Office workers, grandmas in bright-pink raincoats, local retirees. The crowd spilling over from the eight tables opposite the counter at this family-run stall in the Mandarin Centre food court is broad, but the one thing connecting them is their appetite for East West Gourmet’s famed “number eight”: Hainanese chicken rice. Poached slowly, splashed with soy, hit with ginger-shallot sauce and finished with a spoonful of chilli, East West’s rendition is mega, the soup delicate and aromatic, the rice slick with chicken fat.

The only catch? It’s so popular, the thigh is guaranteed to sell out. Pick breast instead, or dig into the backlit menu and discover other pleasures. Laksa packing heat and funk, velvet white fish lolling in a fiery broth, smoked salmon fried rice, or tangy salmon-head noodle soup, served with a flash-fried head. Like East West itself, it reveals more of itself the deeper you go.

Must-order dish: “Number Eight”: Hainanese chicken rice.

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