Nan Xiang, Square 2

I came by this chicken rice place at Novena (#01-156/159, Square 2, 10 Sinaran Drive S307506) by way of recommendation from a friend and it did look like there wasn't a need to queue or wait since we were looking to grab a quick dinner. It usually raises questions in me when a place is fairly spacious and the establishment is mostly empty but I've been having some strange cravings for chicken rice of late and the did look fairly decent if unspectacular. From the menu, it looks like the chicken rice is sold in combo sets, but it is actually possible to order them regularly like how it is done in hawker stores with just the chicken and rice minus the extras. One of the rice options here comes in the form of balls. I'm not sure how these are done, but each of these chicken rice ball appear in wrappers when served and I don't know how they stack against the original ones from Malacca or even the Goodyear store at Toa Payoh. But these pretty much break apart when you shove a fork into them and the taste of the rice itself was quite the norm, without being excessively oily or dry.

The chicken comes in the usual steamed or roasted (fried if you will) variety and the meat is rather ordinary if a little on the dry side. It comes drizzled with some unidentifiable and forgettable brown gravy instead of the usual soy sauce and sesame oil sauce combination which does little to help with the dryness of the meat. One of the important elements to me which is the chilli wasn't too spicy nor noteable. It's an acceptably ordinary chicken rice which comes in ball options with one gripe. It's $4.50 and that makes it a bit costly for something that doesn't quite stand out.