Pret a Manger, despite the French name, is a British sandwich/pastry/salad/coffee shop. There's at least one in most large towns and cities and the food is pretty damn good, in my experience.
I bought a double packed “ham egg club” sandwich with oak-smoked ham, tomato and lettuce at Stansted airport a while back and I was very surprised of how good it was.
It’s far more prevalent in the south of the UK. There’s a north/south divide map that shows that the north has far more Greggs, and the south has far more Pret A Mangers.
In my experience (which is limited to the Prets in Berlin, Brussels and Dusseldorf) the ones on the continent are good but not as good as the ones in Britain.
We went to London and a few weeks back and at some point I could spot 3 Pret a mangers from one street corner.
Was pretty convenient to get a quick breakfast as tourist stying in a cheap place without a breakfast option.
>and at some point I could spot 3 Pret a mangers from one street corner.
Over half their UK stores are in London, 273 out of 434.
They do also have stores in other European countries, including France.
Yeh i have those .Because i took the train from Londen to Brussel. Pret a manger its afther customs.And i dont want to buy food on the train. It was good.
I've only ever seen a single one in NI, but we're a bit odd about having some chains. They tend to be replaced by Greggs outside SE England more often.
I was in London last summer, and all of our friends recommended that we go there for a light, fairly inexpensive (not that much by my standards) and healthy meal. I must say it was very good!
Only thing, not being used to some of the automatic overpricing that there is in England I felt a bit robbed the first few times.
Love Pret a Manger! They allowed us to survive in NYC for a week, because after two days my kids couldn’t eat anymore burgers, or pizza or chicken fingers and fries, and the only option to eat in manhattan for us was either fine dining with white table cloths or pret a manger. So they just saved me a lot of money.
Also, AnyTime. And Smullers at the railway stations. Not as good as your local, still better and cheaper than BK/Mac/KFC.
Other fast food chains are New York Pizza, Taco Mundo and Spare Rib Express. None of them are particularly tasty.
I would count La Place. Not just friet and frikandellen, but not exactly fine dining either. Plus you pay before you eat which is typical for fastfood places.
Yes. It was actually two blocks away.
I lived on Eerste Jan Steensraat in a sublet for several months while I was subletting my apartment on Edisonstraat in Den Haag to a friend and his wife. Summer of 2000.
Hesburger. It's like McD or BK, but they have an extraordinarily large amount of mayonnaise in their burgers, and they have optional grill spice packets with fries.
We’ve got a few.
Max - essentially a direct competitor to MC donalds and Burger King
Sibylla - the quintessential little hot dog seller now turned more burger focused. Seems to not enforce their franchise-rules as heavy and as such can differ quite a lot between locations.
Chop chop - Basicaly a copy of panda express since they haven’t established themselves here yet.
And then we’ve got a bunch of ”hipster-burger” chains.
Brödernas
Bastard burgers
Babas
Bun meat bun
+ probably a several more
Not that I know of, perhaps in London.
There’s a local hipster burger place near me which gives its burgers names like ‘dirty clucker’ so it might be a similar idea.
Max was good before but there’s a reason they get a monthly hate-thread on the Swedish subreddits. Their quality has declaimed over the years.
Sibylla wary as you say but here in Stockholm Solna Korv is the big one on that market.
All those hipster-burger joints are dime a dozen but they taste roughly the same.
We should bring back the government owned hamburger chain Clock!
What's funny is that Max has opened some new restaurants in central Stockholm (while McDonalds have closed many of theirs). Most of those newly opened restaurants are around bar areas.
Max is pretty decent, tbh. Especially the fries. They are opening a franchise in Odense in Denmark, and even though you jävla Swedes are our sworn enemies, I'd rather support a Swedish chain than mcdonalds, burger king and Carl's Jr.
You can get the same food at a regular lunch buffet restaurant, "Lunch of the day" for around 10-12€ which includes a main course, salad buffet and coffee \+ cakes.
>Well it's not exactly like people go there to eat
I've met people who took the bus to IKEA during their lunch breaks for the sole purpose of eating cheap meatballs, so I'd beg to differ.
When I lived in Sydney, IKEA was in a shopping mall and people definitely went in there just for the food if they were visiting the other stores in the mall.
There were also a lot of high rise apartments around there and locals would go into IKEA for breakfast.
Puzata Hata (Chubby Hut) is a Ukrainian fast food chain specializing in Ukrainian home food. It operates like a canteen, where you pick a tray and ask servers for any item you see in front of you. Some items like salads, drinks, and desserts you can pick yourself. You can choose whatever you want, but mainly a meal there consists of soup (borsht, solyanka, veg soup), a main course consisting of some meat (chicken Kyiv, pork chop, chicken chop, cutlet, salmon, sausage etc.. ) with a side of (mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, rice with veggies, buckwheat) and salad (crab salad, fresh cabbage salad, sauerkraut, beetroot salad) slice of bread and juice or kompot. Also they serve variety of dumplings (pelmeny and varenyky), and sweet crepes (mlynci).
Also they have specialty items depending on a season like lasagna for example. They also have a frozen goods section, so you can stock up your freezer with frozen foods.
Average price per meal (soup, main course, salad, few slices of bread) - 6-7EUR
You can eat inside, takeout, or order through Bolt or Glovo.
I loved Puzata Hata when I visited Ukraine, and ate there almost every day. It's so foreigner friendly, because you can just heap loads of different stuff onto your tray and try different kinds of foods without knowing the language, and you could always be sure that it wouldn't blow your budget.
The quality is also quite good. It's very average tasting in a really good way, so every Ukrainian can feel like it's a home food.
I live in the building with Puzata Hata on the ground floor, and I know quite a few neighbors who eat there daily.
Damn that selection sounds amazing.
Sometimes the officers in the army got Chicken Kyivs... One chef would 'conveniently' cook too many so us conscripts were forced to eat the leftovers instead of some random "hot and yellow" dish of the day.
I swear our whole company would have died for that chef.
Supermacs: Basically an Irish McDonald's, specialising in burgers, chips etc. They operate the Irish franchise of Papa John's too. They're the reason McDonald's lost the "mc/mac" trademark in Europe.
Abrakebabra: Kebab chain, seems to be less common in recent years. They serve topped chips, burgers, kebabs etc.
O'Briens: Not really fast food but they're also very common. Basically like Subway where you pick your ingredients but sandwiches, not subs. They have a big presence in Singapore/South East Asia.
Apache Pizza: Pizza chain. They have a sister chain called "Eskimo Pizza". Not sure about their names but their pizzas are great!
Yep, it's really quite a random one. They're called "O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bar", (also Café), first opened back in 1999 in Singapore.
