Food Review: Jollibee's Hashbrown Burger

I love hash browns; If I can eat only one thing everyday for the rest of my life, it would be hash browns. You can imagine my delight when Jollibee launched their Hash Brown Burger just this September. Unlike KFC's Tower Burger where the hashbrown is a padding to the patty to make the burger tall, Jollibee's offering is a tad bit simpler in execution. Let's head on to the review proper, shall we?

Packaging

One thing I have liked about Jollibee is how they are moving from using plastic and styrofoam packaging into paper and cartons. For the hash brown burger, they used a simple wax paper and carton packaging as pictured above. 

Product Composition and Caloric Content

As you can see from the image above, a beef patty and a single cheese is in between two hash browns, it couldn't get any simpler than that. (I chose to have my ketchup removed as I don't really like ketchup, but by default, it has ketchup in between the Hash brown patty and the beef patty.) These hash browns are baked, so you have less to worry about cholesterol-content-wise. Calorie content-wise, as per my research, baked hash browns have more calories than a fried one, though. A baked hash brown can contain as much as 190 calories, where as a fried one has 150~. The burger patty that Jollibee used here is the same one they use for the Regular Yum products. This patty is, as per official records, 95% imported beef, with only 5% fat. At most, this accounts for 145 calories only. The cheese slice clocks in at 70 calories. Over all, the Hash brown Burger will set you off at 595 calories, give or take.

Please note that this is not at all official and based only from speculation on the general caloric content of each component found in http://caloriecount.about.com/. If you think, the calorie content is a lot more than KFC's Double Down, officially declared by KFC to have 540 calories, then I would like to point out that a single chicken fillet is around 300 calories, give or take.

Taste, Texture, Value for Money, Combination Correctness

I daresay, this is the best Jollibee product ever made ever since the Burger Steak. I would possibly get clinical depression if this gets taken off the menu board. Seriously, it's that good. It's better than your girlfriend, plus the price point, too: a definite value for money. The saltiness of each component is just right, with the hash brown acting like a proper substitute for the bun--given how starchy it is, it feels like a proper bun. The soft texture of the hash browns also plays well along with the juicy beef patty. 

The cheese is a bit of a conundrum though, but I think it has its purpose, though I haven't realized what even after three servings. Nonetheless, the combination of the ingredients make the final product still very delightful.

Price and Competition

The Hash Brown burger sits above the Regular Yum in terms of pricing and well below the Champ. For an a la carte order, the Hash Brown Burger is priced at an affordable 64 pesos. Adding a drink will set you off at 80 pesos. It is not offered with fries, because, hello, hash browns: potatoes. 

Along with the hash brown burger, Jollibee has released a side-product called "Baked Hash Brown" which is priced at 28 PhP. Looking at this pricing, the hash brown burger is really a good deal. Two hash browns are already pegged at 56 pesos. You basically pay 8 pesos for the patty and the cheese slice.

The Hash Brown burger brings to mind KFC's own hash brown sandwich offering: The Tower Burger. Between the two, I'd have to go with Jollibee's effort. For one, you barely taste the hashbrown and chicken fillet in the Tower Burger; for another, it's restrictively more expensive. The combination in the tower burger does not make much sense as compared to the Hash Brown burger.

Price point considered, the main rivals of this offering inside Jollibee are the Chicken Sandwich, priced at 39 pesos, the Regular Yum, and the Yum with TLC. Of course, it is expectable that during the first month of offering, a product will shoot high in the sales chart. For the long run, it still remains to be seen if the sales will continue to be as good. Being a rice-eating country, the hash brown burger also faces competition from the Burger Steak, which sits almost at the same price point--a la carte.

Outside Jollibee, there is little to no offering to rival it directly. It is a unique offering which is delightful enough to secure itself. Nonetheless, I fear this will become a novelty product, which will see seasonal promotion and availability like the similarly good Tuna Pie--available only during Lenten Season plus give or take three months. I wish it to be staple as it is a very good offering, so fingers crossed.

Verdict

Yay! Never haveI this been delighted about a product offering from a fast food chain that it merits a review.  Nonetheless, if I can eat only one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this. A firm 4.75 out of 5 stars. So try out the new Hash Brown burger and tell me what you think about it.