I just rememberedJollibee. It’s a chain of restaurants from the Philippines that also has stores in Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and it looks like they’re opening one in Saipan as well. There are only a few outlets in the U.S., mostly in California, one in Las Vegas and one in New York (Queens). There’s one in Cerritos that I’ve seen, but didn’t have time to eat there. I looked at the menu on the site, and some of the stuff looks good, but other dishes seem rather odd to my Americanized tastes. I mean, tuna pie?
I’ve had Pollo Campero before, it’s OK. It has existed in El Salvador for as long as I’ve been alive. My mom refused to buy Pollo Campero for years after she heard a story from an employee in one of the El Salvador restaurants who showed up to work the day after a power outage to find all the chicken in the freezer had spoiled and was instructed to fry it extra hard and sell it anyway. :eek:(puking smilie). Of course, this was in the 70s right before the civil war. I don’t think they would get away with that anymore.
I’ve seen a Oporto on Queen St in Auckland, but haven’t tried their food.
NZ chains Burger Fuel & Hells Pizza are starting to set up overseas. Burger Fuel burgers & service are the best I have ever had at a fast food restaurant. Hells Pizza are better than Pizza hutt or Dominos but IMHO don’t quite live up to the hype.
Hmmmmmm - oh oh oh Oporto - the best chicken in the free world - apart from Red Rooster. We also have Taco Bill (our answer to Taco Bell) and the fabulous Hogs Breath Cafes.
The Oporto places I’ve tried here have universally been… a bit average. Not terrible, but nothing special, either.
Nandos, on the other hand, is awesome. I’m really surprised it’s not popular in the US- I mean, it’s spicy grilled chicken burgers, which has got to appeal to a sizeable demographic there. They cook their chips in cottonseed oil and they’re very tasty, too.
I’ve never been very impressed by Red Rooster or Hog’s Breath; though- the service at Hog’s Breath usually leaves quite a bit to be desired and their portions are far too small for what they charge, IMHO.
Never heard of “Taco Bill”, either… must be a Southern thing.
Yoshinoya is a Japanese restaurant that primarily serves beef and rice in a bowl. There are over 1300 stores with only a handful in the U.S. I haven’t been able to find out how many though.
It is delicious and slightly addicting. It instantly felt like comfort food. Here in China, they have usually been teamed with Dairy Queen, a dangerous combination indeed.
Wienerwald used to be huge (1600 franchises worldwide and even some in the U.S.), but after several bankruptcies there are only ca. 50 left.
Probably one of the more interesting German franchises (even though technically it’s not really fast food) is Vapiano. They even have several restaurants in the D.C. area. The whole concept (when you order you get a pager that tells you when your food is finished; the bill is on an RFID card) is pretty interesting and the food is really good (at least it was in Frankfurt).
> Nandos, on the other hand, is awesome. I’m really surprised it’s not popular in
> the US- I mean, it’s spicy grilled chicken burgers, which has got to appeal to a
> sizeable demographic there. They cook their chips in cottonseed oil and they’re
> very tasty, too.
It’s not that it’s not popular (in the sense that people don’t like it). It’s that relatively few people have even heard of it. Only the people who have visited one of their restaurants outside the U.S. or the one in D.C. know what the food there is like.
I mean, there’s so many fast-food restaurants in the US, you’d think one selling spicy grilled chicken would appeal to people and there would, subsequently, be stores all over the place. Nandos is big in Australia (if a bit pricey) and there are restaurants all over the place, which is great.
What surprises me is that there aren’t any Dennys or IHOPs in Australia (at least that I’m aware of). I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been working on a uni assignment at 3am and thought “You know what? I could really go a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich or a Bacon & Egg Melt and Bottomless coffee right about now.” There is, basically, nowhere to get food at 3am for the most part, unless you want Maccas (which I don’t) or the dreaded Service Station Pie…
I don’t think their grilled chicken is as good as the Peruvian style roasted chicken you can find in the DC area, but I like their fried chicken better than KFC or Popeyes.
To me, the term “popular” can only be used if the intended audience has a choice. Saying that Nando’s isn’t popular in the U.S. is like saying that a foreign TV program that has never shown in the U.S. or a foreign movie that hasn’t opened in the U.S. isn’t popular. As far as I’m concerned, that makes no sense. Or, to pick an even clearer example, it’s like saying that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone because Americans liked that title better.
Americans get no input into what foreign things are merchandized in the U.S. Zero. Zilch. Nada. What we get to experience is solely in the hands of high-level businessmen who don’t even bother to ask our opinions. They have their own stereotypes of what will sell in the U.S. and have no intention of changing their minds about them. I’m sorry, but I’m tired of foreigners who think that ordinary Americans have some control about things like this.
I never had heard of Nando’s before reading this thread, but now I wish there was one near me. I think they would do big business in Houston. If anyone wants to build a franchise location, do it here!
There’s a Jollibee on the corner of Roscoe and Woodman too. I guess the city is Van Nuys or Panorama City or something. Maybe I’ll have to try it out one day.
Dico’s is just a slightly cheaper version of KFC that doesn’t taste nearly as good. They do sometimes have promotional coupons where you can get a chickenburger for like 5 RMB, though, so I guess there’s that…
When I was growing up in Ohio, there was still one Wympee’s downtown. It was a classic railroad-car style diner. I loved it. I don’t know whether it’s still there.
