By Joseph Nian
Hyped for its hot and juicy fried chicken, Jolibee has been on my checklist for literal years. I saw it pop up on my for you page on social media for its infamous ChickenJoy, Filipino style spaghetti, and refreshing pineapple drink. Given the opportunity to finally go try it at the Great Mall, my friend and I decided to go and see what all the hype was about.
My friend and I ordered the 6 piece ChickenJoy meal which comes with two sides and two drinks of your choice. My first complaint was that you can’t choose Jolibee’s famous dessert pies as your sides, being limited instead to only their fries, mashed potatoes, rice, and biscuits. The weirdest part to me was that the pies are actually cheaper than all the previously mentioned sides, yet I was still restricted to the more expensive ones. But whatever, I just chose the biscuits and french fries.
But the complaints don’t stop there. The gravy was honestly a let down from what I expected, and the fries were just McDonald’s fries with half the salt. The chicken was good, but not enough to blow away my mind. The skin was very crispy though with it falling apart in my hands. The best item throughout my whole experience was the pineapple thirst quencher. It wasn’t too overpowering with its sweetness and definitely quenched my thirst after the hours of shopping for clothes at the Great Mall.
All in all, Jolibee was unfortunately a miss for me. I apologize to all my Filipino readers out there, but Jolibee did not meet my expectations.