From calorie count to portion sizes,
we wanted to find out all the differences
between Popeyes in the UK and the US.
This is "Food Wars."
The fountain drinks at Popeyes come in three sizes.
The small, which is 22 ounces,
the medium, which is 30 ounces,
and the large, which is, of course, 40 ounces.
40 ounces.
That's so much soda.
In the UK, drinks only come in two sizes,
as a kids size or as a regular size.
We're not sure how much is in either of these,
so we're going to measure them both.
A little over 300.
About 450.
But those aren't the biggest, I say!
Actually, at the Popeyes in the US,
you can also get a gallon of sweet tea
and unsweetened tea.
One whole gallon.
Ah, look at this!
Gallon, gallon.
Oh, and don't you hate when dummies do that thing
where they're like,
"Hey, the medium is the same size as the large!"
And it never is, it's a total con, so.
Medium soda, large cup.
Oh, wow, guys!
The medium's about the same size as the large,
except for, like, oh, I don't know, 10 ounces!
Dumb TikTokers. You guys aren't even ...
out-of-your-league TikTokers.
I'm the fast-food king online! All right?
When was this cleaned last?
Ooh,
I'm gonna go 36. What do you think?
I mean, it could have been the amount to top of this cup,
but again, you can't fill this to the brim.
You have to put a cap on it.
In the UK, fries just come as a regular serving.
US, we got two Popeyes fries sizes,
a regular and a large.
The regular, as we have here,
just came with the side of the three-piece we got here,
and of course a large,
which is a box of just fries.
Harry: We're going to weigh these to see
how they compare to the US.
Joe: We, of course, now are going to also
weigh our largest fry.
Do not sleep on these fries.
You'll be surprised to learn
that the inside of this scale is disgusting.
A Popeyes chicken sandwich in the UK
weighs exactly 250 grams.
Joe: In the US, it weighs
270 grams.
In the US, Popeyes signature chicken
comes in seven serving sizes.
We'll start with these.
So, of course, the one-piece kids meal,
then you can upgrade to a two-piece regular meal,
which comes with a side and a biscuit,
or you can get yourself the three-piece,
and a four-piece. Side and a biscuit.
From there, you can get yourself
an eight-piece family meal,
the 12-piece for the family as well,
or just for one person over a weekend,
and the largest, the 16-piece.
Are you kidding me?
[laughs]
How absurd is this? Look at all this chicken.
In the UK, the signature chicken comes
as a two-piece meal,
as a three-piece meal,
as a six-piece sharer,
as a nine-piece sharer,
or our largest size, the 12-piece sharer.
Let's weigh a wing, a thigh, and a leg
to see whose chickens are bigger.
So, in the UK, our thigh, leg, and wing combo
came to around 290 grams.
Here we go. First guy up, the leg.
Next up, got that wing.
Kind of a wimpy-looking one.
And this one, the thigh.
How 'bout the tendies?
In the US, we have these following sizes:
A kids meal has a one-piece,
but what's up? They gave us two!
And then from there you get a three-piece,
which they forgot,
and then we have five-piece,
comes with a side and a biscuit,
eight pieces.
I feel like they're getting bigger as I go along.
Look at the size of this tender.
Then we have the 12-piece.
I mean, guys, this is like a --
look at this!
Did you know they're this big?
This is fantastic. I love how big these are.
That's what I'm talking about, Popeyes! Thank you.
And, of course, the 16-piece.
Look at this bad boy.
Look at the size of these guys.
Tenders in the UK come in four portion sizes,
as a two-piece, which is the kids meal,
as a three-piece, a five-piece, and an eight-piece.
Next up is the nuggets.
These can be found in servings of
a four-piece kids meal,
a six-piece kids meal,
eight-piece,
the 12-piece,
24-piece,
36 pieces,
and then this double pile right here,
the biggest order, 48 pieces.
And I have to say, does not look like enough.
I know I could destroy that 48-piece with confidence.
What do we got here?
Oh, look at this sticker! This is fun.
Yeah, look at these guys!
Look at this big one playing a saxophone,
how fun is that?
That's cool, right?
In the UK, we actually call our nuggets bites,
and they come in the following sizes:
There's a four-piece, which is a kids meal,
a six-piece, a nine-piece, and a 12-piece.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get these today.
USA, we got biscuits, baby.
These are the not-cookie biscuits
that have come up before in other "Food Wars" episodes.
These are the biscuits biscuits,
and at Popeyes, you can get them in one,
either on its own or probably with just about every meal.
