The Entire Jollibee Menu, Ranked

Does the ChickenJoy actually spark joy? Will I feel jolly after eating the famed Jolly Spaghetti? These are the questions that arose as I made my way to my local Jollibee, ready to the devour their entire menu.

For those who haven't had the pleasure, Jollibee is a Filipino specialty fast food restaurant that was founded in the Philippines in 1975 and made its way stateside in 1998. The growing chain now has over 30 U.S. locations—from Los Angeles to New York City—and isn’t slowing down anytime soon. In fact, Jollibee opened a huge location in Times Square and are working on post-pandemic expansions.

I ventured to a Jollibee on a quest to try every menu item and rank them. After an hour and a hundred dollars spent, I had tasted everything from breakfast to the chain's famous chicken to piping hot pies. Here are the results, ranked from least delicious to most delicious.

It’s exactly what it sounds like: a bowl of corn tossed with melted butter. Tastes more like butter than corn, but I’m not complaining. It's a good side dish, but the other sides are just better.

This dish essentially felt like a subpar version of Ikea's Swedish meatballs. It arrived with two thin patties that were a bit rubbery and sprinkled with a generous helping of mushrooms. Ladled over the patties was a thinner, runnier mushroom gravy.  It tasted as if it had been microwaved. This dish was monotone for me, both in color and taste.

The Yumburger is inoffensive, but it's not the most enticing thing on Jollibee's expansive menu. It's a vaguely spongy burger patty on a slightly sweet bun, spread with a mild burger sauce that adds moisture, but not much else. At least get a Yumburger with cheese.

Adding cheese makes everything better and that includes the Yumburger. That being said, at the end of the day, it's a very plain cheeseburger that's small and lackluster. If you really want a burger at Jollibee, there are better options. 

I was expecting a stronger adobo flavor—more vinegar, more spices, more garlic—but instead, this just tasted like a very peppery rice. There were small bits of pork sprinkled throughout which was a nice, meaty touch. It was an enjoyable side but it lacked some of the flavors and deeper savoriness that make adobo so special.

These whipped potatoes are a bit runnier than your typical Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. The gravy drizzled on the potatoes provides a nice, salty balance to the creaminess of the potatoes. That being said, the texture is all one note: soft, loose, and, honestly, what you’d expect for fast-food mashed potatoes.

For reference, these taste just like your average, run-of-the-mill fast food fries—which means they are good, hot, and crispy. But good fries are still just fries at the end of the day. I'm here for all the Filipino hits, not your typical, formerly frozen french fries.

The Big Yumburger is a more deluxe version of the Cheesy Yumburger, thanks to the inclusion of lettuce, tomato, Cheddar cheese, and plain—not banana—ketchup. The meat is actually juicy, but I found this burger to be blander and less seasoned than their other options. It’s more like a Medium Yumburger.

Look, it's a hand-breaded fried chicken breast with a squeeze of mayonnaise on a bun. That's it. No pickles, no lettuce. Just chicken and mayo. Perhaps you're into that kind of simplicity. For me, there are just too many better chicken options at Jollibee to waste my time with this one. 

This dish is a staple of the breakfast menu and features bite-sized strips of seasoned meat with a mound of garlic rice all topped with an egg. The beef tenders were a bit over salted and dry, but I did enjoy the garlic rice it came with (rice for breakfast everyday, please). It was filling, but not my favorite item on the breakfast menu. That being said, I'd get it again. 

I really wanted to adore this pie because I love both bananas and jackfruit, which is what the filling for this dessert is composed of. That being said, the molten center was just too cloying. It's like Jollibee took the ripest bananas and jackfruit they could find and simmered it in more sugar, with no other seasoning to balance it out. With banana bread or banana cream pie, there's cream or nuts or cinnamon to find reprieve in. Here, all there is is the shell—which is perfectly fried and crispy, but can't prevent the interior from being sickly.

Who doesn't love an ice cream sundae? It tastes like what a McDonald’s ice cream sundae would if McDonald’s ever had a working ice cream machine. The chocolate sauce on top is perfect: fudgy, sweet, and delightful. No complaints here!

This is also part of Jollibee’s breakfast menu, and comes with two scored sausages, garlic rice, and another hard-cooked egg. This sausage is juicy and salty and has a kielbasa-like quality to it. Though it’s described as a hot dog on their menu and not longanisa—traditional Filipino-style breakfast sausage—it appears to be a riff on the latter. Sausage, egg, and rice; what more could you want from breakfast? My only wish is that they'd cook their fried eggs a bit more gentler. No one likes a grey, powdery egg yolk.

