These pictures were taken on the 12th of October.
Sheila and I went back to Shanghai's
Super Brand Mall. It is the largest mall in
Pudong, or the newer part of the city. About a
week earlier we had dinner at
Hooters, which is one of restaurants in the
mall.
I think there's some kind of Thai exhibition, or
something like that. On display around the mall were
artwork, sculptures and religious statues from
Thailand. Nice!
We sure wanted to have a look around and explore
every store in the mall, but it was already lunch
time and we were both very hungry. So we tried
Kung Fu, an Original Chinese Fast Food
Restaurant.
At first glance
Kung Fu seems like a joke. Bruce Lee wielding a
stick and looking down on you while you slurp your
soup seemed a bit too picture perfect. But there's
more to this Fast Food Chain than what most
foreigners, like Sheila and myself, know about.
Twelve years ago a 22 year old Chinese dude opened
the first Kung Fu restaurant and at present they
have over 300 branches in Mainland China alone.
That's phenomenal by any standards. And on top of
that, Kung Fu is one of the few fast food chains in
China to pass the
HACCP Food Safety Management Certification.
(Rumor has it that KFC China even managed to stuff
it up a couple of times before eventually getting it
right!)
Another amazing feat is that Kung Fu promises that
all orders are ready within 60 seconds. In terms
efficiency and work flow design they easily beat
other multi-national Fast Food Chains like
McDonald's, KFC and even Starbucks.
Their only weakness is their lack of active
marketing. I'm not sure about the locals, but most
foreigners does not know that they exist. You don't
see them on TV in China, or at least not while we
were there. And the name "Kung Fu" is too generic.
Google it and you'll get a gazillion results and
you'll have to browse through a dozen or so pages
before you even get to their website.
The food itself was good. Everything was served hot.
The rice was perfectly cooked, and the Chicken
Casserole with Ginseng was very tasty! It also came
with Broccoli. Even that was tasty!
My only issue is that the Chicken that we got seemed
a bit pulverized, while on the posters it was
supposed to look like this:
And also I don't know what the 'Ravioli' on the
poster was all about, probably a typo or translation
error. But at least ours came with Chicken Feet,
and in China that's a real bonus! :)
Unfortunately we did not have time to try more items
on the menu. I guess if we do happen to visit China
again we'll make it a point to try more Kung Fu!
