Feng Sheng Hainanese Chicken Rice 豐盛海南鸡饭 (Shenton House)

There always seem to be a change ongoing around the Shenton Food Hall food court situated within Shenton House — it has been seeing stalls come and go within a span of months; it does seem that they had recently lost tenants such as that of The Saigon and a stall serving up Ayam Penyet have pretty much disappeared from the food hall as soon as they had sprouted out. Taking over the stall formerly tenanted by King of Chicken Rice is yet another stall that serves up Hainanese Chicken Rice — this stall being 豐盛 Feng Sheng Famous Dover Market Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat. It does seem like the stall is run by the next-generation owners behind Feng Sheng Hainanese Chicken Rice which used to be located at Dover Market & Food Centre until the estate has been demolished — the owners back then have since retired with the closure of the stall. 豐盛 Feng Sheng Famous Dover Market Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat does seem to be on a roll in its plans for expansion; the opening of the Shenton Food Hall outlet comes shortly after the opening of their main branch at 4 Short Street in the Selegie Road area (it takes over the former premises of the now-defunct Density Frozen Custard) — the Short Street location being an independently-run restaurant-style establishment, which differs from that of the Shenton Food Hall outpost. Considering so, the Shenton Food Hall location carries a more limited menu of only chicken rice dishes — this includes the likes of the steamed and roasted chicken rice, as well as the Lemon Chicken Cutlet Rice. The Shenton Food Hall location of 豐盛 Feng Sheng Famous Dover Market Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat also serves up side dishes; think the likes of oyster sauce vegetables, sesame oil bean sprouts and braised eggs amongst many others.

We actually were pretty clear-headed in wanting to give their steamed chicken offerings a go — but this was until we had seen their chicken cutlet hanging behind the transparent shield segregating the stall’s food preparation from the counter; one look at their fried chicken cutlet and we were rather intrigued by how it does seem to be battered and fried in-house. After all, it does seem like stalls that serve up good renditions of Lemon Chicken Cutlet Rice are starting to become quite a rare find. It is noted that the Lemon Chicken Cutlet Rice does come with Nyonya Achar on the side; patrons can choose to opt for or opt out of the addition of Nyonya Achar as they wish, though the addition of braised egg would be a chargeable item. The Lemon Chicken Cutlet Rice looks quite as simple as it sounds otherwise; just rice that is served with fried chicken cutlet that is drizzled with lemon sauce atop.

Digging into the rice here, the flavoured rice is one that is to die for; we really loved how the rice is utterly flavourful here having absorbed all of that gingery notes and chicken broth that it seems to have been simmered with — the rice is also sufficiently moist without being greasy, and isn’t the sort where a sauce is just drizzled over just to provide for the flavour. In fact, probably one of the more impressive variants of the flavoured rice that typically comes with Hainanese chicken rice that tastes especially old-school. The fried chicken cutlet was also on-point; there are variants where we had tried where the fried batter is a little tough or thick but this came at the appropriate thickness and came all crisp without being greasy — just about right for one to get to the flesh beneath. The chicken meat itself was also juicy, soft and tender — all that whilst being drenched in a lemon sauce that provided a sweet; zingy note. The Nyonya Achar isn’t particularly spicy here — we are also glad that they have excluded the use of peanuts in their rendition, keeping those with allergies to peanuts in mind. Meanwhile, we did find their chili sauce to be a little bit on the salty side; seemingly heavy-handed especially when had with the rice — would prefer it to be a little brighter and slightly more zingy with more prominent notes of Calamansi , while carrying a spicy kick to tickle the tastebuds. All in all though, we did feel that the offerings at 豐盛 Feng Sheng Famous Dover Market Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat is definitely leaps and bounds better than King of Chicken Rice that came before it — with prices of their Hainanese Chicken Rice dishes (inclusive of the Lemon Chicken Cutlet Rice) ranging from $5 to $7, 豐盛 Feng Sheng Famous Dover Market Hainanese Chicken Rice & Steamboat is probably one of those stalls where one would likely be finding us have lunch from at Shenton Food Hall pretty regularly!