> Quick view: On the 18th of every month it is Chicken Rice Day at The Chicken Rice Shop — one quarter chicken for RM1.80, service charge and SST already included. The next one is Sunday 18 October 2026 — and because it lands on a Sunday, the weekday set menus that normally block it are all off. You need the sedapZ app, you need at least two people at the table, you have to eat in, and you get one order per bill. Three outlets are excluded.

A promotion that has been hiding in plain sight

Most Malaysian chain promotions arrive with a burst of social posts and vanish inside a fortnight. The Chicken Rice Shop's Chicken Rice Day is the opposite: it is a standing monthly offer, it has been on the brand's own website long enough to feel like furniture, and a surprising number of regulars still walk past it.

The offer itself is simple. On the 18th of each month, one quarter chicken — ordered a la carte, not as part of a set — costs RM1.80. The brand's promotions page states it plainly: on the 18th of the month, enjoy one 1/4 chicken (a la carte) for just RM1.80, redeemed via the sedapZ app.

What makes it worth writing about rather than just retweeting is the gap between the headline and the terms. The poster is cheerful and short. The small print underneath it is where the actual rules live, and it answers questions the headline raises.

The RM1.80 is a real RM1.80

Start with the part that is unambiguously good. The published terms state that all prices are inclusive of Service Charge and Service Tax (SST). That matters more than it sounds. A RM1.80 item advertised the usual way — before a 10% service charge and 8% SST — would land closer to RM2.14 on the bill. Here, RM1.80 is what you pay.

You also get a genuine choice of preparation rather than whatever is left in the tray. The terms specify steamed, roasted or soy sauce chicken for this promotion. If you want a drumstick portion specifically, the poster allows it for an extra RM1.00, taking the item to RM2.80 — still inclusive of tax and service charge.

What the promotion does not include is everything else on the table. The quarter chicken is a la carte, so the chicken rice itself, any soup, vegetables and drinks are charged at normal menu prices. Be aware that The Chicken Rice Shop's online menu is a picture menu with no prices printed on it, and the chain publishes no full nationwide price list. Its promotion posters are the exception — the Good Lunch, Everyday Breakfast, Good Tea Time, Dinner Picks and Personal Meal Box artwork all carries exact figures, and we have pulled those out below — but the a la carte menu you will be ordering the rest of the meal from does not. Budget for a normal meal with one very cheap item in it, not for a RM1.80 lunch.

How to actually claim it on the day

There is no coupon to print and no code to quote at the counter. The route runs entirely through sedapZ, the loyalty app that covers The Chicken Rice Shop along with Sukiya, DubuYo, Ichiban Ramen, Sepiring and Che Go.

  1. Download sedapZ and register an account before you go. The promotion is stated as exclusive to sedapZ members and only valid via the app, so an unregistered walk-in cannot claim it at the till.
  2. Go with at least one other person. The terms are explicit: the promotion is valid only when there is a minimum of 2 pax at the table. This is checked at the table, not at the app.
  3. Open the promotion in the app and add the voucher before you order. Tell the staff you are redeeming Chicken Rice Day when you order, rather than producing it after the bill is printed — a promotion tied to one receipt is far harder to fix afterwards.
  4. Eat in. The offer is dine-in only, and the terms state strictly no takeaways for unconsumed food under this promotion. If you cannot finish it, you cannot box it.

While you are in the app, note that sedapZ also runs a standard points scheme at RM1 = 1 point across those six brands, redeemable for vouchers. The points you earn on that bill are separate from the Chicken Rice Day redemption itself.

The one line worth reading twice

Here is the wrinkle. The website copy invites you to bring a friend so that both of you get to savour a quarter chicken for RM1.80. The poster repeats the invitation: bring a friend to enjoy it.

The small print, however, states that each table is entitled to one order per visit per bill/receipt only, and that no splitting of bills and tables is allowed.

Those two readings are not the same thing. One suggests two discounted quarter chickens for a pair; the other reads as one discounted quarter chicken per table, with the second person present to satisfy the minimum-2-pax rule. We are not going to resolve it for you by guessing — the honest answer is that the marketing line and the terms pull in different directions, and the terms are what the till enforces.

