[mastazi]

> Starbucks in Asia is pretty upscale

My wife is from Thailand and I've lived there for a while, I've noticed the same thing there with Western fast food chains. We think of KFC, Dominos or Maccas as junk food but over there, they are considered "mid range", as a result they are much cleaner and better staffed, the venues have much nicer seating etc. - this is especially true in regional areas, much less in Bangkok and other urban areas where I guess the novelty factor is long gone.

[petesergeant]

Which makes sense ... why pay for a foreign franchise and then serve the low-end market, especially when you can just spin up your own brand for that (cf: the entirely undrinkable but very cheap Black Canyon Coffee).

For Thailand specifically, The Pizza Company's[0] back-story is kinda interesting, which is that they used to be the local Pizza Hut franchisee, and then "something happened", and they simply rebranded while serving almost identical menus. The founder, an American-born Thai white guy called William Hienecke[1] is also a super-interesting guy to read about.

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pizza_Company

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Heinecke

[seanmcdirmid]

Mos Burger and Coco Ichiban are in Bangkok as well, which...I think its still Japanese fast food, but great as well. (we have cocos in the USA, but only in the LA area, while I don't think we have a mos burger here at all)

[plasticchris]

And they use the dark meat in the KFC there, truly superb compared to the states.

[mastazi]

yes, I don't think most Thais would find Cornish Cross chicken palatable - and I don't blame them