After my visit to Tambayan, I had a “FOY” contact me via email and mention Jax Chibugan in National City. She recommended the Crispy Pork Kare Kare. So recently, I was in the National City area, it was on a Tuesday at around 930am. I had missed breakfast on this day and was quite hungry. Being on Plaza just East of the 805, I naturally headed on over to Tita’s, which I hadn’t been to in a while. But, as usual, the parking lot was totally psycho and to be perfectly honest….I think it’s more about quantity than quality there these days and of course those “Tita’s” there don’t mess around….. Then I recalled that “MG”, whom I used to work with and used to pick up up stuff form Tita’s for lunch for me had recommended Jax as well. I knew from doing a bit of checking earlier that they open at 9 in the morning on weekdays, so I headed on over. Located further East on Plaza past Ma Noodle House, right before the “Plaza turn”, in the strip mall next to the Jack in the Box is Jax Chibugan. Man, I haven’t been to this area since maybe my visit to Kujo Eats back in 2024. I quickly noted that Ichiban Sando has moved to this little strip mall as well.
Walking in and the place was already doing some pretty good business on a Tuesday morning.
Jax Chibugan is not one of those “turo turo” (point point) places, rather they so silogs, which I think of a garlic rice bowls with egg and ulam…various main courses. I really didn’t pay attention to the various baos and such.
Being that I take direction well; I ordered the Kare Kare with Crispy Pork ($14.59). Taking no chances; I ordered it packed as take out even though I’d be having it in the restaurant.
I went and had a seat in the corner to wait for my order.
Then the most amazing coincidence happened. I looked on over and saw “CC” (aka pcarh13) and a friend of hers waiting for their “brunch”. It had been a while since I’d seen her! I walked on over and she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her! She introduced me to her dining companion and we decided to grab a table and hang out. It was such a nice time! They were having silogs…..
Meanwhile, a short time later my Kare Kare arrived.
As anticipated, this was more food than I could consume in one sitting these days…especially at 10am in the morning.
The rice was a bit hard but decently cooked. The kare kare was nice and creamy, decently thick, but a bit on the sweeter side and could have used a bit more salty-savory tones….I probably should have asked for some bagoong, but was too busy enjoying chatting with my dining companions.
The eggplant was nice and creamy; the lechon was slightly chewy side with some crisp edges, but not hard, much better than what I’d had at Tambayan, and I rather enjoyed it. It was nicely seasoned, but retained the nice porky flavor.
I thought it was pretty good…you couldn’t complain about the portion size, that’s for sure. I enjoyed this meal, though that was probably due to my dining companions!
A few days later I was again in the area and decided to get one of silog to go. Having thought the pork was pretty good on my previous visit, I decided to try the Sisigsilog….you know me a sisig, right? Like the kare kare, it was nicely priced ($13.99) and the portion size was generous.
Though when opening my container I quickly noticed something…..
Where’s the egg? Maybe their sisigsilog doesn’t come with egg?
Well, I dug on in….I expected garlic rice, but this was kinda mushy, mainly soy sauce based, rice.
The “sisig”…notice the quotes was not good, decently sour, but missing spice altogether. It was also very salty and lacked decent pungent tones as well. But the pork was the most disappointing item as it was super hard….not tough….not crunchy…hard.
It had obviously been twice fried….but I think they chopped everything into small pieces before frying, thus the pork lost all moisture and became leather like in texture. You can just look at the photo and tell.
Well, so much for that, perhaps there’s something else on the menu I need to try?
I was so glad to check out Jax Chibugan, as I got to run into CC!
Jax Chibugan
3142 E Plaza Blvd.
National City, CA 91950
Current Hours:
Tues – Fri 9am – 7pm
Sat -Sun 8am – 7pm
Closed on Mondays
You definitely got shorted the fried egg and garlic — the menu description for the sigsigsilog on their website says that an egg and garlic rice are included. Guess they were in a hurry that day!