In Colonial Chinese Cuisine (Raffles City)

Located right beside the outlet of Fu-Men Japanese Udon & Donburi at Hong Leong Building, In Colonial Chinese Cuisine is one of the latest addition to the F&B selections that Hong Leong Building has to offer. The brand actually hails from Malaysia; they describe themselves as the “one and only Anglo Chinese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur” based on their corporate website — the outlet in Malaysia being situated at The Intermark in Kuala Lumpur City Centre. While their original location in Malaysia is more of a full-service restaurant, their outlet at Hong Leong Building is more of a fast-service casual dining concept. As with most of the dining establishments that are located in The Basement at Hong Leong Building, the interior of In Colonial Chinese Cuisine can be described as rather simply-decked; one that places more emphasis of function than form with the use of metallic chairs and wooden tables — not much detailing can be described with the decor here. Considering the “express” nature of the outlet, In Colonial Chinese Cuisine seem to have done away with most of the more elaborate parts of their menu in Malaysia; there are no dim sum items nor degustation menu at this outlet — not even the communal dishes to be shared around the table either. Instead, In Colonial Chinese Cuisine at Hong Leong Building serves up “one-plate” dishes usually comprising of zichar-style chicken, beef and seafood dishes served with rice that are good for individual diners. Otherwise, In Colonial Chinese Cuisine also serves up a variety of fried rice and Kway Teow / Fried Kway Teow dishes sized for individual diners, as well as vegetable dishes that are good to share around the table. Beverages available at In Colonial Chinese Cuisine includes canned drinks and special concoctions of non-alcoholic drinks that they dub as “Mojito”. It is worth noting that In Colonial Chinese Cuisine is a 100% muslim-owned establishment; therefore the dishes here do not contain pork nor lard.

Being one whom is always looking for the likes of salted egg chicken or creamy butter chicken rice, it is without a doubt that the Admiral Butter Chicken Rice was an item on the menu which had caught our attention very early on whilst skimming through the variety of dishes which they have to offer here. The Admiral Butter Chicken Rice is pretty much the same as what one would call creamy butter chicken rice as well. Here, the Admiral Butter Chicken Rice features chunks of fried chicken that has been tossed in a creamy butter sauce that comes with chili and curry leaves — all that being accompanied with a portion of white rice on the side. On first look, it is undeniable that the dish looks particularly decadent; there was definitely enough sauce to go around all the rice, with the sauce looking pretty thick as well. Digging into the Admiral Butter Chicken Rice, we did notice that the Admiral Butter Sauce (as we would like to name it as such) carried a savoury note — it wasn’t particularly jelat, though we did wish that there was a contrasting note of sweetness that could give it some complexity apart from the curry leaves that are being added to the dish. While the curry leaves did add a hint of fragrance to the dish, they seem to be lacking of that wok-fried crispness that some places seem to serve theirs with — the odd addition of the entire stalk of chili padi rather than slices of chili padi wok-fried with the sauce also meant that the chili did not provide much flavour to sufficiently ante up the flavours of the sauce. That being said, the sauce was still decent for those whom are not too particular about their food; the same can also be said about the chicken, which seems to be of a commercially-made, ready-to-eat product that comes out of the pack — nothing too inspiring but definitely crisp on the exterior and did not require much effort to chew. At $11.50 though, the Admiral Butter Chicken Rice can be said as pricey — this is especially so considering the lack of sunny side-up and that the same dish could have been easily obtained at less than $10 from Lau Pa Sat nearby. Still no harm trying though, we guess.