The chicken is ok but really greasy. The sides used to be much better.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Out of all the fried chicken around me I rank as follows:
#1 The independent convenience store near me makes up their own batter. Rank A.
#2: 7/11 yeah I can't believe it either. Rank B+ and they're the cheapest. Kinda everything else is overpriced.
#3: Mary Browns. Used to be higher but got worse lately. Rank C-
#4: KFC. I don't buy it anymore. Bland. Rank D. Sometimes I got a Big Crunch when the KFC was a combo building with Taco Bell but they killed off combo stores I guess. I only ever went for Taco Bell.
#5: Popeye's. Fucking awful. Actually grosses me out. F rank.
I've always wondered why are these people going to KFC instead of Popeyes. Popeyes is better than KFC in every possible way.
Is it a regional thing maybe?
Pretty much every American fast food chain from the 80s and 90s has enshittified.
A new crop has come up that's more similar to the old quality of those places, Chipotle, Five Guys, etc.
But even Chipotle went a good bit downhill.
Of course this all varies by location. Once in awhile you find a location where the workers and/or owners actually care a bit, and you catch a glimpse of what these are supposed to be.
Hot take: American fast food chains haven't gotten worse. Actually, the quality of their food and the atmosphere have generally gotten significantly better in the past decade or so.
The difference is that now you are an adult, and you aren't as enthralled by a cheap, bland cheeseburger as you were when you were 8. Your fond memories of going to the fast food joint with your friends in high school are fond because you are remembering formative memories, not because the food was actually good. You enjoyed stopping at the fast food restaurant as a young parent because it provided a brief respite from the demands of taking care of a young child. You think Taco Bell tastes like garbage now not because Taco Bell has gotten worse, but because Chipotle has raised your expectations for what food should taste like.
Honestly, the trend of pining for the fast food days gone by feels pretty cringe to me. Like, c'mon, are you really gonna look at me with a straight face and tell me that McDonalds in the 80s really cared deeply about making children happy? That Taco Bell was respecting their customers' high culinary expectations when they introduced Mountain Dew Baja Blast and the Doritos Locos Taco? That back in the day when the staff at TGI Fridays came out and sang happy birthday to you, they really meant it?
No!!! None of that was ever true, lol. These are giant, soulless corporations completely geared towards maximizing profits, run by stressed out managers and pissed off employees, and they always have been.
What actually happened is that Americans got higher standards. They became more knowledgeable and worldly and adventurous. Their expectations for the taste and health of the food they ate grew. 20 years ago in middle america, few people had ever eaten Thai or Indian food. Sushi was exotic and dangerous. Eating a salad for lunch made you a health nut at best, but more likely identified you as "probably a homo". Olive Garden was actually considered a good place to take a date. We changed. We got better. This is a good thing.
I'm going to tell you that the corporate culture of enshittifying everything wasn't in full swing yet. Olive Garden was on par with Texas Roadhouse or a little nicer than current Outback Steakhouse. McDonald's was pretty much in line with current Chipotle. Pizza Hut was more like Edwardos or a decent sit-down pizza chain.
What I'm getting from your spiel is that you're young. Sushi was not exotic and dangerous in 2006. Your salad example is probably from the 70s.
I dunno man, maybe I'm just 2middleamerica4u. 2006 was exactly the era when sushi was exotic and dangerous.
every American fast food chain from the 80s and 90s has enshittified.
Watchdog is reporting that they tested 30 fast-food locations to see if fecal bacteria was found in any of them, and the results are alarming. Out of all the 30 restaurants, fecal coliform bacteria was found on at least three McDonald’s, six Burger King, and seven KFC locations in the United Kingdom. Not only that, but most of the samples taken from Burger King and KFC contained “significant levels” of bacteria.
I feel like this is an unfair hot take.
For one thing, these can only be considered American restaraunts in that the branding originated in the US. The companies are global corporations. And this article is talking specifically about restaurants in the UK. These brands have different corporate offices in each country they operate in, with these offices doing things like modifying recipies to appeal to local tastes, sourcing ingredients from local supply chains, and complying with local regulations. And each location is operated as an independent franchise - most likely owned by someone who lives in the country. So, the branding of the cartoon clown is American - but these are restaurants owned by Brits with British workers, with British corporate oversight, sourcing British ingredients under British food safety regulations. They are British restaurants.
For another, I doubt this is a phenomenon unique to US-branded fast food restaurants in the UK. It is true to say "independent testing found fecal bacteria in ice at some McDonalds locations." But it is disingenuous to imply that this is an issue specifically with McDonalds without performing similar testing at the British-branded fast food chain next store, the kebab cart on the next street corner, or a random person's kitchen. And to claim that the restaurants have literally gotten shittier over time, you would also need to cite data on similar testing done at a previous time.
