I’m from Greece, and I’d say our relationship with fast food is complicated. Generally McDonalds and KFC are seen as way less desirable than Greek owned fast food, but there’s a couple of their locations around Athens for example. Greek companies like Goody’s are amazing and much more commonplace, and of course we often eat souvlaki at souvlatzidika.
I do have fond memories of having a birthday party at McDonalds, which I haven’t heard of anyone outside of Greece doing. Maybe it was just a Greek thing?
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Max and Sibylla. Max is a “healthier” McDonald’s and Sibylla is a mashed potatoes and sausage chain with bad burgers.
Birthday parties at McDonald’s was popular in the 90s
Fast food is quite popular in Sweden. I think pizza, kebab, hamburgers and hotdogs are the most popular forms of fast food.
Some popular Swedish fast food chains are Sibylla (mainly hotdogs) and Max and Frasses hamburger restaurants.
Hugely popular. France is not the second market after the US for McDonalds for nothing. And their was McD birthday party in France too.
Back in the days there were mostly only 2 fast food chains in France : McDonalds and Quick.
Quick is the “local” fast food chain, created by Belgian and based in France, that had the reputation of being disgustin. And Then There is a McDonald restaurant everywhere. If your city has more than 10K inhabitants there is a McD.
Nowadays it’s between McDo, Burger King (that bought Quick a few years ago) and KFC. While some Quick remains, most became Burger King. And there is some other fast food chain in cities that exist (Subway, O’Tacos, Big Fernand, Five Guys, etc) but they are not as popular as those 3/4.
Greasy fried food has been a staple in Ireland long before US chains invaded. There are still plenty of independently owned fish and chip shops. There are also Irish chains like Supermacs, Quinlans and Apache Pizza. McDonalds actually went to the EU to sue Supermacs, claiming its name was too similar, but lost.
[Cevapi is life](https://youtube.com/shorts/DNCBpenIO7o?feature=share)
It used to be very common for kids to have birthday parties at McDonald’s when I was a kid (about 15-20 years ago), I don’t know if it’s still common nowadays.
Fast food is fairly popular, McDonald’s and Burger King are the most well-known chains but we also have KFC, Subway and a couple of Five Guys. McDonald’s is by far the most popular one though.
Pizza is even more popular but we don’t really consider it fast food and we hardly have any pizza chains, almost every pizza place is independently run.
I remember having a birthday party at Burger King when I was 10. It definitely was a thing in the late 90’s and early 2000’s here, but not anymore.
We have a bunch of fast food and street food options from all sorts of hamburgers to Greek, Turkish, Serbian, Chinese, Thai.
We also have Hungarian fast food like [kürtőskalács](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gf0XuDnhx5M/W4fjim4pkfI/AAAAAAAAbHQ/d3GZFvznq6o9upQz0BGg1LYrLKslNPh4ACLcBGAs/s1600/Kurtoskalacs%2B7.jpg), [lángos](https://kep.cdn.indexvas.hu/1/0/2909/29092/290927/29092785_2adee1f7b1ccde144030a5184a7f4f05_wm.jpg), [lepény](http://nassolda.receptneked.hu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/IMG_8256.jpg), [rétes](https://kep.cdn.indexvas.hu/1/0/4426/44267/442675/44267514_3377670_757ed831c5d454b4672184adee084134_wm.jpg). But I think kebabs and hamburgers are the most popular ones on a regular basis. The ones I listed are something you’d get on the beach or during a festival or some sort of “special” occasion, not when you get hungry after drinking with your buddies.
Finland:
In my personal bubble, the people I know typically go for fast food something between once a week and once every couple of months. I know extremes from both ends: people who never do it, and a person who eats a burger meal every single day of the year.
“[Makkaraperunat](https://i.media.fi/incoming/e4bzl6/1272334.jpg/alternates/FREE_1440/1272334.jpg)” = “sausage and fries” is what I might call a proper Finnish snack bar serving. Fries, chopped up sausages, onion, spices, pickled cucumber, ketchup and mustard. Another one is [Lihapiirakka](https://www.hk.fi/globalassets/hk.fi/2.-reseptikuvat-2022/lihis.jpg?preset=HK.6col.Auto.Scale), a deep-fried batter of sorts, but with savoury insides with ground beef and rice, served with wieners, egg, and other stuff in between.
In terms of hamburger joints: Hesburger is a chain founded and owned by a Finnish entrepeneur. Their burgers typically have a mayonnaise-based sauce in addition to the regular stuff you’d find in a hamburger. Finnish fast food connoisseurs are at a constant battle between who does each part of the burger meal best: Hesburger, McDonalds and Burger King, as far as I know.
