Review: Jollibee's - Yum Burger with Cheese

Jolliebee's Yum Burger with Cheese features a beef patty with cheese and their "special burger dressing" on a soft burger bun. Jolliebee's is a fast food chain from the Philippines so you can consider it a Filipino take on American fast food.

It was $1.19 for one.

The burger is actually just called a "Yum! with cheese." It's basically Jolliebee's counterpart to a junior hamburger at most burger joints.

While the Yum burger seems pretty familiar on paper and in appearance, it's definitely different from American burgers.

First off the patty itself is heavily seasoned compared to say McDonald's or Wendy's and had a nicely charred crust. While the Jollibee website doesn't list the ingredients of the beef patty, copycat recipes suggest that it's seasoned with onion powder and MSG in addition to the typical salt and pepper. It didn't taste like any seasoned burger I've had. It wasn't bad though, just different.

The cheese was weird. It didn't quite melt into a goo so much as a goo with granules in it. The taste was a bit bland but okay.

Rather than ketchup or mustard, Jolliebee's special sauce seems to be a sweeter, creamy mayo and they do not skimp on it. I get the feeling that their home market must really like the mayo. It was a lot too much for me though.

The bun was the most familiar component and was squishy soft and airy.

Overall, eating Jolliebee's Yum burger with cheese was an interesting experience and worth a try if you're curious, but I wouldn't get it again (mostly due to the weird cheese and excessive mayo although I suppose you can ask for less).