Maxwell Food Centre’s Tian Tian Chicken Rice is a Bib Gourmand award recipient serving good Hainanese chicken rice, starting at $5 a plate.
The chicken rice was fragrant and not too oily, plus grainy. Chicken was meh and slightly tough. This tasted nothing like the revelationary chicken rice that I remember from the first time I tried it. Perhaps its again this thing where I have tried too many good things since, or the first time is always the best.
I still think Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice offers one of the best versions around, and if a tourist friend comes to Singapore, I may still recommend – for its brand, for its name.
173 reviews of Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice "Food: 3.5/5.0 Service: 1.5/5.0 Value: 4.0/5.0 Decor: 2.0/5.0 Overall: 3.5/5.0 SGD5 for a chicken rice is on the higher side for this center, and the shop definitely struck me as perhaps a bit…
Tian Tian has a very systematic queueing system, so the queue clears very fast - place your orders at the first stall, and step forward to collect your food at the next stall. We always get our food within 15-20 minutes even when the queue is long.
Each piece of chicken is tasty with the chilli sauce that is flavoured with fresh ginger and garlic. The sauce that is drizzled over the chicken is savoury redolent of oyster sauce, soy sauce and the nutty flavour of sesame oil.
For Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, yes it is good on an overall perspective, but when it comes to the rice, I still wish it could be tastier and fragrant. Singapore’s best? A strong contender nonetheless.