191 East Coast Road, Singapore 428897
Provenance and Background
Five Star Hainanese Kampung Chicken Rice occupies a distinctive niche in Singapore’s intensely competitive chicken rice landscape. The restaurant’s founder grew up around chickens, later becoming a sought-after poultry supplier before opening his own establishment. His expertise is so refined, it is said he can determine a chicken’s age at slaughter and its state of health simply by looking at it. Fivestarchickenrice The name “Five Star” is not a self-awarded quality designation but a familial reference: the founder had five brothers, and the name pays tribute to that brotherhood. This origin story grounds the restaurant’s identity not in marketing bravado but in genuine, generational expertise.
The restaurant has been in operation for several decades, and to this day receives only the finest poultry from carefully vetted purveyors. Fivestarchickenrice This continuity of supply chain philosophy distinguishes Five Star from competitors who may compromise on sourcing.
The Kampung Chicken: Biology and Culinary Significance
The central differentiator at Five Star is its exclusive use of kampung chicken — a Malay term literally meaning “village chicken,” referring to free-range, traditionally reared birds. Five Star uses kampung chicken that is low in cholesterol, leaner, and higher in fibre compared to commercially farmed broiler chicken. Fivestarchickenrice
This is not merely marketing language. The biological distinction is meaningful. Free-range kampung chickens lead more physically active lives, which develops their musculature differently from sedentary factory-farmed birds. The result is firmer, denser, and more intensely flavoured meat with less intramuscular fat. This characteristic is precisely what draws dedicated patrons — and also why some diners who are accustomed to the softer, more yielding texture of broiler chicken occasionally find kampung chicken unexpectedly lean or bony. As Deliveroo’s menu description notes, kampung thigh meat is leaner and more bony than commercial chicken Deliveroo — a candid acknowledgment that some adjustment of expectation is warranted.
The lineage of this preference traces back to the dish’s origins. Hainanese chicken rice is descended from Wenchang chicken, a traditional dish from Hainan island in China’s far south, where specific free-roaming chickens fed on peanut bran and coconut were prized for their generous flavour and tender skin. The most prized birds were capons, large castrated roosters with exceptional depth of flavour. Adam Liaw Five Star’s kampung chicken is the spiritual and gastronomic heir of this tradition — the closest approximation available in contemporary Singapore to the original Wenchang ideal.
The Art and Science of Preparation: Cooking Method
Understanding what arrives on the plate requires an appreciation of the elaborate preparation behind it. Hainanese chicken rice, for all its apparent simplicity, demands considerable technical precision.
The Poach: The process begins by pounding unpeeled ginger and combining it with spring onion tops in a large pot of salted water, brought to the boil before the heat is reduced to very low. The chicken is then submerged at this temperature — the water should be barely moving — and cooked through with extreme gentleness. Adam Liaw This is emphatically not boiling; it is poaching, where temperature discipline is critical. Poaching temperature is lower than simmering temperature — there should be very little agitation on the surface of the liquid. Uma Midays Rough or rapid cooking would tighten the proteins, yielding dry, stringy meat.
The Ice Bath: Once poached, the chicken is immediately transferred to an ice bath to stop the cooking process. This produces the gelatinous skin texture synonymous with great Hainanese chicken rice — silky, slightly resistant, and with a touch of gelatin beneath the surface. Singaporean Malaysian Recipes This thermal shock is arguably the single most important technique distinguishing excellent from mediocre chicken rice. Without it, the skin is flaccid and the meat continues to overcook in its residual heat.
The Rice: The rice is first sautéed in rendered chicken fat together with garlic, shallots, and ginger before being cooked in the strained poaching liquid. i am a food blog This double-infusion — fat-toasting followed by broth absorption — is what produces rice that can stand as a dish in its own right. Pandan leaves are often added during cooking, contributing a subtle floral fragrance. Adam Liaw
The Chilli Sauce: The dipping sauce is made by pounding garlic, grated ginger, chopped chilli, and salt together in a mortar and pestle, then loosened with poaching broth and balanced with lime juice and a touch of sugar. PantsDownApronsOn The use of the poaching liquid in the sauce is critical — it creates a coherence of flavour across the entire plate, tying every element back to the same aromatic foundation.
