compares to Salisbury steak. The dish is a pair of ground-beef steaks, each griddled long enough to pick up a little color and grill flavor. The steaks are smothered with that umami gravy and sprinkled with a handful of sliced button mushrooms. The preparation looks one step removed from junior high cafeteria fare, and yet I could not stop eating it.

The 25 best sandwiches in the D.C. area

Open since April, the Wheaton Jollibee is still a work in progress. Its menu is not as expansive as those in other cities. You have exactly one Yumburger option, the one covered with cheese. I couldn’t immediately discern the burger’s Philippine features despite its famous tagline, “langhap sarap,” a sort of fast-food come-hither that means “delicious aroma” in Tagalog . You won’t find any breakfast dishes here yet, such as the plate of fried eggs and longanisa sausage. Nor will you find halo-halo, the sublime Philippine mash-up of a dessert, though I’m told the Wheaton menu will continue to expand as the staff gets more training.

But you will find a fried chicken sandwich, a crunchy specimen that tastes as if the breast meat has been brined within an inch of its life. It stands up well to the fast-food competition . You’ll also find a decent pancit palabok, one that, I’d argue, would benefit from a generous application of fried garlic and tinapa . Then there’s the most divisive dish on the menu, the Jolly Spaghetti, a plate of pasta drenched in a ketchuplike meat sauce, which conceals slices of emulsified hot dog. On first bite, I thought it was sticky sweet. On second bite, I found it strangely alluring. Halfway through, I realized that Jolly Spaghetti occupies its own universe, where its rarity makes the dish an object of great desire.

If Dungca and I were of different minds about the Jolly Spaghetti, we were on the same page about the peach-mango pie. As we popped open the slender box that housed our dessert, we marveled at the texture of the fried hand pie, a little crispy, a little bubbly and a little chewy. We talked about the addition of peaches to the gooey filling and whether it was a concession to the American palate. But mostly we wondered if this was the greatest fast-food dessert in existence.

We couldn’t think of a better one.

2800 University Blvd W., Suite C, Wheaton, Md. 240-657-9840; jollibeeusa.com .

Hours: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Nearest Metro: Wheaton, with a half-mile walk to the restaurant.

Prices: $2 to $38 for all items on the menu.

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Ethics (eths123), marikina polytechnic college.

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Mecy B. Petilla

“Jollibee: A company that values family”

Filipinos are family oriented and devoted they cherished their family so much, love their children and parents. Jollibee is a company that values family. It uses family-oriented approach to personnel management, advertising and marketing. Therefore, Jollibee is the number one family fast food chain in the Philippines.

According to Jollibee Food Corporation (2017) Jollibee is the largest fast food chain in the Philippines, operating a nationwide network of 1000 stores. It was founded by Tony Tan and his family last January 28, 1978 in Quezon City. It is the wildest store network in the Philippines and an emerging global player. It offers a wide variety of affordable and delicious dishes and great tasting food prepared to satisfy customers of all ages and from all walks of life. The food focuses on the specific tastes of the Filipino market. It is dubbed as Asia’s answer to answer to McDonald’s in the fast food business because of its origination in the Philippines.

Jollibee uses a family oriented approach to personnel management, where they treat their staffs as a family making them one of the most admired employers in the region. According to Hannah in her entry in Review Stream Jollibee staffs satisfies their customers, they are kind and really fast in serving the customers. They all wear their beautiful smile when they approach their customers. See? It reflects on the workers how an employer treats their staffs. For this Jollibee have received the Employer of the Year Award from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines. Best Employer in the Philippines Award from Hewitt Associated and a Top 20 Employer in Asia citation from the Asian Wall Street Journal. Jollibee also uses family values when it comes to advertising and marketing. It knows who will be their target audience: the traditional family and all communication materials focus on the importance of family values. In one of their poster there are three people seen. The child is laughing while the parents are watching him. They are all happy and they are holding a bucket of chicken. They are hugging each other wearing their beautiful smile in their faces. The hidden message portrayed was the typical joy and love the Filipino family have. The unique thing about Filipino families is their closeness and their ability to be happy with the things they have and the people they are with. Consequently, the values being depicted are the love a Filipino has for his/her family and contentment in what he/she has. You can see that in the advertisement, the family is enjoying the chicken of Jollibee. This shows how we are able to appreciate the little things in life. Whether it is food or not, we still find happiness in the smallest things. Though the poster possess a positive and negative message to the public. Its positive message is you can see that they are happy with each other and the love that they share with each other is mutual. Through this single picture you can easily see how a Filipino values his/her family. The negative message, on the other hand, is that the poster tries to tell the public that in order to be happy, you should buy a bucket of chicken. However, Jollibee have reminded the Filipinos to value the people they love and to enjoy their company. The poster gives a heart-warming message to the public and at the same time advertise their product. Therefore it is not surprising that Jollibee is the market leader

among the fast food chain in the Philippines and the most recognized and highly preferred brand in the Philippines.

