The Chicken Rice - Santa Ana

This place was hard to find since it was inside a food court, 4th St Lab. I had Hainan chicken, which was moist and tasty. The sauce for it was interesting. I also had Drunken Noodle. It was a bit spicy, but not as spicy as I normally like. Good flavor, and it actually had something that I do not normally see in a Drunken Noodle dish. I don't know what it's called, but it looks like unripened or green pepper. The seating was in the common area. I had to bring my own tray to the trash bins.

This place gets 1 point for being one of the few places in OC that even serves Hainan Chicken Rice, and 4 more for doing it pretty damn well. I got a combo with the Hainan Chicken and Fried Chicken and both were cooked satisfyingly well. Everything from the rice to the soup and sauces were spot on in flavor and made for one compact and delicious meal. This is easily my favorite spot now at 4th Street Market, with that sandwich spot coming in a close second. I know there are some people who just won't be satisfied until they find Hawker stand or Savoy level Hainanese Chicken, but this is OC folks. And for me, this is as good as it gets right now.

I've been back one other time and I do not like the steamed chicken I think next time I would try the fried chicken however the ginger rice and soup are so good! So good I added a star to my last review. I'm all about second chances I would try the fried chicken some time to see how I really feel about it.

Located at the 4th Street Market as part of Tuk Tuk Thai food. Personal OC favorite for hainen chicken. Not as dank as savoy, but not bad. Hainen chicken uses dark meat so it be juicy. Ginger scallion sauce has a lot of ginger which I like. Comes with a soup too which is nice. Rice is aight. Crispy chicken is really good and has a beer battered like breading. Can't go wrong with chicken and rice tbh. I personally come by maybe once a month or more for lunch.

I was really looking forward to this based on all the Yelp reviews but I felt really let down. I ordered the steamed hainan chicken rice (with ginger rice. . Also ordered the Yat Hai fried chicken and their fried hainan chicken. The Yat Hai fried chicken was really tough and dry... like jerky dry. The bone-in pieces were cut into smaller pieces so it's hard to tell what part of the chicken the piece is from, especially since it was all so dark from over-frying. When biting into this, I got a shard of bone which was not enjoyable. Totally unimpressed with this. The fried hainan chicken was good. Not overly breaded. The steamed hainan chicken was all right but seemed a bit on the dryer side. It's a good thing for the sauces (but I have grown up eating hainanese chicken rice plain so adding in the sauce for me was not a huge plus. Unfortunately I will not be returning for the chicken rice from here. I only came here because The Hainan Chicken Rice in Irvine was not taking orders today (and I did not feel like turning on the stove to make it myself in this heat so I thought I'd try something new.