Chanced upon Happenstance Western Food’s Instagram account quite some time back and got fairly intrigued by their Cornflake Chicken, but never really made the visit to this Muslim-run establishment considering how they were located at Joo Chiat back then. They had since moved to a coffeeshop that is located within Woodlands within the industrial building of E9 Premium, which isn’t located too far away from a bunch of HDB flats around the outskirts of Woodlands Crescent leading up to Woodlands Avenue 9 and Gambas Avenue — rather accessible by a couple of buses from Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange; and that’s how I managed to finally check them out.

On first sight, the Cornflake Chicken that we had on the day of the visit didn’t seem to carry as much cornflakes as what I have seen from photos both uploaded by them on their Instagram page, as well as those who have patronised their stall. That being said, the cornflakes does give the pan-fried chicken a crunch that was beyond what a traditional panko-crumb chicken cutlet would have carried — a crispier texture with more bite to crunch on, and quite a unique experience to the otherwise usual chicken chop or cutlets that one can easily get elsewhere. That being said, the chicken here seemed a little bit bland here; can’t really feel much of brining here with the savoury notes of the meat feeling like they were abruptly cut off somewhere, though thankfully the chicken was actually pretty juicy and tender. Fries were decent but nothing much to shout about either, though we note that there was a slight deviation with our order given how we have seen others being served with criss-cut fries as opposed to the straight cut fries that came with our order.

Perhaps one of the more average Western fare I have tasted in recent times; a bit of a shame considering that the idea of the Cornflake Chicken could be quite novel if the execution of the chicken and fries could be further improved for more flavour — more flavourful chicken, perhaps with a spice rub involving turmeric, and criss-cut fried seasoned with either Cajun or slightly more salt. Still, an interesting idea — though it is really difficult to justify making the trip down to this “ulu” spot in an already “ulu” part of the island to most; that will be your call to make.