The company’s values and marketing strategy will greatly affect a business success. I can say that Jollibee deserves to be where it is right now because of it great values and strategies. Jollibee reminded the Filipinos about the importance of a family making it a family oriented fast- food company. It upholds the Filipino values through its staffs and advertisements. The concept of family should be preserved because it is sincere and genuine. I, as a person who is part of a typical Filipino family promise to do my best to uplift Filipino values.

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Course : Ethics (Eths123)

University : marikina polytechnic college.

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Jollibee Foods Corporation, Essay Example

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This deals with the case study of Jollibee Foods Corporation, Philippine based fast food company. Part A deals with analysis of the global hamburger chain industry structure. Part B will deal with analysis of the structure within the global hamburger chain industry relevant to Jollibee. Part C analyses the external Jollibee business environment in California.

Part A: Analysis of the structure of the global hamburger chain industry

The fast food industry has renowned industry competitors including McDonalds, Sonic, Jack-In-The-Box and Burger King amongst others (Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure Industry Profile, 2012). McDonald’s first store came into existence in 1940 and had its headquarters at the Oak Brook, IL. The first store for Sonic followed in 1945 while the Jack-In-The-Box started in 1951 with its headquarters at San Diego CA and Burger King began operating in 1954 with headquarters at Miami, Florida.

The fast food industry has about 200,000 restaurants worldwide accruing combined annual revenue of about $120 billion. The industry has an extremely high fragmentation with the leading companies holding over 25% of the total sales made.

According to Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure Industry Profile (2012), fast-food industry is highly labor-intensive, and the average yearly revenue per worker is below $40,000. It is a common phenomenon for fast-food restaurants to specialize in a few main dishes. Such restaurants consist of regional and national chains, independent operators and franchises. Quite a number of fast-food restaurants utilize a POS (point of sale) system to make orders from the register and drive-thrust.

The fast-food industry’s breakdown constitutes the restaurant industry divided into full-service and limited-service (NAICS 722211). The limited service includes foods in the burger segment such as sandwiches, chicken, Mexican and pizza/pasta amongst others.

The economic factors that affect the fast-food industry include economic recession. Fast food restaurants fare better than their casual and high-end cousins do when disposable personal income is tight. This happens because people will tend to shift their buying downward. For a restaurant to survive well through recession times, there must be tight cost controls in place as well as a well-advertized dollar menu.

Political factors in place to help restaurants in recession entail Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. In this case, restaurants acquire loans from banks for updates and many needed expansions. The Act also contains accelerated 15-year depreciation schedule in case of new construction, which save money.

There are social factors so crucial in the fast food industry. The goods and services must add value through consistent quality and being affordable. The menus should have products with a vast variety. The restaurants should strive to provide brand image needs and healthy options. The foods served must be fast to accommodate the lifestyle of the surrounding and be convenient.

The five forces models that apply to any businesses also apply to the fast food industry. These forces include bargaining power of customers, threats of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, threats of substitutes and rivalry among existing firms. In general, the fast food industry has a high threat of new entrants, low bargaining power of customers and that of suppliers. It also has high threat of substitutes and high rivalry among firms.

The key factors for success in the fast food industry include differentiation and operation on low cost (Khanna & Krishna, 2006). It is difficult to differentiate a fast-food burger on a single product. One can focus towards the surrounding atmosphere and unique menu items in this industry. Product and brand advertisement can be crucial players in attracting customers and making a household name in the industry. Consumers can find a suitable burger at a comparable price from just about any of the competitors in a synonymous industry.

