Jollibee Reading — Restaurant in Reading

I’m somewhat of a frequent customer at jollibee as the Cardiff branch has been very good to me in the past, sad to say, the same can’t be said about this branch.

Yesterday, I ordered the 2 pc chicken joy meal for £7.99. What I expected was 2 golden brown pieces of chicken, but what I got was 2 oily pieces of chicken that looked like they just popped out of the freezer. The chicken was so oily that I’m now sat with a sore throat. Not only that, I know jollibee prides itself on its crispy chicken but this chicken felt more parts deep fried batter than chicken all while not being “crispy”, so the chicken ended up being chewy, cold in some places, so oily that the box had a constellation of oil blotches, and as both pieces were chicken wings, there was very little meat to actually eat even though the cuts themselves were huge.

The fries are usually what keeps me coming back but they’re usually a hit or miss, as sometimes they’re sitting at the fry station from a previous batch for a good while before they’re served up. So you’re left with room temperature fries that have lost all crispiness.

Another issue is that the Reading branch has an upstairs but up till this point, I’ve never been up there as there’s usually a rope closing off the stairs every day at around 5 or 6 pm. Granted the rope wasn’t tied around the staircase’s bannister yesterday, though it’s still a weird practice since jollibee is supposed to close at 10pm.

A general pet peeve of mine is also that on the machine’s screen, the chicken joy is advertised using the picture of a chicken wing and a chicken drumstick, yet I’m yet to encounter a drumstick or better yet, see anyone eating a drumstick at jollibee. If you’re going to advertise 2 types of cuts then at least ensure there’s a 30% chance you’ll find a drumstick.

The one good thing I have to say about my experience I’d say would be that they managed to keep the drinks in good shape, so good...

I have been waiting a while to try Jollibee but was sadly disappointed by the experience. I ordered from the self service screen which oddly prompted me an unusually high number of times to buy add ons…very strange. Might be worth checking the screen nearest the till as that didn’t allow you to pay so we needed to requeue for the other screens.

I ordered spicy tenders, 3pc spicy meal and my girlfriend ordered the spaghetti meal with a piece of chicken. Wait time wasn’t that long I’d say 5-6 minutes which was good.

Chicken tasted dry and like it had been sat there a while. Overall the taste was disappointing as it wasn’t a tasty spicy chicken tender or piece of chicken as you would imagine for such a high quality brand. I don’t want to sound harsh here but It really was average fried chicken that you can get from all the other varieties of chicken shops down that road. The batter was overcooked and chicken was really dry so disappointing on the palette on first bite…It did come with some skinny chips which the chips didn’t taste too bad so scored a point.

Sadly the spaghetti wasn’t a hit either and in honestly I think it has more hype than taste. Feedback was that it was really sweet tasting which sounds strange but again the quality was rubbery and seemed off.

Maybe it was a bad day for Jollibees Reading but with the Chicken fast food business so saturated with competition the Chicken needs improvement big time to keep up. I believe this branch just isn’t up to the standards of other Jollibees as I have read about so I’ll look to try elsewhere but so far wasn’t worth the cost/time for lunch and we left most of the food as we were...

Came here as I was on a visit locally. I was so excited as it's my first time ever but short lived. First I walk in and notice there are only 3 order screens available. I thought this was strange as Jollibee is a fast growing brand. After waiting 20 minutes for the order screens to become available I gave up and decided to order direct from the one till that was open. I ordered 4 chicken tenders, and asked if it could be a meal. I was told no. However, on their advertising boards on top of till, it said I can upgrade to a meal for extra money. I couldn't be bothered arguing so I just ordered fries and drink separately. Now, there were only 4 customers ahead of me. The service for food was so slow that it reminded me of a Burger King at the Aiport where lots of customers are waiting. Only here, there was only 4 of us. After waiting another 20 minutes my food came out. 4 finger skinny tenders, fries and a pot of Gravy. All for £8 something. It looked horrible, and taste was ok. Gravy very salty. I am so disappointed because Jollibee is so hyped up on tiktok ect. In my opinion, KFC tenders are much much bigger and has flavour and is value for money. I really didn't like Jollibee. Maybe I visited on a bad day but for me, not good order service available, waiting times too long, and crappy food served. And no, to the Jollibee staff, I did not take pictures or keep your receipt because it all went in the bin! I will not be...