History of Sin Kee Chicken Rice from Chinatown Street Stall to Bib Gourmand Singapore Michelin Guide

Sin Kee Famous Cantonese Chicken Rice at Blk 40, Holland Drive has just been named one of 50 Bib Gourmand winners in the Singapore Michelin Guide 2018. This latest accolade will surely expand Sin Kee's already huge fan base to include more tourists.

MOVED Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice at Compass One. Sengkang MRT 正新記.馳名雞飯

Hi, fans and friends of Uncle Niven of Margaret Drive Sin Kee Chicken Rice fame, your favourite chicken rice is now in Compass One mall at Sengkang MRT station.

Uncle Chicken Rice. Niven the Unflappable Comeback Kid (Last Sighting @ Simpang Bedok / Compass One)

Visited Uncle Chicken Rice at Bedok Market Place today. Uncle Chicken Rice is ceasing operations at Bedok Market Place on 30 Apr 2016, and will resume business when Uncle Niven finds a new location. We quickly dropped by today as we don't know when is the next time we can taste Uncle's chicken rice again.

Observing how Uncle Niven prepares chicken rice, I picked up some tips which I can use at home 😄

Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice @ Ubi DMQ Eating House (formerly Uncle Chicken Rice @ Margaret Drive / Bedok Market Place)

Update 23 Oct 2020. I have been eating Sin Kee's famous chicken rice at Margaret Drive since the 1980s. I used to work and live nearby back then. Since Margaret Drive hawker centre was demolished, I followed them at different places through the years. Now, Niven Leong, son of Sin Kee's founder is at Ubi DMQ Eating House near Ubi MRT station.

Where is Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Formerly Margaret Drive) by Niven? Now @ Mei Ling Market & Food Centre 正新记驻名鸡饭

Follow this man Niven Leong, one of the scions of legendary Sin Kee Chicken Rice of the old Margaret Drive hawker centre (demolished). The name of his stall and the address may change occasionally, but as long as it is by this man Niven Leong, you will get what you are craving for in chicken rice.

Remember the man, not so much the name of the stall nor the address as you will be confused 😓

I have been updating his whereabouts so often that Google penalises me for "duplicate content" 🙄 So, I am just going to update this single post - the ultimate Niven Leong sightings tracker - to save myself 😄

At the moment, Niven is at Mei Ling Market & Food Centre. The least of your worries is his chicken, Niven always keeps up his standards at top level.

I think Niven caught me playing with my camera's zoom lens

Stall name: 正 Since 1971 新记 Famous Chicken Rice 驻名鸡饭

Address: Mei Ling Market & Food Centre level 2

Nearest MRT: 10 minute walk from Queenstown station

Hours: 10am - 2pm

Updated by Tony Boey on 2 Aug 2025

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Heritage Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Formerly Margaret Drive) by Uncle Niven @ Sims Vista Market & Food Centre 新记

Stall name: Heritage Sin Kee Chicken Rice

Address: 49 Sims Place, stall #01-39 Sims Vista Market & Food Centre, Singapore 380049

Nearest MRT: 10 minutes walk from Aljunid station

Hours: 11am - 3pm (Mon off)

Updated by Tony Boey on 8 Mar 2025

Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Margaret Drive) @ Recess Time Food Court in Ubi Ave 4

✍ 9 Sep 2024. Such a fat bird 🤭

Sin Kee Chicken Rice by Niven Leung is back. Actually since June 2024, but I let the media frenzy settle before adding my voice 😊 Yeah...., so many of Sin Kee's fans have been waiting in great anticipation for Niven to reopen 重出江湖.

Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Margaret Drive) by Niven is now at Recess Time food court in Ubi Ave 4. Somewhat inaccessible by public transport (15 minutes walk from Ubi MRT station) but it is a comfortable, spacious, air conditioned food court once you get here 🤭

Been here twice so far. Many more times to come. 

Familiar big chunky pieces of Cantonese style poached and water soaked chicken drizzled with a savoury aromatic oil and sauce blend. 

Tender, smooth, succulent, with a bit of natural fresh chicken taste complemented by the savoury aromatic oil sauce blend. 

Tender nutty rice enveloped with layers of savoury flavours from chicken stock and fried aromatics such as garlic, ginger and lemongrass. 

So good, Aaron couldn't resist buying boxes home. 

Chicken and chicken rice with a bit of savoury dark sauce, comforting familiar flavours. 

The ginger, scallion and scathing oil relish of Cantonese style chicken rice. For many people, Niven trumps other chicken rice places with this gently spicy aromatic trump card. 

Niven now has steamed minced pork with salted fish and julienned ginger, a comfort dish which Cantonese families regularly have at home. 

Niven uses the preferred fermented mui heong 梅香 salted fish which has a milder, more layered gentler smoother umami savoury salty flavour which complements the natural sweetness of pork well. 

