Chito's Guide to Urban Living # 3

Jollibee vs. McDonalds

In this country, the most salient sign of the completeness of an area's urbanization is the presence of McDonald's and Jollibee branches (sometimes each located just a few meters away from the other.)  Empirical data has long shown that Jollibee has been the more profitable fastfood restaurant for a number of years now.  However, there are those who swear that McDonald's is actually the better restaurant.  For the benefit of those who are living under a rock and have actually visited neither of these two restaurants, the following guide is also an attempt to make an educated judgement on which of the two is better:

The Price

It would be pointless to present a side-by-side comparison of the prices of the products of Jollibee and McDonald's because (1) there are only a few items in both restaurants' menus that actually correspond to each other; (2) the price of the food items actually varies depending on the location (for example, branches located in malls generally have higher prices); and (3) both restaurants have their own version of the ubiquitous "value meal" that do correspond to certain competing product types between the two restaurants, but the serving sizes vary (presumably to fit the price tag).  What can be derived however is the fact that Jollibee does have slightly lower prices.  This writer has had numerous occasions to dine in both restaurants for a full meal - of whatever combination - and while I find myself visiting McDonald's more frequently, I have to admit that I end up spending less whenever I do eat at Jollibee. 

The Food

1.  Fried Chicken - While Fried Chicken Mcdo is tastier than Chicken Joy, it doesn't necessarily mean that it tastes better.  In terms of preserving the taste of the chicken itself, Chicken Joy does a better job - there's less coating, and the inner juices are still in the meat, cooked with the chicken.  The problem with Fried Chicken McDo is that as it is, it already has a much-lessened "chicken taste".  Add the gravy and it becomes even lesser.  Without the gravy however, the chicken seems incomplete.  Jollibee also serves larger chicken parts more frequently.  If, for example, you are health conscious, you have a higher chance of getting a chicken breast if you request one in Jollibee.  For some reason, McDonald's simply does not serve that part.  In both restaurants though, you'd have to watch out for old stock being served to you.  One sign of old stock is that the chicken appears a lot smaller - the act of cooking the chicken reduces its size.  Reheating it reduces the size further.  It also has a darker color and the meat itself has hardened (in Filipino household terms, "kahoy") because the natural juices have been drained. 

2.  French Fries - No doubt, McDonald's fries are better tasting than Jollibee's.  The servings are bigger too.  Lately, however, there's a trend towards lessening the fries servings in McDonald's.  It sometimes comes to a point where there does not seem to be much difference in the "regular" and "large" servings.  But in any case, McDonald's still has bigger servings of fries than Jollibee.  In instances where one finds himself being served "large" fries with "regular" content, one can simply and kindly ask the food server to add a few more.  No need to be rude.  Food servers are almost certainly under orders by management to shave off fries to increase profits.  If you can ask for more fries in such a way that you make it appear you understand the food server's predicament, then there's a higher chance that they will accede to your request.

3.  Burgers - When in comes to the taste of burgers, it's very difficult to make a judgement between Jollibee and McDonalds'.  Both are very different, and seemingly follow different standards in terms of the end taste desired.  But both can be considered as good-tasting.  Personally, I prefer McDonald's burgers, but I've tasted the "Yums" of Jollibee and they actually have more flavor - even to the point that the former's burgers seem plain in comparison.  Perhaps the difference is in the store orientation wherein McDonald's is a global brand, while Jollibee is a distinctly Filipino brand.  More on this point in a later section.

4.  Spaghetti - Both restaurants offer spaghetti varieties that are already very far removed from authentic Italian spaghetti (which has the distinctive taste of tomato).  It seems that both McDonald's and Jollibee have strived to come up with a recipe that resembles the type of Filipino-style spaghetti that gets served in children's birthday parties.  And in this regard, Jolibee has had more success.  The McSpaghetti is not bad-tasting at all, but Jollibee's spaghetti has captured just the right amount of sweetness that Pinoys everywhere in the world are looking for in their spaghetti.

5.  Breakfast meals - Still on the Filipino theme, Jollibee has taken the traditional -silog varieties and came up with a direct competing product line against McDonald's sausage and muffin-based breakfast menu.  If one goes by the principle of "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", then Jollibee again wins this round.  The so-called Big Breakfast meal by McDonalds simply can't compare to the completeness of any -silog breakfast meal by Jollibee.  Perhaps it was for this reason that McDonald's introduced the longganisa meal and the "with garlic rice" option for its Big Breakfast meal to gain a share of the -silog market dominated by Jollibee.

6.  Drinks - With the exception of their fruit juice offerings, both McDonld's and Jollibee sodas are Coca-Cola based, so there's really no use comparing.  Unfortunately, the crews of both restaurants also have a tendency to put too much ice in their drinks.  (See the reasoning in the Fries section.)  Worse, they sometimes have a bout of selective deafness when a customer requests "no ice" or "less ice".  Lately, they have found a way to deceive customers by immediately putting a cover on their drinks upon filling.  That way, the customer won't notice how much ice was actually placed in the plastic cup.

Taste Summary:  Jollibee promotes itself as a Filipino fastfood restaurant.  In this regard, it has a lot of room to experiment with its products in order to arrive at a taste that will appeal most to the Filipino palate.  On the other hand, McDonald's is a western fastfood restaurant that simply got transplanted to the Philippines.  As such, it is constrained by whatever formula is set by its head office.  Any room for experimentation is very limited.  A person who has eaten Filipino food all his life will be more receptive to Jollibee, and would even go as far as saying that Jollibee's menu offerings taste better.  While a widely-travelled person will be more likely to be impressed by the fact that the taste of burgers of McDo in the Philippines is not much different from the McDo burgers anywhere else in the world.  The good thing about this competition from different orientations is that the consumer is always the winner.  Both restaurants serve different but nevertheless acceptable-tasting food at relatively low prices.

Cleanliness

This time, McDonald's is ahead by a mile.  One is more likely to encounter a clean and usable rest room in McDonald's rather than in Jollibee.  Garbage disposal is also a perfected art by the crew members of the Golden Arches.  While the two restaurants seemingly have similar methods, for some secret reason known only to McDonald's, any seat nearest to the rubbish bins does not reek of anything at all.  As opposed to Jollibee - where I purposely avoid the seats near those bins because of the faint but very familiar smell of basura.  (The worst of the lot is KFC, which will not be discussed here.)  Of course, there are exceptions to the rule on both sides of the fence.  But McDonalds' branches are generally cleaner than Jollibee branches.

This is a very important factor.  If you have been paying attention to this review, you would have noticed that food-wise, Jollibee actually has the upper hand.  Personally, what makes me go visit McDonald's more frequently is the cleanliness.  This writer is willing to bet that there are those like me who equate the cleanliness of the surroundings with cleaner food.  So having better-tasting food is not necessarily an edge if one gives the impression that it is not prepared cleanly.

Overall judgement

Choosing which between these two fastfood behemoths is the better restaurant can be very subjective.  But what makes the job easier is that the main strength of each do not overlap.  If you are a person who goes for taste above all considerations, then Jollibee is for you.  If you are a person who is meticulous about hygeine, then you will find McDonald's more appealing.  As far as customer service and price goes, they are just about even.  Crew members of both restaurants are very courteous, and store managers are very receptive to customer feedback/complaints.

As can be gathered from what I've written so far, here's my personal judgement: I acknowledge that Jollibee's food offerings taste better, but I'd gladly forego that for cleaner surroundings and the prospect of cleaner food, even if I end up paying a bit more.

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photo credit: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y66/rickyrock/jollibee.gif