With the girl group Katseye’s Gap advertisement living rent free in my mind, their songs making up the majority of my current playlist and my obsession with all the members, I knew I had to go see if their new Jollibee fried chicken was as gnarly as their song “Gnarly” described it to be.
Katseye’s collaboration with fast-food chain Jollibee was announced in August alongside exclusive merch, with their special meal making its way onto the menu on Sept. 17 and will be sold for a limited time. Their meal features the Katseye Special Korean BBQ Fried Chicken and KBBQ Chicken sandwich—essentially Jollibee’s staple Chickenjoy Fried Chicken and Chicken Sandwich, but the chicken is dipped in a special soy and gochujang glaze.
Walking into the West Covina location on147 Barranca St., there were many Katseye posters plastered onto the window and a cardboard cutout of them inside the restaurant which increased my excitement. I also think the red-themed photoshoot, which corresponds to the brand’s colors, turned out really well.
I ordered the two-piece KBBQ option for $9.49, consisting of two pieces of the KBBQ Fried Chicken and one choice of side. I chose my favorite Jollibee side item, the Jolly Spaghetti. I feel like they could have come up with original sides for the meal since all the choices were regular items from Jollibee’s menu, meaning the only unique thing in the whole meal was the KBBQ Fried Chicken.
The chicken came in cardboard packaging with a Katseye coaster with a light pastel ombre palette reminiscent of their first EP, “Soft is Strong.” The chicken also had mini flags held on toothpicks stabbed into the chicken. These small packaging details for the chicken delighted me for the theming, but I noticed the rest of the stuff–the paper bag, plastic bowl for my side and drink cup did not have any theming. I feel this could have been improved on to make the meal more distinguishable and excite fans more. Without much themed packaging, the meal did not feel as special.
As for the meal, I found the chicken to be delicious; however, the soy-gochujang sauce came off strong. The slogan described it to have a “bold kick of heat,” but I thought the taste was more tangy instead of spicy–and I usually have low spice tolerance.
Despite ordering the smallest portion of the meal available, I thought two pieces of the fried chicken and the side were well portioned and enough to make me feel full. However, the sauce of the chicken is too strong and would have gotten overwhelming if I had ordered a larger portion.
I give the Katseye meal a 3.5/5 stars. In regards to the food, the chicken was solid, but I felt that they could have come up with more menu offerings, such as more Korean related side dishes since the meal is centered around KBBQ. For the overall appeal, I think they could have improved product packaging and included a special trinket like they do in McDonald’s Happy Meals to entice more people to order. There was a lot of potential, but they ultimately came up short. Regardless, this collaboration with Jollibee is another one of their clever marketing strategies reminiscent of their recent skyrocket in popularity.
