A couple of days ago, Los Angeles Magazine wrote an article calling Guisados Philippines an “impostor” and a “knockoff”. Read the full article here.
In the article, some of their concerns include how Guisados Philippines’ logo is eerily similar to that of Guisados USA. “Just look at the fonts side by side,” the writer says. “… – these are obviously way too close for comfort.”
Here are the logos for your perusal:
Photo from Guisados’ (USA) official Facebook page.
Photo from Guisados Restaurant’s (Philippines) official Facebook page.
The writer continues with, “How many capital Gs actually extend downward like that? And the faux cursive “u” bleeding into the “i”? I get copying a restaurant’s menu, but the font? That’s cold.”
Guisados Philippines has explained their side on this, though, explaining that their logo started from paint shop. “We chose the Free style font as that is our style of cooking and the dos font used was vivaldi which had a grungy effect. Which is what Guisados restaurant is all about.” They also point out that “Guisados in L.A. has a thin handwritten style font where Guisados Restaurant in the Philippines has a thick bold 2-type font with a rectangle encasing it.” Read Guisados Restaurant’s (Philippines) full statement here.
Another thing that LA Mag’s article points out is each restaurant’s “About” section, claiming that the “About” section of the Guisados restaurant in the Philippines is a mere paraphrasing of that of Guisados in the US. They also compared their taco samplers, though Guisados Philippines has pointed out that their menu is completely different to the menu found in the “original Guisados” as people are now calling it.
Some people are also saying that Guisados Philippines should just change their name to avoid people’s assumptions that they are affiliated with the US restaurant, but Guisados Philippines is adamant in saying that this mishap is a mere coincidence and as such, they won’t be backing down or rebranding.
Any thoughts on this? Would love to hear from someone who has actually tried both restaurants! 🙂
