At Home Sa Jollibee
Or Why Travel 32.2 miles for a $13.37 fastfood meal for two.
I first heard about that minor brouhaha from Lynn’s blog. I’m referring to that stupid American’s impression about Jollibee. But to be fair about it, around the time those idiots were eating at Jollibee, Jollibee’s recipe was awful. I’m not about to defend the taste of Jollibee back then because it really did look and taste horrible. That doesn’t change the fact those white folks were being totally ignorant though but this rant isn’t about that.
While we were in San Francisco last July we went to the Jollibee Daly City branch on a lark. As you can imagine, there weren’t a lot of Pinoy food/restos available in central Florida. We were excited because although Jollibee isn’t exactly haute cuisine, their burgers were still the best in my opinion. Yumburger with cheese beats Mcdo hands down (but just squeaks by Wendy’s I think). Carl’s Jr, Jack in the Box, Burger King doesn’t even come close. Burgers by Jollibee are like English, Pinoy-style: it’s recognizable but there are subtle differences. We got Chicken Joy (2 pieces), burgers, fries and peach-mango pie. Long story short, food sucked. We could barely finish the chicken and the burgers (supposedly angus beef) didn’t taste anywhere near what I remember from home. It was very very disappointing.
Petite and I heard about Jollibee bringing back their original Pinoy recipe last March, I figured hey why the hell give it a second chance?
We found ourselves some free-time and took the opportunity to get more acquainted with San Francisco and the California public-transportation system (we’re fans of both). For lunch we headed out to Daly City (”You know why it’s always foggy in Daly City? All those Pinoys cooking rice.” As the joke goes. Been hearing that joke since we got here.) and got to Jollibee. As usual, there isn’t a big crowd lining up at the counter despite being lunch-time and the store located in a strip mall. There’s Aga Muhlach on the walls with his Peter Pan-ish looks, forever Bagets hawking chicken.
We ordered the Chicken Joys, Yumburger with Cheese and Peach Mango Pies - same as the first time we ate there. This time though, it’s the distinct taste we remembered from home. The chicken might be have an orange tint to it (I always thought it as a yellow tint) but the skin were crispy and the meat still tender. The burger has that pinkish sauce on it (a catsup-mayo with special sauce mix?) and it’s as juicy as our Jollibee sa kanto. It was the perfect taste of home.
The staff behind the counter, all Pinoys of course, could still use some work. The TV news story about the recipe switch also mentioned bringing in staff from the Philippines to train some of their US counterparts. During our dining experience, the guy behind the register was thrown for a loop when we decided to add to our order which he already rang-up. He also forgot to call out/bring out our additional order when it was ready despite the lack of customer activity in that particular branch. Another person-behind-the-counter flubbed our to-go order. I wanted the bigger burger (sorry forgot the name - they didn’t have Champ or Junior Champ in that store) and rang-up the regular sized burger.
I know this is too much fuss about a burger joint. But time and again, Jollibee is cited as one of the better Filipino-owned establishments which has made it outside of the Philippines. They got it right by bringing back their original recipe. Let’s just hope they do something about improving the service. Pero kulang na lang yung “hello ma’m/sir” greeting parang nasa Pilipinas ka na rin.
12 Comments, Comment or Ping
dawin
Thats not the worst of Jollibee. A year after they opened up in Daly City, I went to visit Jollibee.
The first thing I do after ordering the food was go to the rest room. And my God, their restroom floor was festooned with toilet paper. I had to call in the store manager and complain to her about the rest room.
Talagang Third World pa rin ang Jollibee sa kalinisan! And their classification of white and dark meat just made their chicken taste no good. Will never be good as in the Pinas.
At saka, mahal masyado compared to KFC.
Apr 3rd, 2006
Jio
Good to know Jollibee is still alive there in US (hmmmm), but through your words, Jollibee is no where that good in terms of service and the food they churn out.
I’m not surprised then why in some news Jollibee is not that popular among Americans but only to fellow Pinoys living there. And I’m not surprised further, if this is the kind of service and food menu we provide to other countries, that we’ll never break into the international food market and make our distinct Pinoy food praised as other Asian dishes such as Japanese or Thai cuisine (well, that’s another story).
Apr 4th, 2006
deebeedee
Hey Mark, you and Petite should’ve visited the Jollibee here in Union City. Nagkita pa tayo.
The Jollibee across from Moscone Center in San Francisco closed down a couple of years ago. I was surprised because it seemed like it was doing well. I remember seeing long lines during peak hours.
