Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice

Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice is run by Natalie, an almost one-woman show who takes the orders, chops the chicken, and serves the diners in her chicken rice restaurant. There are several key components that make up a delicious plate of chicken rice and many boxes are ticked here. The rice is infused with the aromatics and spices, chilli sauce is made in-house and packs a fiery punch, garlic sauce helps to cut through the richness, and the poached kampung chicken has a firm and tender bite, which is actually my preferred kind of chicken for chicken rice.

Was still in Bali when we found out about the new Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice which had recently opened its doors at People’s Park Centre. Located at Level 1 of People’s Park Centre, it is worth noting that Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice takes up one of the shop units that are located around the exterior of the building rather than within the complex itself — the F&B options along the exterior of the building are mainly located at the back, facing the State Courts building; these includes the often-mentioned Breakthrough Cafe that can be said as a hidden gem. In fact, Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice is situated right beside Breakthrough Cafe, having taken over the former premises of the now-defunct Yakiniku Q-WA 居酒屋. Despite being a new name within the local F&B scene, Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice isn’t an establishment that is too unknown in the local F&B scene; there are newspaper clippings of Ah Five Hainanese Chicken Rice which can be found within the premises of Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice. Turns out, Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice is opened by one of the co-founders of Ah Five Hainanese Chicken Rice, which is in turn a stall that is run by children of the founder of Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice which has multiple outlets across the island. At Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice, the main focus would be on their Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice though they also do offer a variety of other dishes as well — this includes a Hainanese Soup Noodle, Shredded Chicken Porridge and a New-style Kampung Chicken Rice which is the only item listed in the “Special Menu” section. There are also multiple items that one can order from the menu at Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice that can be shared across the table, while beverages include quite a range of canned soft drinks, bottled drinks, as well as a small selection of refillable hot teas.

We had initially set our eyes upon their New-style Kampung Chicken Rice but we went for the Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice after we were told that the operations at Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice was pretty much a one-woman show — it would take quite some time for us to be served if we decided to go for the New-style Kampung Chicken Rice. The menu describes the Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice to be a “Singapore National Dish” and also a “Traditional Hainanese Comfort Food”, and features elements such as poached chicken drizzled with sesame oil and soy sauce, fragrant rice that had been infused with chicken broth, and comes with a house-made chili sauce, ginger jam and thick dark soy sauce on the side. It is well noted that there are two portion sizes when it comes to the Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice — there is the half portion priced at $5, and the full portion that comes at $10; the latter was the one which we opted for. The Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice from Cuisine Better Days Hainanese Chicken Rice is most certainly better than the average Hainanese chicken rice that is being served at a typical coffeeshop / hawker centre — starting with the chicken first, we liked how the chicken for our portion was served de-boned; certainly make for easier eating. The chicken skin was nothing short of being smooth and gelatinous, while the flesh itself was tender and juicy; the drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce provides just the right touch of savouriness and good flavour. The fragrant rice was also absolutely on-point; sufficiently moist and flavourful. Despite being folks who absolutely detest carbs, this was one which we required no effort to finish; the soup on the other hand was clear without being too greasy — very clean flavours with a dash of pepper to ante the flavours up a little. The lady did give us a little of a warning of their in-house chili sauce, rating it a level of spiciness of Level 3; we actually loved how its all zingy with quite their spicy kick that we were looking for — tickling the tastebuds for those whom are tolerable to moderate levels of spiciness. Overall, quite a good eat though the Traditional Kampung Chicken Rice is a little bit pricey at $10; nonetheless, we wish them all the best in what is to come!