Restaurant industry consultants and Jollibee officials agree that reaching a mainstream audience is key. Non-Asians make up less than one-third of Jollibee's customers, said Mike Navarrete, chief financial officer for Jollibee Foods. That inability to tap into a larger market has hurt sales, which are about $1.1 million per store, he said.

Jollibee got its start in Manila in 1978, when entrepreneur Tony Tan converted a few ice cream parlors into fast-food restaurants. Borrowing from the Golden Arches, he adopted a red-and-yellow color scheme and his own version of Ronald McDonald: "Jollibee," a grinning, Tuxedo-clad bee.

Three years later, McDonald's Corp. entered Manila, with its sights trained on Jollibee. But Tan refused to buckle, focusing more on providing good service and tweaking food to local tastes, the company said. The result: Jollibee stung McDonald's. There are now 465 Jollibee outlets in the Philippines, versus 237 McDonald's.