Really, the truth is that there are fecal bacteria just about everywhere - go test literally any doorknob, or ask any of your friends to test their phones. Or go test your toothbrush... for real. Yes, the world is covered in poop. Sorry. It is honestly completely unsurprising that some of it will end up in your food. You've probably been consuming it for years with basically every meal you've eaten.
But if you are concerned about the actual risk of getting sick from eating at any given restaurant, then large corporate chains are actually probably one of the safest bets. McD's has a global reputation to protect, has a long history of dealing with health code violation PR, and knows they have a target on their backs. Everyone wants McDonalds to be a dirty disgusting place to eat that constantly violates the health code so that they can talk shit about them. So McDonalds and other corporate fast food chains make a significant effort to make sure that they actually are clean and that people don't get sick and they don't get health code violations. Which squares with what every fast food restaurant employee I've ever met has told me - they might not like working at McDonalds, but they will aggressively tell you that they absolutely strictly follow food safety standards to an annoying degree. Compare this to Billy's Burger Joint, run by Billy, an overworked independent restaurant owner, keeping his dream alive with sheer grit, sleep deprivation, and child labor. Without corporate overlords demanding by-the-book compliance, and under the pressure of serving customers quickly and staying in the black, Billy is much more likely to fudge things like not staying on top of the ice machine cleaning schedule or serving burger patties that are a day or two past their marked expiration date.
I'm not saying I like these fast food chains, or that you should eat at them. Personally, McDonalds gives me a headache whenever I eat it. And they're and evil corporation. But if your reason for not eating there is because you fear fecal bacteria in your food, you should probably go live in a clean room, not just avoid McDs.
I'm wondering what that same test would reveal about the average US household kitchen?
And, yes, I understand that a commercial restaurant should be held to a higher standard than my grandma's kitchen. I'm curious, though, because I've seen a LOT of nasty kitchens in my time...
Im in the US. KFC is not very high quality but somehow the price is nearly the same as a local fried chicken restaurant. Also. The dining rooms are always dirty -- like really dirty. Ive never gone in to order food from KFC and felt confidence that I wouldnt catch hepatitis. This is the universal KFC experience I've had from the East to the West Coast and a couple of states in between.
And like others have said -- there's better quality, less expensive fried chicken to be had from local grocery stores.
grew up in USA, KFC is dogshit. Tried it in Japan recently and it was exactly the same as USA.
any USA grocery store has way better fried chicken than any KFC
I also grew up with KFC and i now live in colombia. The KFC tastes the same here as the US. Not great, not terrible. Just breaded fried chicken made at scale.
I prefer popeyes. Well at least i did last time i was in the states. Haven’t has it in ten years so maybe the quality has changed.
Popeyes is definitely better IMHO but their service around here sucks.
in my area KFC uses a pressure fryer while Popeye's and grocery stores use normal fryers.
The pressure fryer is faster but makes soggy bland chicken
And grocery stores - and many gas stations - in the South have the best fried chicken.
KFC is dogshit. The OG Colonel Sanders said as much before he died. I think his wife opened a restaurant that was based on their original recipe and tried to keep up the quality of the OG KFC but no idea what the status of that is and I think it was only a single restaurant not a chain.
In South East Asia KFC, Burger King etc. aren't seen as cheap food for poor people. Poor people can't afford to eat there. Also, people in general are much more discerning about their food, so if you try to feed them American slop, they won't buy it. That's why all those fast food chains offer better quality there.
As someone from Germany living just around the corner from a KFC, I can safely assure you:
It's garbage and overpriced here, too.
KFC in the US is terrible and has been so for at least 20 years.
Don't bother with it if you come here. It's franchise based here so it's extremely hit or miss. When I ate chicken I just went to Popeyes, which is also hit or miss, but leans heavily towards hitting while kfc leans heavily towards missing. Also just way better when it hits.
Incredibly overpriced. A bucket of greasy ass chicken is like 30+ dollars. I don't know how they're still in business.
KFC has been low tier chicken for a while now, Popeyes chicken is where it at now
Pollos Hermanos.
Its always been shit as far as I remember.
As someone who lives in the Netherlands... The quality is mid at best. Oh and it's fucking expensive. But all fast food has become expensive.
It's dog shit tier in NZ, but you're paying a premium for the privilege.
We even have a term: KFC-remorse. For when you craved it, ate it, regret it.
The problem is the consistency and chasing the dragon. Sometimes you get that 10/10 KFC and most times you get that oily dogshit KFC. Its also way to expensive now.