Part B: analysis of the structure within the global hamburger chain industry relevant to Jollibee

Jollibee has its formidable competitor in McDonald’s which leads in the world. McDonald’s takes over 40% of the fast food industry in US burger market while Jollibee dominates in the Philippines. In more than 100 countries, McDonald’s has more than 31000 outlets where 3000 are in Asia. Jollibee has 600 outlets only where over 50 of them are international outlets. In contrast to these numbers, Jollibee has captured over 65% of the Philippine hamburger market. Jollibee has a secret of Smart Niching where they focus on serving Filipino consumer unique tastes, as McDonald’s concentrates on exporting standardized fare. Another well-established Jollibee’s competitor is KFC.

Jollibee faced new challenges as it made entry into the international market. There is a high competition in the fast food industry and marketing innovations and price wars are a common phenomenon. The rivalry also centers on crucial success factors including reasonable pricing nourishing food, services and goods. The competition is extremely stiff because the rivals are nearly equal in opportunities and capabilities. The success of Jollibee in the niche market will allow generation of momentum for the company’s expansion although there is a risk of targeting a narrow segment. The company’s concentrated marketing campaign enables it to generate stable income that can enable Jollibee to enter into other segments.

Jollibee managed a competitive advantage over McDonald’s in the Philippines through a fast mover advantage strategy (Khanna & Krishna, 2006). Tony Kitchner headed the International Division of the Corporation in 1994. He became successful in the wealth creation and increase of the Corporation’s presence in countries that had no or less competition. During his tenure, the Corporation’s stores increased from 65 to 205. Furthermore, there was an increase of total sales to over 94.5%. The increases were marvelous since few companies do experience fast growth such as this. Tony was of the idea that although one can incur losses while moving into untapped markets, a company could enjoy the rest of time by restricting entry into the market by other companies. Although he managed some success for the company, there were downfalls, as well. Mounting at times resulted to shutdown of stores. The company experienced failures in chaotic investments strategy unsupported by careful research. Tony’s strategy targeting expats faced the narrow segment targeting risk. There was no consideration of expats’ lifestyle, preferences and tastes considered for the international expansion.

Part C: external business environment of Jollibee in California

There are a significant number of Asian communities living in California and Jollibee’s international expansion strategy has taken the move to the region. The US fast food market with intense, competitive atmosphere provides tremendous global learning opportunity for Jollibee. Jollibee also found out that many of its restaurant elements appealed to the Americans. The Filipino-Americans provided a strong support to the company (Rarick et al., 2011). Before it moved east, Jollibee was going to expand throughout California. America has diversification, which is another aspect that helped in Jollibee’s success, in California. In any American city, one can find Italian, Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Spanish, polish, American, Indian, polish and other ethnic restaurants. Jollibee knew from research that Americans liked to try food from a different culture and thus it had all reasons to take Filipino food to the market. Therefore, the Filipino food entered the American fast food market. However, Jollibee faces stiff competition from companies that offer the same services. Jollibee moved late into the region and thus it did not obtain success to suppliers, distribution channels and store locations, which made the company a cost Philippine leader. Jollibee does not have any tangible experience operating in a Western business environment aside from its experience in Guam. However, careful research and sound implementation plan can boost Jollibee markedly in the Californian market environment.

Question 2: as a consultant for United Airlines (UA)

This question deals with analysis of the Chinese market, the trends of the Chinese market and the impacts of the trends on business operations in the airline industry.

Analysis of the Chinese market from various perspectives

The Chinese market can offer the UA lucrative business opportunities, as it has a vast market and rapid economic growth. China’s economy is at $2.26 trillion and is the fourth largest world economy. It is also the fastest growing world economy and approximately a seventh of US economy. China has a large population of about 1.3 billion, which makes a gigantic market.

China is one of the world’s emerging markets and any company investing in an emerging market will always risk more than in a domestic market (Airlines Industry Profile, 2011). We note that there is a political risk where we find the Chinese insisting that Taiwan belongs to them. Taiwan, on the other hand, wants to be independent. There is also currency risk: the people’s money (Chinese renminbi) has problems with the dollar and the value has been a puzzle to many investment analysts. Corruption is another problem facing china. In the region, there is a lack of transparency- China airline companies provide less information than those in the Western.

We should have in mind that china is a high-risk environment, and a ‘work in progress’ and as investors we must be careful as we enter its business environment. The task of identifying the best companies in which to invest can be a daunting one given the sheer size and complexity of China.

