Chicken seems to be the most popular meat in Singapore. There are so many ways to prepare chicken. You can stir fry, grill, barbecue, steam, bake and the most popular of them all, deep fry. If you love chicken, BBQ Chicken is the place to go for your love of chicken. Before I start my review, let me talk to you more about the restaurant. BBQ Chicken is a chain of casual restaurants that specialises in chicken and it originates from South Korea. There are a wide variety of chicken dishes available here such as fried chicken, pasta with chicken, fried rice with chicken and so much more. In this article, I will be showing you my experience at BBQ Chicken at Tampines 1, a neighbourhood mall located directly beside Tampines MRT Station.
A Look at the Menu
BBQ Chicken has a wide variety of items available for customers to enjoy. Not only that, there are also various promotions available. When I was there at the time, there was a Student Promotion, a promotion whereby you can select a main course and get a free item and also a promotion whereby you just have to pay one price with no additional service charges or GST. Since they have a wide variety of promotions, I suggest you to check out the promotions first before taking a peek at the menu. Who knows? You may get a good bargain. There will also be some promotional menus provided alongside the usual menu so do check that out first.
A Promotional Menu
Here is the promotional menu that they provided after I took a seat at the restaurant. The menu was called the Daily Set Meal Special whereby all the main dishes featured in this menu only costs S$12.90 nett. This means no extra service charge and no extra GST. Everything has already been settled with the S$12.90 price. If you want a set meal complete with some sides or desserts, you can top up an extra Soup of the Day, Ice Cream Sundae or whatever you want for an extra few dollars. It is still a great bargain to me. Like what I have mentioned earlier, there are also other promotions available. Also, the promotions will vary from time to time so I cannot guarantee you that this Daily Set Meal Special promotion will still exist when you read this.
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| Iced Hazelnut Latte |
Delicious Beverage
This was the first item that arrived on my table and it's called Iced Hazelnut Latte. It's actually not found on the official menu but it was featured on this tabletop menu. What do I mean by tabletop menu? Sometimes, there will be a plastic holder with a piece of paper sandwiched inside with some pictures of promotional items. That is what I call a tabletop menu. The tabletop menu at that time had this promotion whereby you only pay a few dollars for a Latte and you are given a choice of two lattes. I got the Iced Hazelnut Latte mainly because I like hazelnut and of course, I like lattes.
The Iced Hazelnut Latte was very sweet when I first took a sip of it and if you notice, you can see a little bit of the sugar on the bottom of the glass as seen above. However, I realised afterwards that I actually forgot to stir the beverage. After stirring it, it tasted like an actual coffee latte. For some of you, it may be too sweet for your liking. I could actually taste the delicious mix of coffee and the nutty flavour of the hazelnut so the beverage was delicious and refreshing. However, even after stirring, I still think that the drink was still a little bit too sweet. Since it's very sweet, I suggest you to not drink this by yourself. Get some straws and share it among the people around your table. It may be very sweet but it was definitely refreshing especially after hanging out during the hot day.
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| Olive Luxury Chicken |
The First Main Dish
Here at BBQ Chicken, it seems that one of their signature items is the Olive Luxury Chicken which is what I got. The Olive Luxury Chicken is basically made up of two pieces of fried chicken that have been deep fried with olive oil and two sides. You are free to choose any two sides for your main dish (this also applies to other main dishes) so I chose Fries and Rice. Carbo overload, I know. I did not think that Olive Oil can be used for deep frying but it seems that BBQ Chicken managed to do that successfully.
When the Olive Luxury Chicken first reached my table, I was quite surprised at the portions that were served. In the picture, it looked like two deep fried drumlets with some sides. I was wrong. In real life, the two pieces of chicken looked bigger than the ones shown in the picture in the menu. Of course, I had to take a bite into it. After taking a bite out of the chicken, the chicken was juicy, tender and it just melted in my mouth.
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| Olive Luxury Chicken |
Very Tender Piece of Meat
As you can see from the picture right above, the Olive Luxury Chicken was very juicy and tender. Furthermore, the portions were quite big. BBQ Chicken says that their chicken has been marinated for 24 hours with natural seasonings. All I can say is, I'm convinced because I could taste the seasonings that they mentioned. Of course, they don't reveal what goes in the seasonings since it's a secret. Anyway, the chicken was packed full of flavour and though it was quite oily, it was still enjoyable. Oh and did I mention that they were fried with Olive Oil? Yes, I didn't believe it either at first. The Olive Oil really gave the chicken even more flavour. What about the sides? Well, they are pretty normal to me. The thick cut fries tasted normal with no spices sprinkled all over and for the Olive Rice, it tasted a little bit like fried rice to me. Overall, if you are indeed a fried chicken lover, get the Olive Luxury Chicken. You will not regret it.
