Food Blog | Hawker Chan Restaurant Chinatown Kuala Lumpur

Chef Chan Hon Meng is back at in again and this time he’s bringing his Michelin-Star awarded soy sauce chicken rice to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, with what I believe is his first permanent branch outside of Singapore.

Widely considered the world’s cheapest Michelin Star meal, this is the best chance that an everyday person like you and me can have a bite of his scrumptious chicken rice! My family had an errand to run nearby, so we decided to head here for a quick lunch in order to satisfy our curiosity for this chicken rice. (I’ve tried it before in the Singapore branch, whilst it was the first time my dad, mum and sister were trying it)

Is it Halal?

Sadly, Liao Fan Hawker Chan is a non-halal restaurant, as they do serve pork dishes on the menu. I’m not particularly sure about the chicken itself, so do eat at your own discretion if you are concerned about this.

Where it Is?

It is located pretty much on the same row as Chinatown Kuala Lumpur (it isn’t located in Chinatown itself, but it is basically following the same road).

There are many ways that you can go about parking here (be it legal or illegal). Option 1 is that you somehow summon all your lucky stars and try to park on the road where it is located and park on the side of the road (I believe you probably won’t get a saman for it despite the question of whether it is actually legal or not).

Option 2 is that you park on the side of the road but far away. This one also has similar legal ramifications. My family actually had an errand to run at a temple, but I think it isn’t a bad choice to consider.

Option 3, which is what I suggest, would be to park in a hotel car park of some sort. There are some where you can get away with RM2 per hour and at least you have that piece of mind for having a) a landmark to go back to and b) a safe location (or at least most of the time) where you can keep your car.

Option 4 is the most convenient - to just ditch the car altogether and take the MRT to Pasar Seni. It is about a 5 minute walk away and mostly covered along the way.

Address: 135,Jalan Petaling Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Operating Hours:

Daily: 10:30am to 8:30pm (no rest days stated on the Facebook page)

What it Costs

As you would probably expect, this is cheaper than even the Singapore outlet. Just for comparison, the soya sauce chicken rice sets you back SGD3.80 in Singapore, whilst it sets you back RM8.80 in Malaysia. I guess you guys do the conversion depending on when you read this, but it is cheaper in Malaysia (at least at time of writing).

I would also add that whilst I came here on a Friday afternoon (at what is probably around the peak lunch hour @ around 1pm), it wasn’t that crowded, so I would say that having tried both the Singapore branch and the KL branch, a visit to the KL one is probably going to be better with regards to your wallet, the convenience and the lack of a queue at the KL branch (as well as them not compromising on quality in Malaysia)

Our total bill came up to RM71.40 (so around RM18 per person). I got the soya sauce chicken rice (RM8.80), my sister got a char siew hor fun (RM11.80), my parents got a combination platter of char siu and siu yok (RM18) and a roasted pork hor fun (RM11.80) and we got a papaya tea soup with pork ribs (RM7).

We completed the meal with 4 barley drinks (the only non-can drink available on the day - RM2.50 x4) and a dessert of the day (RM4).

Restaurant Hacks

This is one of those places that I feel an explanation of how to restaurant works will definitely help. If you are eating in a pair (or basically you’re not eating alone), just find a nice seat straight away and sit down whilst let 1 person make the order. You can even get one copy of the menu from the cashier area and decide before making the order.

You have to pay once you make the order and you’ll get the receipt with a number on top, so do keep the receipt whilst you wait for your number. Normally, it is pretty fast (unless you have a REALLY big order in front of you), so do look out for your number.

The cutlery and the chilli sauce (which I am a pretty big fan of) is on the right of where you collect your food, so do stop for that!

Hawker Chan KL Soya Sauce Chicken Rice (RM8.80)

How it Tastes

I would say it is slightly even better than my previous experiences because I don’t even remember being a big fan of the soya sauce chicken itself previously, but call me a fan now!

I wouldn’t tell you to expect something that knocks your socks away or anything since it is pretty much chicken rice, but that chicken is still pretty nice. Got a really nice texture and soya sauce coating that chicken rice to give it a really yummy flavour.

The rice itself isn’t probably what you expect from your normal chicken rice. It isn’t yellow - my mum even commented it looks like white rice - but there’s a lot of flavour in there coming from both the rice and the soya sauce that they pour on the rice.

No vegetables with the rice but you do have some beans that are actually strangely addicting to eat for me (it honestly isn’t that special, I just like eating beans XD).

Hawker Chan KL Char Siew Hor Fun (RM11.80)

I didn’t have too much of the hor fun, but I think it was pretty nice too (in the limited few bites I had of it).

Combination Platter of Siu Yuk and Char SIew (RM18)

With regard to the char siew and the siu yuk, I actually thought both were a little underwhelming. This kinda leads me onto one of my own quotes which goes like this: “a good siu yuk always beats a good char siew, but a shit char siew always wins a shit siu yuk”. I won’t go as far to say it is that bad, but the siu yuk isn’t exactly the crispy type which I like, whilst the char siew is definitely on the leaner side. So I would say I’m a bigger fan of the char siew here.

The soup is what you probably expect from a decent Chinese restaurant. Lots of flavour in there with lots of meat for you to eat as well!

Star Rating

7.5/10. More for the novelty of the Michelin star more than anything, but the soya sauce chicken rice is still pretty darn good. Not going to lie, I’ve probably had better chicken rice out there (definitely unhealthier versions which I love), but this is a good reflection of a healthy variant of chicken rice which will probably be tasty to even the most picky chicken rice eaters out there.