These 3 are my favourite Hainanese chicken rice in JB now. They are very close in overall quality, so I shall not rank them but these are the 3 in my top band. (Of course, taste is a very subjective and personal thing, so everyone will have different favourites.)
I have been looking for Halal Hainanese chicken rice in JB, and so was glad to be invited by Faizal, F & B Manager at Olla Restaurant in Hotel Granada to try their popular local dishes.
I passed by Yuen Kee 源记 chicken rice stall several times during past food hunts and noticed that it was always crowded during lunch. Every time, I was either too full or on my way to somewhere else, and so I have never tried 源记 till today.
Mr. Yong, the boss at Sam Kong restaurant, invited me to try their Guangxi Three Treasures 广西三宝.
I was really excited that Guangxi chicken rice is one of the Guangxi Three Treasures (the other two are Guangxi stuffed toufu and braised belly pork). Good chicken rice is not that common in Johor Bahru. Even more rare is Guangxi style chicken rice as most chicken rice here are either in the Hainanese or Cantonese style.
Guangxi Chicken Rice RM22 for half RM40 for whole bird.
When I was at Chang Man to try out their Hong Kong dim sum, besides being impressed with their dim sum, I also enjoyed their chicken and char siew rice. Today, I went back to Chang Man 常满 again, specially for their chicken and char siew rice.
Chang Man included chicken and char siew in their menu to appeal to a wider customer base. Furthermore, Kok Weng, one of the partners is skillful in roast meats as he had worked in one of Kuala Lumpur's top roast meat restaurants for nearly 20 years.
Swee Kee 瑞记 Hainanese chicken rice ruled the chicken rice world in Singapore for two generations from 1949 before closing in Feb 1997. The plan originally was to renovate and expand the old shop in Middle Road, Singapore which had become an icon for locals and tourists alike.
Meanwhile, the family and workers (including head chef 胡亚迫) returned to Senai in Johor where they came from. In Jun 1997, the relatives led by 莫泽安 set up New Swee Kee 新瑞记 with the blessings of the Moh (Po) family who (for unknown reasons) did not proceed with the plans to expand Swee Kee in Singapore.
We were on our way to KL for the Malaysia International Tourism Bloggers Conference and Awards or MITBCA. As always, we made it a point to stopover at a Johor town to hunt for food ;-) This time, we stopped at Muar.
I've a map in hand with a list of recommended food shops carefully marked out but somehow I fell back on my inefficient habit, but more fun way of just cruising around searching for food by instinct.
We got down from the car a couple of times to check out potential food finds but didn't stumble upon anything that really caught our fancy for more than an hour.
Then, we stopped at this chicken rice shop that looked like many others we've seen.
We were having late supper a few months ago at Kee Kim Huat kopitiam and one of us ordered a small plate of kampung chicken rice from the 旺角kampung chicken rice stall here. I immediately liked it as the chicken was tender, smooth and flavourful. I decided then that I would come back to try it again and write a post about it.
I often ask restaurant owners about what is their favourite eating places (other than their own :P ). So, when I asked a salt baked chicken restaurant owner this question, the first name he mentioned was 东肉骨茶馆 Restoran Tong Bak Kut Teh. And, the dishes to go for were chicken, steamed fish and bak kut teh, in that order.
(CLOSED - please share if you know where the stall have moved to.) We were looking for Yuen Fatt mooncakes in Kluang when we stumbled upon this queue of people waiting at the corner chicken rice stall, just across the street from the famous mooncake shop.
You know an eatery is special when local people uses it as reference point for surrounding places. In Skudai, property agents often use New Peking chicken rice 北京起骨海南鸡饭 as the reference point for properties for rent or sale. You often see advertisements that say "room for rent near new New Peking chicken rice".
My Johor kakis told me about how they love the chicken rice at Café Downtown in Hotel Tropical Inn. Being a chicken rice fan, of course, I am interested to check it out.
But the price tag of RM25++ made me think twice. RM25++ seems alot to pay for chicken rice in Johor Bahru where it can be had for under RM5 in many coffee shops.
I was walking pass Fong Yem coffee shop when I saw this fascinating scene. Whole, fresh, plump, juicy chickens deep fried to golden brown on the spot. I couldn't resist snapping away with my camera 😄
Seng Kee Chicken Rice 成記雞飯 (Skudai 皇后老店) | 2, Jalan Nakhoda 7, Taman Ungku Tun Aminah, 81300 Skudai, Johor ☎ +6018 243 8999 🕘 9:30am - 9:30pm
✍️10 Nov 2024. Seng Kee Chicken Rice at Taman Ungku Tun Aminah is likely the oldest chicken rice place in Johor Bahru. It's over thirty years in the business now.