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| Mushroom Chicken Steak |
Delicious Grilled Piece of Chicken
This is another dish that I particularly like at BBQ Chicken. It's called the Mushroom Chicken Steak and it's also part of the promotional menu where you pay a certain price without paying an additional GST and service charge. They claimed that the Mushroom Chicken Steak is a grilled marinated piece of chicken steak with mushroom sauce poured all over. Think of it as a regular steak but smaller, made with chicken and has mushroom sauce poured all around it. The sides that come with it are Fries and Coleslaw. The chicken was not really that special although I do like the marinade that they used to marinate the chicken and for the mushroom sauce, it tasted not bad too. It was tender and juicy so it melted in my mouth easily just like the Olive Luxury Chicken.
If you want something that is grilled and not so spicy, do give the Mushroom Chicken Steak a try. If you want something with an extra kick, get the Black Pepper Chicken Steak which is basically the same thing but it's poured with black pepper sauce instead of Mushroom Sauce. Otherwise, you should get the Korean Traditional Charbroiled, another signature item of BBQ Chicken. Oh and how did the coleslaw taste like? Well, I am not a big fan of coleslaw so I did not try it unfortunately.
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| Cream Chicken 'n' Mushroom Pasta |
It's Time for Pasta
Apart from fried chicken and grilled chicken, BBQ Chicken restaurant also sells a wide variety of pastas along with rice, soups, snacks and so much more. Their full menu can be found in their official website which can be found at the bottom of this post. Back to the topic, another main dish that I got was this, the Cream Chicken 'n' Mushroom Pasta. It's basically a pasta dish with pieces of succulent chicken, mushrooms and lots of cream sauce. The pasta was not really that good. The cream sauce was too much that it looked almost like Cream of Mushroom and it did not pack so much flavour. I did taste a hint of mushroom flavour in the cream itself though so that can be the positive part of this dish. The pasta was quite little so it did not look like a very filling dish. I do not recommend you to get the Cream Chicken 'n' Mushroom Pasta because it was a very disappointing dish. Instead, get another pasta dish like the Seafood Aglio Olio, one of their signature items. Or any other dish for that matter. The chicken pieces on the other hand, were quite big and succulent so that can be another positive thing about this dish.
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| Olive Fried Rice with Korean Charbroiled |
A Twist to the Normal Fried Rice
Here is one more dish that I will talk about before wrapping this article up. This dish is called Olive Fried Rice with Korean Charbroiled and it combines fried rice with their signature Korean Charbroiled chicken. Unlike normal fried rice that you can find at hawker centres or coffeeshops, this one has been fried with Olive Oil so it tastes a little bit different that the usual fried rice. The Olive Fried Rice has been mixed with mixed vegetables like corn, peas and carrots along with some fresh prawns. The fried rice was indeed delicious.
I have never eaten fried rice that has been fried with olive oil before. Also, I'm not quite sure if it's healthier or not but hey, it does taste great. I don't really eat the prawns so I gave them to my sister instead. The Korean Charbroiled pieces of chicken tasted delicious too. I love the marinade that they used and the chicken was juicy. However, it was quite chewy. Despite all that, I recommend getting the Olive Fried Rice with Korean Charbroiled if you are a fan of fried rice and charbroiled chicken.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, my visit to BBQ Chicken was great. The service was good, not too many people were present in the restaurant, the food tasted good and the promotions made it possible for diners to have great meals at great deals. If you love the world's favourite meat, chicken, and you want to try it in a different way than usual, then do give BBQ Chicken a visit. They have a wide variety of chicken dishes along with other kinds of food like rice and pastas. It's a great casual family restaurant and you can find them almost everywhere around Singapore from Tampines to Ang Mo Kio to Hougang to Toa Payoh and so much more. Although the pasta was a disappointment, the other main dishes that I ordered were great-tasting.
Getting Here
Bus services available: Bus services from Tampines Bus Interchange
Nearest MRT Station: EW2 Tampines MRT Station (East West Line)
Website: http://www.bbq-chicken.com.sg/
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