Review of Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice · Golden Mile Food Centre · One of the Best in Singapore 大坡海南鸡饭 · 咖哩鸡面 |Tony Johor Kaki Travels for Food · Heritage · Culture

Da_Po_Hainanese_Chicken_Rice_Golden_Mile_大坡海南鸡饭_咖哩鸡面

You know....., in Singapore, Hainanese chicken rice stalls are ubiquitous - ~~most~~ every hawker centre will have 1, 2, 3, even up to 8 at Singapore's chicken rice central, Maxwell Food Centre.

Over here at Golden Mile Food Centre, there are only 5 nia nia 😄 😉 (nia nia is Singlish for "only".)

And, the other thing about Singapore Hainanese chicken rice is, the standard is high. It is rather hard to find outright poor quality from the among the literally thousand chicken rice stalls across the island.

Singapore hawkers have unlocked the secret of good Hainanese chicken rice 🔐

Stall name: Da Po Hainanese Chicken Rice & Curry Chicken Noodle 大坡海南鸡饭

Address: 505 Beach Road, stall #B1-53 Golden Mile Food Centre, 199583

Nearest MRT: Lavender station

Tel: 9848 9949

Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm (Mon off)

So, when buddy ordered half a chicken (price $15) for two of us to share during our kopi session, I was thinking to myself "Alamak, liddat I won't have any more calories to spare today for my own food explorations liao... 🤔 ".

The glistening layer of greasy brown sauce on the large pieces of succulent chicken was the first hint that this was no ordinarily good chicken rice. But, even then it seemed deja vu (seen before) at first sight - good chicken rice is everywhere in Singapore.

Then, I took a piece of chicken nonchalantly, halfheartedly. I was instantly blown away by how soft-tender, smooth, juicy and flavourfully savoury sweet the chicken was 😲 It was the perfect poached chicken. As it was made with free range chicken from Malaysia, the natural chicken sweetness was clearly discernible. The soft-tender meat also had a subtle chewiness to the bite which I like. (Yeah, we are still in the middle of the fresh broiler chicken export ban by Malaysia.)

I mean, after literally thousands of good and excellent chicken rice meals through more than half a century, it is hard to be blown away by chicken rice anymore 😬

via GIPHY

This one did. Boomz 💣

The dressing sauce of light soy sauce and sesame oil was savoury and aromatic at the moderate intensity level that I like.

There's the usual chili, ginger and dark soy sauce dips - all good though I didn't feel the need for these as the chicken was flavourful enough.

As we didn't have any carbs i.e. didn't order rice yesterday, I decided to jio some kakis and do a proper chicken rice tasting and review today 😄

Lunch for three of us. Price $21.50.

The rice was good (not great) - it's a mix of full and chipped grains. Done tender-nutty, the grains were loose and covered with a layer of gently savoury aromatic chicken stock and grease. I like it that the rice was neither wet nor overly greasy. It was perfect with the pieces of chicken.

Simple but proper, clean tasting, soul warming chicken soup 💪

If you have foreign guests visiting and you want to impress them with an example of excellent Singapore Hainanese chicken rice, you can consider Da Po at Golden Mile Food Centre.

PS 👉 Da Po is actually equally, if not more famous for their creamy rich curry chicken noodles. We had that too but the version sans chicken (just tau pok, potatoes, & fried pork skin) - it was great 💪 👍 😋 The curry was creamy, rich with hot spices robust enough to burn through the coconut milk sweetness. I shall cover that in detail in a separate post on its own (after I eat the full version with the chicken).

The other good chicken rice stalls that I've tried in Golden Mile Food Centre