Emma To ‘bee or not to ‘bee?
When we first heard there was a Filipino chicken and spaghetti fast-food restaurant opening in the UK we knew we had to try it as it sounded, well, bizarre. So when we recently ventured down to London we genuinely made this our first stop. Thankfully, it’s only a 2-minute walk from Earl’s Court on the District line.
Home of the “famous chickenjoy”
The menu is small, so you’d think they would be able to get the stuff out quickly but fast food this is not. After ordering we waited a full 25 minutes, alongside lots of other bored and hungry customers, before being called to the Claim area.
Everyone is thinking the same thing, “where is my chickenjoy?!” but ‘Chickenjoy’ is not what we, or anyone else were feeling. Seemingly, the opening of Jollibee was a much-awaited affair with queues out the door. And yes, we saw a queue of disgruntled customers waiting desperately for food…
While staring at the orders filling up we couldn’t help but notice the map on the wall showing the locations of other Jolibee restaurants, which has a twisted geography (sadly we didn’t get a clearer photo).
Menu
Food
We watched staff doing odd jobs whilst the orders piled up filling the order notification screen, with the food waiting to be placed into bags and onto trays piled up on the racks behind. Eventually, our number flashed up on the screen and we returned to our table with this…
Clockwise from top left we have…’ chicken joy’ with a tub of gravy, one burger steak with rice, fries and jolli spaghetti.
Here’s a different view in case it looks more appealing….er, nope.
Joy was sadly lacking, it was like a bland KFC, but the chicken was at least the highlight of a poor meal, even though the coating lacked flavour. The gravy tasted of a salty chicken broth, which made for a reasonably tasty chicken dip. The chicken was also the only thing in the order that was hot, everything else was tepid at best.
The spaghetti was like tinned spaghetti for kids – big sugary pasta swimming in tomato sauce with little bits of minced meat and sliced frankfurter. The fries were cold and limp. The burger…imagine two tepid McDonalds burgers in tepid gravy with mushrooms…and we asked for orange juice, they took our order and then told us they had none. Gah!
Verdict
I think we can safely say we won’t be rushing back. Awful. Long long wait, tepid food with a bland taste. Just go to KFC and serve it alongside a can of Heinz spaghetti! At least the staff were polite and friendly, and the toilets in clean, working order.
TL;DR
+ It’s easy to get to
+ Clean toilets
+ Staff polite and friendly
– Long wait
– Weird food combos
– Cold mediocre food
– Fresh out of orange juice
Where
Jollibee
180-182 Earls Court Road,
London
SW5 9QG
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Cold, mediocre food, lol. It does not look very appealing, but I like the artwork on the walls at least.
Oh my, this looks good! I love anything chicken related, however, we do not have any Jollibee in the US, the closest thing to that would be Chick-Fil-A or KFC, from what I can tell from your article. I really want one of those Chicken burgers now, lol – blessings!
Lmao! Your description of the spaghetti though. This was a very honest review. I honestly did not find the sight appealing either. I think the worst thing that can happen to someone in this case is to wait so long for food only to be disappointed. I think you should tag them or send them a link so they can sit up. Otherwise, they’ll lose many customers soon. It’s no point having a beautiful food joint with poor service and terrible food.
This looks like a unique place to go to. Certainly interesting food combinations!
Ohh wow sounds like a fab place, I’ll have to mention it to my brother who lives in London!
Ami xxx
Very honest review… Looks really nice and the foods looks appetizing.. For a business that is just starting, they seems great to me and there is always room for improvement where they are not good at.
If they kept, like KFC, the flavour size and presentation in the Philippines – it will work for non Filipinos. Also, may I suggest to add the local Filipino simple but delicious breakfast combination of tapsilog and all the ones in their Breakfast Joy list, that will sell. Please offer these ones too to make Jollibee different ftom KFC, Chicano Benny’s And Maxies.