Guozijian Singaporean Restaurant Cheung Kee Impresses with Its Hainanese Chicken Rice

Singaporean food is something we definitely don't eat enough of in Beijing. Apart from the occasional lunch visit to A Wang, which opened in the second half of last year, there have been few other Singaporean restaurants on our radar but this might change with the discovery of Cheung Kee, located on the west end of Guozijian Street.
 

Our first choice was of course the Singaporean staple, Hainanese chicken rice (RMB 38), which came served with ginger and chili ginger sauce, deliciously flavored chicken rice, soup, and soy sauce. Contrary to other renditions of this dish, the Cheung Kee version came cheap and with fewer bones, leaving us to happily tuck into mostly chicken meat.
 

The traditional laksa (RMB 38), which includes two oysters, fish tofu, half a boiled egg, and fish cakes, was not terrible but we highly suspect that it may have come from a ready-mix packet rather than a fresh mix of herbs and spices. The lack of punch and fresh flavors left us disappointed and we wouldn't order this again.
 

The bak kut teh (RMB 58), literally "meat bone tea,"  also didn't embody the right flavors, with the meat tasting like it had been boiled for far too long and the broth's tsaoko notes too strong and overbearing.

While the laksa and bak kut teh didn't recount the authentic Singaporean dishes that I grew up eating, I will definitely be going back to have more chicken rice in the near future. Cheung Kee also offers roast chicken rice on the menu, which was unfortunately out of stock at the time of our visit, but will certainly lure us for a second round.

Cheung Kee
Daily 11am-10pm. 98 Guozijian Street, Dongcheng District (6403 6619)
东城区国子监98号

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Photos: Margaux Schreurs