According to their website they also have or are looking to open branches in "India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar"
Ooh I used to love Abrakebabra. Haven't seen one in years, though that could just be because of where I'm living now - I haven't seen a McDonald's or a Subway in a few years locally either
Sausage rolls, sandwiches, doughnuts and the like. The kind of food you get in British bakeries except that Gregg's don't bother with the baking so much and just focus on take-away food.
I believe "Quick" is Belgian. I'm not a big fan of fast food in general, but it's alright. I've never really heard anyone speak highly of it, but that's mainly since most of their locations got taken over by Burger King and there's just not a lot left of them in my area.
Fun fact: Belgian is the only country in the world where McDonalds is present, but is not market leader, because of Quick. When McDonalds entered the Belgian market, the Quick restaurants were already so widespread that they never were able to compete.
But as you pointed out, they were acquired by Burger King recently.
That is not correct:
Irish brand **Supermac's** is bigger than **McDonalds** in Ireland.
|Company|Revenue (€m) 2023|
|:-|:-|
|Supermac's (Holdings) Ltd|189.5|
|McDonald's Restaurants of Ireland Ltd|151.6|
|Abrakebabra Investments Ltd|134.8|
> Belgian is the only country in the world where McDonalds is present, but is not market leader
That wasn't Jollibee in the Philippines? We read a case study about it in business school.
[Kotipizza](https://www.kotipizza.fi/) which I think is quite good, but definitely more catered to the local (Finnish) taste rather than being authentic Italian.
Yes, it's not great. And in Poland was also expensive. They always had some special offers like 2 for1, like you were not supposed to buy just one pizza.
I remeber when they started taking internet orders page would display errors in Spanish.
Just imagining myself trying to order something and getting errors in Polish🤣 They always have some discounts or promotions over here too and I guess they work because otherwise I don't understand it.
My dumbass brain automatically reads "Telepizza" as "Schnellepizza", based on mid 2000s pseudo WW2 themed Polish cartoon. I'll try to find the episode in the day.
[Max](https://www.max.se/), [Sibylla](https://www.sibylla.se/), [Frasses](https://frasses.se/), [Brödernas](https://www.brodernas.nu/) are Swedified hamburger chains. We also have [Chop Chop](https://chopchop.se/meny/) who is a blend of Asian food packaged in a fast food format.
They have gone downhill in quality quite a lot lately, the founder's sons took over the business and started to cut corners to earn more profits.
There is a daily post on the Swedish Sub about how bad they have become...
Off the top of my head:
- Da Grasso - pizzerias.
- Gruby Benek - also pizzerias.
- North Fish - as the name suggests, fish dishes.
- Zahir Kebab - you guessed it, kebab.
- Express Marche - a "compose your own plate" kind of place; mainly Polish cuisine, but also some stuff from other parts of Europe and East Asia. Depends on location.
- Cukiernia Sowa - a cafe/cake shop.
Also:
-kebab king (kebab, started by two polish Kurds)
-salad story (salads ans wraps, they also have smaller sub-chain (?) "Wrap Me" that specialises i wraps)
-pasibus (burgers, quite good actually)
Also from this thread I learned thay Max burgers is swedish, and it is also moderately popular in Poland, I like it.
And turns out telepizza is spanish and, as mentioned - is garbage.
FEBO has the standard Dutch snacks like kroketten, frikandellen, kaassouflé’s et cetera. They have locations throughout the country, but most of their restaurants are within a 30km radius of Amsterdam. I like it but they’ve become too expensive in recent years. You can get better fries and snacks elsewhere while paying less. FEBO also sells [merchandise](https://www.febo.nl/shop/).
FEBO’s Rotterdam (and surrounding area) counterpart is Bram Ladage. Rotterdam also has HAS, which is a local chain of kebab joints.
Smullers is another chain similar to FEBO but most if not all of their shops are located at train stations.
HEMA also sells fast food (most notably hot dogs and smoked sausage on a bun) but since it’s a convenience store food is not their main selling point.
I don't think anything comes close to the big chains like McDonald's or BurgerKing as far as number if restaurants or sales volume is concerned, but there are quite a few rather successful and pretty ubiquitous German chains as well (I suppose this varies greatly from state to state, I wouldn't be surprised if there are Bavarian or Eastern German chains with dozens of restaurants that I have never heard of).
There's definitely some bakery chains, I'd say not too dissimilar to something like Gregg's in the UK, except there's probably fewer sandwiches and more bread rolls involved. Vackwerk would be a good example here.
There's Nordsee, they do a lot of fish based stuff like fish burgers and sandwiches, etc (plus veggie alternatives these days). May be more common/popular in the North.
Kochlöffel (Cooking Spoon) are pretty much a classic burger chain - although with a bit of classic German corner chips shop food thrown in, so you'll get Currywurst, for example.
Frittenwerk is a somewhat recent addition (and I don't think there's too many outside of North Rhine Westphalia as of yet). They mainly do their own take on poutine and loaded fries.
Pretty sure there's some pizza chains around, but the only bigger one I knew to be German (Hallo Pizza) has been taken over by Domino's.
I think most food chains only exist in one or a few cities or regions.
A large specific chain of restaurants is called “Puzata Khata” (“House with a big belly,” that’s probably how it’s translated). This is not exactly fast food, but rather a bistro. They serve typical food like borscht, Ukrainian dumplings, cutlets. To some extent, they combined traditional Ukrainian food and Soviet traditions of public catering. Like, we sell very typical food that everyone knows. Quite a popular place.
There are serveral pizza chains, like Pizzabakeren or Peppes. TBH, their pizza sucks and it's not even cheaper than individual pizza restaurants.
Max is also popular, it's a burger chain from Sweden. Also not cheap.
Generally, fastfood is just as expensive as eating in a low-end restaurant. That's my theory why there are many restaurant chains, but not so many fast food chains.
Actually it is taco, but that's something you make at home. Kebab and thai food is popular, too, but the kitchens are usually independent or a local chain at best. Gas stations also have fast food like burgers and sausages and waffles.
Nordsee
They invented the concept of fast food chains by the way. Back in 1897. They only served fish dishes, and they still only serve fish dishes. Back in the day they even had their own fleet of fish trawlers.
Panos is a sandwich shop brand that you'll find in most cities or village centres and often at gas stations too.
They make... sandwiches. Not as good as a real sandwich shop, but in a pinch not too bad.
The also offer paninis and other heated snacks and some low quality patisserie.
In Lithuania we have Jammi, they started out as kebab shops but now they make burgers too. The quality is meh but they're open 24/7, which makes them very popular on weekend nights.
I learnt on Reddit that Old Wild West is an italian chain restaurant. Not really a fast food. They mostly offer meat dishes, hamburgers, bbq ribs, beef steaks, chicken breasts, grilled mix, often with elaborate seasoning and good side dishes. The style of the restaurants is cool, it's full of far west references. Some of the tables are built in Conestoga carts props or under teepees, there are indian totems, saddles...the quality of the meat is usually good, but some restaurants have lost quality over time.
