Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice Flagship Menu & Review📍Balestier Road 文东记鸡饭 ☎ 62543937

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The last time I ate at one of Boon Tong Kee's outlets was nearly twenty years ago. All these years, the famous chicken rice brand is always mentioned among Singapore's best.

Boon Tong Kee started in 1979, as a coffee shop stall known then as 键记 at Temple Street in Chinatown by Thian Boon Hua 华仔. It did very well and soon expanded into this huge restaurant at Balestier Road in 1983.

So, I was curious about Boon Tong Kee's large 43 old year flagship at Balestier Road. Finally got it ticked off my bucket list today.

We were here during the lunch peak. I like the vibes here though Boon Tong Kee has become a tourist hotspot. I can see the anticipation in the wide eyed tourists as they trooped in by bus loads.

Beside their claim to fame chicken rice, Boon Tong Kee has a wide range of zhi char 煮炒 dishes.

That's all we ordered for four of us - our main aim was to catch up with each other and eat famous chicken rice 😄

美味白切山芭鸡 Signature Boiled Kampong Chicken.

We just ordered a SGD$19 portion with four bowls of rice.

The chicken was done the Cantonese way - poached and cold bathed. Served with in large chunks with bone, there was a little visceral fat between the skin and meat.

The meat and yellow skin were smooth, tender but with a bit of chew to the bite i.e. not nua 淖 which is mushy soft in Hokkien Chinese. I like the soft tender slightly chewy texture of Boon Tong Kee's chicken.

The meat and skin tasted naturally chicky sweet with a bit of savoury dressing sauce.

The Hainanese style rice was good - mostly whole tender nutty grains, lightly greased with chicken fat and flavoured with garlic, ginger, pandan leaves, etc. Gently savoury sweet taste and smell.

Salty tangy zesty spicy chili sauce. Quite sharp sting. Nice.

If you like ginger sauce, remember to ask for it. It's a ginger puree, quite smooth, mild ginger heat balanced with a bit of saltiness. I even enjoyed it neat.

Kaki kaki like the ginger sauce over rice. I can see he enjoyed it very much.

The savoury sweet sauce (like kicap manis) is a defining feature in Singapore chicken rice, one of the ingredients that set it apart from Hainan island and Guangdong chicken rice. Popularised by the legendary Swee Kee, sadly many chicken rice stalls in Singapore no longer serve this savoury sweet sauce now.

No soup was served with the chicken rice (but Boon Tong Kee has a few soup dishes in its menu).

咸鱼蒸肉饼 Steamed pork with salted fish. An iconic, homely Cantonese staple.

Taste, quality of ingredients and technique were all on point. The fat and lean pork were hand chopped instead of grounded. Topped with a good size piece of salted fish, chilli pepper, scallion, parsley and finely julienned ginger.

Porcine sweetness in the tender steamed pork balanced with umami savouriness from the salted fish. Ginger, scallion, parsley and chili all contributed their flavours and textures.