Zheng and John (n.d.) assert that the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) imposes checks and regulations, which will be difficult for United Airlines to implement its business strategies. The regulations imposed include those on international and domestic routes, jet fuel prices, airfares, air traffic control and air craft maintenance amongst others. These regulations are crucial in ensuring safety in the air industry, but they will provide hindrance when it comes to UA’s flexibility to lower prices, respond to competition, and adapting to market conditions.

All Chinese airline companies buy the jet fuel from the China Aviation Oil Supplies (CAOSC) and companies under CAAC. United Airlines will not be an exception in this case. The jet fuel prices in China have remained higher than that of the world market prices. This might disrupt future operations, and thus we should enter the Chinese market with exceptional care. We will also face competition from other companies such as Air Macau Group, Dragon Air, and Thai Airways International amongst others.

However, I would like to conclude that taking into consideration the opportunity in the Chinese population coupled with the growing tourism industry, it is a noble venture for the company to enter the market.

International Store Sales by Country: 1996 (in U.S. dollars at contemporary exchange rates)

Porter’s competitive strategies Model, a strategy adopted by JFC

Airlines Industry Profile: China. (2011). Airlines Industry Profile: China , 1-42.

Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure Industry Profile: Global. (2012). Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure Industry Profile: Global , 1-36.

Khanna, T. & Krishna G. P. (2006).Emerging Giants: Building World-Class Companies in Developing Countries. Harvard Business Review: 2-11.

Rarick, C. A., Falk, G., & Barczyk, C. (2011). JOLLIBEE FOODS CORPORATION AND THE GLOBAL MARKET. Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings Of The International Academy For Case Studies (IACS) , 18 (1), 57-61.

Zheng, L., & John F., O. (n.d). The evolving landscape of Chinese aviation policies and impact of a deregulating environment on Chinese carriers. Journal Of Transport Geography , 19 829-839. doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.10.010

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Why I—and So Many Filipinos—Travel Hundreds of Miles for Jollibee

Jollibee offers a comforting stop—and destination—for filipinos who travel..

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The nearly 50-year-old brand has sentimental value for Filipinos in the country and for its diaspora populations.

Photo by junpinzon/Shutterstock

Pulling open the double glass doors, walking across the gray, black, and white-tiled floor, approaching the red-accented “Order” sign at the fast food counter, I first notice the smell of fried chicken. I spend my time looking at the fast-food restaurant’s menu, seemingly debating what to order—but will inevitably opt for my childhood favorites: the fried chicken, spaghetti, and peach mango pie. Customers speak to the restaurant staff in Tagalog while families scurry to get their utensils, creating a scene that feels like I’m in Manila, Philippines. But glancing at the cars parked in the spacious parking lot from the store windows, I’m reminded that I’m halfway across the world in Alexandria, Virginia.

I was in Jollibee, a Filipino fast-food restaurant that has more than 1,500 stores spread across 17 countries, from Saudi Arabia to Spain. With 68 U.S. locations and 28 in Canada, the brand has been rapidly growing, with ambitious growth plans of reaching 500 stores in the next five to seven years in North America.

As the most popular fast-food chain in the Philippines, Jollibee is tied to many memories of Filipinos. Even I, an American-born Filipina who spent most of her life in the suburbs of North Carolina, grew up understanding people’s love for the brand. My family incorporated a stop at Jollibee when visiting family in Jacksonville, Florida. We’d often stock up with buckets of fried chicken to give to friends and family back in North Carolina—hours after it had gone cold.

I even heard that some Jollibee fans drive across states just to get a meal at the restaurant. This type of devotion always seemed a bit too over the top to me as a kid: In what world is a fast-food meal worth more than a ten-minute drive?

Over time, I embraced the draw of the restaurant. When I planned to watch Beetlejuice on Broadway with my sister last summer, we made sure to go to the Jollibee in Times Square afterward. A couple of years ago, I took one of those pilgrimages I had questioned when I was young and drove with friends to the Jollibee in Virginia Beach, Virginia, from North Carolina, forming precious memories along the way: the phone calls we all made to our families asking what they’d like us to bring them, taking pictures with the Jollibee mascot statue near the restaurant’s front doors. Visiting the restaurant was more than its food. It was an unapologetically Filipino experience I could share with friends and loved ones.

Like me, my friend Kyle Lorenzo (who has taken at least three trips from North Carolina to the Jollibee in Virginia Beach) says these hours-long journeys are less about the actual meal.