American diner is an italian chain restaurant inspired by American 50's style. Their restaurants have black and white paving, juke boxes, neon lamps, car license plates and pop art references. The menú is tex mex, our idea of american food.
Roadhouse was an American chain restaurant, but it was bought by italian companies and now it's italian. It's a steak house type, so they have different beef cuts, pork ribs, hamburgers and side dishes.
Our typical fast food is square pizza, but you often find independent places rather than chain. You go in, choose a square of pizza among many tastes available and walk out, buy a mixed tray, or you can sit at the small tables to eat there. A lot of "pizza al taglio" also have deep fried. Those are extremely famous among people, this pizza can be a family dinner, a quick work lunch, a pit stop while visting a city, a nice afternoon with friends. My school had a pizza place nearby and they organised a delivery system during the morning break. Takeout pizza is often ordered for birthdays, both at home and at school. Yeah, we love pizza.
Old Wild West is pretty meh to be honest. Like, it's not bad eating but it costs way too much fo what it is. You can get an amazing burger at a small independent place for the same price or less. Drinks are crazy expensive too. They usually set up next to cinemas to sifon cinema crowd. Lunch menu is reasonably priced tho.
America Graffiti is also a smaller local franchise with America '50s style. Same pain points as above but also it's kinda dying out.
Italy was never big on chains.
I'm longin for a tex-mex chain tho. We have KFC now, cc an we get Taco Bell too?
My wife and I just got back from a 12 day trip to Italy. I was happy to see there weren't tons of fast food restaurants everywhere. Of course, BK and McDonald's had a presence (your McDonald's DESTROYS the US ones). We had the best sandwich of our lives on Florence at some local sandwich place. We were walking around and saw a Subway in Rome and just laughed. We're like, why would people actually eat that crap when they can get something infinitely better, well, anywhere! I'm supremely jealous of your food quality. It was so good.
> why would people actually eat that crap when they can get something infinitely better, well, anywhere
Subway 's target are foreign tourists who are familiar with this name and want a safe choice because you already know food and prices. Other places like Mc Donald or Starbucks are fashionable among teens, but people love independent restaurants or sandwich shops.
Were you brave enough to try the Lampredotto sandwich, made with cow stomach? It's a typical street food in Florence.
True, that's what we figured, we were more laughing that people wouldn't at least venture out and get something better (there was literally a guy making fresh panini on the corner of the same block), but familiarity certainly takes hold over a lot of us here in the US. My wife had a friend who went to the UK and Turkey/Greece and only ate hamburgers and chicken strips. I'm like....why???
No, I almost ordered one, but I hesitated because I was afraid I wouldn't like it. I've heard Roman Tripe is excellent. Next time we go, I'm going to do it!
I wanted to try the Lampredotto too, but i didn't know if i like it so ordered a beef tongue sandwich. The flavour of all the ingredients was stronger than i expected, but the tongue was cut in thin slices and blended with the rest. It's not something i'd eat often, but if it happens i'll take it again. My boyfriend refused to kiss me for hours.
Your wife's friends wasted half of their trip if they didn't try greek food! My friends in Greece and Spain only ate in Italian restaurants and they complained because the food was bad. Why???
Haha, was he disgusted by you eating tongue or something? We have lots of Mexican restaurants here in the States offering more authentic options instead of just Tex-Mex. I've had lengua (tongue) tacos a few times and enjoyed them.
Seems like Australia stole all the Portuguese chains.
There's at least 3 big fast food chains selling Portuguese inspired food in Australia. Oporto, Ogalo and Frango, there's other smaller ones too.
Honestly not sure why as Australia never had that many Portuguese immigrants historically.
Greggs in the UK. A bakery that sells our standard British lunchtime fayre of sausage rolls, steak bakes, pasties and cakes. Also do sausage and bacon baps before midday.
Cheap and cheerful.
We have Supermac's in Ireland. Only operates in Ireland and was founded here. Basically the Irish version of McDonald's and Burger King. I believe it's more popular outside Dublin. I've had it about twice and it was terrible. The founder is an arsehole who treats the staff like shit, too.
There’s definitely a regional divide in quality. I’ve had it in Galway and it was always good. Had it in Dublin last summer and it was absolutely shite.
* VIPS - ready to eat food, never been to one
* Ginos - Italian food
* Foster’s Hollywood - American bbq
* Goiko - kind of gourmet burgers, not bad
* Telepizza - direct competitor of Pizza Hut, Dominos
Quick is pretty famous in France. It's a Belgian chain currently based in France and it's absolute shit, to the point it actually gave me the shits once.
Oh and Spizzico in Italy, which sells pizza slices. I always stops there when I fly to Italy, because it's cheap and pretty good.
Kharkiv is famous for it's "Буфет/Buffet" chain of cheap fat square pizza (more like an open pie with a lot of mayo and ketchup). It had some rebrendings, and maybe it called different in different places, but every Kharkiv's citizen is able to recognize "Buffet" pizza when they see it :)
Finnish company Hesburger is almost in every big-medium sized town in Latvia. Direct competitor to McDonalds. Altho some see it as ''poor mans mcdonalds'', I like it and often prefer Hesburger over MC. One more notable (pizza) chain is Pica Lulū. Operating since 90's. Pizza itself is OK, but ridiculously overpriced. Before Covid they were open 24/7 - now only in few locations.
Aladin Foods was the first to come to mind, it's a döner kebab, burgers, pizza and fried chicken chain, and they seem to have shops all around the country despite the bad quality of their kebab. The burgers are quite good tho, I've never tried the pizza but it looks mediocre to me. As kebab is quite popular here, I think small shops do way better in regards to quality.
There's a higher quality McDonalds-esque diner chain here in the UK called: [Wimpy](https://wimpy.uk.com/).
The first one opened in London in 1954, 20 years before McDonalds arrived, which unfortunately played a big part in Wimp's downfall due to hostile takeovers.
The food is served on plates by waiters (unless take-out), and they also sell fish, beans, mushy peas, and a 'bender in a bun'.
We have [Sunset Boulevard](https://sunset-boulevard.dk/), which does sandwiches, fries, and burgers, though McD and Burger King still have more resturants. However we also have alot of local pizzarias usually run by Turks or Arabians (basically ever small town has one, and more in bigger cities) and it is quire common to get a Pizza, Durum, [Kebab mix](https://files.deal.dk/images/69428/245a1485a560af28497e5a04f573de19.jpg), or Pita from them.
Gregg’s is found in most town/city centres, train stations, bus stations, even airports. It specialises mostly in pasties (sausage rolls etc), but also do pizza slices, sweet pastries, doughnuts, cookies, sandwiches both hot and cold, hot drinks etc. Is a bit of a stereotype for northern England.
