mmm-yoso!!! , a food blog, is being written by Cathy while Kirk and His Missus are on the road.
Jollibee, a chain originating in the Philippines, is the largest and fastest growing Asian restaurant company across the globe, with 1500 locations (70 in North America). Three are in San Diego County. Even though burgers are on the menu, Jollibee is primarily known for its "Chickenjoy"-marinated, hand breaded chicken which is never greasy and always crisp and juicy. 
Each location has a Jolly Bee greeter at the door. 
There are some specials near the ordering area as well as online if you pre-order.
The restaurant is always clean, ordering is efficient. As soon as you begin, there is another person or two listening and beginning to gather your choices. By the time you pay, a tray or 'To-Go' bag is waiting. You do have to fill your soda from the machine.
A salty brown gravy is included with each chicken order. That's a pineapple juice drink ($3.49) on the tray, which was filled from behind the counter.
A three piece meal with one side -adobo rice- and beverage from the machine ($11.99). Adobo rice is fried rice with pork.
Adobo is a method of cooking in the Philippines. It is a braising of the 'protein' (although you can make adobo vegetables) in a marinade of five items: vinegar, garlic, bay leaf, soy sauce and peppercorns.
The two piece combination with palabok ($11.99). Palabok is rice noodles topped with a garlic-pork-shrimp sauce topped with sliced hard boiled egg; a really nice side dish.
We also ordered the 'Limited Edition' fried pie ($2.99) which is coconut pineapple-large shreds of sweet coconut and chunky pieces of tangy pineapple in a flaky, buttery crust. The 'regular' pie (peach mango) is always satisfying. 
On another visit, I picked up two Deluxe Chicken Sandwiches ($5.99) with a side of 'crispy fries', which remained crispy on the drive home. "Deluxe" means the sandwich has mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato. It is served on a brioche bun. As you can see, there was also a peach mango pie. 
The chicken can be regular or spicy and regular is great-meaty, juicy, crispy and very large. Packets of Cholula are available and compliment the flavor if you change your mind and want spicy. I'm not crazy about brioche buns, since they basically don't absorb sauces (or juice) but this was toasted and fresh and not overly bready.
Jollibee has consistently great service and serves consistently great, fresh food. An excellent chain.
Soo wrote about Jollibee in 2021. cc wrote a couple of Jollibee posts more than ten years ago.
Jollibee 8436 Mira Mesa Blvd San Diego, CA 92126 (858) 800-3130 Open daily 9-10 Website
On this corner to the right of this famous sign, is Lee's Sandwiches, which began in 1982 as a family venture with 500 food trucks in Northern California and currently is a franchise in four states with 60 Brick and Mortar locations.
The Menu Board includes six inch breakfast sandwiches (on baguette or a croissant) served all day.
Beverages and Korean Rice dogs are available; quite a variety.
Asian Sandwiches, served on ten inch baguettes as well as 
European Sandwiches ("American" fillings) served on a large croissant or baguette.
There's also a hot food display case and some offerings on the counter.
The Pate Chaud ($2.75) is offered in chicken or pork and both fillings are excellent. 
The herbs and flavoring in the ground chicken and also in the ground pork are fresh and flavorful. The pastry is crispy-flaky and each bite is quite nice. The egg rolls sold from this case (five for $6) also have the same fillings and are a crispy snack.
As mentioned, the breakfasts served all day are smaller. 
The #82, ham, bacon, egg and cheese on croissant ($5.49) was quite hearty and filling. The six inch croissant appears to have been baked in the baguette tray, so it's the dough but not the shape of a croissant. Everything on the sandwich is good. 
The #90 ($5.49) sausage, egg and cheese on a baguette was also filling. The bread/crust ratio is good, bread is fresh baked and the sausage was a better quality than I've had in other breakfast sandwiches. 
We returned for lunch. I've been choosing yogurt drinks lately and the mango yogurt ($6.25) was a great choice; just enough sweet from the mango chunks and tart from the yogurt. Of course, we had to have a Lee's Cafe original (Cafe su da)($4.49). The strong coffee and sweetened condensed milk over ice is indeed a perfected beverage.
The #1-combination ($6.99) is made on a ten inch baguette and includes house pickled daikon and carrots, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, mayonnaise and soy sauce. 
Jamon-Head Cheese-Pate are the meats. 
The #35 Roast Beef European ($9.49) included lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and cheese (I was not asked which type of cheese I wanted, but the menu shows a choice of American, Swiss or Provolone). Condiments are on the side (mustard, onion, pepperoni and pickle). Plenty of roast beef on this fresh baked, soft crusted croissant. Satisfying. 
The matcha green tea ($5.99 large) is another favorite beverage; a nice strong matcha flavor and not very sweet.
Man, this was pretty big. Crust was nicely charred. Though the first two bites gave things away. The slices weren't cut all the way thru and the resulting dough was tough and saturated and not in a good, Neopolitan Pizza way. Nice truffle fragrance, but no truffle flavor. There was a ton of tasteless mozzarella. The crust, while nicely charred wasn't very yeasty, but was too salty. I liked the bacon, that almost had a flavor of jamon, which gave the pizza almost all it's flavor, but there just wasn't enough of that to overcome all that cheese. Too little radicchio or carmelized onion to make much of a difference.
The chicken held up quite well after the drive home. This batter is more of the "laquer" type and it was still quite crunchy. Not much seasoning though, so it really needs a sauce. The sauce came in a presealed container and was like a sweet (emphasis on "sweet") chili sauce that was kind of weak overall.
The wings were somewhat unevenly battered, the pieces on the top were quite crunchy, but for some strange reason, even though I liked the fact this wasn't swimming in sauce, the bottom pieces had gone mushy. For some reason, the meat of the wings were drier as well. This soy based sauce was also too sweet for my taste.
Turning things over was a different story as it was pretty greasy. The meat was very moist, tender, and it had that flavor of dark meat chicken that I prefer. The batter was quite crunchy but the seasoning dust is pretty gritty, though quite spicy; but there’s a lack of other flavors….at Hatties, I remember the chicken being very spicy, but it still had some smokiness, most likely from Paprika and even a hint of garlic tones.
Unfortunately, the batter of the wings didn’t hold up well, much of it getting a bit mushy and flaking off. So, if you’re ordering this, it’s probably in your best interest to eat them ASAP….maybe even in the parking lot! Lot’s of burnt garlic which was on the bitter side, though I enjoyed the spice. The flesh of the wings were nice and moist.
The chicken really just tasted boiled lacking in the mild hints of anise-wine and devoid of any salt or mild ginger tones….just plain bland. The sauce provided had brown specks in it and tasted a bit rancid and off. The chicken while cooked nicely, just didn’t taste right.