Ask when you order. Say plainly: "Two of us — is it one RM1.80 chicken for the table, or one each?" It costs nothing to ask and it prevents the most predictable version of disappointment at this particular promotion.

Where it does not work

The terms name three outlets where Chicken Rice Day is not valid:

  • The Chicken Rice Shop Genting Highlands Premium Outlets
  • KLIA2 International Departure Hall
  • Gateway@KLIA2

The pattern is obvious enough — captive-audience locations at an airport and a highland outlet mall. Everywhere else, the terms say participating outlets, which is standard chain wording and means the branch you have in mind is very likely in but is not contractually guaranteed. The chain's own Find Us page is split into Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern and East Malaysia sections, so this is a genuinely nationwide offer rather than a Klang Valley one.

On a weekday, from 10am to 10pm, something else is always excluding it

This is the clause that spoils most Chicken Rice Days, and it is the reason 18 October is the round worth diarising. On any ordinary weekday The Chicken Rice Shop fills the trading day with promotional menus end to end, and each of them locks the RM1.80 chicken out from its own side. 18 October 2026 is a Sunday, so that wall is not there. Read this section as what you are escaping — and the next one for the three places where it still stands.

That schedule is a wall. The Chicken Rice Day terms say the offer is not applicable with any other coupon, promotional offer or discounted item — and each weekday day-part menu restates the same exclusion from its own side, in its own poster's fine print:

  • Everyday Breakfast, 8am–10am (7am at KLIA2, Senai International Airport and Subang Skypark; 7.30am at The Exchange 106 @ TRX) — the only one of the four whose poster prints no exclusion clause. It also runs at just 14 named outlets.
  • Good Lunch, 10am–3pm — "Good Lunch sets are not applicable with any discount, promotion or coupon."
  • Good Tea Time, 3pm–6pm — "Not applicable with any discount, promotion & coupon."
  • Dinner Picks, 6pm–10pm — "Dinner Picks sets are not applicable with any discount, promotion or coupon."

So the exclusion is not a lunchtime quirk. From 10am until close, whatever set menu is running has already ruled out the RM1.80 chicken, and Chicken Rice Day rules it out from the other end regardless of the hour. Treat the whole day as pick-one.

Sunday 18 October: every weekday set is off — with three exceptions

The three day-part menus that do the excluding are weekday promotions in the brand's own words: Good Lunch runs "every weekday from 10am till 3pm", Good Tea Time "from 3pm till 6pm every weekday", and Dinner Picks on weekday evenings, 6pm to 10pm. On a Sunday not one of them is on the board. Chicken Rice Day's own fine print, by contrast, names no weekday restriction at all — only the sedapZ app, two pax, dine-in, one order per bill and the three excluded outlets. That makes October's round an unusually clean one: the RM1.80 quarter chicken is the cheapest promotional price in the restaurant and there is no set meal to weigh it against.

The Good Lunch Lagi Best ladder goes with it. Its free items are pinned to named weekdays — Kerabu Mango on Monday, a free Savers set on Tuesday, Curry Chicken (R) on Wednesday, half-price single-serve chicken on Thursday, a large Nyonya Pai Tee on Friday — so a Sunday table has no gift line to forgo. In September a table of three was better off buying three Good Lunch sets and taking the free Pai Tee than sharing the one RM1.80 portion a bill allows. In October that trade-off does not exist.

Three things still stand between you and a clean run:

  • Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu. The state weekend in those three is Friday–Saturday, and the Good Lunch poster excludes only weekends and public holidays as respected by the state. Sunday is an ordinary working day there, so Good Lunch is likely to be running as normal and you are back to choosing one. Ask at the counter before you order. Everywhere else on the peninsula, and in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan, Sunday is the state weekend.
  • The minimum-2-pax rule lands on the busiest lunch of the week. Sunday midday is when family tables fill a chicken rice restaurant. The two-person minimum is the easiest condition to meet on a Sunday and the queue is what you pay for it. An early lunch or a 3–5pm visit is the quieter play, and on a Sunday there is no Good Tea Time menu to nudge you off the a la carte page.
  • The RM16.90 Merdeka combo, which carries the same exclusion clause and has now outlived its campaign window — see the next section.

