Number One Son and I would always stop by the Union City Jollibee on our way home from a particular basketball tournament. My children ate Jollibee through their childhood, an experience so different from mine. We had no Filipino restaurant chains when I was growing up. I knew that the Filipino fast food chain Jollibee was expanding around the world, and this article from the Atlantic saying that the Filipino fast food giant was working to become a giant in the the US and worldwide confirms that hunch.
You might think that the US fast food market is too saturated for major new players, but Jollibee’s unique aspects will make it grow. Its Chickenjoy is really good. In 2022, Eater magazine ranked Chickenjoy higher than any American fried chicken. This year, USA Today rated it the best fast food fried chicken. I have to agree – I like Chickenjoy better than any of its American competitors. Jollibee is also expanding through acquisition, acquiring Smashburger and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. Jollibee has come a long way since a cringy review by SFist in 2010.
I usually get the Aloha burger, and then eat some of The Wife’s Chickenjoy. I don’t like their spaghetti, and I am not a big fan of palabok (a noodle dish) that much. Love to finish with the peach mango pie. My brother tends to look at Jollibee restaurants as a marker of Filipino presence. He sent me a picture of this one in Earl’s Court London, where a lot of Filipinos live.
What I find so interesting about this is that Jollibee’s products are “Asian American” in a unique way. Jollibee’s burgers, fried chicken, and spaghetti were brought over when the US colonized the Philippines. Asian tastes transformed that American food and brought it back to the US. The chain has expanded in the US and worldwide, with over 1700 branches. I would say that it is definitely safe to say that Filipino food has arrived.
If you want to check out a Jollibee near you, you can use their location link.
(mascot photo credit: glenmcbethlaw licensed under the Creative Common’s Attribution 2.0 Generic license),
