> To be honest, I find the chain pizzas- more specifically Eagle Boys- to be a lot
> nicer than the “Gourmet” stuff that’s usually vastly overpriced and full of “weird”
> toppings.
I presume that Eagle Boys is an Australian chain. If you’ve got a pizza chain in Australia that does good pizza, that’s nice. My point is that just because Pizza Hut and Domino’s are big chains that have expanded outside the U.S. doesn’t mean that Americans like their pizza more than other pizza places in the U.S., anymore than the fact that McDonalds and Burger King are big chains that have expanded outside the U.S. means that Americans like their hamburgers more than other hamburger places in the U.S.
This is what I need to explain to foreigners carefully. Average Americans don’t get a vote on what restaurant chains expand outside of the U.S. The businessmen who own those chains don’t take polls among Americans to determine the best pizza or the best hamburgers in the U.S. and then expand the chain serving those foods to other countries. They expand chains outside the U.S. for the same reason that they expand chains inside the U.S., because they’ve figured out a successful business model where enough advertising and a method of running the restaurant cheaply will make them a lot of money. Average Americans are no more to blame for McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, etc. than Australians are to blame for Outback Steakhouse.
Wendell, I understand what you’re saying, but I think we’re talking at cross purposes.
I’ve been to the US several times and I’m well aware that Burger King is not the pinnacle of the hamburger chef’s art. FWIW, I think most people in the English-speaking world are aware of that too, along with the fact that which places expand overseas is decided by corporate HQs and not your average “man in the street”.
The thing is, you may not think very much of chain food places, but obviously lots of people do or they wouldn’t make any money. That doesn’t mean Pizza Hut pizzas are everyone’s favourites (I don’t really care for them) but that enough people go “meh, it’ll do” to make the whole thing worthwhile.
The bigger mystery is why Outback Steakhouse has a restaurant in Australia when it’s so patently silly, or why something (24 hour Dennys/IHOP-style diners) that’s been proven to work in a smaller, neighbouring country (NZ) hasn’t caught on in Australia yet. It’s got nothing to do with what your average American thinks of Dennys or Pizza Hut, and everything to do with “On paper there’s some phat, phat cash to be made doing this. So why isn’t someone doing it?” Same thing with Nandos. There’s one in Washington, DC. Why not elsewhere in the US? In theory, it would be very popular. Same as how an IHOP would do very well in any of the larger cities in Australia- you’d think someone in Corporate HQ would be thinking “You know, we could make a lot of money opening one of our restaurants here (here being a location which doesn’t currently have one)…”
Wimpys was a british based burger chain from before the time when MacD’s landed in the UK. When they were around in the UK, all europe seemed to have was Wendy’s in a few locations (I remember eating in one in Berne, Switzerland 1989)…
I loved Wimpy burgers, but can’t comment on the german ones, I can’t see how someone would despise them so much. They were much better quality than anything Burger King offered, and there are still a few locations in motorway service stations in the uk, and I will choose to stop there rather than the appalling burger kings…
Burger King bought them out, I think about early 90’s and changed their shops to BK’s or shut them completely. I think the franchise restarted mid 90’s and they do exist, but any in the town centres seemed doomed to failure…
I see Dennys is in NZ, Costa Rica, Guam, Netherlands Antilles, Mexico and Puerto Rico. IHOP is only listing the USA, Canada and Mexico
I saw this about Nando from the Wikipedia
That cracks me up. I have to see if somene put that on YouTube.
First of all Smid, thanks for the brief history of the chain.
All I can tell you is that as an American hungry for a good burger, I went into that Wimpy’s (located in the Europa Center on Ku’Damm in Berlin) and thought, "Great - a taste of home!
After all these years, the memory is still fairly fresh - the burger was not. The bread was rubbery and fought back, the stuff that was supposed to be meat was sort of a mixture of something and had the consistency of cardboard.
Maybe it was just at that Wimpy’s, in Berlin - but when I went to the school where I was teaching and spoke to the other teachers (Brits and Americans) they all laughed and said, “You ate there?!” They all agreed it was crap.
From then on, until the other burger chains arrived, I made do with the traditional “boulette” - a Berlin concoction found at every Imbiss that resembles a mini-meat loaf.
We have a Piri-Piri chicken chain here in Atlanta called Boneheads. Dunno how widespread they are or how they compare to Nando’s. They are the only “fast food” place I’ve ever seen that sells beer and wine though. (In the US that is.)
I recall a Denny’s at the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. Is that the one in Honolulu people mean? If so, agreed, that is not a good one. One thing West Texas did have was great Denny’s.
Lotteria is completely ubiquitous in Korea but I found the quality greatly inferior to that of the Japanese restaurants.
(Lotteria is run by Lotte, which was founded by a Korean in Japan. He became a sort of hero in Korea for his successes and I wouldn’t be surprised if their South Korean business is vastly larger than their Japanese operations.)
Another Japanese fast food chain (and in my opinion the best burger chain here) that has stores throughout South East Asia is Mos Burger.
There was actually a Denny’s in North Parramatta (western Sydney suburb) about 10 years ago. I used to live about 5 minutes walk from it. It was open 24 x 7 but closed after a couple of years. I think it may have closed because of brisk competition from City Extra in Parramatta which is also open 24 x 7 and very popular.
Haha, I worked at Outback when I was in college. The food is quite good on its own, there was no need to dress it up with the stupid kitsch. The Outback I worked at was fairly close to the headquarters of several large multinational companies and we actually got a fair amount of Aussies comming in. I would always apologize to them for bastardizing their culture.