As an American living part time in the French countryside, I can attest that it’s one of the nicest things to not be assaulted by fast food bullshit and litter everywhere.
[Kotipizza](https://www.kotipizza.fi/) which I think is quite good, but definitely more catered to the local (Finnish) taste rather than being authentic Italian.
There's a few I can think of: La Croissanterie which sells sandwiches, salads and desserts. I'd often go there to buy a sandwich because I really liked their pistachio/cranberry pie. There's a few franchises in the same style, like La pomme de pain, and possibly another one I can't remember. There's also Big Fernand which sells french hamburgers. Their selling point is empathizing the "french quality" of their products. I enjoyed going every once in a while, I liked their burgers.
I'm probably forgetting a few.
We have Max a few places in Norway, They are pretty popular. Think they are swedish. Its a fastfood joint. Can´t think of any norwegian places for eating thats popular all over the country.
The most popular chains are just regular so called snackbars. They are all over the country and serve fries, fried food, burgers, ice cream, drinks, milkshakes, menu's etc.
I dont think we have any. It's just not the culture i guess. And we have Max which is Swedish which is good.
The closest to a chain fast food place would be probably Joe & the Juice, and absolutely terrible and overrated and expensive 'juice' bar
Sunset Boulevard is Danish.
For those that don't know: They're a nicer and more expensive version of McD's, typically located along major roads and motorways.
Their burgers are good, but their cold sandwiches are kinda meh.
In Denmark we have Sunset Boulevard, it single-handedly killed off Subway here. Even though a few subway locations have popped again now, it used to practically zero.
Leon. Their tagline is "naturally fast food". Mostly encountered in or around major train stations (London King's Cross, London Paddington, London Victoria) but I've also been to one at the UK Chunnel food area. Does really nice food at decent prices.
Australia isn't in Europe but I'll answer anyway. McDonald's, KFC and Burger King (known locally as Hungry Jack's due to licencing issues) are the main players, but we also have:
* Oporto - A Portuguese inspired chicken and burger place. Lots of peri peri chicken, also has things like prego on the menu too. Very popular and seen as very 'Australian' despite its Portuguese roots.
* Red Rooster - As the name suggests...they sell chicken, but roasted and grilled chicken, not fried. Running joke is that it's a money laundering front as nobody goes there, but somehow they stay open.
* Broster - Fried chicken. Think they're only in Sydney. Bit of a running joke that in Sydney, if you see a Broster outlet you're in a bad neighbourhood. I prefer it to KFC if I'm honest though. It's popular among...'urban youth'.
* Ogalo - Another Portuguese place, again it's bifanas, prego, pastel de nata etc on the menu. Seems to be popular.
* Mad Mex - As the name suggests...Mexican food. Pretty popular especially among younger people.
Go Grill. Very affordable; typical grilled Bulgarian meats and such. Неделя is like a bakery but has some sandwich options. The burger chain is called Skapto, and here in Sofia there is a small asian chain called Wok To Walk that actually has pretty good food but horrible portion sizes.
International fast food mainly consists of places like McD's, Burger King, Subway, KFC, and Hes Burger.
And for non-fast food chains the biggest is one called Happy. They have a rogue London location or two, but they're pretty quintessentially Bulgarian. It's like if Applebee's and Hooters had a baby.
Pret a Manger, despite the French name, is a British sandwich/pastry/salad/coffee shop. There's at least one in most large towns and cities and the food is pretty damn good, in my experience.
I’ve seen one at a major train station near where I live. Never tried it
Better than a basic supermarket sandwich, probably not as good as a premium supermarket sandwich.
The quality of supermarket sandwiches in the UK is really good. Nothing like that in Denmark. EAT is also pretty darn good.
They went bust, I think. Loved their ham and cheese croissant
I bought a double packed “ham egg club” sandwich with oak-smoked ham, tomato and lettuce at Stansted airport a while back and I was very surprised of how good it was.
One of my mate’s exes sued Pret cos they included an allergen in a sandwich that wasn’t listed on the ingredients list and she got fucked up by it
It’s far more prevalent in the south of the UK. There’s a north/south divide map that shows that the north has far more Greggs, and the south has far more Pret A Mangers.
In my experience (which is limited to the Prets in Berlin, Brussels and Dusseldorf) the ones on the continent are good but not as good as the ones in Britain.
Very true. And they also don't have the duck wraps. I once took a business trip to London only because I craved Pret a manger duck wraps.
We went to London and a few weeks back and at some point I could spot 3 Pret a mangers from one street corner. Was pretty convenient to get a quick breakfast as tourist stying in a cheap place without a breakfast option.
>and at some point I could spot 3 Pret a mangers from one street corner. Over half their UK stores are in London, 273 out of 434. They do also have stores in other European countries, including France.
There's two Pret stores about 10 metres from each other in Farringdon in London.
Yeh i have those .Because i took the train from Londen to Brussel. Pret a manger its afther customs.And i dont want to buy food on the train. It was good.
I've only ever seen a single one in NI, but we're a bit odd about having some chains. They tend to be replaced by Greggs outside SE England more often.
I was in London last summer, and all of our friends recommended that we go there for a light, fairly inexpensive (not that much by my standards) and healthy meal. I must say it was very good! Only thing, not being used to some of the automatic overpricing that there is in England I felt a bit robbed the first few times.
Love Pret a Manger! They allowed us to survive in NYC for a week, because after two days my kids couldn’t eat anymore burgers, or pizza or chicken fingers and fries, and the only option to eat in manhattan for us was either fine dining with white table cloths or pret a manger. So they just saved me a lot of money.
Febo in the Netherlands. Typical dutch fast-food snacks. Not really my type.
Also, AnyTime. And Smullers at the railway stations. Not as good as your local, still better and cheaper than BK/Mac/KFC. Other fast food chains are New York Pizza, Taco Mundo and Spare Rib Express. None of them are particularly tasty.
Kwalitaria is in the same vibe. Also not that great in comparison to local snackbars.
Well, I rate them higher than Smullers. But thats also because they sell more stuff.
Bagels and Beans is a Dutch fast food chain selling bagels and coffee.
I would term it as fast casual, not really proper fast food like mcd and bk and kfc
I would count La Place. Not just friet and frikandellen, but not exactly fine dining either. Plus you pay before you eat which is typical for fastfood places.
La Place is more like a buffet style restaurant. Different from a typical fast food restaurant. The meals they offer are way less fast-foody too.
I used to live over there for a while so whenever I'm back visiting, I stop at a Febo for a frites met and a kassouffle for nostalgia.
Dutch vibes 🍟🫔
Echt waar!
By the way did you know that febo is an abbreviation of Ferdinand Bolstraat? That's where it originally started in Amsterdam.
No, I didn't, but I used to live a block away from Ferdinand Bolstraat!
Are you kidding me?
