Kuya J opens its 60th branch — and counting
Winglip Chang, president and CEO of iKitchen, the company behind Kuya J Restaurant
MANILA, Philippines – It is said to be one of the fastest-growing Filipino casual-dining restaurants in the country. Kuya J, which started as a small eatery in Cebu, opened its 60th restaurant on the second level of SM City East Ortigas recently.
“We feel this is a very significant opening because it’s our 60th branch and we would like to thank the public for supporting us and helping us grow,” says Winglip Chang, president and chief executive officer of iKitchen, the company behind Kuya J. “But we are not stopping at that.”
In fact, they expect to end with 85 operating branches by the end of the year. They have been opening as many as three to five branches per week in the past few weeks. The plan is to have 200 operating branches by the end of 2017.
The choice of location is an important consideration. “Of our 60 branches, around 43, or about 80 percent, are located in the malls,” says Danny Pumarego, iKitchen chief operating officer. “Aside from the SM malls, we’ve also opened in Ayala Malls as well as Robinsons, among others. One of our very big branches is in Nuvali.”
They have 13 branches in the Vis-Min area and 49 in Luzon, as far north as Isabela and south in Lucena and Legaspi in Bicol. The average size of the branches is about 160 sqms, with the biggest at about 400 sqms.
“With this new branch, we bring our signature dishes and distinct service closer to customers in the eastern part of Metro Manila,” Chang noted. “As we open more branches, we want to make sure that our customers can enjoy their favorite Kuya J dishes wherever they are in Metro Manila.”
Among Kuya J’s bestsellers are their Crispy Pata, Grilled Scallops, and Bulalo.
The scallops are shipped to Manila directly from Cebu. Other must-try dishes are the Lumpia Presko, which is made with sautéed crabmeat and bamboo-shoot filling, rolled in malunggay-infused lumpia wrapper with sweet garlic sauce.” This dish was chosen recently as the best vegetable dish by ABS-CBN in their Choose Philippines awards.
The Chorizo Dinamitos are deep-fried jalapeños with Cebu chorizo and cheddar cheese, served with garlic mayo dip.
Recently, they introduced the Kuya J Roast Chicken. The chicken is first baked, and then roasted. The chicken stays moist inside even when reheated. “The problem with a lot of roast chicken is it loses a lot of moisture when cooked,”
Chang observes. “We have this machine which has the capability of introducing steam into the system so the chicken does not dry out. The combi-steamer is a huge machine. You cannot find this in many branches because it’s a very expensive investment.”
They’ve also invested in computerized fryers, which allows them to cook their popular crispy pata to perfection. It stays juicy inside. “The computerized fryer tells the cook when the oil is ready to fry the pata, as well as when to remove it from the fryer,” Chang explains. “So that improves the quality because it now eliminates human intervention and inconsistency, in that sense.”
Kuya J believes in investing in these machines, which they provide to all their branches to ensure the quality of their product. “It’s not something a lot of restaurants are willing to invest in because one machine would probably cost around half a million,” Chang remarked. “The fryer costs almost P1 million, while the combi-steamer is about half a million.”
Their halo-halo is extra-special. They use shaved ice instead of crushed ice. The ice is very fine and smooth like snow, which gives it an extremely appealing mouth feel. The ice is mixed with imported milk powder. It has ube, macapuno and leche flan, topped with corn flakes instead of pinipig.
“We launched our halo-halo last summer and it was a phenomenal success,” Pumarego shares. “We sold more than 100,000 units on its first month, considering we had only 30 branches then. We are very proud of that. It overtook our crispy pata, which landed in the number-two spot.”
They have popular actor Jericho Rosales as an endorser.
No, the J in Kuya J does not stand for Jericho. “Kuya J was actually the original name of the small eatery which we bought, and we decided to keep the name,” says Chang, whose family owns Majestic, the iconic Cebuano Chinese restaurant. “Jericho is a very good ambassador for us. His personality is wholesome. He is very approachable. He does not have this diva air. Kuya J is like that. It’s the image of the brand.”
“Our type of cuisine is Filipino, essentially what your mother would cook because she loves you,” Chang says. “It’s easy to cook, but how do you get the best? It does not have to be fancy. Just use the right ingredients, fresh meat, fresh vegetables. Sourcing is very important. And then we put a lot of passion into it, to make sure that it will come out good.”
