Less than two years after opening at his beer garden Playground in a Kallang industrial canteen, Ben Yeo has closed his izakaya-style hawker stall SG Umami.
It offered fusion prawn noodles, thin-crust pizzas, and small sharing plates such as Sake Lala. According to Ben, the reason for the stall’s closure was its struggle to maintain consistency.
“Some friends and customers gave me feedback that the pizzas tasted different or were not as good as before. Our pizzas are handmade and even though I have an SOP for making it, we could not maintain the quality that I want ’cos our staff kept changing. Like many F&B businesses, we face manpower shortage,” lamented the 44-year-old actor.
He considered using frozen dough from a supplier instead of making it from scratch. “But the pizzas still have to be hand-stretched. Rather than compromise on the quality, I decided to shut the stall,” said Ben. It was a difficult decision for him, as he shared that the concept was his “baby”.
The closure was not a financial loss for him. “The business was doing okay. We did not lose money,” he explained. But he has also shuttered his Korean fusion lok lok stall Geon Bae, which used to occupy the stall space next to SG Umami and was opened by the same partners.
Focus on expanding zi char stall
Since closing the two stalls in January this year, Ben has been focusing on expanding his zi char concept Charcoal Fish Head Restaurant, which is also located in the same Kallang canteen.
As its name suggests, the signature dish here is charcoal fish head steamboat, served with your choice of giant grouper or red grouper slices. Besides steamboat, it also specialises in “hard-to-find traditional Malaysian zi char dishes” such as Kampong Fried Prawns — which Ben likens to “soft shell prawn where you can eat the shell” — and live seafood.
According to Ben, business has been “steadily growing” since it opened last May. He and his partners, which include Ben’s zi char cook cousin Ah Di and celeb chef Cao Yong, have been looking into opening a second outlet.
“A lot of customers tell us that our fish head steamboat is one of the best in Singapore. We want to expand the business, but we can’t find a suitable space. So instead of opening another outlet, we decided to expand our menu and operations at the current premises to offer lunch and supper,” shared Ben.
New lunch menu
For lunch service, the stall offers cai png instead of its usual zi char. It recently added fish soup, priced at a wallet-friendly $4.50, to its menu. “We wanted to serve something affordable and convenient to cater to the office crowd and workers in the vicinity. Fish soup was a natural choice as we specialise in fish head steamboat. This is made using the same base stock as the broth for our steamboat,” explained Ben. The fish soup is currently available daily from 11.30am to 4pm.
The stall has two types of “Kuala Lumpur-style” fish soup, which we will explain more below. You can choose from boiled or fried snakehead slices, or a combination of both. It is served with thin bee hoon instead of the usual thicker variety, though you can swap it for the latter. Other carb bases like rice or ee mian will cost an extra 70 cents and $1 respectively.
What is KL-style fish soup?
Unlike Teochew-style fish soup which boasts a light, clear soup, the KL version leans towards Cantonese-style, which is rich and milky. The creamy broth is achieved by brewing fish bones for hours till cloudy and enhanced with evaporated milk. Other essentials include salted vegetable strips, tomatoes and thin bee hoon, says Ah Di, who used to work as a cook in a fish head bee hoon restaurant in Malaysia.
Sliced Fish Bee Hoon Soup, $4.50 (8 Days Pick!)
The creamy, yellow-tinged soup, made with a base stock prepared by simmering a variety of fish bones, chicken and pork bones for five hours, is robust and brimming with savoury-sweet flavour. The salted vegetable and tomato perk up the soup and add pops of tanginess. For $4.50, you get five snakehead slices, which are fresh and meaty, and the bee hoon, having soaked up the tasty soup, is slurp-worthy. Great with the house-made zesty lime-spiked chilli dip.
https://www.8days.sg/eatanddrink/celebfoodies/ben-yeo-shuts-hawker-stall-kl-style-fish-soup-799976
