12 October 2011

for the love of chicken: Kenny Rogers Roasters

Oh, boy. This is one of my most delayed blog entries for the month. Life has been pretty overwhelming that sometimes, my blog entries pile up. I am going to change that today.

A few, or should I say, weeks ago, Gus and I decided to have a simple lunch date in Kenny Rogers. We still haven't changed. It took us a couple of rounds, and a dozen restaurants, before finally deciding to eat at Kenny Rogers. One of the factors that made me choose KRR was my desire to try their version of a famous Chinese dish: the Hainanese Chicken.

We started off with Kenny Rogers's Side Sampler. A side sampler consists of three side dishes and a muffin. We chose the Chicken Noodle Soup, which was really good. It was creamy, and very flavorful, and it had a lot of real chicken chunks, and vegetables; potato salad, and macaroni salad, both of which were good enough to be called potato and macaroni salad, respectively. The last two side dishes didn't give us a WOW moment, but the taste was good enough for us to be able to finish it. It didn't taste bland, like other potato or macaroni salads I've tasted, but I'm still biased towards KFC's macaroni salad, and Gus's mom's potato salad.

 
Chicken Noodle Soup

Macaroni Salad, Potato Salad, Corn Muffin

Kenny's Side Sampler
(P135)

Gus wanted to go healthy and ordered their Grilled Fish Fillet. They actually cook it upon ordering so that made it even better. Healthy and fresh! 

Healthy Living!

Grilled Fish Fillet
(P175)

The dish came with one free side dish, and Gus got coleslaw to go with his meal. According to Gus, the fish was definitely healthy. Its flavor was that of the fish and the grill only. There was no hint of other added flavors, oils, nothing. Just the natural flavor of the fish and the grill. The sauce that came with the fish tasted weird, though. It tasted somewhat sour, and salty at the same time. You can definitely do without it, unless you're okay tasting the weird flavor of the sauce. The fish is good enough on its own.

And finally, the star of our lunch. The Hainanese Chicken. 

Hainanese Chicken Rice
(P185)

The chicken came with soup, sauces, and chicken rice. True to what the ads are saying, the chicken was indeed fall-off-the-bone tender. It didn't take much to get the chicken off its bone. The meat was very tender, though it didn't taste like the usual Hainanese chicken. I think it lacked the gingery flavor I always notice in Hainanese Chicken dishes. We also didn't know how to use the sauces, what they were for. Do we mix them together? Use them separately? Was each sauce used for a specific part of the dish, i.e. the ginger sauce for the chicken, the dark soy sauce for the rice? This was all something new to the both us. Even if Gus was Chinese, he also didn't know what to do with the sauces. The only way I knew how Hainanese Chicken was served was without the sauces -- ginger-flavored chicken served on top of the Hainanese rice. Nevertheless, the sauces were okay. They did compliment the chicken, I just wasn't used to it.

Overall, it was a satisfying meal. Just not what I expected with the Hainanese Chicken, but, it was still an enjoyable meal. 


Price Range: P205-225/person

3 out of 5 for Kenny Rogers Roasters

Kenny Rogers Roasters
M1 Level, Trinoma
North Ave. cor EDSA
Quezon City, Philippines
Phone Number: (02) 533 8888

Contact details courtesy of: http://www.munchpunch.com/5902/kenny-rogers-roasters-trinoma

No comments:

Post a Comment