Qing Feng steamed bun chain restaurant has been popular among Beijing residents, especially students, because of its inexpensive local dishes. But it never expected more than 400 people to queue up outside its outlet to get a table and, surprisingly, order the same combo meal. The chain restaurant's 21-yuan ($3.46) combo meal has become the "President Xi Jinping combo" from Sunday, a day after the president visited one of its outlets in Xicheng district and enjoyed the dish.

Restaurants serving relatively healthy fast food with unique Chinese flavors have been drawing away many regulars from Western fast food outlets. Their unique selling point is local dishes at reasonable prices. No wonder, they have acquired a decent share in the fiercely competitive catering industry and domestic fast food chain restaurants such as Kungfu and Yonghe King seem ready to take on their more dominant Western rivals.

Although McDonald's has invested heavily in the Chinese market, its market share by value has been stagnating at 2.3 percent since 2007, according to figures from Euromonitor, a market-research company. The Chinese fast food market as a whole, however, grew from 263.89 billion yuan in 2008 to 617.33 billion yuan in 2012, and is expected to increase to more than 1 trillion yuan by 2017.

Frustrated by food safety scandals over the past few years, many Chinese consumers opted for Western fast food outlets in search of reliable and tasty alternatives. But a series of food scandals involving Western brands last year - for example, quick-growth chickens served by KFC and McDonald's - have shaken consumers' trust in the foreign brands as well. As a result, they are now questioning the quality and safety of the food served by Western fast food chains.

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