A fast-food chain from the Philippines that has expanded their U.S. footprint greatly in recent years will be coming to the Brick City very soon, as Jollibee will be launching a Newark outpost in the University Heights neighborhood.
The company is putting the finishing touches on a revamp at 129 Bergen Street, a property previously home to a KFC location that includes a drive-thru component. The restaurant will be Jollibee’s first in Newark and Essex County as a whole, with the company operating over 1,600 restaurants worldwide.
For those uninitiated, Jollibee’s highlights include their Yumburger or Chickenjoy, which is delicately hand-breaded fried chicken with a secret marinade. Their Jolly Spaghetti is also widely loved, with its signature sweet-style sauce and chunky slices of savory ham and hotdog.
The restaurant also serves less Americanized dishes like their Palabok Fiesta, a traditional Filipino noodle dish covered in garlic sauce, crushed pork rind, shrimp, and egg.
The chain offers a few breakfast items including beef tenders, pork sausage, or corned beef served with sides of egg, while desserts like a peach mango pie sporting a delicious filling with real Philippine mangoes enclosed in a light, crispy crust rounds out the menu.
Jollibee’s most prominent restaurant in the Garden State sits in Jersey City directly on top of the Journal Square PATH station. That 3,623-square-foot location opened in 2020 and the chain is slated to expand into Union this year as well.
The company has not announced a firm opening date for their Newark restaurant but says the Bergen Street space will be up and running sometime this winter.