And then there are very popular kebab joints, often run by people with a Turkish origin. Kebab with French fries is quite popular. For the kebab connoisseurs, I’m under the impression that Kebab Iskender is a meal that “shows” how good the kebab place is. And, of course, whether they use the frozen, compacted mass with mainly beef, or actual slices of lamb makes for a big difference.
Very popular.
I’m 19 and a typical Saturday night here is club and the after party at McDonald’s.
Rn I’m doing a challenge, to not eat at a fast food for six months, I started it in January 2023 and still going strong. The hard thing is seeing your friends eating while you don’t.
Very popular. Who doesn’t love some good unhealthy food. Hesburger is the big domestic chain, otherwise we have the big american ones. And a big portion of our fast food market is middle eastern pizza/kebab places. They are everywhere even in smallest villages that would never get a restaurant from a big franchise.
McDonald’s is everywhere and that’s pretty much it. Rest is only in Bratislava or few other bigger cities. To my knowledge, there is no Slovak fast food chain.
McDonalds and Subway are everywhere, Burger King and KFC are known, but less common.
Domestic brands coming to my mind are Nordsee (“Northern Sea”, as the name indicates a fish-focused fast food chain) and as smaller ones that I’m happy to see now and then are Sausalitos and Hans im Glück (the name is a reference to a well known fairy tale) – they aren’t directly comparable to McDonalds etc given they are a bit “slower” and more comfortable, with menu on the table for example.
I think the most common street food / fast food items aren’t burgers though, but I guess in total [Döner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doner_kebab#Germany) and [Currywurst](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currywurst) might be even more common – random useless fact of the day: VW produces more Currywurst than cars.
You’re always close to a frietkot (fry shack) in Belgium and most other fast food places can’t really compete in popularity.
Pretty popular, imo, but I don’t have any official stats.
McDonalds is mostly popular in cities, like the capitol Ljubljana, there aren’t any in the countryside where I live. But I remember some of my classmates having their birthday there, late 90s early 00s. Burger King was here, but it died out. Same with Dairy Queen, Quick and Nordsee, all died out as far as I know. McDonalds is strong tho.
Then there is Hood Burger, a local fast food chain, focusing on burgers, I think it started around 2015, there was a burger boom in that time, spawning many burger chains and bbq restaurants. Sven & Lars opened here around that time as well, also a burger chain, similair to Hood Burger – which I prefer.
There is also Hot Horse, that serves horse meat burgers, it exists since the 90s I think, and it grew into a chain serving fast food with its signature horse meat.
Countless burek and kebab chains, these are everywhere, even outside bigger cities. Burek especially, is almost a national dish now, but originally came from the south, more deep balkan countries, maybe Bosna idk. Sirov (cheese) burek with yogurt is a delicious and very filling lunchbreak meal, my favorite burek. Kebab with jufka/yufka wrap is also very nice, a staple in student times, after getting drunk at parties, etc.
In Italy we don’t really consider pizza as fast food and many pizza places are independent. There might be some pizza chains but none that I know of. But yeah I’d say my go-to fast food is pizza, though I don’t think this comes as a surprise. You might also find food stands, especially in the south, where they sell arancini (or arancine), panzerotti, grilled corn ears, fried pizza and other tasty stuff. As for imported fast food chains, McDonald’s is the most popular I think. I go there once or twice a month max. My favourite way to enjoy it is eating those crunchy McNuggets at 3 in the morning after fucking around the city centre or somewhere else with friends in winter. During the summer, meh, I might go there once or twice but there are way better Italian food options. Burger King, KFC and Subway are also fairly popular though I’ve only eaten there once for each of them. Not a fan. Kebab places are also pretty common. I’ve never tried it though.
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it was for sure a thing in Poland in late 90’s & early 00’s. As I remember – Mc had separate room for B-day party guests, after eating we could see how it looks like on the other side of the counter – kitchen etc.
American fast food outlets are just as unappealing in Germany as they are in the UK. There are so many better options – from bakeries with home-made sandwiches to fried noodle stands, not to mention currywurst and döner. I never understand why KFC, Subway (which smells of bins) BK and McD’s manage to survive. I suspect there must be some population groups that see them as somehow aspirational – teenagers with their first pocket money, some people who are still brainwashed by television adverts. But it really does baffle me, why anyone would opt for those particular processed meat products with their bland sauces and sweet, substanceless breads, and watered down, painfully cold juice.
In Romania we also had birthday parties at McDonalds for children, but usually for those under 10, since you could rent the whole children’s play room there.
