COVID-19 has put a dampener on F&B businesses in Singapore, but some popular eateries are still expanding their presence here. Like Taiwanese comedian Nono’s Monga fried chicken chain, which opens its third franchised outlet today (March 9) at SingPost Centre. On top of being the brand’s first dine-in outlet, it also serves its own version of Hainanese chicken rice (Nono’s favourite local dish). 8days.sg gets a sneak peek of the space and food — read on for our review.

The first-floor unit is decked out in Monga’s signature street style aesthetics, with neon signage and a gigantic cartoon logo of Nono’s face. The man himself was supposed to make an appearance at the opening, but had to cancel his trip due to the coronavirus outbreak.

There are 25 seats here, though it’s all rather cramped. But we foresee the eatery being a hit with the office crowd looking for a quick, fuss-free and wallet-friendly meal — there was already a small queue forming during our visit at lunchtime earlier today.

Other than its popular Taiwanese fried chicken cutlets, Monga’s dine-in outlet also offers two types of Rice Boxes, which come with your choice of fried chicken or nuggets, achar, and house-made Hainanese chicken rice and chilli sauce. Each box is priced at a reasonable $6.90.

Other than the rice boxes, the SingPost Centre outlet also exclusively serves bubble tea too (!!!), thanks to a bigger kitchen space that allows its staff to prepare the drinks. Due to space constraint, the BBT is not available at Monga’s Ion Orchard and Jem takeaway kiosk outlets.

From March 10 to March 15, Monga SingPost Centre is offering an opening promotion where you can top up just $0.10 for chicken rice, achar, chilli sauce and a drink when you buy any Monga Fried Chicken Cutlet.

This takeaway-friendly box of chicken rice is what Nono would make if he was asked to revamp Singapore’s most beloved hawker dish. For $6.90, you get two big pieces of bone-in crispy fried chicken thigh and breast, a small serving of Hainanese chicken rice in a paper cup, a heap of achar and the proprietary chilli sauce. First, the rice — unlike the traditional chicken rice where jasmine grains are dry-fried with chicken fat for rich, albeit greasy, flavour, the rice here is cooked with chicken broth boiled with chicken bones, lemongrass, ginger, onions and fresh pandan leaves.

“The fried chicken already has some grease, so we didn’t want to add chicken [fat] to the rice as it would be too oily for some customers,” says Monga’s local franchise boss Lem Chong, whose F&B company Baoshi Group also runs the franchised mall outlets for famed homegrown chicken rice chain Wee Nam Kee. (But nope, Monga’s proprietary chicken rice recipe is not adapted from Wee Nam Kee’s version).

Fortunately, the al-dente chicken rice here is still fragrant and infused with distinctive chicken flavour, though we miss the greasy shiokness of good hawker centre chicken rice. But it does go well with the fried chicken, which boasts plump, succulent meat and crispy (if a tad dry) skin.

Monga is also particularly proud of its house chilli sauce, a concoction made with bird’s eye chilli, garlic, lemongrass and a “secret ingredient”. The sauce is now available at Monga’s two other outlets. It’s not very spicy, or as diluted as your average kopitiam chicken rice stall’s chilli sauce, but has just the right amount of viscosity for dipping your fried chook in. Our grouse is that it’s too sweet. Skip the dry, bland pineapple, cucumber and carrot achar.

This box is similar to the Crispy Chicken one mentioned above, except it comes with six pieces of ‘Monga Nuggets’. They are quite different from the usual pale brown McNuggets though. These nuggets are more like golden, bite-sized pieces of fried boneless chicken thigh meat. It’s not as crackly as the Crispy Chicken, but we like its delicate crispiness. It’s also easier to scoop up the fried nuggets with rice.

KFC has its two-piece meal, and Monga has this two-piece combo with its Crispy Chicken, plus your choice of French fries or sweet potato fries, a lettuce salad with sesame dressing and a soda beverage. We suppose it’s marginally healthier if you order your meal with sweet potato fries and finish the salad, but it’s frankly not as satisfying as chowing down on KFC’s creamy coleslaw and whipped potato sides. We suggest ordering the chicken rice box instead — the rice is worthier of the extra calories.

What’s a Taiwanese fried chicken makan session without bubble tea? Monga Singapore has brought in the brand’s BBT drinks, which are also available in its native Taiwan. There are two flavours offered, an oolong tea-based Black Dragon and a matcha-spiked Green Dragon.

The Black Dragon cup comes with oolong tea, fresh milk, caramelised brown sugar syrup and a dollop of black tapioca pearls. We enjoy the robust, aromatic oolong tea with just a hint of milkiness. While the sugar level is fixed, the mildly caramelly BBT is not too sweet.

The Green Dragon is similar to the Black Dragon, with additional matcha powder that makes the concoction thicker and nicer to sip on. But there is just too much matcha, and it’s too bitter for us to finish.

We find Monga’s gigantic, scaldingly hot takeaway fried chicken cutlets extremely challenging to hold and eat on the go (unless you have Ironman’s armoured hands), so the dine-in concept is a welcome change. You can sit down and enjoy a meal there at leisure — its new chicken rice is a cute and decent Taiwanese take on our local chicken rice, and the bubble tea is pretty satisfying. We would prefer a less sweet version of the chilli sauce, though.

#01-131 SingPost Centre, S408600. Open daily 11am-9.30pm. www.facebook.com/mongasingapore.

PHOTOS: KELVIN CHIA​​​​​​​