One footnote carried over from the weekday analysis: the Good Lunch price ladder is published under the heading Peninsular Malaysia, and the poster adds that prices vary at outlets in East Malaysia, so RM10.90 is indicative rather than fixed in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.

The one rival left on a Sunday: the RM16.90 Merdeka combo

Since this article first ran, The Chicken Rice Shop has added a campaign to the same promotions page: Taste the Spirit of Merdeka. Its Combo Local Lah! set is RM16.90 and comes with a Single Portion of Chicken with rice (roast, steamed or soy sauce), one 12oz soft drink, and your choice of Penang Rojak (small) or Keropok Lekor (3pcs). Add RM1 to swap the chicken portion to a drumstick. Prices are inclusive of service charge and SST, it is dine-in only, there is no free soft-drink refill on it, and there are strictly no takeaways of unconsumed food.

Two things matter here, and the first is an open question from our September update that now has an answer. The poster still carries no end date at all, and the set was still tiled on the promotions page on 19 September 2026 — three days after Malaysia Day, which is when Merdeka campaigns normally close. It has outlived its own campaign window, so treat it as a live option for 18 October rather than a lapsed one, while still checking the page on the morning itself. Second, it is a mutually exclusive choice rather than an addition: its fine print says it is not applicable with any other promotional offers or discounts, exactly like the rest. Because the weekday sets are off on a Sunday, this is the *only* promotional meal competing with Chicken Rice Day on 18 October, which makes it a clean two-way decision — RM16.90 for a full combo meal, or RM1.80 for a quarter chicken added to whatever you order a la carte.

What The Chicken Rice Shop sells on the other 30 days

Chicken Rice Day is one line on a promotions page that as of 19 September 2026 tiles five other offers — the Everyday Breakfast and Good Tea Time menus are no longer tiled there, though both pages are still live at their own URLs. All but one of the offers below publish real numbers on their linked posters. Worth knowing, because RM1.80 buys a garnish, not a meal.

