Cơm gà Hải Nam — Vietnamese-style Hainanese chicken rice — is available at several Philadelphia Vietnamese restaurants, often listed simply as chicken rice. The dish is a staple of Vietnamese casual dining, and the South Philly Vietnamese corridor delivers solid versions with fragrant rice and proper ginger-scallion sauce.
Pho Nam Giang top-pick
Pho Nam Giang's St Vincent St location understands the chicken rice format: fragrant chicken-flavored rice, poached chicken, and the essential ginger-scallion dipping sauce. The kitchen's rice plates demonstrate the same care that makes their noodle soups reliable.
Saigon Quy Bau best-value
Saigon Quy Bau's menu features broken rice plates as top sellers, and their chicken rice is equally reliable. The rice is properly cooked in chicken broth, the chicken is tender, and the accompanying sauces are well-balanced. The South Street location brings Vietnamese rice plates to a wider audience.
Pho Viet Huong hidden-gem
Pho Viet Huong applies the same rice-cooking skill to their chicken rice as they do to their broken rice plates. The rice is fragrant, the chicken is poached to silky tenderness, and the dipping sauce has the right ginger-garlic punch that makes this dish sing.nnHainanese chicken rice may not get the spotlight that pho does, but Philadelphia's Vietnamese restaurants serve it with the fragrant rice and tender chicken that makes it an essential lunch plate.