I decided to pay a visit to Five Star Hainanese Chicken Rice to see if the chicken rice truly lived up to its name. Located on Jiaozhou Road, the store has a very appealing traditional Chinese styled storefront, with a hint of Singaporean ceramic décor. The store is pretty tiny, luckily, there is also a second floor up a flight of wooden stairs that may be able to accompany slightly larger groups.

Arriving on a weekday evening, the place was not that packed, and we were able to get a good comfy spot for two upstairs. Colourful posters line up the red-painted walls of the restaurant, giving it an interesting Chinese vintage vibe. We were seated next to an incredibly loud group; the store for some reason, didn’t have any music on to help drown out the chatter either, so we ended up having to practically shout to be heard. That’s just Chinese-styled dining I guess. The unpleasant noise aside, the overall atmosphere was good.

Unlikely many other Hainanese chicken rice places, this place had no set chicken rice meal (with set portions of chicken, rice, and veggies), so you had to order everything separately, which is a bit annoying, and makes this place a bit pricier than other similar joints. You can order the chicken by the half (78rmb) or by the quarter (48 or 58 rmb), and rice made with chicken oil was 9 rmb (a rip-off for rice). They also had no plain rice available, so my vegetarian friend had to settle for something else to go with her meal. Up first, we had the cold dish appetizer, tofu with preserved eggs, which tasted amazing sprinkled with some soy and hot sauce flavouring. The kai-lan mixed seafood veggies and bean curd water spinach were also pleasant tasting though they were definitely made with a touch of Shanghainese flavours as there were a distinct sweetness to the taste. My favourite part of the meal was the kaya (coconut jam) toast dessert, which tasted just as good if not even better than the ones I’ve had in Singapore. Compared to everything else we’ve gotten, the chicken rice itself was a bit underwhelming to be frank. It was not bad, but it certainly wasn’t anything spectacular either, as its name suggests, and I certainly could have gotten the same thing elsewhere for half the price.  

Overall price is 100rmb/person.

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