Back in 1983, Andrew and Peggy Cherng opened the first Panda Express in a Glendale, California mall. At the time, Chinese chain restaurants in America were practically nonexistent — the vast majority of the country’s Chinese food came from independent, family-run spots. Four decades later, we’ve got everything from $8 food court trays to $50-a-plate fine dining chains serving Beijing duck with theatrical tableside flair. But more options hasn’t necessarily meant better options. Some of these chains are genuinely worth seeking out. Others? You’d honestly be better off microwaving leftover rice at home.
The absolute bottom
Let’s get the ugly stuff out of the way first. If you’ve ever wandered through a food court half-starved during a layover and spotted Asian Chao, keep walking. Multiple ranking lists place this chain dead last or close to it, and the customer reviews are brutal. We’re talking words like “disgusting” and “absolute worst Asian food I’ve ever had.” One recurring complaint: everything tastes either overwhelmingly salty or weirdly bland, which is a confusing combination to pull off but they manage it. The chain started in Orlando’s Florida Mall in 1991 and has since spread to airports and food courts in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Ohio. The prices don’t help either — airport markup on food that barely qualifies as mediocre.
Manchu Wok isn’t much better. This Canadian-born chain has been around since 1980 and operates a handful of U.S. locations, mostly in airports and malls. The menu looks fine on paper — Honey Garlic Chicken, Green Bean Beef, BBQ Pork — but the execution is consistently disappointing. Reviewers at the O’Hare airport location have complained about chicken that’s dry, hard, and leaves “a horrible aftertaste.” One person said they wished they’d just gone to McDonald’s instead. That’s not a good sign for any restaurant, let alone one that’s supposed to specialize in Chinese food.
The one small mercy with both of these chains is that they’re hard to stumble into by accident. They’re mostly tucked into food courts and airports, which means you’d really have to be out of options to end up at one. If you are stuck at an airport with nothing but an Asian Chao in sight, maybe just grab a granola bar from the newsstand.
Inconsistency kills
What makes ranking Chinese chains so tricky is how wildly the quality can swing from one location to another. Chowking is a perfect example. Founded in the Philippines in 1985, it expanded into the U.S. with locations in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Washington. The menu stands out because of its Filipino influence — you’ll find dim sum, popcorn chicken, and Halo-Halo (a shaved ice dessert) alongside more typical Chinese-American fare. At its best, people genuinely enjoy the food. At its worst, portions are tiny and the quality is barely passable.
Chinese Gourmet Express has a similar problem. The chain has locations on both coasts and across the South, and its orange chicken apparently has a small but dedicated fan following — one Reddit user went searching for a new location after their regular one closed. But reviews for a Salt Lake City location describe chicken that tastes like it’s gone bad. So you might get a perfectly decent plate of Americanized Chinese food, or you might get something that makes you question your life choices. It really depends on where you are.
That brings up another thing about chains generally: people assume “chain” means “consistent.” That’s the whole appeal, right? You go to a Chili’s in Tampa and it should taste roughly the same as the one in Boise. But with Chinese food chains, this just doesn’t hold up. Even well-known names like Pick Up Stix — which has over 50 locations in California and serves a beloved house special chicken made with white wine, garlic, and soy sauce — get wildly mixed reviews depending on the specific restaurant. The lesson here is obvious but worth saying: check the reviews for your exact location before you order.
Panda’s weird spot
Panda Express is the elephant in the room whenever anyone talks about Chinese chain restaurants. With over 2,000 locations worldwide, it’s by far the most recognizable name on this list. And here’s the thing — it’s fine. It’s totally fine. The orange chicken is legitimately tasty (roughly a third of all Panda Express customers order it, which is a staggering stat when you think about how many items are on that menu). The chow mein is reliable. You can watch the kitchen through the glass, which is a nice touch that most fast food spots don’t bother with.
But “fine” is where it stays. Nobody’s writing love letters about the honey walnut shrimp, which multiple reviewers have dinged for textural issues. And some items on the menu are genuinely just not good. The big selling point of Panda Express isn’t that it’s amazing — it’s that it’s everywhere and it’s predictable. If you’re on a road trip through the middle of nowhere and you see that red panda logo, you know exactly what you’re going to get. There’s real value in that, even if it’s never going to be anyone’s favorite meal.
Speaking of Panda Express, its former subsidiary Pei Wei is worth mentioning. The two split in 2017, and Pei Wei has quietly built up around 116 locations across the country. The menu is more adventurous than Panda’s — Mongolian green beans, chicken pad thai, mango habanero wings — and most entrees come in under $15. Reviews are generally positive, with the occasional soggy dish complaint. If you think of Panda Express as the McDonald’s of Chinese food, Pei Wei is maybe the Wendy’s. A step up in ambition, slightly less ubiquitous, and not always perfectly executed — but a solid choice when it’s nearby.