Dish Analysis: Component by Component
The Chicken — Steamed (Poached) Preparation
The steamed kampung chicken at Five Star arrives sliced into long diagonal strips, a presentation that maximises surface area for sauce adhesion while showcasing the cross-section of the meat. The colour of well-executed poached kampung chicken is a muted ivory, occasionally with a faint blush near the bone — not a cause for alarm but a marker of precision cooking, as the meat is brought to just-done rather than overcooked.
Texturally, the kampung chicken delivers a firmness that requires a deliberate bite — it resists slightly before yielding, and this resistance is where its flavour is stored. The muscle fibres are tighter and longer than those of a broiler chicken, producing a chew that is more rewarding and more communicative of the bird’s character. Multiple reviewers describe the chicken as tending toward thin-sliced, with a tender texture and good fresh meaty, sweet, and savoury flavour. Burpple
The skin, if the ice-bath technique has been executed correctly, should present as a thin, semi-translucent layer with a barely perceptible gelatin underlining. Its hue ranges from pale gold to light champagne, and it should adhere cleanly to the flesh without slipping. The chicken is placed atop a small pool of sweet soy sauce — dark, glossy, and lightly viscous — which provides caramel sweetness and umami depth as a counterpoint to the clean savouriness of the poached bird.
The Roasted Preparation
The roasted kampung chicken at Five Star is considered by some regulars to be the superior preparation — incredibly tender, with a melt-in-the-mouth quality. Supasoya The skin of the roasted version presents a deep amber lacquer, developed through a light soy marinade and dry-heat roasting that drives the Maillard reaction across the surface. The contrast between the caramelised, slightly crispy exterior and the lean, juicy interior is a textural study in opposites — and is particularly compelling given the lower fat content of the kampung breed.
The Rice
The rice at Five Star borders between moist and dry, fluffy but with a mild, grainy sweetness. Burpple It presents in a light ivory to pale gold, considerably lighter than heavily chicken-fat-laden rices from some competitors. The grain separation is adequate, though reviews consistently note a tendency toward slight moistness or mushiness in certain portions — a quality-consistency issue that likely reflects batch variation in the poaching liquid-to-rice ratio.
Flavourwise, the rice performs more convincingly than its appearance suggests. The infusion of chicken stock, rendered fat, ginger, and garlic is perceptible in every mouthful, creating a savoury backbone that elevates what could be plain white rice into something with genuine personality. Subtle notes of pandan — floral, faintly grassy — undercut the richness and keep the rice from feeling cloying.
It is worth noting that in classical Hainanese chicken rice, the rice is considered by many culinary authorities to be the true test of a stall’s skill, arguably more so than the chicken itself. By this standard, Five Star’s rice — competent but inconsistent — represents the dish’s most contestable element.
The Chilli Sauce
The chilli sauce is where Five Star distinguishes itself most decisively. It presents in a vivid, saturated orange-red — the colour of ripe bird’s eye chilli with a hint of garlic’s pale undertone blended in. The consistency is smooth but not pureed, retaining a slight texture that suggests fresh grinding rather than industrial processing. The heat is forward-facing and immediate rather than a slow-building background warmth, while the garlic presence is notable and persistent — reviewers note it lingers well after the meal. The sauce strikes an effective balance between acidic brightness, chilli heat, and the savoury depth borrowed from its poaching liquid base.
The Condiment Trio
The three traditional accompaniments — chilli sauce, dark sweet soy (kicap manis), and ginger-spring onion oil — operate as a flavour architecture around the neutral canvas of the poached chicken. The dark sweet soy carries salty, savoury, and earthy notes; the chilli is spicy, sour, and sweet; and the crushed ginger paste delivers earthy, herbal spice. Burpple Together, they allow the diner to customise each bite — a practice that is as much ritual as it is gastronomy in Singapore’s chicken rice culture.
