Anyone unfamiliar with Saugus might consider a little place like this an unlikely spot to construct a giant copy of Beijing's Imperial Palace where 1,500 people can eat Chinese food, some of it kosher.

But the opening of Weylu's, one of the largest Asian restaurants in the country, amid the liquor stores and muffler shops on Route 1 comes as no surprise to people who know the Boston area. The section, about nine miles north of downtown Boston, is known locally as a kind of highway version of Restaurant Row on West 46th Street in Manhattan.

The customers wait in line for hours to be served, or make reservations weeks in advance. Unlike Manhattan restaurants, the ones here serve thousands of meals a day and have parking lots larger than some city blocks. And Weylu's, which opened April 10, is the largest of them all.

''From Day 1, we have had waiting lines from noon until closing,'' said Rick Chang, the owner of the restaurant and several others by the same name in the Boston region.