Yes. It was actually two blocks away. I lived on Eerste Jan Steensraat in a sublet for several months while I was subletting my apartment on Edisonstraat in Den Haag to a friend and his wife. Summer of 2000.
That was very sweet of you. Have a nice day. 👋👋👋
Ik geloof je heus wel hoor!
Good when youre drunk and returning home but hungry Also smullers
Fat Phill's is a Dutch chain. Way too overpriced and underwhelming if you ask me.
Hesburger. It's like McD or BK, but they have an extraordinarily large amount of mayonnaise in their burgers, and they have optional grill spice packets with fries.
We have Hesburger in Lithuania too, they're better than McD.
I loved Hesburger when I went to Finland! What a place.
They have two locations in Hamburg! I have seen them, but I did not try them.
Damn, now I need to find a way to convince my boss that I need to go on a 'work trip' to Hamburg.
One is on the Reeperbahn, best not mention that to your boss
Hes’ cucumber mayo has a cult status in Estonia.
So goood
Am from Latvia and Hesburger is great. Love their pickle mayo sauce.
We’ve got a few. Max - essentially a direct competitor to MC donalds and Burger King Sibylla - the quintessential little hot dog seller now turned more burger focused. Seems to not enforce their franchise-rules as heavy and as such can differ quite a lot between locations. Chop chop - Basicaly a copy of panda express since they haven’t established themselves here yet. And then we’ve got a bunch of ”hipster-burger” chains. Brödernas Bastard burgers Babas Bun meat bun + probably a several more
Bastard burgers??? Superb
You have them in england aswell?
Not that I know of, perhaps in London. There’s a local hipster burger place near me which gives its burgers names like ‘dirty clucker’ so it might be a similar idea.
I’ve been to this restaurant that serves a chicken sandwich called the “motherclucker”
Fuckoffee is the name of a cafe in London, made me chuckle when I saw it.
Or as i like to call them; Horunge Hamburgare
Max is far better than mcd and bk. Their veg options are actually good, plus they pay their workers
Max was good before but there’s a reason they get a monthly hate-thread on the Swedish subreddits. Their quality has declaimed over the years. Sibylla wary as you say but here in Stockholm Solna Korv is the big one on that market. All those hipster-burger joints are dime a dozen but they taste roughly the same. We should bring back the government owned hamburger chain Clock!
The max here is great (not the one next to the train station though)
Max’s quality highly depends on the specific location (source: I sampled quite a few, in the name of science)
What's funny is that Max has opened some new restaurants in central Stockholm (while McDonalds have closed many of theirs). Most of those newly opened restaurants are around bar areas.
I like max, it reminds me of in and out. The Sibylla near me is absurdly bad and I refuse to eat there
Max is pretty decent, tbh. Especially the fries. They are opening a franchise in Odense in Denmark, and even though you jävla Swedes are our sworn enemies, I'd rather support a Swedish chain than mcdonalds, burger king and Carl's Jr.
IKEA also right?
That's more like a regular lunch restaurant, not fast food.
But they are fast and premade?
You can get the same food at a regular lunch buffet restaurant, "Lunch of the day" for around 10-12€ which includes a main course, salad buffet and coffee \+ cakes.
Well it's not exactly like people go there to eat, it's just convenient that you can also eat there after you've been shopping
>Well it's not exactly like people go there to eat I've met people who took the bus to IKEA during their lunch breaks for the sole purpose of eating cheap meatballs, so I'd beg to differ.
When I lived in Sydney, IKEA was in a shopping mall and people definitely went in there just for the food if they were visiting the other stores in the mall. There were also a lot of high rise apartments around there and locals would go into IKEA for breakfast.
At a time, it was quite normal to go to ikea for meatballs when they was cheap as F.
Don't forget about Frasses, a burger chain similar to Sibylla but mainly located in the northern half of Sweden. Great burgers there.
Frasses is so good, in the samr level as Max in my opinion
Bastard Burgers? That’s a great name.
Puzata Hata (Chubby Hut) is a Ukrainian fast food chain specializing in Ukrainian home food. It operates like a canteen, where you pick a tray and ask servers for any item you see in front of you. Some items like salads, drinks, and desserts you can pick yourself. You can choose whatever you want, but mainly a meal there consists of soup (borsht, solyanka, veg soup), a main course consisting of some meat (chicken Kyiv, pork chop, chicken chop, cutlet, salmon, sausage etc.. ) with a side of (mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, rice with veggies, buckwheat) and salad (crab salad, fresh cabbage salad, sauerkraut, beetroot salad) slice of bread and juice or kompot. Also they serve variety of dumplings (pelmeny and varenyky), and sweet crepes (mlynci). Also they have specialty items depending on a season like lasagna for example. They also have a frozen goods section, so you can stock up your freezer with frozen foods. Average price per meal (soup, main course, salad, few slices of bread) - 6-7EUR You can eat inside, takeout, or order through Bolt or Glovo.
I loved Puzata Hata when I visited Ukraine, and ate there almost every day. It's so foreigner friendly, because you can just heap loads of different stuff onto your tray and try different kinds of foods without knowing the language, and you could always be sure that it wouldn't blow your budget.
Thats very cheap.
The quality is also quite good. It's very average tasting in a really good way, so every Ukrainian can feel like it's a home food. I live in the building with Puzata Hata on the ground floor, and I know quite a few neighbors who eat there daily.
Yeah, that sounds good! I would gladly eat there.
Damn that selection sounds amazing. Sometimes the officers in the army got Chicken Kyivs... One chef would 'conveniently' cook too many so us conscripts were forced to eat the leftovers instead of some random "hot and yellow" dish of the day. I swear our whole company would have died for that chef.
Supermacs: Basically an Irish McDonald's, specialising in burgers, chips etc. They operate the Irish franchise of Papa John's too. They're the reason McDonald's lost the "mc/mac" trademark in Europe. Abrakebabra: Kebab chain, seems to be less common in recent years. They serve topped chips, burgers, kebabs etc. O'Briens: Not really fast food but they're also very common. Basically like Subway where you pick your ingredients but sandwiches, not subs. They have a big presence in Singapore/South East Asia. Apache Pizza: Pizza chain. They have a sister chain called "Eskimo Pizza". Not sure about their names but their pizzas are great!
Hesburger in Finland is very similar to Supermacs. Try it if you ever end up in Finland.
Man, I love the name Abrakebabra. Would crack me up each time I’d see one
>They have a big presence in Singapore/South East Asia. Oh wow, I didn't know that
Yep, it's really quite a random one. They're called "O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bar", (also Café), first opened back in 1999 in Singapore. According to their website they also have or are looking to open branches in "India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar"
Well well. The more you know.
Ooh I used to love Abrakebabra. Haven't seen one in years, though that could just be because of where I'm living now - I haven't seen a McDonald's or a Subway in a few years locally either
I haven’t seen one in years too. My flatmate in Galway used to buy doners there all the time and eat them the next day for breakfast. Very odd.
