The OG of Hainanese Chicken Rice in Singapore was Swee Kee 瑞记 which reigned as King of Chicken Rice in the early 50s all through til late 1997. Like many other Singaporean families from that era, I grew up eating Swee Kee Chicken Rice. My family would patronize the old coffee shop restaurant on Middle Road almost weekly. It was considered the best Chicken Rice. And the recipe remained unchanged throughout. It wasn’t until I was much older, more experienced and exposed to culinary techniques, not to mention with hundreds of other Chicken Rice restaurants surfacing, that I could actually ascertain if Swee Kee was in fact THE Best chicken rice in Singapore. As far as my memory takes me, Swee Kee’s poached chicken was big, fat and meaty. Always chopped in big chunks with just a quick dose of  fragrant oil. When there weren’t as many chicken rice restaurants available, I can see why they were the best. Don’t get me wrong, the chicken was tender and all, but as I became acquainted with other versions of chicken rice, I definitely preferred the extra tenderness and silkiness of chicken, thanks to new methods whereby poached chickens plunge into a cold bath after emerging from cooking; whereas Swee Kee traditionally cools their chickens by letting them sit out in the open. Swee Kee’s chicken breast meat, as I recall, was usually dryer and chewier. 

Having said that, the magic of Swee Kee was their rice. Swee Kee’s rice was the bomb! It was aromatic, flavorful and oily. Unlike other health conscious folks, I like my chicken rice oily and aromatic from the essence of chicken fats, ginger, garlic and shallots, like it should be. The less oil, less salt versions just don’t cut it for me. Might as well eat plain rice, no!? With sufficient oiling, the rice separates beautifully, each grain firm, loose and fluffy. To this day, I’d pour dark caramelized soy sauce all over rice before anything else. For me, it was the best way to eat it.

On to the many unrelated Swee Kees of today. I decided to suss them out, not to validate if they are the real McCoys (cuz there ain’t any!), but to see if they actually needed the brand to validate their chicken rice. 

Decided to start where it all began. In the same neighborhood of the original Swee Kee, just 2 streets away along Seah Street, sits not one, but two emulators, namely Swee Kee Chicken Rice and Sing Swee Kee Chicken Rice. Research seem to show neither are the original; mere nosy questioning, confirmed it.

Swee Kee @25 Seah Street Singapore 188381 Phone : +65 9352 2323

Bearing the exact same name, and set up very similarly like original Swee Kee, with old school marble tables and wooden Chinese chairs, they appear rather authentic from the very first sight. We ordered the standards: poached chicken, chicken livers and kidneys, rice, and stir fried beansprouts. 

Rice – Moderately oiled, and moderately aromatic. The rice seems like a mix of long and broken grains. I like that they weren’t clumpy, and held up a soft and firm bite. 

Chicken – Chopped in large chunky pieces.  Very meaty, moist and plump; comes with a balanced flavorful soy dressing. Pretty good. 

Livers & Kidneys – Kidneys were firm and crunchy but livers were a tad dry. 

Beansprouts – Nicely stir fried. Crunchy with bits of salted fish. However portion is rather small and beansprouts still had their tails (roots) intact; something I dislike personally. 

Chili sauce – Why is it so terribly watery!? There’s barely any solid ingredients in there. Were they aiming for chili water? Ginger scallion sauce – Again, just a pool of gingerly water…!  Dark soy sauce – Thick sticky like it should be. 

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Sing Swee Kee @ 34-35 Seah Street Singapore 188391 Phone: +65 6337 7180

Taking up 2 shop houses, the sprawling restaurant is the flagship store to 8 other branches of the same name. This already sounds like a success story. 

Rice – Loose fluffy long grained rice that’s well oiled and moderately fragrant. 

Chicken – The poached chicken were chopped into smaller and more delicate pieces. Meat was smooth and soft; even the breast meats were reasonably tender. Despite the great texture, it fell a little bit short on flavor. 

We decided to also order a portion of their Roast Chicken looking at how handsomely they hung in the window. And it turned out to be the right move as they are pretty good. They may be labelled “Roast”, but these golden brown birds are in fact fried. And Fried they may be, the skins are never crispy. However, the ones here are nicely seasoned and not over-fried, so the savory and moist chicken was quite tasty.

Livers & Kidneys – Kidneys seemed overcooked as they were a tad hard. Livers were on the dry side. 

Beansprouts – Big portion of well cooked crunchy beansprouts. Except for the untrimmed tails, this was rather enjoyable. 

Chili sauce – Good balance of spiciness with a nice tart finish.  Ginger scallion sauce – Very robust flavor, thanks to the lavishing amounts of ginger and scallions used. This is one of the best ginger sauce I’ve come across. It totally lifted the under-flavored poached chicken. Dark soy sauce – Thick sticky like it should be. 

Apart from these 2 names, there are still quite a number of varying “Swee Kees” all over Singapore. Before I conclude my hunt-down for them all, let these two tide you over for the time being. Truth be told, they are both reasonably good, although I would steer more towards Sing Swee Kee for their Roast Chicken, and superb sauces. But back to the very first question, did they need the namesake for their business? In my opinion, not at all.

Disclaimer – This is not a sponsored post.