Hello! 鸡排

Was going about having lunch at Chinatown Complex Food Centre when we chanced upon a rather unfamiliar stall within the red zone of the hawker centre. Taking over the former stall that used to house the now-defunct Not Your Grandpa's Grill is Hello! 鸡排; yet another stall that seems to be focused in serving up western cuisine just like the very stall it replaces. For those whom are familiar with the hawker centre, these folks are actually situated right beside Xing Long Food Stall 兴隆菜社, which is also the same row of stalls where one can find Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap 金记潮州卤鸭. Hello! 鸡排 should be relatively easy to spot with its signage that sports a white background and funky text in black and orange colours. Serving up old-school western food, the menu at Hello! 鸡排 is split into sections dedicated to Chicken, Fish, Pork, Sides and Bites, with the dishes served here being rather familiar such as that of the Chicken Chop, Fish & Chips and Pork Cutlet — just to name a few.

Going for our usual dish that we will go for when visiting old-school western cuisine stalls, it is noted that the Chicken Chop here does come in two different sauce options — one with Black Pepper Sauce, and the other with a Mushroom sauce; we opted for the latter. Patrons also can choose between two (2) different sides for their order of any individually-sized mains; either Baked Beans and Coleslaw — again, we opted for the latter. It can be observed that the Grilled Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce from Hello! 鸡排 does come with other elements such as shoestring fries, as well as the bun on the side — much like what one would expect from old-school western cuisine stalls situated in neighbourhoods. When it came to the Chicken Chop itself, we felt that the grilled chicken is the star of the show. Here, the grilled chicken is indeed done to the way we like how our chicken chop to be — the chicken chop here is adequately brined and comes with skin-on; the skin being crisp and carried a smoky note, with the chicken being juicy and tender. Drenched in mushroom sauce, the mushroom sauce comes in an almost transparent aesthetic with a slightly brown hue; does come adequately thick though much of the mushroom flavour did seem to come from the sautéed button mushrooms that was topped off the chicken chop — the mushrooms also adding a bit of a bouncy texture as well. The shoestring fries were well-fried to a golden-brown colour; the exterior being crisp while it is not greasy nor reeked of any undesirable stench of overused oil. The bun comes lightly grilled / fried; evidently so considering the crisp bottom of the bun that also carried a light hint of butter, while the coleslaw coming a little watered down but served chilled for a refreshing crunch against the meat and fries nonetheless. Overall, quite a promising stall serving up western cuisine with a chicken chop that we quite liked. That being said, western cuisine isn’t something that has known to be particularly popular with the demographics of those whom visit Chinatown Complex Food Centre; will be fairly interesting to see how things will pan out for them in the near future.