You can also get them in six.
It's, like, rolling right down here.
And you can also get them in 12.
Just overflowing biscuits over here.
We actually do have biscuits on the UK Popeyes menu.
If you order it as a side, you get one biscuit.
The biggest single item you can get on the US Popeyes menu
is this, the Bigger Family Feast.
It comes with 12 pieces of chicken,
five chicken sandwiches,
two large sides, got the slaw and the mashed potatoes,
five biscuits, and five apple pies.
This entire thing will set you back about 60 bucks
and clocks in at 10,000 calories
if you choose a more calorific side, like the fries.
I did not.
That pretty much dwarfs our largest single item,
which is this, the 12-piece sharer.
You get 12 pieces of chicken, four regular sides,
four biscuits, and four drinks,
all for the price of 24 pounds and 95 pence,
which was around $33.50 at the time of recording.
Mm.
We're so bad at fried chicken in the UK.
We just don't do it well.
But this, I gotta say,
I feel like a certain Kentucky-based chain
has had the monopoly for far too long,
and they've let their standards slip.
So this is really good.
I'm thrilled that the standards
are hopefully going to get raised.
And here's everything you can find at a US Popeyes
you won't find in the UK.
And here are most of the things you'll find
at a UK Popeyes that you won't find in the US.
Let's start with the chicken.
There are two main exclusive chicken options in the UK.
Firstly in the UK, we can get a chicken sandwich deluxe.
It's just a Popeyes chicken sandwich,
but there's cheese and lettuce on here as well.
What he means to say
is they took a delicious chicken sandwich
and added a bunch of junk.
Deluxe means vegetables,
aka the junk I don't want on my crispy chicken sandwich.
Popeyes in the UK also sell hot wings.
These come in orders of three, five, eight, 12, or 20.
Now, it might surprise some American viewers,
but London in particular
has a pretty big chicken-shop culture,
and we're pretty passionate about our hot wings,
so let's see how these measure up.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Don't get it twisted. We're the wings country,
and we should have those.
I have no idea why we don't have those.
That to me is a very good chicken wing.
Good level of heat, very crispy on the outside,
very juicy on the inside, what more can you want?
We only have one exclusive chicken item.
Well, it's technically not an item,
it's more of a style of chicken.
Both in the US and the UK,
they have the spicy and they have the regular,
but we also have something called the blackened chicken.
It is a chicken option without breading,
therefore, who cares?
And it comes in the form of sandwich or tenders.
Here it is, blackened chicken.
It's called fried chicken for a reason.
This is just, like, cooked on a grill?
Grilled chicken at Popeyes.
What is wrong with you?
Oh.
Nope.
In both the UK and the US,
Popeyes chicken sandwiches,
fried chicken, and chicken tenders
are available as either classic or spicy.
One interesting fact is that someone from Popeyes told us
that the UK version of the spicy chicken
is actually hotter than it is in America,
after they tried it on some focus groups
and they kept asking them to crank up the heat.
Who said British people can't handle spices, huh?
Now, this is not an exclusive
because it's available in both countries.
However, this is my first time
trying an American-style biscuit.
Now, the obvious statement is that, to me,
this just looks like a scone.
The color is there, the shape is there,
the kind of flaky layers are there.
It even kind of smells like a scone.
And the fact that this is being served with fried chicken
to me and to I think most British people is really weird.
Don't get me wrong, this is tasty,
I'm just still struggling to see any differences
between this and a British scone.
Popeyes in the US doesn't just serve chicken,
it also has seafood,
something you can't find in the UK Popeyes.
Now, the US Popeyes did for a while
have a Cajun flounder sandwich,
which is a fried flounder fillet in a bun
with some pickles and tartar sauce.
At the recording of this, it is no longer available.
I don't know if it was a limited-time thing
or they just stopped, they're taking a break, I don't know.
But you can still get the popcorn shrimp.
This is it.
And it comes in a quarter-pound serving.
There are no seafood options in the UK,
but we do have one vegan option
which you guys don't have in the US,
and that's the Creole red bean sandwich.
This is a 100% plant-based red bean patty
with some tomato, some lettuce, and a Creole sauce,
but unfortunately we weren't able to get one today.
I will say the Popeyes menu in the US
doesn't look very vegetarian-friendly,
so maybe if this takes off in the UK,
you guys can get it too.
Whatever the hell that thing is,
100% plant-based red bean pat -- ugh.
That will never touch American shores.
That can stay in the UK.
No one's going to Popeyes for vegetarian, vegan anything.
