For more food reviews, visit www.umakemehungry.com

Chicken Rice Lovers should be very familar with Boon Tong Kee. They started from a small stall in Chinatown since 1979 serving Cantonese Style Chicken Rice. With much emphasis on quality service, founder Mr Thian Boon Hua and his family established their first restaurant in Balestier Road during 1983.

With good comments through media and words of mouths, business soared and following, Boon Tong Kee slowly opened a few outlets. Keeping up with changes and competitions,their business has also been diversified in such a way that they are also selling Cze Char Food items instead of solely chicken rice.Having enjoyed their delectable chicken rice from branches like Balestier and East Coast Road, Boon Tong Kee had left me a good impression ever since my first visit.

With guests coming from aboard, we think that the best and simplest food to introduce is none other than our Chicken Rice.

This was my first visit to Cheong Chin Nam branch and it caught me by surprise with their utensils (Fork & Spoon) nicely wrapped in the green sheet of paper.Knowing that we were rushing for time, the lady who served us had handled the situation well in a polite manner. Service was prompt and courteous too.Drinks were served prompting and quenching the thirst during a hot day while waiting for the arrival of our lunch.Chicken Rice was fragrant and served in a pyramid shape. Its fluffiness and the well controlled use of oil was something to look upon as you won't have a greasy feel after consumption. In fact, the rice was so good that I can actually finish them without any side dishes.With so much raved about their Boiled Chicken, you should never miss this signature dish. Meat was fork tender, gentle on the teeth. It was lightly drench with light soy sauce and was not greasy.Sweet & Sour Pork was the hit on the table! Pork was deep fried and coated with sweet & sour sauce. Even though it was coated with sauce, the style of the dish retained the crunchiness and crispiness of the food. Texture was extraordinary and in my opinion better than the jelly type ones we had in Hawkers. What's more, each piece of the cube really contains meat and not solely fats.Egg Plant was not bad either. They were cut into bite size pieces and deep fried. The softness of the egg plant was something we looked out for. Along with the sweet sauce spread on top of the dish and sprinkled with the yummy minced pork meat floss, there was nothing more we could expect.With 4 pieces of prawns, it might sound way expensive but hold on first before you decided to skip this dish away. Prawns used here was generally bigger perhaps one of the reasons why it costs more. Not mentioning that the experience with the dish was pleasant and most importantly we were very happy about the freshness of the prawns and the uniqueness of the cereals used.While most of us were expecting the dry fragrant and crispy flakes loaded onto the fleshy prawns, this dish gave its name a change with its impressive soft and fluffy cereals among the few curry leaves that touched up the overall taste! So if you have the budget, do not miss this out!Overall, Boon Tong Kee not only have delicious poached chicken that is popular among the diners but also a range of delectable Cze Char Dishes that are remarkable. The place is recommended for family dining and even for guests from aboard.

