You know how sometimes you crave simple things but you don’t know where to find a really good version of it? Well, I’ve been craving chicken rice for months now, and most recently, it has taken me all the way to Croydon to find possibly, the best chicken rice.
Croydon: The new London.
My search began with chinese restaurants around London and each trip took me further and further away from Central London. The natural place to start was Chinatown, but it didn’t raise any eyebrows. I then headed to North London, first to Singapore Garden and then to Goldfish, both of which while good wasn’t great. And then, I took the bus ride to Wing Yip at Cricklewood, which wasn’t anything to write home about. Nothing was seemingly good enough to satisfy this craving, surely there must be something around London that is good enough? And so I tapped into the collective wisdom of the twitterati, which I like to think of as a virtual pub/coffee house of random chatter. I put the question out to fellow tweeters, and like a prayer being answered, the superlicious Charzz replied, ecstatically proclaiming that the silkiest chicken could only be found in Croydon town. Visual confirmation from her iPhone twitpic and her very own seal of approval, and there and then I knew I had make the chicken rice pilgrimage. Another also loyal to food – FoodbyMark – decided to join us on this treacherous journey (National Rail) to search out for … the perfect chicken rice.
Enter Whitgift
The place we were headed is called Uncle Lim’s Kitchen, but it’s known as ‘Melaka’ on the Whitgift website. So I gather that Uncle Lim’s serves Malaysian-Chinese food. The restaurant is more like a ‘Kopitiam’ or coffee shop. Situated on the 1st floor inside the shopping centre, the entire front of the shop is open to the walkway, semi open-air, or more like open to the shopping centre.
Chicken Tonight
Almost instinctively, Charz ordered three plates of hainanese chicken rice as soon as we got there, each at £6. It was a Sunday, and a pleasant day outside as well, with the sun just warming us up through the skylight. The dish was so fragrant, and it was as if I was sitting in a kitchen that was making chicken soup. The rice was pastey, dense and full of chicken stock flavours. At the same time, it had this delicate mellowness that opened up my appetite. I didn’t ask for the drumstick like I usually do, and they served both breast and thigh, chopped up, with a drizzle of soya sauce and some cucumber and tomato on the side. Oh my gosh. The chicken was really silky and the puffy texture melted in my mouth so easily. To my surprise, the silkiness was from the breast meat, which is usually quite chunky. The thigh…. well that was just heaven. The whole dish was also slightly soaking in what I believe to be the soya sauce and a light broth. This sauce was rich in flavour, the palette was mostly savoury, with just a tinge of sweetness.
What is essentially an everyday dish, Uncle Lim’s chicken rice is effectively executed and it tastes exactly like what it’s supposed to: Soft, fragrant, flavoursome and full of chicken stockiness. It evoked very fond memories of food halls in Singapore and Malaysia, and it is easily the best chicken rice I’ve had in and around London so far.
Believe the hype.
Uncle Lim’s Kitchen
Upper North Arcade Whitgift Center
Croydon CRO 1UZ
020 8688 8378
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Charmaine
I was so nervous that you and Mark wouldn’t like it! Rice that day wasn’t as great as it is normally but glad you guys still liked it
yep, Croydon is the next big eating destination – next, Le Cassoulet and Fish & Grill!
August 21, 2009 at 10:08 am
catty
oh my that DOES look good! I’m definitely coming with next time you guys take on the treacherous journey
August 21, 2009 at 10:10 am
Mr Noodles
Just goes to show that great food can turn up in the most unexpected of places !
August 21, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Lizzie
Hoorah! Croydon is a mere 20 mins from my house. I must go soon. It’s turning into quite the foodie hot spot. The best Hainanese chicken rice I had was in the Shangri-La in Singapore. It was life-affirming.
August 21, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Helen Yuet Ling Pang
Can’t believe the good old Whitgift Centre contains such delights! Back in the 80s, I never found anything like this when I was at school in Croydon. The area’s certainly changed for the better.
August 21, 2009 at 4:58 pm
gastrogeek
Fantastic, I love proper finds like this, keep hearing such great things about the new Croydon food scene. Have you tried “The Golden Palace” in Harrow? It’s pretty special.
August 22, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Justine
Argh I don’t believe I didn’t get the chicken rice when I was there this afternoon despite it coming highly recommended by the staff!!
It looks pretty darn good. I got the prawn sambal instead was tasty and quite well worth the track down to Croydon – spurred on when I saw Uncle Lim’s featured in a tiny column in The London Paper.
August 22, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Kang L.
Charz – thanks for introducing this one to us, it wuz awesome, yes yes le cassoulet next!
catty – I smell another tweatup in the horizon
Mr Noodles – The beauty of food!
Lizzie – Hooray for Croydon indeed!
Helen – Slowly but surely, we’re all going to flood croydon restaurants
gastrogeek – Yes I have! Its near my work, and we go there sometimes to celebrate stuff! I went for dinner and the food was quite able, ah I’ll try to squeeze a review out for that place
Justine – I wanted to try the bobochacha as well when I was there… but I will leave it until I trek back there for another day
August 24, 2009 at 9:47 am
Nude Espresso: We are the Trio [review] — LondonEater
[...] few places which are at the fore front of the rising coffee culture in London. After a bellyful of Croydon chicken rice; Supercharz, Mark and myself headed toward Brick Lane for the Rankin exhibit, but not before we [...]
August 26, 2009 at 10:31 am
Justine
You’re so right about the chicken rice! I finally went back today and it is pretty lush – lovely chicken and great rice.
September 20, 2009 at 12:29 am
Nxbite
Took a trip down to Croydon and was not disappointed, very tasty and a nice big serving too. I *was* sort of expecting a little bit of ginger spring onion sauce on the side… is this not how it’s served normally? It’s all ‘off the bone’ so you get a lot of chicken.
There was a slow but steady stream of Chinese diners and everyone had the Chicken rice… I think this might be one ‘open secret’. Turns out my mum has been coming here with her tai tai friends for years!
The other diners were enjoying the mix and match food and seemed very satisfied with the heaping servings, usually topped with some excellent looking jewel like green beans. I am still amazed that european chefs take the added drop of oil in the cooking water that brings up the vibrant colour as some sort of miracle… we’ve been doing it for centuries!
October 10, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Kang L.
NxBite – Hmm, good point, there wasn’t any sauce that came with it, also I noted there wasn’t any soup , but still the off th bone chicken was so silky….. yummy
I went back again last week and was very impressed by the quality. I like that its not some world beating gourmet food, but simply just very well cooked chicken rice, modest, cheap and tasty 
October 14, 2009 at 8:48 am
No. 10 : salivating chicken stories « London Eater – London food blog and restaurant reviews
[...] It tasted like what soya chicken was supposed to taste like. For the record, it’s not Uncle Lims, but is close [...]
November 11, 2009 at 12:05 pm