If you're interested in simplicity, but also want a bit of heat, this might be the sandwich for you. You'll only find fried chicken, rings of fresh jalapeño, and a spread of Sriracha mayo on this plush bun. There's no lettuce or tomato to fiddle with, but I find that I miss the addition of the veggies. 

The Aloha Yum Burger has all the goodness of the Yum burger but with a big ole ring of pineapple too. And as we all know, pineapple is good with savory things (like on pizza, I will not be silenced!). The patty of this burger is much juicier and better-seasoned, too.

The sweet pork breakfast reminded me of lap cheong, or Chinese sausage. In the Philippines, it’s known as tocino—or bacon cured in salt and sugar. Texturally, the pork is similar to jerky, but flavor-wise the meat is coated with a sweet, sticky marinade that marries perfectly with the garlic rice. It is also served with a fried egg for good measure.

The legendary Jolly Spaghetti is a medley of spaghetti noodles, ground meat, sliced hot dogs, and a somewhat sweet sauce made from banana ketchup. It’s not nearly as sweet as I thought it would be, and it’s hearty and filling. I understand why this is a staple party food in the Philippines. It’s delicious, and the naysayers who disagree with banana ketchup don’t know what they’re talking about.

The pancit palabok, which is also known as “Fiesta Noodles,” is a Filipino noodle dish that comes with an array of toppings—like shrimp, ground meat, hard-boiled eggs, and green onions—and is tossed together in a shrimp sauce. This variation was made with glass noodles and had a lot going on, both flavor-wise and texturally. There were some crunchy bits of chicharron, a lot of wet noodles, shrimp, pork, and eggs, and the whole thing is served with lemon juice that you’re meant to drizzle over and mix together. The acidity cuts through all the heaviness and makes the pancit palabok a tasty, balanced dish.

Corned beef can be incredible; I especially love the kind from a can, studded with bits of cubed potatoes. This one is reminiscent of that, with slivers of soft-cooked onions swimming throughout the juicy, salty beef. This, with the garlic rice (and an egg), is a breakfast match made in heaven.

This is the best breakfast at Jollibee, and honestly, are you even surprised? This is the proper way to start the day: with fried chicken, gravy, garlic rice, egg… what else would you need? All the elements of this breakfast platter complement one another and together form the hearty breakfast of your dreams.

I love a good chicken sandwich, and this one is pretty top tier (except maybe Popeyes' viral chicken sandwich, which deserves the hype and praise it gets). It doesn’t taste like it could have come from a fast-food joint. The bread is soft but holds up nicely, the lettuce was fresh and crunchy, and the chicken was generous. Plus, the whole thing is covered in a thick layer of mayonnaise, which as we all know is the perfect condiment for a fried chicken sandwich.

The Spicy Deluxe Chicken Sandwich edges out the non-spicy version thanks to the inclusion of fresh jalapeños. It's not every day you see a fast food spot serve up fresh—not pickled—jalapeños. It brings a refreshing crispness and a bit of heat, which cuts through the heaviness of a fried chicken center. I also welcome the lettuce and tomato, which helps to make this sandwich feel more complete. Lastly, the Sriracha mayo is also just a touch more nuanced than the plain stuff, which is good but could be better.

I will say it: This is the ultimate fast food pie. The outside was equal parts flaky and buttery while the filling was a wonderful, gooey mix of mango and peaches. I tasted more peach than mango, but certainly wasn’t mad at it. It's tropical, flavorful, and encased in a perfectly crispy fried shell. I would take this pie over McDonald’s classic apple any day of the week.

These chicken tenders are perfect for kids and adults alike. Similarly to the chicken sandwich, the tenders were juicy and had a lovely fried batter on the outside. Dunking them in the hot gravy that accompanies this dish was sheer joy. You can't really ever go wrong with chicken tenders.

ChickenJoy is basically the Filipino counterpart to KFC's fried chicken buckets (but infinitely better). It’s delicious. The chicken comes out hot and perfectly battered, with a crunchy exterior and juicy interior. It’s well-seasoned and cooked just right—not dry like other fried chicken spots. It’s real chicken paired with silky and savory gravy (that accompanies the chicken), a perfect combination. It’s all in the name: ChickenJoy brings genuine joy. I will order this fried chicken again, and again, and again.

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