Wee Nam Kee

One of the most talked about restaurants nowadays in the vicinity of Makati is called Wee Nam Kee. Wee Nam Kee is a franchise from a hawker stall in Singapore which is very popular for serving Hainanese Chicken Rice. Personally, when I visit Singapore's hawker areas (there are several), I prefer to go and queue up for the Laksa located near Fook Hai Building in Chinatown. Laksa, for me, has more character and flavors than Hainanese Chicken Rice (but then, I digress from what this blog is all about). Anyway, its amazing how the franchisees of the Philippine Wee Nam Kee transformed it into a proper restaurant here in the Philippines compared it to being a hawker stall in Singapore.

So as I mentioned in my previous blog, I had the chance to eat at Wee Nam Kee with my good friend Eon as I happened to be in the vicinity of the restaurant last Wednesday.

First of all, allot enough time when you want to eat at Wee Nam Kee because you will definitely have to queue up to get a table. Fortunately, Eon was there ahead of me and was able to secure a table by the time I arrived at the restaurant. Ordering was easy since everybody knows that they are supposed to be the best in Hainanese Chicken Rice (steamed). I also ordered a Personal Set (includes rice and soup) of Roasted Chicken and a plate of Cereal Prawns (been hearing great reviews about the prawns so was curious to try it plus I count prawns as one of my favorite food items).

I expected the chicken dishes to arrive first since the prawns were an additional order but surprisingly, the prawns arrived first. A plate of cereal prawns includes 4 medium to large sized prawns with cereal flakes and red chili slices. I was excited to bite into my prawns as I am a big big fan of prawns (and mussels).

It's suggested that you eat the shell with the prawns but I opted to do the normal way of eating prawns by only eating the meat without the shell. Then grabbing a spoonful of the cereal/chili flake combination and eating it with the prawn was just pure goodness. The dish was as good as advertised. Up to this point, everything was going perfectly and the restaurant was living up to its popularity.

Now here comes the tricky part. If you are eating while reading this or you have a weak stomach, please stop right here!

I was ready to attack my second piece when lo and behold, what should be hiding underneath the flakes and shell...

Now to take a closer look...

There's a strand of hair on my prawn! Any normal person would lose appetite once one sees a strand of hair on one's food and I'm no exemption to that rule. I hurriedly called out the waiter and showed him the 'evidence'. He was very apologetic about it and looked quite sincere. Normally, I would have been upset but the logical part of my brain was telling me that this was no fault of his so I just let it go. He grabbed the plate with the remaining offending prawns and promised to replace them with a plate of newly cooked prawns.

While waiting for the prawns to arrive, our chicken dishes arrived. The waiter apologized to us for the late delivery of the chicken dishes and his explanation was that the cutter was not around (during a peak hour period?????)

Both chicken dishes look good enough to eat but what I really ordered was the roasted one for myself. Hainanese chicken for me is the same everywhere around.

My observation of the roasted chicken was that it was a little bit dry. And the chicken slices looked a bit smaller than the steamed one although this could just be my imagination and I'm sure the kitchen staff do weigh the chicken portion. The taste was good enough but honestly, it was not exceptional. Perhaps its because I've tried a lot of roasted chicken dishes in most parts of Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore,etc) that my taste buds have become jaded?

Next up was the infamous steamed chicken. It was juicier than the roasted one, due to perhaps being a steamed dish. The taste was good as it should be since this was their piece de resistance. But as I mentioned earlier, Hainanese chicken doesn't do anything for me.

The only saving grace for me on the steamed chicken was the trio of sauces associated with Hainanese Chicken rice. You mix together the sweet soy sauce, ginger and chili sauce to create a delicious sauce worthy of flavoring a bland chicken.

The chicken order came with a cup of rice and a bowl of chicken stock soup. I must say that I loved the rice. I'm not a big fan of eating rice but I could have finished ordered additional rice if I was a glutton. I didn't but I was so tempted.

The soup tasted like your ordinary chicken stock soup but what stopped me from finishing it was the fact that I found a small strand of hair on it (looked like a hair from one's eye lashes). I told the waiter about my double luck that day with regards to body hair getting into my food but managed to keep it cool and also managed to finished the second order of my Cereal Chicken.

So was all the hype worth it? In my humble opinion, eating there once was already enough to last me a lifetime.

Wee Nam Kee

Ayala Triangle Gardens

Makati Avenue
Makati City

Tel: (+632) 8468924