Lou Yau Kee — Restaurant in New York

I recently read an article on Eater NY about Lou Yau Kee. It is a new stall at Urban Space food hall owned by Raymond Kiang, the poached chicken master from Singapore aka the former consultant of Hainan Jones.

The Hainan Chicken Rice they serve exceeded my expectation. I would say it is so delicious that it’s comparable to the good ones in Singapore.

＊ Mixed Poached / Roasted Chicken Rice First, the chicken was chef’s kiss. The boneless poached chicken was simmered with a ginger garlic sauce, while the roasted chicken was grilled with a slightly crispy skin. Both were magically tender and silky.

There are three dipping sauce served on the side: ginger sauce, dark soy sauce and chili sauce. Ginger sauce basically matches everything without overpowering the meat flavor. Dark soy sauce has a thick body and is on the saltier side, but dipping a tiny bit of it makes the chicken extra flavorful.

I usually don’t eat much rice. Yet I almost finished all the rice in this lunchbox because it was aromatic and well seasoned with chicken oil.

Don’t sleep on the complimentary cabbage soup — the cabbage was boiled till tender and the soup was really flavorful.

*They have a $9.8 chicken rice deal...

Excellent and authentic Singapore style chicken rice! (yes, I have been to Singapore several times) Way better than Hainan Jones in midtown and much cheaper too. The poached chicken silky and flavorful - very hard to do to anything poached! The rice was sauced with ginger and soy perfectly. If that's not enough, they give you extra ginger sauce and that deep black soy sauce plus a few cucumber slices for some freshness. The yu choy (basically Chinese broccoli) came with classic oyster sauce and crispy garlic. Lastly (or should it have been first?), you get a side of broth. A full balanced meal of chicken, rice, veggies, and soup for $16. And if you go after 7pm on a weekday or after 5pm on the wknd, you get a second meal for half off - cheap date night of save it for leftovers. This is now my absolute fave placed for...

Got the inside track on Lou Yau Kee thanks to people I love being friends with the owner, and, well, let's just say they deserve every bit of hype they've gotten. It's sad so many people had to discover them through Eater, but better late than never, I guess.

Yes, the Poached Chicken is divine for all you Hainan chicken lovers, but the real star of the show is the silky, delectable Roasted Chicken, bursting with soy glory. The Lemon Chicken was crisp and tasty (though not my general cup of tea), while the piping hot Laksa was one of the best I've had (including from two trips to Malaysia). I might be slightly biased on these last two items though, as we got them for free, haha.

Oh and the red chili sauce is what I imagine God's chili sauce tastes...