I am back in Melbourne after five long years. I have really missed the city and it is great to be back. I was walking around the city to get my bearings again, and I found this place that sells one of my top five dishes, Chicken Rice. However, it sells the Thai version, which I have not tried before, so I went in to have some lunch.

I discovered that you can order the chicken two ways, which pleased me. You can get half poached and the other half deep-fried. Unfortunately, here, you have to use a QR code and produce an Australian number, which I don’t have as I was using an eSIM. So I had to go to the counter to order, which they didn’t seem pleased with me doing.

The chicken came out, and I was excited to try it. The dish came with two sauces, a sweet chilli sauce and the other one I didn’t try as it looked like it had peanuts in it. Both chickens were presented and cooked really nicely. The poach was moist and had some excellent flavour, and it didn’t need any sauce. The deep-fried chicken was nice and crispy, and the sweet chilli sauce complimented it perfectly. The rice was so tasty, and you could taste the garlic and chicken stock they used to cook it. the soup was also very good and was nice to have as a bit of an extra.

Overall, it is an excellent place to have chicken rice. Personally, I am not a fan of sweet chilli sauce, primarily how people use it in New Zealand. However, it went really well with this chicken. If I had access to the dish in Wellington and cocked this way, I would have it at least once a week.

Instagram: Khao Man Gai Restaurant