Wise Guy [overlooking Chiobu’s shoulder as she wrote the review]: Why are you sending me photos of rice? No one wants to look at rice.

Wise Guy received Chiobu’s email submission. She wrote, “You BETTER feature my RICE!!!” Is Wise Guy the editor or not??

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It’s the Christmas season and you know how crowded Orchard Road gets at night, even on weekdays. Everybody seems to be heading to town after work to shop or have their annual gatherings with friends this season. Why everybody only meet in December? Yandao & I hate crowds and since we bought an online deal for Chatterbox that only allows us to utilize on weekdays, by the end of 2011, we decided to take time off from work to eat in peace.

We made reservations before heading down since it was stated in the deal. I reached promptly at 5pm and was given a window seat since the place was quite empty. It was pretty nice to watch the world go from the 5^th level of Mandarin Orchard, so when you call to make reservations, request for a table by the window. Yandao was late, so they served me my drink and left me alone. While idling my time away, I noticed that I was the only local! The people seated around me are all foreigners – Hong Kongers, Indonesians & Japanese! As much as I tried to eavesdrop on their conversations, I understood none of it. Boring. Anyway, when Yandao arrived, they brought the set out almost immediately! How initiative & attentive of the waiting staff. I like.

The deal includes Chatterbox Half Chicken, 2 bowls of rice, 1 seasonal vegetable, 2 drinks (soft drinks or beer), complimentary parking at Mandarin Orchard (for 2 hours only) for $36.52 excluding service charge & GST which sums up to about $42+. Pretty good deal since I heard that 1 plate of Chatterbox Chicken Rice is about $25. Furthermore, the car park charge for 2 hours is about $10.70.

The Half Chicken Set with generous portion of chicken

 Our Seasonal Vegetable was Dao Gay. Not too bad though I was hoping for 油菜 cos Dao Gay is so cheap. Dao Gay was soaked in sesame oil & was flavourful. There were mushrooms in them& I love mushrooms. They also removed the tails of the Dao Gay so thumbs up for effort they put in!

 Both Yandao and I were super disappointed by the chicken because the meat was tough. I was expecting tender, juicy chicken with the price people pay at this place. Chatterbox Chicken has nothing to rave about and I’ve had better chicken at many other places – Soup Restaurant, Boon Tong Kee, 925 Yishun Central and even Far East Shopping Centre. The good thing about this chicken is that it’s thoroughly cooked with no tinge of pinkness in the meat. Yandao can be pretty anal about blood in the food. Even though the chilli sauce had no kick, I liked it because I didn’t leave Chatterbox with garlic breath. I’m super conscious when it comes to eating Chicken Rice chilli because most places use too much garlic. No amount of mints will remove that garlic breath. It’s very embarrassing to let your colleagues or friends know what you had for lunch with your breath. Ack.

 The rice was a bit too dry and white for my liking. Chicken rice is meant to be oily and slightly buttery! And the best way to eat chicken rice is mix in black sauce with the yummilicious chicken sesame sauce. This is how chicken rice should always be eaten. Plain dry rice becomes awesome chicken rice after my concoction. You MUST do it too. Drench your rice with the 2 main ingredients and you will be as awesome as me. I mean, your chicken rice will be as awesome as mine.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Despite the good service, I will never return as a paying customer because of the price and standard.

Chatterbox Mandarin Orchard
Operating Hours
Sunday – Thursday: 10.00am – 1.00am
Friday, Saturday & eve of public holiday: 10.00am – 2.00am
Enquiries: 6831 6288/91
Email: dine.orchard@meritushotels.com
333 Orchard Road, Level 5 Mandarin Orchard Singapore, Singapore

Rating: 2.993/ 5 stars