Jollibee Fries Review: Jolly Fries from the Philippines

Founded in 1978 in the Philippines, and now with over 1,700 locations across the globe, Jollibee is known to blend Western fast food with Filipino flavors. Their crown jewel is their Chickenjoy fried chicken, whether in a sandwich or a bucket. Similar to MOS Burger and Lotteria which fused Japanese and Korean accents, we were intrigued with what Jollibee would offer. We had a lot of questions and really was curious how their fries would be. Fortunately, there are a few locations in the Bay Area. So, this weekend, we visited Jollibees to review their fries.

Jollibee in Serramonte Center, Daly City, CA. The line was long.

Texture (2/10)

The fries were not crispy, rather soft and small, with almost no stuffing. Even worse, they were not warm, with the only acceptable aspect being a tiny bit of crunch on a handful of the fries. The innard was dry, and there was no outer skin, making for some dry, unfilling and disastisfactory fries that are not enticing nor pleasant to munch through.

The sticks are thin with non-existent crisp. The structure and innards are unsatisfactory. And that burnt tip!

Flavor (1/10)

There was no salt, making for a very bland fry, especially because they were undercooked. And there were no extra dips of any sort that came with the fries. The overall flavor profile is dry, bland, and the outer layer is a bright yellow because the fries were so undercooked. Surprisingly, some of them were also burnt. This was truly disappointing. There's a lot to work on, Jollibee.

Shape (3/10)

Though the fries were quite uniform, they were small, thin, and flopped easily because of the lack of stuffing. The fries look like small potato worms that were not treated with care. You can finish a single stick in one bite, because of how small they are. Honestly, we do not know what is going on here as we feel just even a small amount of effort could drastically improve the fries experience here. But what we reviewed was quite pitiful.

We appreciate the consistency. But these really are not ideal fries.

Presentation (5/10)

The presentation overall is slighty below average. The fries are tossed into a McDonalds-style carton (we would say near identical), and then into a brown paper bag. The fries are too short to be vertically placed so they are just "dumped" into the container. This somewhat defeats the purpose of having a carton sleeve. However, the real problem here is the serving size. Jollibee's large fries in equivalent or smaller than McDonald's regular fries.

This is the large fries. It may look bigger than it actually is as we zoomed in. The fries are radomly dumped into the container.

The sleeve carton is identical to McDonald's, except there is a massive downsizing. The large is smaller than McDonald's regular size.

Experience (3/10)

The line to order at the Jollibee in Serramonte Center was long. We understand that it was peak lunch hours during the weekend. However, having to wait for 20 mins just to order, you want the food to be great, let alone the fries. However, the overall experience made us feel it was a waste of time; we were very disappointed that we waited so long for bottom of the barrel fries. Even worse, they didn't even go well with the chicken sandwich we ate it with. And we felt cheated with the underwhelming amount. This wasn't a great dining experience.

Texture	2
Flavor	1
Shape	3
Presentation	5
Experience	3
Overall	2.8 / 10

Conclusion

It is clear the fries is not a priority for Jollibee. We hope it was just this location and we got unlucky with a novice personnel behind the kitchen counter. But based on what we reviewed, the fries were disappointing at best. With no texture, no flavor, small sticks and underwhelming quantities, these fries have received the lowest score we have ever given any review (the previous bottom was In-N-Out). We came in excited, but left disappointed and confused. How could an international chain have this caliber of fries? We feel that just with small changes and tweaks, Jollibee can massively improve their fries.

Jollibee and their ketchup red is prominent throughout the dining experience. The ube pie was an interesting take on the classical apple pie served at McDonald's.