“I think it’s also emblematic of just how far and how extra Filipinos can be sometimes. Which cracks me up,” he says. “When Filipinos find something that represents them, even mildly, it’s a whole big thing and we gotta go full out on it. So I do think there’s something about the extreme lengths that some Filipinos will go—I think it says a lot about just how much pride there is in the community, but also just how over the top we can be in sort of the best kind of way.”

The makings of a beloved brand

Jollibee started in the Philippines as two Magnolia Dairy Ice Cream franchises that chemical engineering graduate Tony Tan Caktiong opened in 1975. After some input from customers, Caktiong added hot foods like burgers and hot dogs, soon making his stores so profitable that he converted them into the first Jollibee outlets in 1978. The brand created its anthropomorphic bee mascot—complete with a chef hat, large eyes, and wide smile—inspired by lovable Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Its name was a symbol of the organization’s hardworking and cooperative nature, as well as its emphasis on happiness.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing from here: In 1981, McDonald’s opened its first store in the country, directly competing with Jollibee. But rather than raise the white flag or become a franchisee, Caktiong decided to go head-to-head with the U.S. brand on its menu.

For the first-timer looking at Jollibee’s menu, there are plenty of menu items they can lean into for some sense of familiarity. There’s its original flagship product, the “Yumburger,” which comes with optional additions like pineapple rings, bacon, lettuce, and tomato. The brand also sells its own variety of fried chicken sandwiches and buckets of fried chicken known as Chickenjoy, which is similar to those of restaurants like Popeye’s and KFC but with its own set as spices.

However, several foods significantly differ from McDonald’s usual offerings. There’s the Jollibee spaghetti, which was introduced a year after the Yumburger in 1978. It may look like the usual, savory spaghetti bolognese found in American Italian digs—but upon first bite tastes sweet (it’s the banana ketchup , a beloved Filipino condiment) and instead of meatballs there are chunks of hot dogs. Order a “burger steak” and you’ll get a patty with a side of rice and gravy instead of a bun, while “palabok fiesta” serves up a rice noodle dish covered in garlic sauce, sautéed pork, shrimp, and egg.

When it comes to dessert, you’ll find the peach mango pie, which—in my humble opinion—is infinitely better than the apple pie McDonald’s serves. And on occasion, the fast-food restaurant offers halo-halo (literally translating to “mix-mix” in Tagalog), a shaved ice concoction combining ube ice cream, flan, red beans, and other ingredients in a plastic cup.

After studying the brand, the Jollibee founder realized the edge was in appealing to the Filipino’s taste for sweet and savory foods , rather than trying to create a desire for purely “American” food.

“Our [food] tends to be sweeter, more spices, more salty,” Caktiong told Forbes Asia in a 2013 story . “We were lucky as it was not easy for [McDonald’s] to change their product because of their global image.”

The willingness to cater to Filipino taste buds paid off for Jollibee. In his Forbes interview, Caktiong said this strategy, along with upping its game to surpass McDonald’s in other attributes like courtesy and service style, made Jollibee rank higher in customer surveys in different ways. Customers seemed to prefer Jollibee’s marketing, promotion, and advertising better—so they patronized the restaurant over McDonald’s: According to a 2021 study from Statista , Jollibee had the highest market share at 30 percent. McDonald’s ranks second, at only 9.4 percent. While McDonald’s opened its 700th store at the end of 2022, Jollibee had nearly 500 more spread throughout the country.

Besting McDonald’s at the fast-food game seems impossible. Especially considering the Philippines’s past as a U.S. colony —bringing with it an affinity for American brands and culture—this type of underdog story almost feels like something of mythic proportions. (In 2022, Forbes estimated Caktiong and his family to have an estimated $2.6 billion net worth, ranking among the Philippines’s richest.) The little restaurant that could seems to have become emblematic of the country in its resilience, especially for Filipinos far from home. In his 2013 interview, Caktiong said Jollibee’s strategy for growth abroad was to target large Filipino communities abroad, saying they don’t even need to advertise in these areas because “the longing for home is there.”

Jollibee CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong reiterated the same idea in a 2023 article for Time , saying the company uses the support of the Filipino market in places like the United States, where the brand is relatively unknown. When Jollibee’s first East Coast location opened in Queens, New York, on February 14, 2009, Tanmantiong remembers that despite a blizzard, long lines reached up to four blocks away from the restaurant.

Of course, Jollibee has a special sign at the largest shopping mall in the Philippines.

