Maxwell Chicken Rice Opens Up In Chinatown Serving Singapore Style Hainan Chicken and Rice

Giving that scoring an order of Johnny Lee’s awesome Hainan Chicken Rice at Pearl River Deli in LA Chinatown is akin to winning the lottery, it’s nice that a place has just opened up in Chinatown where you can walk right up and order some Hainan chicken. Maxwell Chicken Rice, named after the Maxwell food center in Singapore has opened up in the same location as, and on a similar basis to MGD Korean BBQ on Spring St., just south of Ord St., essentially a walk-up window/online order drive through operation. I found the Hainan chicken rice there to be OK, with the great sauces offset by a bit overly dry chicken white meat. Maybe I got a bad batch, as for a restaurant that has been open for only two weeks there is an impressive number of Yelpers heaping high praise, particularly for the juiciness of the chicken, and favorably comparing this to what you get in Singapore. Yelpers also praise the fried chicken, though bemoaning the small portion size, which exactly expresses my own sentiments. According to the website, additional branches are about to open in Northridge and La Habra.

Unless I hear to the contrary here, I’ll just dream of Johnny Lee’s Hainan chicken instead of ordering Maxwell.

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I’ve gotten the hainan chicken rice at PRD on several weekends, no problem. Maybe it’s the time you go? I always go early. It really is fantastic.

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No, it’s a case of unplanned schedules and never knowing when you can get down there.

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That is good news for us; I hope it is for you as well…
Again thanks for your tips when I made it myself. Very gracious of you.

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Turns out Chinatown is just a pop-up location and that Northridge will be their first regular location later this summer.

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Oh good, another HCR option to try. How does it compare to the HCR at Belacan Malaysian Grill in Tustin, @chandavkl ? Theirs is the closest I’ve found to what you can actually get in Singapore ever since the short-lived Grainivore shuttered in K-Town years ago.

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I’ll have to give them a pass since they sent a note of apology explaining that they had changed kitchen equipment and were having inconsistencies. You’re right about Grainivore’s brief run. They closed before I could get there.

Who are you referring to, Maxwell or Belacan?

Maxwell.