On a Thursday night along Sydney\u2019s George Street, teenagers Sasha Luangrungvilai and Livinia Boyden are looking for a \u201clittle treat\u201d after a big day of window shopping. Although it\u2019s Luangrungvilai\u2019s first time at Mixue, it\u2019s been a long-awaited visit \u2013 Boyden has been hyping up the Chinese bubble-tea juggernaut for weeks. \u201cI love having so many dessert options for treats,\u201d says Luangrungvilai. \u201cIt gives me a chance to try new foods which is always great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Australian outpost of Mixue opened in 2023 in Sydney and now they have more than 10 locations across the country. The brand is part of a wave of fast food and quick service restaurant chains originating from east and south-east Asia that have set up shop in Australia in recent years.<\/p>\n
Since 2023, chains such as Marrybrown (Malaysian halal fried chicken), Nana\u2019s Green Tea (a Japanese cafe brand), Miguelitos (soft serve from the Philippines) and Molly Tea (premium Chinese bubble tea) have made their Australian debuts.<\/p>\n
Just last month, Indonesia\u2019s Sederhana landed in Melbourne, serving Minang cuisine from West Sumatra, and Makkee Dessert, a Chinese chain specialising in tong sui \u2013 sweet soups \u2013 arrived in Sydney, with photos on social media showing queues going down the block on opening day.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Japanese curry house Coco Ichibanya is opening in Melbourne at the end of the year and beloved Filipino fried chicken chain Jollibee has teased its Australian arrival for years.<\/p>\n
Snow King country \u2026 Mixue\u2019s store in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Photograph: Ellen Smith\/The GuardianCoco Ichibanya is bringing its Japanese curries to Melbourne at the end of the year. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Australia is the first foray into the international market for many of these brands, as Asia is nearby and there is an appetite for diverse cuisines here. \u201cAustralians like to think of ourselves as culinarily sophisticated,\u201d says Teresa Davis, associate professor of marketing at the University of Sydney. \u201cAustralia has always been a very broad church when it comes to cuisines and food in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Yee, co-owner of Sleepy Bloc cafe in Sydney, says the globalisation of Australia\u2019s food and beverage market has changed people\u2019s expectations of what fast food could taste like. See the \u201csnowing cheese\u201d \u2013 a sweet and savoury cheese flavour \u2013 from Korean fried chicken brand NeNe (which opened in Melbourne in 2015) or Molly Tea\u2019s pistachio jasmine coconut brewed tea. These are examples of menu items that \u201cexcite the palate, even if that means being divisive or slightly unconventional,\u201d says Yee. \u201cIt makes Sydney and Sydney\u2019s developing metropolises a more exciting place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Bombastic\u2019 packaging \u2026 Mixue\u2019s lemonade. Photograph: The Washington Post\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Their marketing and visual merchandising cuts through the extremely competitive<\/a> fast food market in Australia, says Davis. Bright, cheery and cutesy, their marketing is very much youth-oriented; Yee describes these chains\u2019 packaging as \u201cbombastic\u201d. Of NeNe\u2019s lurid yellow container, he says: \u201cYou don\u2019t even see the chicken \u2026 you just see the box.\u201d Plus their jolly mascots are hard to ignore: Mixue is home to a beaming snowman<\/a>, Marrybrown has Brownie the chipmunk<\/a> and Coco Ichibanya has a spoon-wielding cat<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anthropomorphic animals aside, these chains are also enticing customers with coveted merchandise, from millennial pink cooler bags<\/a> to magnets<\/a>, as well as jumpsuits for Labubus<\/a>. These trinkets are particularly appealing to gen Z who are swept up in a \u201clittle treat\u201d culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n This, coupled with a strong social media presence, puts these chains in the best position to grab the attention of the younger generation \u2013 after all, the largest demographic of people eating takeaway food in Australia is aged 15 to 24, according to IbisWorld.<\/p>\n The environment of these chains is \u201coptimised\u201d for younger customers with touch screens to order, QR code menus and modular and interactive seating, says Davis. They \u201cfoster\u201d young people in a way that is not particularly attractive to an older demographic.<\/p>\n China\u2019s Molly Tea is among the brands established in east Asia and south-east Asia that are finding favour in Australia. Photograph: Molly Tea Australia<\/p>\n These chains have also capitalised on changing consumer behaviour when it comes to dining out, says Davis. Instead of sitting down to eat our major meals, she says there is now a type of \u201cgrazing eating\u201d that goes on. \u201cPeople tend to eat in bits and pieces and at different times,\u201d says Davis, and fried chicken, skewers, bubble tea and soft-serve lend themselves to being eaten quickly.<\/p>\n The proliferation of Asian chains was not something Cindy Chen expected when she first moved to Australia five years ago from Tianjin, a city south-east of Beijing. She was worried that the only food options she would have available to her were \u201cfish and chips, burgers and steak\u201d, but was pleasantly surprised upon first touching down in Sydney.<\/p>\n Since then she has noticed more of the franchises she grew up with come to Australia, which fills her with a \u201csense of belonging\u201d. Now she\u2019s happy she doesn\u2019t have to go back to China just to have her favourite drink. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty good living in Sydney \u2026 you don\u2019t have to go overseas to have these different foods from different places.\u201d<\/p>\n