The opening on Center Street is Chick’n Rice, a Kao Mun Gai-focused restaurant from the founders of Caviar. I stopped by recently and opted for the fried chicken instead of the traditional poached. I was unenthused, though to be fair, I have not been a fan of any kao mun gai or Hainanese Chicken I’ve ordered (I’ve only tried it in the US). I did like versions I’ve made at home with very rich chicken stock or chicken plus turkey stock.
The rice was short and soggy, without much flavor save for the flecks of garlic in it. I would have called the chicken fine if it had been in an inexpensive premade katsu sandwich, but it was the main component of $10 rice bowl. The gai lan I added for $2 was good. The broth served on the side was fine–it had enough chicken flavor that I tried to revive the soggy rice with it, but as a soup it was strange. It had large chunks of hot, but uncooked daikon in it. This was very unappealing to me, and distracted from the soup flavor.