It's a fried-chicken place. So no.
Now, we have two sides that are exclusive to the US.
Red beans and rice.
Grr!
Oh, do we got a bad boy? A thingy-thing?
Did they not give us any silverware?
Mystery spoon from somewhere in the office, all right.
Red beans and rice, there it is.
And coleslaw.
We just have the one exclusive side in the UK,
and it's onion rings.
These are battered using buttermilk,
similarly to the chicken.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get these today either.
I got a bunch of sauces in front of me,
and you know what that means! It's:
Sauce Talk.
We've got a tartar sauce.
The Creole cocktail sauce.
Creole is a type of cuisine in Louisiana.
Blackened ranch.
Was this supposed to be for the blackened chicken,
do you think?
And of course we have regular buttermilk ranch.
Well, we already know what ranch is.
Ranchy.
Blackened ranch.
Oh, that's way better.
The sweet heat.
Had this earlier with the tenders,
can confirm, fantastic sauce.
Wild honey mustard
and the bayou Buffalo sauce.
In the UK, we have the following exclusive sauces:
we have this voodoo sweet chili sauce,
which could be quite similar to the US's sweet heat sauce.
Then we have a garlic mayo
as well as a mango habanero sauce,
which sounds really good.
It's not an exclusive,
but shout-out to the Mardi Gras mustard,
because this stuff slaps.
Now, it's not exactly an exclusive,
but it's worth a shout-out.
Musician Megan Thee Stallion
recently launched a collab with Popeyes
and released the Hottie Sauce.
You can get it as a side for dip
or pre-add it to your chicken sandwich.
Or if you're in the UK,
you can dip a hot wing into the Hottie Sauce
and have a hot wing summer.
She's also becoming a Popeyes franchisee,
as she is opening her own Popeyes soon.
And then underneath this, it says,
"Need some 'WAP' content here, open to ideas."
I'm assuming she is the one who did the song "WAP"?
I don't know who this person is.
I've never heard "WAP."
I just know it as a reference on the internet.
And I am going to bask in the glory
that only some my age can,
of not having any idea what a popular thing is.
Ah.
Desserts!
This is a cinnamon apple pie.
Oh, my God [mumbles].
What?
And ...
ugh!
Chocolate chip cookies.
Was she with Paul Davis,
Pete Davidson for awhile? Was that the one?
We have an exclusive dessert option of our own,
which is ice cream sundaes.
Now, these are available in the following flavors:
vanilla, chocolate, caramel,
with Oreos, or with Lotus Biscoff.
You can also pay an extra 50 pence
to add little pieces of Oreo or Biscoff
to any of these sundaes.
If you've watched "Food Wars" for long enough,
you'll know that I really don't like Biscoff,
and I know that's a very controversial opinion,
so don't send for me, please.
All right, so before you saw those big gallons of tea.
There was sweet tea and unsweetened tea. Very nice.
We also have a premium lemonade. That's this right here.
I've been sipping on because this chicken is getting to me.
They also have premium strawberry lemonade,
and they also have this right here, Hawaiian Punch.
You guys don't know what Hawaiian Punch is?
It is fruit punch.
Oh, yeah, all the good stuff's at the bottom.
And ginger ale. Ugh, I have a headache all of a sudden.
We have a range of exclusive drinks in the UK,
some of which are hot and some of which are cold.
We'll start with the hot drinks.
It wouldn't be a British fast-food menu
unless you could get a cup of tea.
Then we have a range of hot coffees,
including a cappuccino, an Americano,
a flat white, and a latte.
Then we're on to the cold drinks,
including some bottled options,
like this Oasis summer fruits,
this sparkling water, and this orange Capri Sun.
Of all the linguistic differences
between the States and the UK,
this might be the one that annoys me the most.
We pronounce this CAP-ri Sun. You pronounce it Cap-RI Sun.
You're putting the emphasis
on the completely wrong part of the word. Get it right.
In the UK, you can also get a range
of hand-spun milkshakes,
which unfortunately we couldn't get today.
When they are available,
you can get them in similar flavors to the sundaes.
They come as Biscoff, Oreo, vanilla, chocolate,
caramel, or also strawberry.
And just like the sundaes,
you can pay an additional 50 pence
for an additional Biscoff or Oreo topping.
The chicken sandwich from a UK Popeyes
contains the following.
If you get the chicken sandwich at a US Popeyes,
it contains this.
What if you made it a meal?
You add the regular serving of Popeyes Cajun fries,
you'll be adding the following.
A side of fries in the UK contains the following.
