SINGAPORE - Chinese restaurant Orchard Lei Garden ceased operations on Monday, apparently due to difficulties in finding workers.

A sign in the ground floor lift lobby of Orchard Shopping Centre, where the restaurant is located, says the restaurant faced "severe manpower shortage due to the tight labour market". Customers were directed to the remaining branch at Chijmes.

When The Straits Times visited the Orchard outlet on Tuesday evening, several workers were cleaning the restaurant. They said they did not know how many workers the outlet employed.

Ms Amenda Suen, manager of Modern Beauty Salon, which is on a higher floor in the same building, said that business at the restaurant had seemed good. "Quite a lot of people have been coming to eat there, and then yesterday we suddenly saw the poster saying they've closed."