The Soup
A side of clear soup accompanies the rice, made from the residual poaching broth. At Five Star, this element has drawn consistent criticism for being thin and flavourless — a significant omission, given that in the classical preparation the soup should be a concentrated distillation of the entire cooking process, rich with chicken essence, ginger, and subtle aromatics. The soup’s underperformance suggests either over-dilution of the stock or insufficient simmering time to reduce and concentrate the broth.
Ambience and Setting
The East Coast Road outlet occupies a shophouse-adjacent setting along one of Singapore’s most characterful heritage corridors. The outdoor seating amid the pretty shophouses of East Coast Road is considered one of the restaurant’s significant draws, and reviewers consistently recommend sitting under a fan in the evenings. Tripadvisor The atmosphere is comfortable but deliberately unpretentious — plastic chairs, functional tables, and the ambient energy of a well-frequented neighbourhood restaurant rather than a curated dining experience.
The venue can become crowded on weekend evenings Tripadvisor, which speaks to its sustained local popularity but also means that peak-hour visits may involve compromised service attentiveness. Several TripAdvisor and online reviewers have noted inconsistency in service quality — some experiences are convivial and efficient, while others have been described as disorganised. This is a recurring tension in high-volume Singapore restaurants where kitchen throughput can outpace front-of-house capacity.
The restaurant also functions as a zi char establishment beyond its chicken rice identity, offering a broad array of side dishes. Highlights from other reviewers include the hometown tofu — house-made from fresh soy milk, crisp on the outside and silky inside, in a savoury minced meat sauce — as well as prawn paste chicken wings and salted egg boneless pork ribs. Supasoya For family dining, this extended menu is a meaningful consideration.
Delivery Options
Five Star operates across delivery platforms, enabling access beyond the dine-in experience. The restaurant is available on foodpanda with over 2,000 reviews and a high rating for the East Coast outlet. foodpanda It is also available on Deliveroo, where the menu includes half-chicken options comprising one drumstick, one wing, one breast, and one thigh portion, with rice and garnish listed separately. Deliveroo
Delivery reviews are more mixed than dine-in feedback. Complaints include long wait times during high-volume periods, small portion sizes relative to price, and in some cases inadequate condiment portions for takeaway orders. foodpanda The issue of portion sizing is compounded by the fact that kampung chickens are inherently smaller birds than broiler chickens, so a half-chicken may appear modest by comparison. Additionally, the textural qualities that make this dish exceptional — gelatinous skin, correctly tempered meat, freshly cooked fragrant rice — degrade meaningfully in transit. Delivery is a practical convenience, but the dish is best experienced immediately upon preparation.
For takeaway and pickup orders, the restaurant offers a WhatsApp-based ordering system that connects to specific outlet order links. Fivestarchickenrice
Verdict and Contextualisation
Five Star Hainanese Kampung Chicken Rice occupies a well-earned mid-to-upper tier position within Singapore’s extraordinarily competitive chicken rice ecosystem. Its genuine commitment to kampung chicken sourcing — rooted in a founder’s lifelong expertise rather than marketing positioning — is authentic and traceable, and the quality of the protein reflects this. The chilli sauce is a standout preparation. The rice, while flavourful, shows inconsistency, and the soup is an underperformer.
Among the famous names in Singapore chicken rice, Five Star occupies a curious middle-of-the-pack position with seemingly equal numbers of fans and detractors Burpple — not because the food is mediocre, but because it performs to a high standard on some components while leaving room for improvement on others. At prices beginning from S$7 per portion, it sits at a premium relative to hawker centre offerings but within reasonable range for a sit-down restaurant using premium free-range poultry.
For a first-time visitor or a returning enthusiast, the steamed kampung chicken and chilli sauce represent a compelling case for the restaurant’s continued relevance after three decades. The ambient charm of the East Coast Road setting, the extended zi char menu, and the late operating hours (daily until 2am) make it a versatile destination. It is not, however, the sort of establishment that invites direct competition with Singapore’s most celebrated chicken rice institutions. It occupies its own niche — neighbourhood stalwart, family dining anchor, late-night option — and within that niche, it performs reliably and often memorably.
Note: Five Star Hainanese Kampung Chicken Rice is not halal-certified.