Poof!
Add this medium Coke to the mix,
and you're adding 368 calories,
99 carbs, all of those are sugar,
and 88 milligrams of sodium.
And a regular Coke in the UK adds 180 calories,
zero grams of fat or saturated fat,
45.6 grams of carbs, all of which are sugars,
and zero sodium.
And what is the total of this US meal?
1,335 calories,
56 grams of total fat,
19 of those grams are saturated fat,
182 grams of carbs,
106.5 of those grams of sugar,
and 2,118 milligrams of sodium.
Yo.
The UK total:
1,300 calories,
63.7 grams of fat,
of which 20.4 grams of saturated,
135.4 grams of carbs,
of which 54.8 grams are sugars,
and 1,160 milligrams of sodium.
Obviously the sugar stats here look bad,
but in Popeyes' defense,
a majority of the sugar is coming from
this 30 ounces -- [chuckles] 30 ounces --
of Coca-Cola.
Now, if you got a sugar-free soda instead,
it would be a much lower figure.
The meal does contain, however,
95% of your daily saturated fat
as well as 92% of your daily sodium.
Perhaps surprisingly, it seems as if
the fat and saturated fat totals
are actually higher in the UK than they are in the US.
This meal would take you just over 100%
of your daily saturated fat allowance.
However, the sodium content is way higher here
than it is in the UK.
The biggest difference comes in the chicken sandwich.
This guy right here, for some reason,
has 260% more sodium than that in the UK.
Unfortunately, Popeyes has not disclosed
a full ingredients list in the US, only allergens.
It's a similar deal in the UK.
Popeyes doesn't disclose a full ingredients list,
just allergens.
The only sort of surprising thing we found out in the US
is that there is fish present in the beans and rice.
But what else do we know about the Popeyes food?
Ah!
Well, for one, on the website,
there is a list of a slightly vague commitment
to removing all artificial colors, flavors,
and preservatives from their fried chicken
by the end of 2022.
So, that's this year, guys. Better get on it.
Also by the end of this year,
they want to remove all MSG from their chicken.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong,
but that implies they currently
are using MSG on the chicken.
But how much and to which chicken dishes
they're actually adding MSG,
they have not specified.
They also want to use only cage-free eggs
by the end of 2025.
Take your time there, guys, jeez.
Also, cage-free "eggs"?
What about the chickens?
One interesting thing is that in the UK,
Popeyes has pledged to make all its chicken halal,
meaning it's suitable for Muslim people to eat.
Popeyes UK also uses Red Tractor-assured chicken.
This is a farming standards board
which oversees poultry farming in the UK.
To be Red Tractor-assured,
you can't do things like wash your chicken in chlorine
or use antibiotics on your chicken,
unless it's approved by a vet to treat a specific illness.
Red Tractor doesn't exist in the US,
but Popeyes does say it uses chicken
free from added hormones and steroids.
There's a commitment on Popeyes' website
to removing antibiotics from its chickens
by the end of 2021.
So that's right around the corner
at the time of recording this,
and we reached out to them for what was going on,
and they told us X, [laughs]
which is code for nothing.
Red Tractor certification also means
that chickens must be kept in a safe, comfortable,
hygienic, and sufficiently sized housing;
given a full, healthy diet;
and have permanent access to environmental enrichment
that is suitable for their needs.
Again, we do not have Red Tractor in the US,
but Popeyes claims it wants to, quote,
"promote practices that support
and address the globally recognized
five freedoms of animal welfare," end quote.
These principles broadly line up
with the Red Tractor guarantees, which are:
freedom from hunger and thirst,
freedom from discomfort,
freedom from pain, injury, and disease,
freedom to express normal, natural behaviors,
like accommodating for chickens' instinct to roost,
and freedom from fear and distress.
I don't even get those freedoms!
I'm terrified all the time!
[chicken clucks]
So it looks like they're aiming for equivalent standards,
even if they don't have a nice Red Tractor badge
or whatever to prove that they've achieved it.
Now, obviously Popeyes is a Louisiana fast-food chain.
Joe asked me to try and find Louisiana on a map.
I don't know much about American geography.
I can tell you where California is,
where Texas is, where Florida is.
New York is somewhere over here, I think.
If I had to hazard a guess as to where Louisiana was,
I mean, it's the South, right?
It's the South.
Maybe ...
is it, like, this one?
Maybe that one there.
♪ "Wars" in this house ♪
There's "Food Wars" in this house
"Wars" in this house
There's "Food Wars" in this house ♪