Lee Fun Nam Kee Chicken Rice & Restaurant (李范南记鸡饭)

Blk 94 Toa Payoh Lorong 4

#01-04, Singapore 310094

Tel: 6255-0891

Brought to my knowledge by my dad, one great foodie. (*^^*)

Top: Open kitchen at the restaurant. Left: Restaurant setting
Food pictures (Clockwise from top-left): Soya sauce chicken, Dumpling soup, Char Siew

Soya Sauce Chicken & Hainanese White Chicken ($15) – Two styles of chicken covered in special brown soya sauce

Their signature dish – the soya sauce chicken, is prepared using more than 10 types of Chinese herbs together with their secret traditional recipe that was formulated by the founder and refined over the years.

The meat was tender and the specially prepared brown soya sauce complemented well. However, I did not taste any obvious traces of Chinese herbs.

They also sell Hainanese white chicken, which I think was prepared pretty well too.

I like chicken breastmeat but it is not easy to find chicken rice stalls that prepare it well. Most of the time, the meat often end up being overcooked, tough and dry. Lee Fun Nam Kee restaurant (LFNK) handled this pretty well though; the chicken breastmeat was tender and succulent. Chewing them was rather effortless.

Char Siew ($11) – Barbecued pork splattered with dark soya sauce

The char siew was barbecued skilfully, with the top layer crispy, flavourful and lightly burnt (though some minor parts were pretty badly burnt). The white interior was quite tender but a little too dry.

This dish did not impress me. Unlike the Hainanese white chicken which rested in a highly noticeable oil pool, the char siew was spared from drowning in it.

Dumpling Soup ($4) – Dumplings made from shrimps and chicken minced meat

Unlike usual dumplings which are filled with minced pork, LFNK leveraged on their strength – the chicken, and introduced chicken dumplings instead, a good alternative to red meat.

The chicken dumplings were succulent but tasted pretty average. Though the soup was sweet and tasty, the dumplings did not quite absorb the rich stock well enough. However, it is commendable that they loaded the dumplings with generous fillings of minced chicken and shrimps, making them big, fat and yummy-looking.

The soup also comes with a token amount of vegetables. There were about 8 dumplings given, doing a quick math suggests that they charge 50 cents per piece, pretty reasonably priced I think.

Vegetables in oyster sauce ($10) – Chinese vegetables (chye sim) bathed in oyster sauce and lard

The chye sim vegetable was well-cooked and crunchy but the sauce killed it. It was too salty and oily for my liking. The leafy greens were basically served in a pool of oil base, topped with oyster sauce and a generous serving of lard that added the extra crunch.

Rice ($1)

Choice of plain white rice or Hainanese chicken rice. Their Hainanese chicken rice was fragrant and tasty. The rice was cooked just right, not too dry or wet, though a little oily. You might think that non-oily chicken rice is an oxymoron, but I assure you that I have tasted good chicken rice that is not too oily yet still as fragrant.

My Verdict

Food/Drink (3/5)

The selections offered was pretty limited as their main focus is on their signature soya sauce chicken and siu mei (barbequed/roasted meat), namely char siew, pork-ribs, crispy roasted pork and Hong-Kong style roasted duck. For vegetables, LFNK only serves chye sim and bean sprouts.

They also offer dumpling soup (refer to above commentary) as well as double boiled soups (炖汤) like water grass pork ribs (西洋菜排骨汤) and authentic Hainanese mutton soup(海南羊肉汤).

Other side dishes include homemade ngo hiang (海鲜五香卷), Hainanese stewed pork belly (海南焖五花肉), thai style deep fried beancurd and deep fried shrimp dumpling.

Overall, I think their famous soya sauce chicken is a must-try, while the rest are of pretty average standards.

Price Tag (3/5)

I do not have transparency on their pricing as they do not have any menu but only one or two boards scribbled with the names of a few dishes. They also do not go by the usual sizes of small/medium/large servings. Instead, they apportion the serving in accordance to the number of diners.

But based on my own receipt, it suggests that the food is more expensive than a typical zi char stall, and priced as a low to mid-range neighbourhood restaurant.

Milieu (3/5)

Located at the ground level of a HDB flat in the heartland of Toa Payoh, the restaurant occupies somewhat like an entire space of a typical coffeeshop. It looks newly renovated with an overall clean and sleek feel, while retaining a traditional Chinese character. At the extreme left of the coffeeshop is an open kitchen with large see-through glass panels to showcase the beautifully roasted meats and food preparers hard at work.

A point to note: The restaurant is open-air and not air-conditioned. Though well ventilated with electric fans, it can get pretty warm dinning in on a typical hot Singapore weather.

Personal Touch (2/5)

It was quite tough getting the attention of the waiters/waitresses. One of them found us seats but left hurriedly to attend to the requests of others. When we asked one of the passing staffs for the menu, the staff retorted that “There is no menu.” in Chinese and walked away. I thought they could perhaps offer some recommendations of their dishes instead.

When making our order, we were asked if we would like to have char siew. We declined but that somehow ended up in our order. We took it in anyway, thinking that we might as well give it a try.

The restaurant was packed with the weekend lunch crowd as we went during the peak hours, but I guess the staffs can learn to deal better with busy periods and do with friendlier smiles, be more approachable and welcoming.

Other information

The Chinese restaurant has a long history dating back to 1968 when Mr Lee Nam founded this specialty restaurant, and was one of the early pioneers to offer soya sauce chicken rice in the lion city.

Going back for more?

I will go back only for the soya sauce chicken.

Type: Restaurant

Cuisine: Local, Chinese, Asian

Wallet Size: Average $14 per pax

Operating hours:
Daily 11am - 3pm, 5pm – 9pm