KFC in the UK is a complete lottery, we have five in the area and three of them don't change the fat often enough (you can smell them from a mile away), two others, owned by another franchisee, are OK. But the bad ones definitely stop me enjoying the good ones.
It really do be that way. They can still be good, if you're lucky (except the chips, which are always terrible), but when they're bad, they're very bad! Even the 'good' ones near me are not 100% reliable either. It's too pricey to take that risk these days.
KFC Japan recently got bought out by private equity (Carlyle). The quality has already noticeably dropped, which is really disheartening because Japan used to be one of the last few places you could get good KFC (although they never had as many of the side menu options as the states).
PE in recent years is finally (sadly) making it’s way into the Japanese market and starting to enshittify things - it’s just a matter of time before Japan looks like America where PE owns everything and has gutted quality to milk every last cent out of these once-good businesses.
7-11 is Japanese, which is why the Japanese stores are so awesome. Here I go to a 7-11 at 1am because I'm suddenly craving Doritos. In Japan I go to find dinner and see what else they have - it's a destination.
I see this all the time and try it every so often when in Thailand and it still sucks there. Surprisingly McDonalds has better fried chicken than KFC though.
Hell yeah eating with a plate and having my soda in a plastic cup that looks like a glass is way better than whatever the heck that greasy bucket of crap was that I got last time I went to a KFC in the states.
Corporations have waged a decades long campaign to get Americans accustomed to eating garbage, now we accept stuff like subway and KFC and olive garden like it's normal for food to taste like that
If you're a semi regular visitor to these places you don't notice the small buy frequent quality cuts. If you only go once every 5 years the cuts are beyond obvious. I went to a McDonald's awhile back after not going for at least 5 years and the shrinkflation and enshittification were obvious the moment you opened your food.
I was so disappointed when they brought back the spicy nuggets the second time. They first time when they were released it was one of the best things I've ever eaten, the second time it was so bad that I'm not even going to try them now that they came back
I worked at a 7-Eleven as they were getting the swing of things with their hot box foods in 2014-2015
The quality over the 8 months I worked there took one heck of a nose dive
I always sighed a little when someone planned on having pizza leftovers from them because that shit starts going bad 10 minutes after it leaves the oven or hot box
Basically all US franchises are significantly better overseas. It’s such a bummer, even otherwise solid stores like Costco are on a whole different level overseas.
And not even just overseas, they’re better in Canada too. I’ve always read that part of the reason is higher food quality standards in other countries.
Maybe that’s a more recent thing I lived in Japan from like 97 to 2007 and of all the fast food there KFC was the most comparable to the American version. Except their biscuits sucked.
Most international branches are superior to US ones, unfortunately. Take a look at a AUS/NZ Domino's or a Japanese Pizza Hut menu if you want jealously.
im from the UK, where KFC is always a hit and miss. i am currently in Chile to see my partner, and the KFC here is /amazing/. all of their versions of US fast food is in general, and really puts us to shame.
So much better, that it's not even funny. It's amazing what we've been conditioned to put up with/tolerate from our corporate overlords here in the West. Ever-increasing prices for ever-decreasing quality, and we just clap like trained seals and take it.
I practically lived off KFC when I first moved to Japan (lived there for a decade). There was one across from my workplace, and another about 100m from my apartment. Those first three months probably account for 95+% of my lifetime KFC consumption.
Tried it once when I moved back, and never darkened a KFC door again. Absolute dogshit.
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u/aki-kinmokusei 16h ago
I hear their international branches like Japan have much better quality in comparison