I like the McDonald's analogy. And I DON'T like chain English mills such as EF.

If you eat in an independent restaurant, it MIGHT suck, but at least you also have some chance of getting a pretty good hamburger there.

If you eat at McDonald's, you can be pretty safe in the knowledge that your burger is going to suck.

As far as I've heard EF still offers the same inept local management, dodgy textbooks, low standards, and unpredictable treatment/environment it always has. I couldn't possibly ever recommend that anyone (at least anyone for whom I don't have a death wish) go to work there.

I would say the same things about all of the other chain English mills in China, with the possible exception of most Web International schools.