Photo by Chloe Arrojado

New customers, old comforts

In April 2023, I took a trip to visit my sister, who now lives in Arlington, Virginia, and decided to drive 20 minutes away to the Jollibee outpost in Alexandria, Virginia (which opened in 2022 ) . While waiting for our order, I was surprised to see a significant amount of diversity in the restaurant. The demographic seemed to have shifted from the almost exclusively Filipino crowds I remembered in my childhood to people of all different ages, races, and backgrounds as customers. I talked to some of them about their connection to the restaurant. Ellen Nguyen, a 25-year-old from the Washington metro area, said she’d first heard of the brand from friends who would take trips to the Jollibee in Virginia Beach. When the Alexandria branch opened, she decided to give it a try and got hooked.

“Especially with social media nowadays, I feel like Jollibee is kind of expanding,” Ellen tells me as she finishes her meal. “The thing to think about social media is that we get to share everything.”

Before the age of social media omnipresence, the restaurant felt like a secret to outsiders, revealed only by food explorers like Anthony Bourdain (he had called the chain “ the wackiest, jolliest place on Earth ”.) Now, looking up the word “Jollibee” on Youtube reveals a host of videos where people “Try Jollibee for the First Time!” Influencers stumble through pronunciations of palabok and carefully cut their burger steaks almost scientifically, trying to figure out exactly what is on their plate. Watching these videos feels oddly personal. Jollibee captures the Philippines’s unique intersection of Spanish, American, and Asian cuisine—their opinions of the food feel like a bigger opinion on Filipino culture, and by extension, of me. Scrolling through the comment section of these videos, I see strangers on the internet sharing similar sentiments. “As a Filipino-American, I feel like I’m getting praised every time Keith likes the food lol,” commented one person on the Try Guy’s “Keith Eats Everything At Jollibee” video.

The word is getting out about Filipino food beyond places with large diaspora communities like New York and California. But for those of us who had grown up with the brand, the nostalgia factor seems to fuel those long but memorable drives.

Mayenni Cayao, a 39-year-old Filipina born in Manila, told me she grew up with the brand and worked for the restaurant when she was 17. “I’ve been [in the United States] for almost 20 years. [Back then], it’s like you’re missing the food and you have to go to California or something like that.”

She and her husband Wilson had traveled from Virginia to New York for the snowy Queens restaurant opening nearly 15 years ago. Despite a more than 200-mile drive, her husband tells me that the trip was worth it. “The taste is different. The food. You [couldn’t find it in Alexandria.] Now, finally, they made it here.” Along with the couple’s five-year-old girl named Stella, Mayenni says the family’s trips to Virginia Beach “always” include a stop at Jollibee.

I get a similar sentiment from Lance Ramos, who tells me about his experiences with the fast-food brand while sipping his pineapple quencher. Born in Cavite, Philippines, the 28-year-old appreciates how the Jollibee experience—complete with the smells of fried chicken and of pineapple juice—is still the same as it is “back home.”

We talk about his experience taking road trips to New York and Virginia Beach for Jollibee, before touching on the subject of Jollibee’s increased popularity among non-Filipinos. Ramos points to the Fairfax County policeman standing behind him, waiting for his order near the counter.

“You would think it’s just a Filipino thing, but everybody gets the drive nowadays,” he tells me.

I thanked him for the chance to interview, then hurried to my sister at a nearby table. By then, our to-go order had long arrived. We wanted to get to her house while the Chickenjoy was still hot.

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Inspiring Loyalty, and Serving Chickenjoy at Jollibee

A filipino favorite comes to manhattan.

View Slide Show ›

By Ligaya Mishan

• Feb. 14, 2019

The first McDonald’s in the Philippines opened in 1981, ready to conquer. Instead, it met its match: Jollibee, originally a small suburban ice cream franchise that started selling burgers in the late 1970s. By 1984, it had clobbered its American rival, cornering the fast-food market on its home turf and still dominating it to this day.

Jollibee’s founder, Tony Tan Caktiong, had studied the competition. So by the time Ronald McDonald set foot in Manila, with his billowy yellow jumpsuit and shock of red hair, the clown had been pre-empted by a tall, red-and-yellow-striped bee in a dapper little chef’s hat, bow tie and tails.

A glossy statue of the plump-cheeked bee greets diners at the chain’s first outpost in Manhattan, which opened in October near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (There are 37 Jollibees in the United States.) The night before, people waited in line in the rain to be the first diners, some wearing antennas and wings.

