KFC Russia

Question: When is a KFC not a KFC?

Answer: When it's in Russia and in a partnership with local restaurant chain called Rostik's, thereby relegating the famous acronym to the end of the name and usurping the Colonel with, of all things, a figurehead who is a Chicken.

With Russia being an alien market to US based Yum brands they entered into a partnership with Rostik's who were familiar with business practices and legal issues in Russia, allowing the chain to expand rapidly with a minimum of bureaucracy.

I am however glad to inform you, that this is mostly in the past and thankfully the colonel is back where he belongs ruling the roost so to speak. Having completed a friendly takeover  all of the 164 Rostik's - KFC are being re-branded as simply, KFC a process that was scheduled for completion mid 2012.

To find out how KFC is standing on it's own two legs and managing in Russia now it's put all of its eggs into one basket, KFB visited Moscow.

With Over 80 locations in the city, I had assumed it would be easy to spot a branch without research. It wasn't as easy as I had presumed, but we did eventually find one a stone's throw from the Kremlin and Red Square although buried in a subterranean shopping centre so not immediately apparent.

The unit itself was nothing to look at, being similar in every respect to many mall based branches found throughout the world. The menu too closely mirrored the fayre that can be found throughout Western Europe. However, where they have localized their product offering was the use of the Cyrillic alphabet on Menu's and packaging featuring Fillet Burgers, Twisters, Box Master's but sadly no 'Towers'.

Opting for a Box Master and something we'd not seen before, a 'Bigger' burger we tucked in:

 The Box Master is was a carbon copy of one you might have got elsewhere in Europe whilst the 'Bigger' burger conjured up images of the Big Daddy and was a as a result somewhat disappointing:

Fashioned with only 2 mini fillets, some cheese and a splodge of mayonnaise its only saving grace was its final ingredient, the liberal use of fresh cut tomato, yet even this couldn't save it from mediocrity.

Pricewise...... Whilst Moscow itself is not a cheap city, visitors from the UK and western Europe should notice the price of a meal to be £\€1 cheaper than back home and the quality good. a burger consists of good quality white meat and your meal can be enjoyed with a beer.

KFB enjoyed their trip to Russia, and although not blown away by what they found, this was a solid offering and with the food in Russia generally dismal... KFC here has a bright future.