The overpriced trap
Mr. Chow is one of the strangest entries in the Chinese chain restaurant world. It started in London in 1968 and opened its legendary Beverly Hills location in 1974, quickly becoming a celebrity hotspot. The restaurants are gorgeous. The tableside service is theatrical. The hand-pulled noodles look incredible. Everything about the Mr. Chow experience screams “luxury dining.” And then you get the bill.
Most entrees at Mr. Chow run over $50, making it far and away the most expensive Chinese chain in the country. For that price, you’d expect transcendent food. But Yelp reviewers consistently say the experience doesn’t match the cost. Some customers have even accused the restaurant of misleading menu pricing. The chicken satay gets decent marks, and the Beijing duck has its fans, but the general consensus seems to be that you’re paying for the ambiance, the scene, and the opportunity to maybe sit near someone famous — not for the best Chinese food of your life.
Along the same lines, P.F. Chang’s occupies an awkward middle ground. It’s seen as one of the country’s more “upscale” Chinese chains, with over 300 locations in more than 20 countries. The lettuce wraps are iconic. The crab wontons have their devotees. But let’s be real — P.F. Chang’s is the kind of place where you spend $18 on kung pao chicken and then think about how your local family-run Chinese spot does it better for $11. It’s not bad. It’s perfectly pleasant sit-down dining. But the reputation sometimes outpaces the reality, and you’re frequently paying a premium for the brand name and the interior design more than the actual food on your plate.
Regional gems most people miss
Here’s where things get genuinely interesting. Some of the best Chinese chain restaurants in America are ones most people have never heard of, because they only exist in a handful of locations in specific parts of the country. Take Din Tai Fung, for instance. The Taiwanese chain opened in 1958 and has about a dozen U.S. locations, mostly on the West Coast. The presentation alone is enough to make you pause — everything looks like it belongs in a food magazine. Their soup dumplings (xiao long bao) are legendary, and the Kurobuta Pork Buns are worth a special trip. This is not your average takeout spot.
Then there’s Xi’an Famous Foods, which is a New York City institution with 14 locations across Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Run by a father-and-son team, the chain specializes in recipes from China’s Xi’an province. The spicy cumin lamb noodles are the signature dish, and the late Anthony Bourdain once praised their spicy lamb burger as hitting him “right in the pleasure zone.” If you’re in New York and you eat at a Panda Express instead of Xi’an Famous Foods, I honestly don’t know what to tell you.
MingHin Cuisine in Chicago deserves a mention too. It’s won the Michelin Bib Gourmand award five times, which is the kind of recognition that most chain restaurants can only dream about. Their dim sum — steamed shrimp dumplings, barbecue pork buns, siu mai — is consistently excellent. And in Massachusetts, Dumpling Daughter has built a devoted following across its three locations, drawing on the family legacy of Sally Ling’s, which was Boston’s first high-end Chinese restaurant. The pan-seared pork and napa cabbage dumplings there are, by multiple accounts, outstanding.
What actually matters
So after looking at rankings from multiple sources and hundreds of customer reviews, a pattern emerges that’s almost too simple. The chains that rank highest tend to be the ones that stayed small and regional. Din Tai Fung didn’t try to put a location in every strip mall in America. Xi’an Famous Foods kept its focus on New York. MingHin stayed in Chicago. Leeann Chin, for all its faults — longtime fans say the quality has dropped over the years — at least stayed rooted in the Midwest where it started. These places didn’t sacrifice quality for scale, and it shows.
The chains at the bottom of every list, meanwhile, share a common trait: they’re almost always found in food courts and airports. Asian Chao, Manchu Wok, City Wok (yes, there’s a real chain called City Wok, and no, it has nothing to do with South Park — the restaurant opened in California in 1990, seven years before the show ever aired) — these are places that rely on captive audiences. You eat there because you’re stuck in Terminal B with a two-hour layover, not because you chose to. That business model doesn’t exactly incentivize excellence.
The practical takeaway is pretty straightforward. If you want good Chinese chain food, look for the regional names — the ones your friends in that city actually recommend. If all you’ve got is a Panda Express, it’ll do the job. And if you see an Asian Chao or a Manchu Wok? Just keep walking. There are more than 45,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States — more than Subway, McDonald’s, and Burger King combined. You’ve got options. Use them.
