Address: 527 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 S(560527), Cheng San Market & Food Centre
Operating Hours: Daily 9 am to 8 pm
Affordability: $$
Dear said I sort of became a chicken rice connoisseur as I’m always having it for lunch when I’m at work. My work requires me to travel around all the time, and lunch break usually will be a very quick meal due to a tight schedule. And chicken rice stalls typically have the shortest queue or they are quite fast to pack me a meal. That’s why it’s my go-to meal for lunch. I joked to her about starting a chicken rice review which I have put off because I can’t describe food well enough to influence people’s decision to order from the particular stalls that I’ve visited.
But here I am giving it a go with my first food review on this blog. Hopefully, I can describe it well enough like those food bloggers or journalists. Crossing my fingers that I am able to pull this food review off.
Ok, so my first food review would be Zhou Kee Hainanese Chicken & Roasted Rice. It is located at Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, Cheng San Market & Food Centre. It is at the first row directly facing the open space car park which is easy to locate if you’re unfamiliar with the area.
I had the chicken rice both dine-in and takeaway. And I would say, having it takeaway tastes much better. I thought I was the only one who thinks that way, but no. My mother-in-law thinks so too. Maybe wrapping up the chicken rice brings out the fragrance better? Hmm…
My dine-in experience was late at night after work for dinner. Was too hungry and decided to have a quick meal at the food centre. Dining in, you get a bowl of soup which is pretty much standard when ordering chicken rice. Though it was a one-time eat-in and it was a long time ago, I remembered that the rice wasn’t as fragrant and it was a little hard like it wasn’t fully cooked. The meat was dry and a little tough to chew on.
However, having it takeaway is another story. It’s much yummier in my opinion! Most people believe that the chicken rice that was packed in the brown paper is the most delicious chicken rice. And I would have to agree. The picture above was my recent order. Half a roasted chicken rice packed in a white styrofoam box, and a packet of rice packed in the legendary brown paper. The takeaway comes with a packet of sauce for the chicken, and a packet of chilli sauce.
The chicken was much juicier and flavourful. However, the sauce that was supposed to go with the chicken, I find it a little too salty for my taste buds though Dear seemed to find it OK. The rice was well cooked and had the chicken rice fragrant to it. Eat it with their chicken, the taste was heavenly.
Portion-wise, I think it’s reasonable for the price we paid considering the recent chicken price hike due to the chicken shortage in Malaysia and we had to find another source to import our chicken supply.
Overall opinion, recommended.