As for fast-food. It is quite popular I would say. Especially in the bigger cities, like Bucharest, because people are always on the move and their commute, even intra-city, could take upwards of an hour. KFC and McDonalds are the most popular and can be found in most cities. I think Subway is the third most popular. We also have Burger King, TacoBell, Popeye’s etc. but very scarce in presence, and I think only in Bucharest. As for national chains, we have a known competitor for Starbucks. Otherwise, not really nationwide. We have small fast food kiosks, but not brands. I think the largest fast-food brand is Shaormeria Baneasa (Greek/Turkish/Asian Minor food)
Very popular.
McDonald’s is the most popular and you can find it even in smaller cities. When I went to high school, walking to a nearby McDonald’s during the long break was a popular thing. Also during school trips McDonald used to be the unofficial main event. KFC is less but still popular. Burger King, you can find it only in the biggest cities like, e.g. Poznań. Subway is more popular than Burger King but not as popular as KFC. Besides the big chains there are a lot of places where you can find kebab. Czech style hot dogs are served in Żabka stores that are everywhere and in most petrol stations so they are also very popular. When you go to a public beach near a lake you usually can find overpriced disgusting hamburgers there, zapiekankas and traditional hot dogs.
Talking about Polish fast food chains we have [North Fish](https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g274751-d15560486-Reviews-North_Fish-Suwalki_Podlaskie_Province_Eastern_Poland.html) that you can find in shopping malls.
Can’t speak for popularity because I abhor the stuff, but yes we do have chains. 100 montaditos sells mini sandwiches and cheap drinks with everything for 1€ some day of the week. La Sureña is from the same owners, Andalusian food (fried fish, calamari…). TGB if I recall correctly is Spanish too, at least for the opening of the first in Madrid they told us it was “the Spanish high quality answer to McDonald’s” (high quality my ass) and of course Telepizza is originally Spanish. There are also some local to Madrid like Rodilla, which sells sandwiches and you can go two streets without seeing one, or Papizza, that is supposed to be Italian but I’ve never seen one outside Madrid.
I live near a [very pretty McDonald’s](https://www.google.com/search?q=mcdonald%27s+bryggesporen+bergen&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij0_3Drpj9AhUaSvEDHSJzCX0Q_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1413&bih=724&dpr=2), and I know there is a Burger King as well because I pick up litter and the wrappers are pretty common. I’ve not seen them for other well-known franchises, but I only pick up a certain area, so who knows?
But yes, the international fast food chains do well for themselves here, it helps that there are many students in the area.
When I grew up in the States many of my friends had parties in fast food joints, it’s a brilliant way to host a children’s party without the kids wrecking your house. Looks like your parents were smart enough to know this 🙂
Very popular in the UK. Fish and Chip shops are traditional British fast food. They tend to be independently owned. Where I live in Newcastle there’s ‘Gill’s Fish and Chips’ which is a mini chain and owns a few Fish and Chip shops in and around Newcastle.
Probably the biggest UK fast food chain is Greggs, which actually started out as a bakery in Newcastle. When I was a kid they had shops all over the city. Then they went national and changed from being traditional style bakers shops to being more fast food, although they still focus on baked goods like pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, muffins and doughnuts. They’re very popular at breakfast for coffee and/or their breakfast range of rolls and baguettes (Bacon, Sausage or Bacon and Sausage) and omelettes.
US fast food chains are popular McDonalds and Burger King have been huge here for decades, with the higher end Five Guys growing massively in the past decade or so.
KFC is popular and there are also a number of British chicken chains that are similar but not as big – Dixy Chicken, Southern Fried Chicken, Chicken Cottage, Chunky Chicken etc.
Popeyes which is another US Chicken chain is fairly new to the UK but is growing.
The Filipino Chicken Chain Jollybees is also fairly new to the UK but expanding.
There’s also loads of kebab/shawarma places in the UK. They’re mainly independent though.
Not quite fast food, but other takeaway food such as Chinese and Indian takeaways are extremely common and again often independent rather than chains.
In reality the cuisine on offer is more Chinese/Indian inspired or adapted for the UK palette and is not particularly authentic. Many dishes on offer are British in origin. However that doesn’t mean that they’re not good, they’re usually very good (though standards do vary but that just depends on whether the specific takeaway is a good one or not).
I have to say that in the shopping mall near me there’s a McDonalds and it is always full of schoolchildren, so if it is not too popular now, it surely will be soon.
Czech cuisine doesn’t have its own fast food like Greek one; there’s no Czech souvlaki nor spinakopita. No-name fast foods are hot dog or kebab stalls, neither of them is originally Czech.
There are Czech fast food chains, like [Bageterie Boulevard](https://www.bageterie.com/our-offer/chef-menu) or [Ugo Salaterie](https://www.ugo.cz/)