This may be an extreme broad statement, but in my experience, Chow King, a fast food chain in the Philippines, is the WORST fast food chain in the world!
It is totally ghetto, disgusting, and a ripoff at the same time. Yet it has the gall to call itself "Chinese fast food"! What an insult to Chinese food everywhere! Not a single Chinese person in the world who grew up in a Chinese country would consider Chow King to be Chinese food at all. They would be insulted to find that Filipinos call it Chinese food. Hypothetically, if you were to open a Chow King in Hong Kong for instance, people would wreck the place in one day, cause the shitty Filipino food they serve there masquerading as "Chinese food" would be a terrible insult to real Chinese cooking and everyone in Hong Kong!
Only Filipinos with the lowest standards like Chow King. The more a Filipino travels though, the less he/she likes Chow King, eventually seeing it as unedible food.
The portions are SUPER small, and the meat and vegetables in the noodle dishes are so puny that they are almost nonexistent. It's as if they were trying to look as stingy as possible. Don't the people behind this franchise have any shame or pride? Sheesh. Even though the prices are low, the food is not even worth eating for free, so in that sense, it is a ripoff in that they actually have the gall to sell unedible food.
The ingredients they use in their food are not only cheap. Some taste like they are not even edible and never passed any kind of safety standard. Ick.
They also cheat with low class scum tactics. For instance, one time my girlfriend ordered a fish tofu plate there. It turned out to be 90 percent fried batter with 10 percent real fish in it, if at all! Thus, a national fast food chain in the Philippines was using the tactics of a low level street scum! LOL WTF?! Only in the Philippines I guess. Sheesh. These producers behind Chow King must have zero pride, honor or class.
Furthermore, the portions get smaller every year it seems. This was confirmed to me by a Chow King assistant manager in Angeles City. He admitted that the Nai Cha I ordered used to be 14 oz, but was now 12 oz. So somehow, Chow King decided to make their portions even smaller than they already were. lol
In spite of all that, Chow King is everywhere in the Philippines, like it's the most popular food, and is always crowded, as you can see below. Go figure.
As usual, nothing makes sense in the Philippines. Logic works backwards. The more a place sucks, the more Filipinos will frequent it. The rule of thumb in America that "crowded restaurants and food joints are a strong indication of good food" does NOT apply at all in the Philippines, but works in the reverse - the more crowded a place is in the Philippines, the more likely it sucks. Chow King exemplifies that to a T. Logic simply does not exist in the Philippines. Chow King is perhaps the quintessential example of reverse logic in the Philippines. The place should not exist, but it does, and it seems to be thriving, even though it's the worst quality fast food in the world. Perhaps that says just as much about its customers, as it does about its producers.
What I was told on PinoyExchange Forums is that the reason why Filipinos do not care about taste and quality in food is because they are primarily concerned with NOT being hungry, so they will enjoy any cheap food with no nutrition, such as instant canton, as long as it fills them up and keeps them from being hungry. That's why they don't care about taste, quality or nutrition. Pretty sad isn't it?
But take a look at what happened when Chow King tried to open a branch in the USA. Everyone gave it very low reviews.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/chow-king-carson