Similar terms exist for other fast food vendors as well, like Taco ~~Bell~~ Smell.
Yes. Japanese kfc puts it in the dirt.
It wasn't always but, like most everything else, it is now.
My kids had been asking to try KFC for a while before I tried it a few months back. Spent like $100 on straight garbage. We never went back. Everything tasted like it was made 3 hours ago and sat in warming drawers drying out.
Overpriced: yes
Garbage: subjective and really depends on which location you go to and what time of day.
The bottom line in the states is that the people working at KFC are getting paid minimum wage so they typically put in minimum effort. KFC can be good if you catch the right employees making it at the right time...
The KFC near me in the U.S. wasn't bad, I haven't eaten out at all since the pandemic. Maybe because it was usually busy at lunch when I went, all the food was fresh. I used to get a breast, a side, a drink, and a cookie for $5, that was a decent lunch. If I went in outside of busy times, yeah, the food had obviously been sitting around for a while, but it was still good enough for five bucks.
Like all fast food, the quality can vary considerably from store to store, and region to region.
That $5 deal is long gone and will cost you ~15 these days.
Yes. I remember it being good as a kid, but hadn't eaten there in a long time. Then I tried it again a few years ago and it was awful
Has it gotten more expensive than before for bad quality?
Yes, like all fast food
No one in my friends circle eats there. Many better options
It's fine. It's never been great. If I've got a fried chicken craving and can't be bothered to drive to a Popeyes, Raising Canes, or Guthrie's (a smaller chain similar to Raising Canes), I'll stop by and grab a bite. It gets the job done. But it's not amazing, no.
Yarp
KFC around me is overpriced and shit
Pretty much junk in the UK, there's nearly always a better local independent chicken shop. Though I think the last time I had KFC in America was about 2002, so I've not got a recent frame of comparison.
The UK one is edible, but I basically only choose it when options are otherwise quite limited
I’ve recently tried KFC in Southeast Asia too during a random craving. The chicken itself tasted juicier, more flavorful, better quality. That goes even for the breast. And they even had a spicy kind, with a real kick. I think US chicken has too many steroids so the meat doesn’t taste as good.
Garbage?
I dunno if I'd go that far. Overpriced for what you get? Absolutely.
The problem with kfc now is the consistency. Other comments have made note of that already.
In the past though, it was consistent. And it was, on average, middle high tier back then. Breasts would be juicy still, and the various breading versions were good enough to be cravable, if not as good as home made or from a non chain restaurant.
The extra crispy was reliably extra crispy in particular.
Somewhere in the nineties, it started falling off. Greasier, drier, with the grease also tasting unpleasant (as compared to previous from kfc where the off taste wasn't present)
Fried chicken isn't really that hard to get right when you have good fryers. The kind they use hold heat really well by virtue of how much oil they hold. So the fact that it's ever greasy instead of lightly oiled on the outside is a sign they're doing something wrong. If you had a fryer like that at home, you should be able to turn out amazing fried foods every single time. Even shitty home fryers can get the job done if you do small enough batches. Hell, in that regard even pan frying in your old cast iron can do better than what kfc started becoming in the 90s assuming you kept your batches small.
All of that being said, it is still at least edible. The company just lost being good the way it used to be. It was never great, but it was something that was worth getting once a month on a sunday.
But it isn't just the chicken that's gone downhill. Most of their sides have gone meh to bad. Their gravy is pretty much the same, but they changed something about the mashed potatoes back in the late 90s to where the texture is just not pleasant. Their biscuits were always mid at best, but they're always too greasy now. I suspect they changed the source of their shortening, or their source changed how they make it. That suspicion comes from having known enough workers to be confident that the recipe itself is unchanged.
The other sides (with one exception) are not good. Edible, but you'll regret it. The slaw is still sometimes good to great. It used to be consistently good to great. I'm not sure what they changed, unless it's in storage or batch size, but it usually has the slightly rancid or fishy scent to it now. Slaw is pretty hard to fuck up (though also hard to make really great), so it points to the whole chain having shifted to lower standards across the board.
Never been outside the country at all, so I can't compare in that way. But it's always been popular here in the us, so I've had it up and down the eastern seaboard.
You can make your own healthier delicious fried chicken with some YT tutorials and a lot of surfing on the internet. Taste will be same or better than these junk food centers
KFC is successful in Japan because they invented the tradition of eating KFC fried chicken during Christmas.
No joke, Christmas bookings for KFC are booked out months in advance, and people wait in long queues out the door on Christmas.
What's the deal with KFC and Christmas in Japan? | Time Out Tokyo - https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/things-to-do/whats-the-deal-with-kfc-and-christmas-in-japan