I came to Seng Kee Chicken Rice @ Damansara Uptown after a comment was left on my post of 10 Places for Wonderfully Delicious Wantan Mee asking me if I would try the other famous outlets for wantan mee...Seng Kee being one of them.
According to blogger TM, the original shop is in Taman Desa and the one here is their second outlet (opened in February this year) two doors down from Annie 1. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to see that their signboard had the words 'chicken rice' on it. Hmm, that made me confused as to what their speciality really is (since I came here thinking they're famous for wantan mee). From the signboard alone, a calculated guess would be chicken rice, of course! ;) For now, let's not delve into this reservation of mine too much. This concern will be addressed and dealt with at the end of this post.
At the time of writing this post, I suddenly remembered that this is a food place in Damansara Utama and straightaway wondered if our 'Uptown Girl Food Specialist' (*wink wink*) has been here, so I googled it...and, lo and behold, she has (and, due to my poor memory, I've obviously forgotten all about it)...and, yikes, her review wasn't favourable! >_<
Well, let's see, shall we? Browsing through the menu, I noticed that, besides roast chicken, they have poached kampung chicken but that can only be ordered in whole, half or quarters (they don't do a one pax serving with rice). I already knew (from the obvious signboard) that chicken rice is their main focus, so I asked if their kampung chicken is their speciality. A short, stout gentleman (the owner maybe?) replied in the affirmative, so I made an order for Poached Kampung Chicken (Lower Quarter) @ RM23 which comprised the drumstick and thigh portion (the upper quarter of chicken breast and wing is RM18). Rather expensive kampung chicken to some (I'm sure)...so, it better be good, I thought.
Luckily, the kampung chicken was really good...the meat was absolutely tender, smooth and flavourful too (nothing like the overly firm meat of some kampung chicken I've had before). I usually don't like poached chicken skin but this one had no visible fats underneath and was smooth to the bite, so I was able to eat it too. ^o^ Only thing I didn't like was that they didn't bother to debone the drumstick. It's fine for the other parts of the chicken (if they're not deboned) but not for the drumstick. For some reason, the drumstick bone is very brittle and tend to shatter to smaller bits when chopped (it's like that when my chicken seller from the wet market chops the chicken for me too).
For this chicken rice shop, the condiments on the table included not just the usual fresh chilli sauce but also the less frequently provided freshly minced ginger (this was so good) and a bottle of thick dark soy sauce (which some like to squeeze over their rice, not me though). The minced ginger was so fresh and finely minced, it was strikingly delicious.
You have to order the rice separately. The Signature Oil Rice costs RM2 a bowl and my first impression when it arrived was I could see that the grains were nicely separated and not broken or mushed like many of the chicken rice I've come across. I can't quite remember if it had the aroma of a good chicken flavour in it coz I was excited about the minced ginger (which you don't find at many chicken rice stalls) and could have been overly generous with it in my rice! ;P Not only that but the aromatic combo of soy sauce+sesame oil, lying underneath the chicken which was a bit on the saltish side, was also deliciously drizzled all over my rice.
Though I applaud the nicely separated grains and non-oily rice, I found the texture a tad too firm for my liking (but I do know that this texture appeals to some...my spouse, for instance, who likes his rice with a bit of bite). I don't like mushy rice but I don't like hard textured rice either.
Since I was recommended to try the wantan mee + my family don't really fancy poached chicken all that much, the BBQ Pork (Char Siew) Wantan Noodle @ RM8 was their automatic choice.
The first thing I noticed about the char siew when it arrived was that the texture looked a bit like pulled pork. Although the char siew was all lean, it was still irreproachably tender but it was the taste of it that took me by surprise. It's different from the sticky-sweet char siew we're used to, this one had a very smoky flavour...and by smoky, I mean really smoky like the char siew had gone through a process of (western-style) smoking. It was nice....different but nice. I liked it :) But for those looking for a melt-in-your-mouth fatty char siew with a sweet sticky glaze, this will not meet your expectations.
As for the noodles themselves, they were alright...very springy but the sauce wasn't my favourite. Tasting more sweet than savoury, it was also on the oily side. The sauce was strongly flavoured with some kind of oil but I can't say if it was sesame, pork lard or onion oil...or a combination of all three. Another bummer was the few pork lard crisps on the noodles were hard and also tasted past its prime as the oil smelled rancid.
The wontons were nice and meaty...and I found the soup quite ok too :)
We also ordered a portion of Roast Pork (Siew Yoke) @ RM8 (for one pax) to try. Visually, when it arrived, I was sold already as they were those 'short type' cut that I like. The skin was admirably crispy and the meat tender though a bit on the lean side. I thought it was a respectable siew yoke, maybe not among the best but certainly more than decent (it also looked very different from the one in phonghong's blog...improved recipe?). If you prefer a leaner siew yoke, then this may well suit you.
My spouse, on the other hand, has very high standards for siew yoke (coz it's his favourite roasted meat) and he didn't like this one as much. The reason was that he found the meat bland, not salty enough. I definitely didn't think it was bland, only not as savoury as he would have liked (since he likes his food salty).
Service was a little slow taking into consideration we were the only table that needed to be served (as the other table had already finished eating). #Side Story on case of 'mistaken identity'
Now to address my earlier confusion as to the place being well-known for wantan mee, I'm convinced that this was not the wantan mee I was supposed to try...haha! ;D I have my reservations based on what I observed/found out:
1) The wantan mee in Taman Desa is spelt Sing Kee...not Seng Kee.2) The menu offered at both places is very different.3) I noticed most diners here ordered rice...not wantan mee.4) And when I re-read the post by phonghongbakes, I saw TM's comment about liking chai boey (spicy sour mustard greens made with leftovers) and crispy wu kok...aiks, they don't have that here.
In the end, I was pleasantly redirected to a place that's famous for chicken rice since 1991 instead. Oh well, this case of 'mistaken identity' led me to a decent poached kampung chicken, so all is not lost! ;) Perhaps one day I'll make it to Sing Kee.
My Personal Opinion
In the menu at Seng Kee, there was a write-up (in Chinese) which I presumed must be about the place and I noticed two words...Skudai, Johor. I later googled and came upon a review that mentioned that they're famous for chicken rice (and have been in business for more than 20 years in Johor). And Seng Kee's Facebok did mention that this is their new branch...which could mean that this is a new branch in KL besides the one in Skudai.
Come here for the chicken rice, specifically the poached kampung chicken rice! A side order of siew yoke (that's leaner and not salty) and a different style of char siew (that's smoky and lean, not sticky-sweet and fatty) should sufficiently please some as well.
Personally, I probably won't be revisiting (like dining in, tapau maybe) since the best thing here is their poached kampung chicken...and my family isn't into poached chicken....but that shouldn't stop you if you love poached chicken! ^_~
Restoran Seng Kee Chicken Rice
No 14 Jalan SS21/58
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 03-7731 8596
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