Tiong Bahru Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice – Michelin Bib Gourmand List, Really?

We’re pretty sure you’ve heard of many good hawkers, whose standards deteriorated after they turned famous and became so overwhelmed with crowds.

Tiong Bahru Boneless Chicken Rice has recently been recognised in the Michelin Bib Gourmand List. Having been around for more than 30 years, the stall owner was once one of the chefs preparing chicken rice at Mandarin Hotel. Such great credential, that really sets the expectation!

We arrived around 11.30am on a Thursday to avoid the lunch crowd. There was already a queue forming so we joined the queue. Four uncles are handling the stall that particular day and one of them was in charge of taking orders. Upon reaching our turn, we placed our orders and merely asked a question “uncle, 你们早上几点开?” (Translate: what time do you open in the morning?) but before we finished our question, we were rudely cut off by him, “问问问, 看不到后面很多人排队啊?!” (Translate: Ask ask ask, can’t you see a long queue behind?)

Ok, that’s really rude.

Nevermind about the service, because they are probably busy after all. But sadly, our chicken rice didn’t quite live up to expectation. The thing about boneless chicken is that the hawkers tend to flatten the flesh with their cleaver after they debone the chicken. Forget about sinking your teeth into chunks of meat as the meat here is flat and dry. It’s not as succulent as many other good chicken rice stalls around Singapore, of which a couple of hawker names have already popped up in our heads.

If we ever return to patronize again, we would skip the normal white steamed chicken and just go straight for the roast chicken. Its fragrant skin saved the day. Furthermore, the rice lacks consistency and does not exude the usual chicken rice aroma. The chilli was a little watery.

That’s our personal experience after all. Some of you probably have had it better. But Tiong Bahru being such a heritage enclave, I am sure there will be better options than this?

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.