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
If you're keeping score, that's the sisig with the rice and the dinakdakan in the container. Both were somewhat similar. The dinakdakan was mushier, lacking in sour tones, with quite a bit of liquid on the bottom of the container. It didn't have the creaminess I enjoy and the lechon had become rubbery. It seemed to be on the blander side of the scale.
The beef, in this case short ribs was tender, which was a good thing as the bones made things rather unwieldy. I really liked the tart-tomatoey flavors that permeated the beef as well. This went quite well with the mild pungency of the rice.
From previous experience I knew what was available from what was on the white board.
Arriving home, I quickly unpacked things and immediately went for the item I 
 
The sisig had decent spice, balanced with some good sour tones. This might be the best I’ve had here in terms of seasoning and flavor. The lechon kawale was on the chewy and hard side; but still, I liked the flavors.
I like the fact that they have QR code menus; otherwise you'd have to ask at the window since there's no menu posted. I'd gotten so used to doing QR codes when visiting Mexico that I got kinda thrown off when we returned home!
I must say that the bowl looked quite good. The seasoning for the sisig was on the milder side in terms of sour tones and I didn't get much spice until I had a bite with three hidden slices of what looked like Thai Bird Chilies. Whoa…. I came across "groups" of chilies in the bowl. I guess they don't like being alone?
Most problematic for me was the rice, after all this place is named "White Rice", right? It was terribly hard, dry, and there was hardly any garlic flavor at all. I mean, in addition to being called "White Rice", this was a silog, right? The "si" in the "silog" stands for 
This was a lovely looking bowl! And that fried sunny side egg was even better this time around with wonderful crisp edges! I loved the atchara and the almost VN style pickles as well.
How I managed to carry this from the car to my desk without sustaining a hernia I'll never know. I forgot to ask for "half rice" so I got a ton of nicely cooked, moist rice. What's the deal with the giant chunks of protein in turo turo dishes these days? There were like two half thighs, bone and all in the overwhelmed styrofoam container. The chicken was on the tough side and there was a shortage of veggies (i.e. carrots, bell peppers) except for one orphaned potato; that I usually expect in this dish. I guess of you want to max out your protein intake… As you can see, it was quite greasy, and super salty.