[Boon Tong Kee Chicken Rice]
18 Cheong Chin Nam Road
Singapore 599742
Many chicken rice stalls have been popping up each year and finding one was really convenient. Despite so, bigger players like Boon Tong Kee, Tian Tian, Five Star are still coping well.
I was travelling along the stretch of food street along Cheong Chin Nam road the other day, looking for dinner and decides to step into Boon Tong Kee (BTK). The last time I patronized them should be 3 years ago. I was seated indoors at the aircon area as alfresco area was too warm. Servers were going around tables with plates of honey char siew slices, asking customers if they willing to purchase them as appetizers or not. This move makes BTK look abit hard up. We didn't take it but ordered the following dishes instead.
(1) Signature Boiled Chicken $9- This is a 2-pax portion of Boon Tong Kee signature chicken. My preferred part is always the thigh area (鸡尾) as the meat is more tender therefore I requested for it as usual. I remembered BTK chicken used to have a layer of jelly fats beneath the skin but sadly it doesn't exist anymore. The meat is still soft and tender but lack juiciness. The chilli mixed mashed ginger was great companions to pair with as it brings up more flavours to the chicken.
(2) Plain rice/ Chicken rice $1- Chicken rice (油饭) was served in a pyramid-shaped cone. Presentation scores! Rice was really fragrance and texture was just right, not too soft or mushy. I can take 2 shares of this
(3) Claypot Fried Pig Liver (砂锅猪肝) $12- The pot came sizzling with very fragrant soya sauce and ginger smell, made me drool before I even start eating it. Liver slices were thick and yet so tender. Timing was right and liver not over-cooked otherwise will be very hard and rubbery. Take with the ginger to spice up your palate.
(4) Poached Chinese Spinach with Assorted Eggs $10- 三蛋苋菜 I tried many. BTK version was quite generous for small portion. Broth was sweet and filled with natural veggie taste of chinese spinach. Stems not crunchy due to slight over-cooked but overall dish still decent. The generous amount of eggs also made this ordinary greenie dish pretty!
Verdict: Although BTK Signature chicken wasn't as tasty as it used to be but still decent. I felt that their cze char dishes flared better now and is definitely suitable for family dinner/ friends gathering. I don't mind coming back for other cze char dishes. Staff service needs improvement as they talked rudely and wasn't attentive despite not much dinner crowd.

We went to the Bukit Timah Outlet on a Friday evening, the queue was short (probably because of the rainy weather) and we were promptly seated within 2mins.

You could choose to be seated in the air-conditioned area or the open-air area.

The waitress was very polite and friendly, and even offered advice on their signature dishes and serving portions.
When we ordered their signature dish, the Hainanese Chicken, she even asked which part of the chicken we would like to have.

We just ordered Hainanese Chicken for 2 and the cereal prawns.

Waiting time for food was around 10-15mins, which is pretty slow considering the small crowd.

Food was great though! The chicken was very fresh and the meat was tender and juicy, and very fragrant with just the right amount of oil. The cereal prawns were very big in size! it came in like 4 servings and was really delicious! The cereal was unique, I believe they added in chicken or pork floss.

Overall, a great place to have family dinners and friend gatherings but not so much for couples who are looking for romantic ambience.

Well, its another dinner time with my family, and we chose to eat chicken porridge. I think the porridge is the best porridge I had ever eaten as the rice is not too hard as its really porridge type, and it tastes really good because they added some seasonings to the porridge. I think that by adding a little seasoning is not healthy but i think its worth to eat such tasty stuff. It comes with some soy sauce and onions for the toppings, and I think if you love pepper, add some to it, it will make it taste a lot better. It is $0.80 for the porridge, and it is quite a small bowl for me though. The chicken. Its $9 for the whole chicken, its steam cooked, and they added some soy sauce as the toppings too. I think the chicken is quite tasty, but its sad that it tastes a little soggy at the breast. I only ate the Breast and the drum, because that is the only part i dared to eat. Not bad though, $9 for the whole chicken and its tasty too! If you love to eat chilly, i strongly recommend you to add the chicken meat to chicken rice's chilly because it just suits too well. For the Bean Curd, It is actually a deep fried bean curd, $6.80 for nine of them, and some special sauce which I had no idea what it was made of, it is like wasabi, mayonnaise, but it does not taste spicy, The Bean curd can scald your mouth if you eat it too quickly because it is very hot inside. Anyway, I think that the Bean Curd isn't really one of my recommendation, but it still tastes good when we dip it to the so what called special sauce. Overall, I think that this restaurant isn't a bad choice for your family dinner, or lunch.

Strongly recommend this place to all the chicken rice lovers. The food is simply delicious! Though the salted/ century egg with vegetable ( as shown in picture) is not one of the restaurant recommended dishes, it tastes good as well. However, do note that this place has no aircon and is charging service charge and gst (unlike the usual coffee shops in which there is no service charge and gst). In addition, you will also have to pay for the appetizers (which is served to you without you having to order) if you do not tell the waitress that you do not want them.