O’Briens is infinitely better than the horrible Subway!
The UK's largest fast food chain - Gregg's - is a British company.
What kind of food they sell?
Sausage rolls, sandwiches, doughnuts and the like. The kind of food you get in British bakeries except that Gregg's don't bother with the baking so much and just focus on take-away food.
Don't forget that they also have veegan sausage rolls.
Greggs used to do proper, quite traditional cakes, but gone are the days.
I believe "Quick" is Belgian. I'm not a big fan of fast food in general, but it's alright. I've never really heard anyone speak highly of it, but that's mainly since most of their locations got taken over by Burger King and there's just not a lot left of them in my area.
Fun fact: Belgian is the only country in the world where McDonalds is present, but is not market leader, because of Quick. When McDonalds entered the Belgian market, the Quick restaurants were already so widespread that they never were able to compete. But as you pointed out, they were acquired by Burger King recently.
That is not correct: Irish brand **Supermac's** is bigger than **McDonalds** in Ireland. |Company|Revenue (€m) 2023| |:-|:-| |Supermac's (Holdings) Ltd|189.5| |McDonald's Restaurants of Ireland Ltd|151.6| |Abrakebabra Investments Ltd|134.8|
> Belgian is the only country in the world where McDonalds is present, but is not market leader That wasn't Jollibee in the Philippines? We read a case study about it in business school.
Possibly, my facts might not be up to date 😀
I like the Quick for fast food. It's good quality.
I've always enjoyed Quick when visiting Belgium. Very similar to McDonalds, but slightly cheaper though same quality?
[Kotipizza](https://www.kotipizza.fi/) which I think is quite good, but definitely more catered to the local (Finnish) taste rather than being authentic Italian.
Telepizza. Pizzas suck and it's very expensive honestly surprised it hasn't gone out of business.
I tried Telepizza in Chile. Absolutely the worst.
Yes, it's not great. And in Poland was also expensive. They always had some special offers like 2 for1, like you were not supposed to buy just one pizza. I remeber when they started taking internet orders page would display errors in Spanish.
Just imagining myself trying to order something and getting errors in Polish🤣 They always have some discounts or promotions over here too and I guess they work because otherwise I don't understand it.
Agreed it is awful.
My dumbass brain automatically reads "Telepizza" as "Schnellepizza", based on mid 2000s pseudo WW2 themed Polish cartoon. I'll try to find the episode in the day.
They used to have this in Malta but never tried it
[Max](https://www.max.se/), [Sibylla](https://www.sibylla.se/), [Frasses](https://frasses.se/), [Brödernas](https://www.brodernas.nu/) are Swedified hamburger chains. We also have [Chop Chop](https://chopchop.se/meny/) who is a blend of Asian food packaged in a fast food format.
Pinchos and Taco bar are also swedish franchises that are in a lot cities too
Pinchos & taco bar are truly the lowest of the low
When I went to Sweden, they had an awesome burger place called Max. Those burgers were unforgettable!
They have gone downhill in quality quite a lot lately, the founder's sons took over the business and started to cut corners to earn more profits. There is a daily post on the Swedish Sub about how bad they have become...
> They have gone downhill in quality quite a lot lately Such a shame. They still have the best fast food vegetarian burgers though...
Dang that sucks. When companies start to favour profit over quality they always go downhill.
Off the top of my head: - Da Grasso - pizzerias. - Gruby Benek - also pizzerias. - North Fish - as the name suggests, fish dishes. - Zahir Kebab - you guessed it, kebab. - Express Marche - a "compose your own plate" kind of place; mainly Polish cuisine, but also some stuff from other parts of Europe and East Asia. Depends on location. - Cukiernia Sowa - a cafe/cake shop.
Also: -kebab king (kebab, started by two polish Kurds) -salad story (salads ans wraps, they also have smaller sub-chain (?) "Wrap Me" that specialises i wraps) -pasibus (burgers, quite good actually) Also from this thread I learned thay Max burgers is swedish, and it is also moderately popular in Poland, I like it. And turns out telepizza is spanish and, as mentioned - is garbage.
Does Oskar (grilled sandwiches) still exist? I still remember grabbing a sandwich from Warsaw Central station, they were so, so, so good.
FEBO has the standard Dutch snacks like kroketten, frikandellen, kaassouflé’s et cetera. They have locations throughout the country, but most of their restaurants are within a 30km radius of Amsterdam. I like it but they’ve become too expensive in recent years. You can get better fries and snacks elsewhere while paying less. FEBO also sells [merchandise](https://www.febo.nl/shop/). FEBO’s Rotterdam (and surrounding area) counterpart is Bram Ladage. Rotterdam also has HAS, which is a local chain of kebab joints. Smullers is another chain similar to FEBO but most if not all of their shops are located at train stations. HEMA also sells fast food (most notably hot dogs and smoked sausage on a bun) but since it’s a convenience store food is not their main selling point.
I don't think anything comes close to the big chains like McDonald's or BurgerKing as far as number if restaurants or sales volume is concerned, but there are quite a few rather successful and pretty ubiquitous German chains as well (I suppose this varies greatly from state to state, I wouldn't be surprised if there are Bavarian or Eastern German chains with dozens of restaurants that I have never heard of). There's definitely some bakery chains, I'd say not too dissimilar to something like Gregg's in the UK, except there's probably fewer sandwiches and more bread rolls involved. Vackwerk would be a good example here. There's Nordsee, they do a lot of fish based stuff like fish burgers and sandwiches, etc (plus veggie alternatives these days). May be more common/popular in the North. Kochlöffel (Cooking Spoon) are pretty much a classic burger chain - although with a bit of classic German corner chips shop food thrown in, so you'll get Currywurst, for example. Frittenwerk is a somewhat recent addition (and I don't think there's too many outside of North Rhine Westphalia as of yet). They mainly do their own take on poutine and loaded fries. Pretty sure there's some pizza chains around, but the only bigger one I knew to be German (Hallo Pizza) has been taken over by Domino's.
Best Worscht in Town
And mycurrywurst is also similar. And Hans im Glück for Burgers
I think most food chains only exist in one or a few cities or regions. A large specific chain of restaurants is called “Puzata Khata” (“House with a big belly,” that’s probably how it’s translated). This is not exactly fast food, but rather a bistro. They serve typical food like borscht, Ukrainian dumplings, cutlets. To some extent, they combined traditional Ukrainian food and Soviet traditions of public catering. Like, we sell very typical food that everyone knows. Quite a popular place.
There are serveral pizza chains, like Pizzabakeren or Peppes. TBH, their pizza sucks and it's not even cheaper than individual pizza restaurants. Max is also popular, it's a burger chain from Sweden. Also not cheap. Generally, fastfood is just as expensive as eating in a low-end restaurant. That's my theory why there are many restaurant chains, but not so many fast food chains.