Fancy Japanese style onsen tamago egg with runny yolk 🤭

Blanched bean sprouts drizzled with a savoury sauce and crisp lardons. 

Delicious, savoury, viscous full bodied chicken soup. Sin Kee Chicken Rice traditionally doesn't serve soup since their Margaret Drive days. I remember having to buy dumpling soup from their neighbour stall aunty. 

Now, Niven serves soup at a token additional price. 

If you are a fan of Sin Kee Chicken Rice, you would have known Niven's return and done this by now 🤭

For the rest, this is one of the oldest Singapore chicken rice names still available and thriving thanks to second generation Niven Leung. 

For your information, Niven's brother Benson runs another stall known as Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice now located at Holland Drive. 

Nice old school chicken rice plus good side dishes, comfortable environment, see you at Recess Time! food court in Ubi.

Stall name: Sin Kee Chicken Rice (Margaret Drive)

Address: 152 Ubi Ave 4, #01-01, Singapore 408826 (food stall inside Recess Time food court)

Nearest MRT: 15 minutes walk from Ubi station

Tel: 8070 5986

Hours: 11am - 3pm (Sun off)

Read more 👉

History of Sin Kee Chicken Rice from the time of Niven's dad in Singapore Chinatown Smith Street 👈 click

Sin Kee Chicken Rice when it was at Ubi DMQ and at Bedok Marketplace 👈 click

Sin Kee Chicken Rice when it was in Compass One 👈 click

Uncle Chicken Rice. Niven the Unflappable Comeback Kid (Last Sighting @ Simpang Bedok / Compass One) 👈 click

Niven's brother Benson's stall at Holland Drive 👈 click

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Written by Tony Boey on 9 Sep 2024

Uncle Chicken Rice in Alexandra Village Food Centre 

✍ 2 May 2014. We tried 3 different Hainanese chicken rice stalls in a row in the Red Hill / Bukit Merah area during one of our Singapore food trails. 

Uncle Chicken Rice in Alexandra Village Food Centre stood out as one of the better chicken rice that I've tasted in Singapore. Personally, I prefer Uncle Chicken Rice to Singapore's most famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice. 

Niven, the boss of Uncle Chicken is the son of the owner of the famous original Sin Kee 新记 chicken rice of Margaret Drive. My friends and I ate at the old Sin Kee many times for lunch and dinner when I was living in the (now demolished) Tanglin Officers' Mess, in the 1980s.

Uncle Chicken is served chunky with skin and bone on, showered with a blended sauce of light soy and sesame oil. The chicken was cooked to the bone, yet it was tender, velvety and juicy.

I liked it that the light sauce (which some find a little on the salty side) was drizzled sparingly on the chicken with most of the sauce at the side of the plate rather than smothering the chicken.

This gave me the chance to savour the natural flavours 鸡味 of the tender juicy chicken without the interference of the sauce. Or, I can also dab the chicken with the sauce, if I wish to.

Niven brought us this plate of chicken breast for us to try. Being more fibrous and free of fat and skin, chicken breast is the hardest part of the chicken to render smooth, tender and juicy. 

We might say, a good chicken breast is the litmus test of the quality of a chicken rice stall.

Uncle Chicken's breast meat was tender, moist and had a nice, gentle chicken flavour.

Just like one cannot appreciate premium wine or specialty coffee by gulping it down, Uncle Chicken's chicken requires us to slow down a little to enjoy the gentle chicken flavours 鸡味.

The rice was tender and fluffy. Just a slight dull sheen of oil on the long Jasmine grains. The steamy rice had a nice chicken aroma as the water used to poach the chicken was used to boil the rice.

Uncle Chicken's blended chili sauce is not for the meek palate. It has good body like a watery paste and a sharp spicy sting with a zesty tangy twist from squeezed lime.

Uncle Chicken's ginger dip sets it apart from the run of the mill Singapore chicken rice stall. The dip is made with roughly blended fresh ginger mash mixed with chopped scallions. Uncle Chicken's ginger dip has none of the watery base found at average chicken rice stalls.

Uncle Chicken does not serve soup. It's a tradition from his father's time, according to Niven. Would have been perfect, if there is soup :P

Restaurant name: Uncle Chicken
Address:  01-74, Alexandra Village Food Centre, Blk 120, Bukit Merah Lane 1, Singapore
GPS: 1.285061,103.803505
Hours: 11:30am to 8:00pm (Closed on Monday)

Restaurant name: Uncle Chicken Rice <- click
Address: Bedok Market Place, 348 Simpang Bedok, Singapore S469560 
GPS: 1.331136, 103.948501 
Hours: 12:00 noon to 8:00pm (closed on Monday) 

Update Jul 2020: Uncle Chicken is now here

Restaurant name: Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice
Address: #01-95 Block 304 Ubi Avenue 1 Singapore 400304
Hours: 11:00am to 8:00pm

Non Halal

Date visited: 17 Apr 2014

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