Popular hawker stall Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak relocates for 3rd time to Tanjong Pagar, still has queue

Two years and two stalls later, hawkers Ken Chong and Sofie Tsoi are starting all over again at their latest location in Tanjong Pagar.

It has been months of upheaval for the husband-and-wife couple, who started selling nasi lemak after Ken left his lucrative six-figure job as a hedge fund sales director to become a hawker.

Opening and closing

Despite being new to F&B, the duo garnered a pool of customers with their mod nasi lemak, which is served in sets with uncommon add-on options like house-made deep-fried pork belly and sambal petai. 

They first set up shop at a quiet French Road kopitiam, but later moved to a more populated spot in Tiong Bahru, taking over the former Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice stall.

As luck would have it, that coffeeshop was sold in April this year, and Ken and Sofie had to look for another location again despite enjoying booming sales.

Reopened in Tanjong Pagar 

A few months on, they shifted their stall to a newly renovated coffeeshop at Cantonment Road, and reopened for business on Sept 5. “I wanted to cater to the working crowd, so we moved to Tanjong Pagar,” Ken tells 8days.sg.

Despite an increase in costs for ingredients like rice, eggs and ikan bilis, he keeps prices unchanged at his new spot, starting from $5 for a Kunning Fish or Otah Nasi Lemak Set to $6.80 for a Chicken Drumstick Set.

He offers a large selection of add-on sides, like Achar ($0.70), Nugget ($0.70), Bergedil ($1), Eggplant ($1.30) and Curry Cabbage ($1.30).

“Nasi lemak is comfort food. We can’t sell it too expensive (laughs). We earn less, but hopefully we get more quantity to cover,” explains Ken.

He also started operating at breakfast hour from 7.30am to cater to the morning office crowd, and added breakfast-friendly Mee Goreng ($2.30) to his menu.

There’s a queue here too

Like at Tiong Bahru, Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak has a queue at Tanjong Pagar just days after opening. “I think it’s normal, ’cos people will come and kaypoh and try food,” Ken jokes.

He points out that weekends are now quiet for him as he’s in the CBD, compared to his previous residential location. “It’s hard to predict the crowd. Sometimes we cook more, but the CBD is very quiet. Like last Friday, which was very quiet everywhere. Sometimes there’s a sudden surge in lunch crowd, so we have to rush to cook more rice and ingredients,” he shares.

As his coffeeshop also sells draft beer at night, Ken is thinking of serving wu xiang at night to cater to the drinking crowd. Ken explains: “Nasi lemak is too heavy [with alcohol], so maybe wu xiang might fit in.”

Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak is at 243 Cantonment Rd, S089770. Tel: 9383-5689. Open Mon-Sat, 7.30am-2.30pm. Facebook, Instagram

Photos: Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak

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