  • Everyday Breakfast — combo sets from RM6.90 (one Hainanese bun with kaya butter and two half-boiled eggs), rising through RM7.90 for chicken porridge with shredded chicken and century egg (S), RM8.90 for curry laksa (S) or two roti canai with curry chicken, RM10.90 for nasi lemak with curry chicken, RM12.90 for crispy roast chicken rice and RM14.50 for prime honey BBQ chicken rice. Every combo comes with Kopi"O" or Teh"O", and it is RM1 per cup to upgrade to another hot drink. It runs at 14 named outlets only, including Mid Valley Megamall, 1 Utama, IOI Mall Damansara, KL Gateway Mall, Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Subang Jaya Medical Centre, Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara, Mydin Subang Jaya Hypermarket, Lotus's Puncak Alam and Galeria PjH. Most open the breakfast menu at 8am; KLIA2, Senai International Airport and Subang Skypark start at 7am, and The Exchange 106 @ TRX at 7.30am. All close the breakfast menu at 10am.
  • Good Lunch — weekdays only, 10am to 3pm. The Savers set is RM10.90: one single combo meal (steamed, roast, soy sauce, BBQ or curry chicken) plus a 12oz soft drink. Add one side and it is RM14.80; two sides is RM17.80, cut from RM18.70. The sides are RM3.90 each — Nyonya Pai Tee (2pcs), Penang Rojak (small), Spicy Savoury Ladies Fingers (small) or Golden Fortune Rolls (2pcs). Same +RM1 drumstick swap as Chicken Rice Day, plus RM1 to upsize the drink to 16oz. Dine-in only, no bulk orders, no free refills on this promotion, prices inclusive of service charge and SST — and the ladder is published under Peninsular Malaysia, with the poster noting that prices vary at outlets in East Malaysia.
  • Good Lunch Lagi Best — the companion poster that adds a free item to the same window, different every weekday, and always conditional on buying three or four Good Lunch sets — and, like Good Lunch itself, off on a Sunday.
  • Good Tea Time — 3pm to 6pm every weekday, and it does publish prices: Set A RM7.00 nett (Penang Rojak small plus one of Nyonya Pai Tee 2pcs, Golden Fortune Rolls 2pcs, homestyle chicken fritters 2pcs or Keropok Lekor 2pcs, with a coffee or tea), Set B RM7.00 nett (Nyonya Pai Tee, Golden Fortune Rolls and Keropok Lekor, 2pcs each, with a coffee or tea) and Set C RM8.00 nett (2pcs roti canai, curry chicken and a coffee or tea). A la carte, two roti canai with curry chicken is RM7.90, and an extra roti canai bought with Set C is RM2.10. It is RM1.10 to change the drink to Teh Tarik or Choco Malt.
  • Dinner Picks — weekday evenings, 6pm to 10pm, and all four sets are a flat RM19.90: Set 1 Hainanese Chicken Rice Meal, Set 2 Wanton Noodle Meal, Set 3 Oh-Semm Meal (Ayam Bakar Oh-Semm, 1/4 chicken), Set 4 Noodle Meal. Add-ons are RM3.90, and free refills cover soft drinks, Chinese tea and plain water. Prices vary at outlets in East Malaysia.
  • Personal Meal Box — the takeaway box, also priced: RM17.90 for the Chicken Rice Meal and RM19.00 for the Noodles Meal, each with a choice of entree (Keropok Lekor or crispy wanton) and a vegetable. Add-on drink RM1.10, sides RM3.90. Prices here are stated as inclusive of Service Tax only.
  • Taste the Spirit of Merdeka — the Combo Local Lah! set at RM16.90, covered above.
  • Hora Horey Rice Combo — the Didi & Friends kids tie-in, a Grilled Butter Popcorn Chicken meal set with a free limited-edition Little Chick x Didi & Friends gift. This is the one offer on the page with no published price.

Note the overlap worth spotting: KLIA2 serves the 7am breakfast menu but is one of the three outlets where Chicken Rice Day is expressly not valid. A promotion being on the brand's website does not mean it is on at your branch.

Who this is good for — and who should skip it

Good for: pairs and small groups already planning a sit-down lunch or dinner on the 18th — especially on a weekend round like 18 October, when no set menu is competing for the same bill — families who eat at The Chicken Rice Shop anyway, and anyone who has been meaning to install sedapZ and wants a reason. It is also unusually good for halal-conscious diners who want a cheap add-on protein — The Chicken Rice Shop is a halal-certified Malaysian chain, which is not something every Hainanese chicken rice operator can say.

Skip it if: you are eating alone (the minimum-2-pax rule kills it outright), you want takeaway or delivery (dine-in only, and no boxing up leftovers), you were planning to stack it with a voucher or an existing set-meal discount (it cannot be combined with any other coupon, promotional offer or discounted item), or you are at KLIA2 or Genting Premium Outlets. It is also the wrong plan if you want a full meal for under RM5 — the RM1.80 is one item on a normal-priced bill, not a whole lunch.

Next up: Sunday 18 October 2026

Because the promotion is tied to a date rather than a campaign window, missing a month is never fatal — the next Chicken Rice Day is Sunday 18 October 2026, then Wednesday 18 November 2026 and Friday 18 December 2026. We re-checked the brand's promotions page on 19 September 2026: Chicken Rice Day is still listed there among its live offers, on the same terms, and the poster is still the same October 2022 artwork. Two caveats before you set a recurring calendar reminder. First, the poster carries a "limited time only" flash, so the chain has reserved the right to stop running it without publishing an end date. Second, the terms state that TCRS Restaurants Sdn Bhd reserves the right to replace the item with another item of equal value without prior notice. Check the sedapZ app on the day rather than assuming the quarter chicken is still the item on offer.

Full details and the terms are on The Chicken Rice Shop's official Chicken Rice Day page.

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*Image: The Chicken Rice Shop*