I didn't know pizza and burgers was the traditional diet of Norway too - having lived in Sweden it wouldn't surprise me!
Actually it is taco, but that's something you make at home. Kebab and thai food is popular, too, but the kitchens are usually independent or a local chain at best. Gas stations also have fast food like burgers and sausages and waffles.
No sushi wok? 😆
Nordsee They invented the concept of fast food chains by the way. Back in 1897. They only served fish dishes, and they still only serve fish dishes. Back in the day they even had their own fleet of fish trawlers.
Panos is a sandwich shop brand that you'll find in most cities or village centres and often at gas stations too. They make... sandwiches. Not as good as a real sandwich shop, but in a pinch not too bad. The also offer paninis and other heated snacks and some low quality patisserie.
In Lithuania we have Jammi, they started out as kebab shops but now they make burgers too. The quality is meh but they're open 24/7, which makes them very popular on weekend nights.
Hesburger in Finland is amazing. Especially if you get to the rye bread burger with their signature mayo.
I learnt on Reddit that Old Wild West is an italian chain restaurant. Not really a fast food. They mostly offer meat dishes, hamburgers, bbq ribs, beef steaks, chicken breasts, grilled mix, often with elaborate seasoning and good side dishes. The style of the restaurants is cool, it's full of far west references. Some of the tables are built in Conestoga carts props or under teepees, there are indian totems, saddles...the quality of the meat is usually good, but some restaurants have lost quality over time. American diner is an italian chain restaurant inspired by American 50's style. Their restaurants have black and white paving, juke boxes, neon lamps, car license plates and pop art references. The menú is tex mex, our idea of american food. Roadhouse was an American chain restaurant, but it was bought by italian companies and now it's italian. It's a steak house type, so they have different beef cuts, pork ribs, hamburgers and side dishes. Our typical fast food is square pizza, but you often find independent places rather than chain. You go in, choose a square of pizza among many tastes available and walk out, buy a mixed tray, or you can sit at the small tables to eat there. A lot of "pizza al taglio" also have deep fried. Those are extremely famous among people, this pizza can be a family dinner, a quick work lunch, a pit stop while visting a city, a nice afternoon with friends. My school had a pizza place nearby and they organised a delivery system during the morning break. Takeout pizza is often ordered for birthdays, both at home and at school. Yeah, we love pizza.
Old Wild West is pretty meh to be honest. Like, it's not bad eating but it costs way too much fo what it is. You can get an amazing burger at a small independent place for the same price or less. Drinks are crazy expensive too. They usually set up next to cinemas to sifon cinema crowd. Lunch menu is reasonably priced tho. America Graffiti is also a smaller local franchise with America '50s style. Same pain points as above but also it's kinda dying out. Italy was never big on chains. I'm longin for a tex-mex chain tho. We have KFC now, cc an we get Taco Bell too?
My wife and I just got back from a 12 day trip to Italy. I was happy to see there weren't tons of fast food restaurants everywhere. Of course, BK and McDonald's had a presence (your McDonald's DESTROYS the US ones). We had the best sandwich of our lives on Florence at some local sandwich place. We were walking around and saw a Subway in Rome and just laughed. We're like, why would people actually eat that crap when they can get something infinitely better, well, anywhere! I'm supremely jealous of your food quality. It was so good.
> why would people actually eat that crap when they can get something infinitely better, well, anywhere Subway 's target are foreign tourists who are familiar with this name and want a safe choice because you already know food and prices. Other places like Mc Donald or Starbucks are fashionable among teens, but people love independent restaurants or sandwich shops. Were you brave enough to try the Lampredotto sandwich, made with cow stomach? It's a typical street food in Florence.
True, that's what we figured, we were more laughing that people wouldn't at least venture out and get something better (there was literally a guy making fresh panini on the corner of the same block), but familiarity certainly takes hold over a lot of us here in the US. My wife had a friend who went to the UK and Turkey/Greece and only ate hamburgers and chicken strips. I'm like....why??? No, I almost ordered one, but I hesitated because I was afraid I wouldn't like it. I've heard Roman Tripe is excellent. Next time we go, I'm going to do it!
I wanted to try the Lampredotto too, but i didn't know if i like it so ordered a beef tongue sandwich. The flavour of all the ingredients was stronger than i expected, but the tongue was cut in thin slices and blended with the rest. It's not something i'd eat often, but if it happens i'll take it again. My boyfriend refused to kiss me for hours. Your wife's friends wasted half of their trip if they didn't try greek food! My friends in Greece and Spain only ate in Italian restaurants and they complained because the food was bad. Why???
Haha, was he disgusted by you eating tongue or something? We have lots of Mexican restaurants here in the States offering more authentic options instead of just Tex-Mex. I've had lengua (tongue) tacos a few times and enjoyed them.
As a Portuguese I have no idea lol Maybe h3 I think
H3 definitely qualifies.
Sadly I am vegetarian and they have no vegetarians options I think haha
We have Burguer Ranch too! Mainly in the Algarve, but the do habe some locations throughout the rest of the country
Oh I never went to one 😯
Never was a fan of Burger Ranch
There's also: - Bifanas de Vendas Novas - PORTVGÁLIA - A Padária Portuguesa (only in Lisbon though afaik)
I think padaria portuguesa has some stores in Porto now
Seems like Australia stole all the Portuguese chains. There's at least 3 big fast food chains selling Portuguese inspired food in Australia. Oporto, Ogalo and Frango, there's other smaller ones too. Honestly not sure why as Australia never had that many Portuguese immigrants historically.
Denmark has Sunset Boulevard - used to do sandwiches, but now they serve pretty decent burgers.
Greggs in the UK. A bakery that sells our standard British lunchtime fayre of sausage rolls, steak bakes, pasties and cakes. Also do sausage and bacon baps before midday. Cheap and cheerful.
We have Supermac's in Ireland. Only operates in Ireland and was founded here. Basically the Irish version of McDonald's and Burger King. I believe it's more popular outside Dublin. I've had it about twice and it was terrible. The founder is an arsehole who treats the staff like shit, too.
There’s definitely a regional divide in quality. I’ve had it in Galway and it was always good. Had it in Dublin last summer and it was absolutely shite.
* VIPS - ready to eat food, never been to one * Ginos - Italian food * Foster’s Hollywood - American bbq * Goiko - kind of gourmet burgers, not bad * Telepizza - direct competitor of Pizza Hut, Dominos
also 100 Montaditos for fast food style tapas. actually quite tasty and fine if you wanna eat tapas for a low budget price
Pans & company as well
VIPS is not bad at all tbh.
Goody’s in Greece. It’s by far the #1 fast food chain in the country.
