Former Singapore Airlines stewardess-turned-hawker opens 2nd Taiwanese-Western food stall outlet in Bedok

“If we only have one outlet, then no matter what, we have to stay there,” Tan reasoned. 

“So I told myself to just push for the second outlet. How much worse can it get? If we can survive in Woodlands, Bedok should be okay.”

BEDOK OUTLET ALREADY OUTPERFORMING WOODLANDS ONE

She was right. Though only open for one and a half months, the outlet, which cost around S$30,000 (US$23,270) to start, is already “doing better than Woodlands”.

Not that the Woodlands was struggling.

“We were not losing money,” clarified Tan. “It’s just that the first three months after we opened, things were insane because of all the media hype. But after that, things stabilised – in a good way. We could focus more on maintaining food quality.”

The Woodlands stall broke even within just three months, giving the couple confidence (and capital) to take the plunge in Bedok.

Tan now splits her time across both outlets and has even progressed from cashier to grill cook at Woodlands. Her husband is based at the Bedok outlet and they have two more cooks stationed at each of the outlets.

“The Bedok crowd is too much for me, especially on weekends,” she laughed.