One thing I didn’t like about Jollibee is the practice of cashiers shouting out orders to the cooks in the back. All modern fast food places have a computerized system where the cooks in the back can view orders from a monitor. Not only does it speed up preparation time but it also cuts down on order errors. I’m sure Jollibee can afford to implement that.
Apr 4th, 2006
banzai cat
Which is better: should Jollibee make their food taste Filipino so that their Filipino clients would patronize them or should they make it taste international (whatever the hell that means) so that the international market will come beating to their door?
Talk about a damn if you, damn if you don’t situation for Jollibee! :-(
Apr 5th, 2006
markmomukhamo
@Dawin: Heh. Gulo pa din nung washroom nila. Sana nga they work on it. There’s only a handful of stores in the US, I’m sure they can enforce standards and quality on the franchise owners. If the can do it in the 100 of stores in the Philippines, why not in Cali? Thanks for dropping by the blog.
@Jio: Well, they got better IMHO. Definitely better than last year. But in the end, a burger is a burger not much you can do to be creative about it I guess. Kanya-kanyang taste siguro. As for Pinoy cuisine being internationally renowned, I have been thinking about it — bakit ang Thai and Chinese food madaling i-benta? But hey you know the Goldilocks here sell themselves as Asian food not Pinoy. Which is true in some sense. Dami rin ba Pinoy restos sa Singapore?
@Deebeedee: Yaan mo magagawi din kami sa Union City! :) Exploring pa din kami sa area. Actually yun sa Moscone Center una naming pinuntahan. I wonder ano kwento dun. Mabenta nga daw eh. Nung andun kami, ganun pa rin ginagawa..sinisigaw yung order sa likod. Baka kasama sa training.
@Banzai: I would answer it depends on how they market themselves. Jollibee markets itself as a Pinoy brand therefor they should stick with the Pinoy recipe. I think they experimented with the change hence the need to revert back to their original ‘Pinoy’ recipe.
Apr 9th, 2006
Gigi
Hi Mark - Yum with cheese is one of my all-time comfort foods so when Jollibee first opened up in So. CA and I heard all the bad reviews from friends and family, I decided to skip and just keep my visits for when I visit home. A once-a-year thrill beats no thrill, after all. But I’m wondering if I should give it a shot now, or if I should perhaps ask friends to give it another try and then let me know. There just are some memories one shouldn’t mess around with, you know? :)
Apr 10th, 2006
ibalik
binabike ko nuon yung jollibee sa moscone galing sa apt ng kebigan ko. bago pa yun nuon, i think that was 2001. tas bigla ko na nga lang nalaman na nag sara. from what i heard, pinasara daw kasi hindi pumasa sa health code or something like that. but i think it might be more than that, malamang pinasara ng mga competitors nila.
Apr 11th, 2006
markmomukhamo
@Gigi! Hey Ms. G! I totally agree. I’m still craving for Hen Lin siomai and beef brisket rice from Le Ching Greenhills. But I think you won’t be disappointed with Jollibee US’ new recipe. It’s closer to home than the last time we checked it out.
@Ibalik: Geez health code violation? Sayang naman. Ok sana yung location nila. Sana magbukas sila dun mismo sa city. I’m sure benta tiyak yun, competitors be damned.
Apr 14th, 2006
nikkuni
i used to temp at the moscone center around 2003, and since have moved back to ny, but i loved going to jollibee because the chicken was fresh and delicious, the burgers really good ( probably my favorite fast food burger) I went back to sf a couple weeks ago and was bummed out that it was closed. Does anyone know why? I didnt get to go to daly city for my fix, oh well. this is coming from a white boy by the way. I really hope jollibee makes a bigger splash and expands, probably a good idea to americanize the menu a little bit.. spaghetti dosent cut it in a fast food restaurant in america ..pinoys are a stubborn bunch i should know i married one good luck jollibee come to NYC!!
Jun 21st, 2006
markmomukhamo
Hey Nikkuni! Thanks for dropping by! Yeah I don’t know why Jollibee’s Moscone branch closed down. I even tried asking a few locals for the story but no luck. Like you I hope they do expand to more territories. ;)
Jun 22nd, 2006
The Ca t
Mark,
You should have tried Red Ribbon.It is in the same area.
Walang mabubuhay na Filipino fastfood sa downtown. The mother companies of fastfood chains protect their franchisees from competition. Whoever said the business is like politics is correct. It is also dirty.
Jun 24th, 2006
markmomukhamo
Ca T, yup we tried Red Ribbon at Daly City. We’re happy to find out they also do FedEx deliveries. :)
Jun 26th, 2006
Reply to “At Home Sa Jollibee”