Chicken rice with a view

Having a plate of chicken rice will no longer be a mundane affair , especially if it’s Meritus Mandarin’s famous dish.

Diners will enjoy a spectacular view of the city as they tuck in to their meal because Chatterbox, the restaurant that serves it, will move to a new location on the Orchard Road hotel’s top two floors.

The 38th and 39th floors used to house the Top of the M revolving restaurant.

The Mandarin chicken rice consists of specially-bred chicken, fragrant rice, special-graded soya sauce as well as homemade chilli sauce and grounded ginger.

The dish has won awards such as My Favourite Local Dish bestowed by the then Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1994 and 1995, and the best chicken rice award for My Favourite Dish Poll conducted by the board in 1996.

Chatterbox’s move is a temporary one and it is part of the hotel’s revamp. It plans to expand the Mandarin Gallery, which will feature two-storey high window displays to attract shoppers on the walkway. The walkway is due to be widened as part of the Orchard Road makeover.

Starting next week, the revamp will cost $146 million and will be completed by mid-2009.

The restaurant was previously in the lobby on the ground floor of the hotel’s South Tower – a space it had occupied since 1981.

Director of marketing communications Lim Ee Jin said that the post-renovation location of Chatterbox was still being worked out. Unlike Top of the M, a French fine dining restaurant, Chatterbox will not be revolving, Ms Lim added.

“We (Chatterbox) serve buffets, and because of the way buffets are set up, it will not be revolving,” she said.

Chatterbox will retain its old red furniture, and its dining layout will be arranged to ensure that every customer can enjoy the city view through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

The price of its chicken rice will remain unchanged at $21.50 during weekdays and $23.50 on weekends, said Ms Lim.

Chatterbox claims to have been the first to serve local hawker fare in a hotel, in 1971. Though several hotels also serve upmarket local hawker food today, Chatterbox remains famous for its Mandarin chicken rice.

In 2006, the hotel retrenched Mr Steven Low, a chef who helped create the famous Chatterbox dish, when a new management came in. Mr Low went on to set up his own chicken rice stall in Pasir Ris.

New chef Kelvin Lim was formerly from Hilton Singapore, and he joined Chatterbox in October 2005, said Ms Lim.

Still, for some diners like investment director Tan Song Kwang, 61, the view at the new location is not an important factor.

Mr Tan, who dines at Chatterbox once a week, said: “I go more for the company and the food, like the famous chicken rice.”

This article was first published in my paper, March 14, 2008