Disclaimer: Not all their branches in The UK are halal, check their website for a list of halal restaurants at the moment. The London branches used to be halal, but according to their website are no longer so. Check the website here. Currently, the following branches serve halal meat: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Newcastle and Reading. They fully cater for Muslims too as they don’t sell bacon or any pork item at these branches.
Ask any Filipino what they’re favourite fast food joint is and they will unanimously give you one answer. Not McDonalds, not KFC, not Burger King. Jollibee!! And they always win by a landslide as being the most popular fast food place in the Philippines.
McDonalds is a giant, an absolute giant in the field of fast food. They are consistent in what they do good, their marketing is insane, when they enter a country they adapt with unique dishes and they dominate wherever they go. They are the undisputed kings. They are the Cristiano Ronaldo, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson of fast food whichever country and market they choose to land in. With the exception of the Philippines. They have been trying for over 40 years now and they have consistently failed. Losing out to none other than Jollibee. In years gone, Jollibee would make double the revenue Mcdonalds make – that is unheard of.
So who are they?
Initially, it was just 2 ice cream parlours back in 1975. That turned into fast food 3 years later. And 3 years after that McDonalds arrived. The owner had a choice of joining them or just shying away. He chose neither – he chose to compete. The name is a combination of jolly and bee – referring to the wonderful Filipino people who are always super friendly, jovial and bubbly. The flavours in the food were more catered towards the Filipino audience. This created a cult following. And this led to them opening international branches too. And wherever there are Filipinos in the world, they will seek out a Jollibee and absolutely be in love with it. Take the first London branch as an example – people queued up for SEVEN hours!! Some did so since 3 in the morning!! INSANE!
Okay, enough of the history lesson, talk to me about the food.
The number 1 dish that you have to try is Chickenjoy. It’s basically fried chicken. But it’s not your average fried chicken. Perfectly battered, crunchy on the outside and nice and juicy on the inside. This comes with rice and gravy. You can combine the three for the ultimate bite or you can just combine the gravy with rice for pure comfort. I, personally, don’t think gravy works with fried chicken. My wife loves it though.
The yum burger is also something you have to try. It is an extremely simple cheese burger – not too filling and very small. This felt kind of nostalgic as it gave me school lunch burger vibes. A very nice two or three biter.
The final dish I’m going to mention is a strange one for a fried chicken place. It is the Jolly Spaghetti. This is one of their most popular dishes on the menu. It is a concoction of spaghetti, ground meat, sliced hot dogs, and a notoriously sweet sauce made from banana ketchup. This doesn’t sound like it would work and it really shouldn’t work, but you know what? It actually works.
Reading
The only time we had tried Jollibee was in Dubai. We loved our experience there. But since posting our instagram post on this place, we’ve seen some negative reviews on the Jollibee in England. So, we had to check it out for ourselves. Seeing as the London branch isn’t halal, we decided to go on a road trip to Reading. With it being about an hour away from London (give or take depending on what part of London), it wasn’t too bad. It actually gave us an excuse to explore Reading. Jollibee is located in the city centre with parking available nearby. The store was fairly busy, but not busy enough to make us wait for too long or to not get a seat. It was still buzzing though. Nonetheless, we were excited to taste and experience what we did in Dubai. Trust me, this ain’t no normal fried chicken!
They had a new spicy range out they were promoting a lot and with us being spice freaks, this was right up our street. Jollibee goodness but spicy!? Yes please! We ordered: the spicy chicken sandwich meal (came with fries and a drink as well as a chicken burger), the spicy chickenjoy meal (came with fries and drink too as well as two pieces of chicken and gravy), yum burger, jolly spaghetti and a mango coconut sundae. It all came to £23.46, which is extremely reasonable for today’s market.
How was everything? We loved it. The extra spicy kick added an element of deliciousness that we didn’t think could be done to the already delicious Jollibee. We were impressed. The chicken burger was on point, the fried chicken likewise. Both had a spicy kick and the spicy range lived up to its name. It kinda gave me Al Baik vibes (if you know you know). The yum burger and spaghetti were both good too. Specifically speaking about the spaghetti, it was the first time we tried it here and at first it tasted a little strange, but it grew on us quickly. And the sundae was nice and light, sweet and refreshing at the same time. A perfect end to the meal. Overall, we were impressed with the food at this branch and definitely feel like it was as good as we had in Dubai.
Getting there
Google Maps Locations link: click here