What inspires such loyalty? Long ago, fried chicken eclipsed burgers as Jollibee’s most sought-after offering. The pleasures of Chickenjoy, as it’s called, are immediate: The sheath of skin is as craggy as a thunderhead, crannies and crunch multiplying.

Underneath, the flesh is juicy, with its own generous measure of salt and secret seasonings, if not quite as potent as the skin’s. Online recipe hacks typically deploy garlic and Chinese five-spice to approximate the skin’s fervor. Spicy Chickenjoy is even better, both marinade and breading infiltrated with some form of chile — flagrant but not searing, just enough to jack up the pulse.

Every order of Chickenjoy comes with gravy, whether you order a side of mashed potatoes or not. This makes sense given the elevated place of condiments in Filipino cuisine, although my mother, who grew up in Cotabato City in the southern Philippines, prefers to dunk a drumstick in ketchup or the Filipino enhancement of it, bolstered with banana — sadly not stocked here.

Mr. Tan Caktiong, the son of poor Chinese immigrants, is now a billionaire, and 150 Jollibees are set to open in the United States within five years. Like the Manhattan store, many will be outside immigrant enclaves, waylaying diners with limited knowledge of Filipino food.

These newcomers may be slightly baffled by the Jolly Spaghetti. It looks Italian, with its blanket of ragù, but under the ground beef are nubs of hot dog and ham, and the presiding note is sweet. It’s fairly mellow, as Filipino spaghetti goes, with more of an earthy counterpoint than other versions of the dish I’ve tried. (That includes an anemic McSpaghetti, the McDonald’s take, in Manila years ago.) But it may not bridge the cultural divide.

This is a missed opportunity, because Jollibee has a great Filipino noodle dish on its roster, currently unavailable in Manhattan: palabok, rice noodles in a rich, briny sauce, traditionally made with shrimp stock and crushed shrimp shells and heads. Jollibee’s closely guarded recipe may differ, but the finished dish — as served at its branch in Woodside, Queens , which opened in 2009 — arrives appropriately attired, heaped with ground pork, a dusting of crushed chicharron, hard-boiled eggs and a few scattered shrimp.

So the shrimp are as pale as fingernails. What do we ask of a quick-serve restaurant, beyond a dish that we don’t have time to cook at home, made with some sense of honor for what the dish could be, despite a limited budget for ingredients? In Queens, Jollibee’s palabok costs $6.19, drink included. It is delicious.

Only in Queens, too, on this strip known as Little Manila for its population of Filipino immigrants, will you find Jollibee’s halo-halo, feathery shaved ice under orbs of ube (purple yam) and jackfruit ice cream and a tilting block of leche flan. At the bottom, waiting to be dredged up, are beans boiled in sugar and wobbly nata de coco (coconut water fermented into jelly).

At the Manhattan storefront, this is edited down into a sundae of vanilla soft-serve topped with nata de coco, chickpeas and a daub of ube halaya (half-custard, half-jam) — the best parts, too few, and gone too quickly.

Fortunately, both locations sell peach-mango pie, which may be as close as you can get to your childhood memory of McDonald’s apple pie, back when it was still deep-fried. Jollibee’s has a gilded sleeve of bubbled crust and a filling no sweeter than need be; take one home, crisp it in the oven the next day, and it still makes life complete.

At the end of a long day, Jollibee is a startlingly uncynical place to be. The Queens outpost, at 10 years old, still looks new, with its shiny communal tables under red lampshades; a manager leaped to open the door for me when I left. And in Manhattan — even though I knew it was a script, that it couldn’t possibly be personal — when the cashier said, “Have a jolly night,” I did.

609 Eighth Avenue (40th Street), Midtown West; 212-994-2711; jollibeeusa.com ; and 62-29 Roosevelt Avenue (63rd Street), Woodside, Queens; 718-426-4445; jollibeeusa.com

Follow NYT Food on Twitter and NYT Cooking on Instagram , Facebook and Pinterest . Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .

An earlier version of this article and a picture caption accompanying the slideshow misidentified the latest American branch of Jollibee. It is a location in Las Vegas, not New York.

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a noodle dish on the menu at the Queens branch of Jollibee. It is called Palabok Fiesta, not Fiesta Noodles.

When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at [email protected] . Learn more

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