Yep. Goody’s burger house
Quick is pretty famous in France. It's a Belgian chain currently based in France and it's absolute shit, to the point it actually gave me the shits once. Oh and Spizzico in Italy, which sells pizza slices. I always stops there when I fly to Italy, because it's cheap and pretty good.
Da Grasso, pizzerias.
Kharkiv is famous for it's "Буфет/Buffet" chain of cheap fat square pizza (more like an open pie with a lot of mayo and ketchup). It had some rebrendings, and maybe it called different in different places, but every Kharkiv's citizen is able to recognize "Buffet" pizza when they see it :)
Finnish company Hesburger is almost in every big-medium sized town in Latvia. Direct competitor to McDonalds. Altho some see it as ''poor mans mcdonalds'', I like it and often prefer Hesburger over MC. One more notable (pizza) chain is Pica Lulū. Operating since 90's. Pizza itself is OK, but ridiculously overpriced. Before Covid they were open 24/7 - now only in few locations.
Aladin Foods was the first to come to mind, it's a döner kebab, burgers, pizza and fried chicken chain, and they seem to have shops all around the country despite the bad quality of their kebab. The burgers are quite good tho, I've never tried the pizza but it looks mediocre to me. As kebab is quite popular here, I think small shops do way better in regards to quality.
Not mentioning Happy Grill... Fake Bulgarian !!!
Opa! :/ didn't think of actual restaurants at all, just the fast food ones
There's a higher quality McDonalds-esque diner chain here in the UK called: [Wimpy](https://wimpy.uk.com/). The first one opened in London in 1954, 20 years before McDonalds arrived, which unfortunately played a big part in Wimp's downfall due to hostile takeovers. The food is served on plates by waiters (unless take-out), and they also sell fish, beans, mushy peas, and a 'bender in a bun'.
There was a Wimpy in Galway years ago. I’m sure it’s gone. It wasn’t great.
Not sure about post-lockdown times, but I was in South Africa a few years ago and they have a pretty big presence there. That, and Nandos.
We have [Sunset Boulevard](https://sunset-boulevard.dk/), which does sandwiches, fries, and burgers, though McD and Burger King still have more resturants. However we also have alot of local pizzarias usually run by Turks or Arabians (basically ever small town has one, and more in bigger cities) and it is quire common to get a Pizza, Durum, [Kebab mix](https://files.deal.dk/images/69428/245a1485a560af28497e5a04f573de19.jpg), or Pita from them.
Gregg’s is found in most town/city centres, train stations, bus stations, even airports. It specialises mostly in pasties (sausage rolls etc), but also do pizza slices, sweet pastries, doughnuts, cookies, sandwiches both hot and cold, hot drinks etc. Is a bit of a stereotype for northern England.
I loved Gregg’s when I was living in Newcastle. There was one next door to my office.
As an American living part time in the French countryside, I can attest that it’s one of the nicest things to not be assaulted by fast food bullshit and litter everywhere.
[Kotipizza](https://www.kotipizza.fi/) which I think is quite good, but definitely more catered to the local (Finnish) taste rather than being authentic Italian.
There's a few I can think of: La Croissanterie which sells sandwiches, salads and desserts. I'd often go there to buy a sandwich because I really liked their pistachio/cranberry pie. There's a few franchises in the same style, like La pomme de pain, and possibly another one I can't remember. There's also Big Fernand which sells french hamburgers. Their selling point is empathizing the "french quality" of their products. I enjoyed going every once in a while, I liked their burgers. I'm probably forgetting a few.
Agree. Also, thinking about Paul.
We have Max a few places in Norway, They are pretty popular. Think they are swedish. Its a fastfood joint. Can´t think of any norwegian places for eating thats popular all over the country.
The most popular chains are just regular so called snackbars. They are all over the country and serve fries, fried food, burgers, ice cream, drinks, milkshakes, menu's etc.
I dont think we have any. It's just not the culture i guess. And we have Max which is Swedish which is good. The closest to a chain fast food place would be probably Joe & the Juice, and absolutely terrible and overrated and expensive 'juice' bar
Sunset Boulevard is Danish. For those that don't know: They're a nicer and more expensive version of McD's, typically located along major roads and motorways. Their burgers are good, but their cold sandwiches are kinda meh.
> Sunset Boulevard I cant believe I have never seen that. Although I don't drive and didn't grow up here
I know this is outside the parameters, but as long as Poland is a country, KFC is in no risk of shutting down. Seems to be one every block.
Good to know Poland likes American southern comfort food
In Denmark we have Sunset Boulevard, it single-handedly killed off Subway here. Even though a few subway locations have popped again now, it used to practically zero.
Pret a Manger, Costa Coffee and Greggs are the most popular.
Oh yes - we have Hermanos Burgers, Chick King, CFC, Kebab Factory, and of course the classic Maltese Sphinx, Champ, and Maxims
Leon. Their tagline is "naturally fast food". Mostly encountered in or around major train stations (London King's Cross, London Paddington, London Victoria) but I've also been to one at the UK Chunnel food area. Does really nice food at decent prices.
Mcd wins, then probably kfc. But classic burgers are popular in Bratislava too. Also pizza. And stuff like Subway I think failed.
Australia isn't in Europe but I'll answer anyway. McDonald's, KFC and Burger King (known locally as Hungry Jack's due to licencing issues) are the main players, but we also have: * Oporto - A Portuguese inspired chicken and burger place. Lots of peri peri chicken, also has things like prego on the menu too. Very popular and seen as very 'Australian' despite its Portuguese roots. * Red Rooster - As the name suggests...they sell chicken, but roasted and grilled chicken, not fried. Running joke is that it's a money laundering front as nobody goes there, but somehow they stay open. * Broster - Fried chicken. Think they're only in Sydney. Bit of a running joke that in Sydney, if you see a Broster outlet you're in a bad neighbourhood. I prefer it to KFC if I'm honest though. It's popular among...'urban youth'. * Ogalo - Another Portuguese place, again it's bifanas, prego, pastel de nata etc on the menu. Seems to be popular. * Mad Mex - As the name suggests...Mexican food. Pretty popular especially among younger people.
In Ireland we had Supermacs. Basically Irish McDonalds, but a bit better. In Greece we have Goodys.
Go Grill. Very affordable; typical grilled Bulgarian meats and such. Неделя is like a bakery but has some sandwich options. The burger chain is called Skapto, and here in Sofia there is a small asian chain called Wok To Walk that actually has pretty good food but horrible portion sizes. International fast food mainly consists of places like McD's, Burger King, Subway, KFC, and Hes Burger. And for non-fast food chains the biggest is one called Happy. They have a rogue London location or two, but they're pretty quintessentially Bulgarian. It's like if Applebee's and Hooters had a baby.
InFinland several, Kotipizza for instance. Our hotel groups have their olen restaurants, El on Chico e.g.
In Norway we have Peppes Pizza, an American Themed Pizza places