Foodie Spotlight | Imperial Chicken Chop

Chowking is one of the local Chinese-style fast food restaurants in the Philippines. It’s one of the affordable places to get your quick fix for lunch, snacks, and dinner. Jollibee Foods Corporation also owns it after acquiring the restaurant in 2000. It was founded in 1985 and to this day one of the go-to places for oriental cuisine with its unique style of Chinese and Filipino meals all rolled into one. With its continued growth like its company siblings like Greenwich (Pizza), Red Ribbon (Cakes & Pastries), and Jollibee it also has opened its stores outside the country including some locations in Jakarta, the Middle East, and San Diego USA to name a few places you’ll find a Chowking store. Their latest Chinese Style Rice Meals has recently introduced the Imperial Chicken Chop.

Chowking's latest dish the Chicken Chop, is essentially marinated breaded boneless chicken – preferably the ju1icy chicken quarter (thigh and drumstick) – fried to golden perfection, then drowned with their special sweet sauce. It is one of their latest offering to their diverse menu that everyone is talking about on social media.

But an in-depth look, just like any breaded chicken they just made it look “special,” where there’s nothing ‘imperial’ about the concept other than it is just another affordable rice meal offering from Chowking that you can easily forget that you might have it as being just a quick meal from the pan that they just ‘hype’ it like most new product that can be found in other convenience store or competing fast food stores.

Simple as a Chicken Chop

It’s a quant meal for a takeaway that is usually packed in a Chinese-style box with oriental decorations that Chowking has rebranded recently. Back in the day, their graphic art was lackluster to just being an immediate throwaway after you eat up the contents of the packing.

This side of the Chicken Chop appears underwhelming at the same time a takeaway is secured with half-a-white rice packed in wax paper while the Chicken Chop sits on a carton tray at the same time the sauce to put on top of it is on a plastic disposable container. With a simple less expensive way to secure the food that’s just right.

Choppin’ Less than the Advertised Hype

First off, the Chicken Chop with tiny slices of green onions looked like less than the image advertised and the rice was half of what they used to serve. It is underrated in presentation and you pay what you’re hoping for. It is good, but not good as an “imperial” value but rather a quick lunch that is forgettable with no substance other than to fill your tummy with just a good meal.

It is affordable nonetheless, and that’s what you are paying for and that is what you are getting from this quick meal to fill your lunch if you are on a tight budget. But not enough to keep you going throughout the day. As advertised, it appears to catch your attention but once you have it that’s all you have left. A quick good meal.

Overall, it gets everyone’s attention with the advertisement that makes you want to be curious and at the same time get the chance to experience what the TV commercial is showing. But at the end of the day, a budget meal is all that it can give, which is to fill your time when you are on a tight budget to spend more for this day and the ad makes it a quick look at how rice meals are produced nowadays.

• Food Quality: 3 out of 5
• Affordability: C
• Overall: You Get what you pay for and that's on a Budget.

Chowking's Imperial Chicken Chop (Solo) | Retailed at: ₱ 75.00 Pesos [$ 1.92 AUD | $ 1.28 USD]**

** - Currency Converter via Google.com