Hainan Second Street — Restaurant in Jurong East

Bottom line is that some dishes were good, albeit pricey.

Here's what we ordered and our comments:

Mutton Soup, upsized portion ($22). The soup had an intense herbal flavour, which my family enjoyed. The mutton was tender and not gamey. We ate every morsel of meat and drank the soup to the last drop. Taste 4.5/5, Value 3.75/5

Curry Chicken Chop ($10.70). Overall good, but not great. Taste 4/5, Value 3.5/5

Hainan Chicken Rice Bowl ($7.30). My wife ate this and kept commenting throughout the meal how flavourful the rice was. The chicken (breast) meat was very tender. My wife feels Boon Tiong Kee is one of the best chicken rice in Singapore, and says that Hainan Second Street's version is "even better than Boon Tiong Kee". As they say, happy wife = happy life. Taste 4.75/5, Value 4.25/5

Soya Sauce Mee ($8.60). I ordered this and regretted it. The sauce was very weak, and the noodle wasn't properly drained of water. So I had weak sauce that was further diluted by the very wet noodles, making the noodle bland and almost tasteless. A waste of my calories and money. Taste 2/5, Value 1.5/5.

Fermented Tofu Pork Belly ($9.30). Tasty. Impressive. Not oily. Not gamey. Taste 4.25/5, Value 3.75/5

Sambal Kang Kong ($10.80) - There was enough dried shrimps (hae bee) to make the dish flavourful, but it was far too oily for us. Taste 3/5, Value 2/5.

No service charge, but 9%...

Had a satisfying dinner here. Ordered quarter chicken, clay pot tofu with mushrooms, hainan chap chye and ngor hiang. Must say the chap chye is better, more flavorful than the chap chye served by the other restaurant at Westgate I visited last week. The ngor hiang is also good with filling that has nice texture and goes well with the chili that comes with it. The chicken has nothing to shout about though the portion can be a bit little. The Claypot tofu also tasted normal. But the chicken rice itself is fragrance. Will return for the hainan curry rice.

Was here for two and third visit. It was my second visit when I realized the stall had changed their ngor hiang recipe and it wasn’t as good as the first. My wife commented the coffee tasted sour. Fortunately, the chicken rice is still good.

Was here on my third visit on a weekend late afternoon. You can choose your table as many are not taken. Wife again complained on the sour coffee. Too much curry over the curry rice and all was one single taste - salty. The noodle, please skip this. It has the worst taste of any noodle I ever had.

Last, if you don’t find their chicken rice is good here. Then I don’t see a reason...

Precisely, chicken rice can't fail in SG and furthermore in a shopping mall right ? I was wrong. Arrived at 2pm on a weekday, only 3 tables occupied amongst the whole shop. Server asked if I would like an indoor or outdoor seat, I said indoor but apparently the person didn't hear and assigned me the outdoor. I went inside took a seat and got comfortable, then another server came 5mins later and told me that I had to sit outside as the order had been entered. Be reminded again, the place is almost empty, 1 table was occupied on the inside. Thou puzzled, I obliged and went outside to sit on the designated table. Waited 30mins for 1 plate of chicken rice to be served. 5 service staff and another 5 in the kitchen. Hanging on the display shelf was 2 whole white chicken and 2 roast chicken. I think all the staffs and chicken are only on display purpose. Food came, no fragrance on the rice, no ginger, portion is pathetic and worst of all, chilli is watery. If u can't do the chilli right, this whole chicken rice is meaningless. And furthermore, the rice had a very strong overwhelming spice that doesn't belong to the usual chicken rice rice... never going to...