Going the extra mile: Malaysian woman travels '350km from KL to Singapore' to try Wingstop

How far would you travel for some juicy chicken tenders?

On April 9, TikTok user @notfatini posted: “Wingstop made me travel 350km from KL (Kuala Lumpur) to Singapore.”

In the sped-up video, she can be seen going down an escalator and walking to an outlet in City Square Mall.

The 27-year-old banker, going by Fatini, told AsiaOne that she made the trip on April 7: “I took an 8am flight from KL and I departed Singapore at 1.30am from Changi.

“All in the same day (flight was supposed to be at 11.30pm but it got delayed).”

She added that she saw videos on TikTok of other Malaysians visiting Singapore to try the “crunchy chicken tenders” from Wingstop and had texted her friend just three days prior to arrange her first trip to the country.

Before heading to Wingstop, Fatini and her friend visited Jewel Changi for about two hours. Then they headed to The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, where they enjoyed a sampan ride; and Gardens by the Bay, where they visited the Cloud Forest.

They reached Wingstop at 5.30pm to break their fast (this was during the month of Ramadan) but had to queue for nearly 1.5 hours to get their meal. Fatini gave a review of the food in a TikTok photo carousel.

For a total of $30.75, the two women got an eight-piece boneless chicken combo with voodoo fries and an XL serving of range, four-piece chicken tenders and mushroom fritters.

The mushroom fritters and voodoo fries got a 10/10 from Fatini, while the tenders — which she preferred to the boneless chicken — got an 8/10.

“Lemon pepper and kecap manis best combo ever,” she added.

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She tried kecap manis once again and garlic parmesan for the boneless chicken, and gave only 6/10 to the latter, concluding that “kecap manis stays superior”. 

“Right after Wingstop we went to Changi to eat because it’s a nicer place, but we had to break our fast in the MRT at 7.20pm then arrive at Changi around 8pm,” Fatini told AsiaOne.

But will she be back for more Wingstop?

“Probably not. I feel like trying it once is enough, I want to buy other food next time I’m in Singapore,” Fatini wrote in her carousel post. 

Wingstop madness

Fatini and her friend are far from the only Malaysians to cross borders to try Wingstop.

Last December, TikTok user @unnieqin posted that she had flown down to Singapore to do the same thing.

When a netizen commented that there used to be one at Nu Sentral Shopping Mall in KL, another noted that it was “permanently closed”.

Though the American chain announced its entry into the Malaysian market in 2017, a search shows that former outlets in KL’s MyTown Shopping Centre and The Curve in neighbouring Petaling Jaya are also closed. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and someone even started a Change.org petition back in January to bring Wingstop back to Malaysia.

That same month, TikTok user @afifahfzi visited the Funan outlet and gave the food there “100/10”.

Another TikTok user @sbrnmadz did the same in February, concluding that it was “worth the hype”.

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drimac@asiaone.com

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