‘Dangerous times’ for indie restaurants in Singapore

SINGAPORE – They are the quirky ones. The places which know your likes and dislikes. Where you head to for food you cannot get elsewhere, where you take friends visiting from abroad.

And yet, owners of independent restaurants, those scrappy places that are not part of a restaurant group, chain or hotel, are having a hard time. The closure of indie restaurants in the last year has been sobering for operators.

In February, Lolla, a modern Mediterranean restaurant in Ann Siang Road, called it a day after 14 years.

In March, two other indies are set to close: burger stalwart Relish at Cluny Court after 19 years, and Asian fusion restaurant Ibid in North Canal Road.

They are but the latest casualties. In 2025, barbecue omakase restaurant The Social Outcast, modern South-east Asian restaurant Meh’r by Inderpal, steakhouse Wild Blaze and Korean restaurant Onmi, among others, shuttered.

British chef Paul Longworth, 47, who runs Encore by Rhubarb in Duxton Hill, says: “We are in really, really dangerous times at the moment with the F&B scene. It’s very tough. We are struggling. And for the life of me, I don’t know why.”

Chained nation

There is evidence to show that every part of the food scene in Singapore has been suffering since 2024, when the world emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Borders had fully opened up by then, and there was revenge travel and spending. Singaporeans made themselves scarce in restaurants here, preferring to spend and dine overseas.

The 3,047 food businesses felled in 2024 marked an almost 20-year high. But statistics from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority for 2025 show an even higher number: 3,148.

No type of food business has been spared: fine dining (Sugarra, Alma by Juan Amador), chains (Burger & Lobster, Prive), heritage (Ka-Soh, Warong Nasi Pariaman), Japanese (Oshino, Sushi Kimura) and hawker (Hup Chong Yong Tau Foo, Black Goat Burgers).

So, why fuss over the demise of independent restaurants?

Because it is a matter of preserving diversity and identity, say many. Among them is chef Magdalene Tang, 64, who owns Mag’s in Neil Road.

“In Singapore, you have all these chain restaurants. Look at all the mala places, right? What do these chains say of Singapore? That we are another China? No. We need independent restaurants to showcase what we can do,” she says.

A case in point might be Relish, which has to close because the landlord would not renew its lease. Chef-owner Willin Low, 54, will be reopening it, and is looking at offers from potential landlords that have reached out to him.

He says he has been touched and humbled by the outpouring of support and encouragement from diners since he announced the closure, adding that many have encouraged him to reopen.

“Some even thanked us for introducing proper handmade burgers all those years ago, when fast food was the only option,” he says.

“It feels good to know our hard work is appreciated. Deep down, we always knew that people prefer indie restaurants that are warm, welcoming, a little quirky and making food from scratch instead of being a cookie-cutter restaurant churning out cookie-cutter food.”

Chef Joel Ong, 39, of Enjoy Eating House in Stevens Road, says: “Indie restaurants bring narrative and character, and provide personality and experimentation. They push culinary boundaries, nurture young chefs and reflect Singapore’s evolving identity. Without them, the scene risks becoming efficient but emotionally flat.”

But, he adds: “Sometimes, it feels like Singaporeans do not appreciate what indie restaurants offer and are quick to criticise and compare, rather than support and encourage.”

Chasing crumbs

Chef Longworth of Encore tried to be ahead of the curve. He saw business at his one-Michelin-starred Rhubarb – which opened in 2014 – decline in 2024, and knew 2025 would be harder.

So he bit the bullet, gave up the star, spent $150,000 on renovations and replaced Rhubarb with Encore.

The now casual restaurant serves a three-course set lunch priced at $48 a person and a four-course set dinner priced at $98 a person. There is an a la carte menu too.

Now, he is wondering if he has made the right move, despite good reviews of the food and more bums in seats.

He says: “I knew I was giving up the star and the niche market I had built up over 11 years. But when I looked at the landscape, that was the right move, right? So here I am now, three-quarters of a year since. And we still struggle.

“But this time, the struggle is far worse. When you have a fine-dining restaurant at a certain price point, and you have maybe one or two tables that come in, bang, they order wine and you are okay.

“This concept is not set up for that. This concept is set up to be full every lunch and every dinner, and it’s not happening. It leads me to question myself. Do I not understand the market anymore?”

Reading the inscrutable Singapore diner seems impossible.

Mr Hong Junchen, 41, owner of Hup Lok, a casual restaurant in Havelock Road serving prawn noodles and other seafood, says: “Indie restaurant ownership is a bit of a fool’s errand now.”

In 2025, he revamped his restaurant, Nude Seafood at Marina One in the Central Business District, into a more casual one called Dayu Seafood. He has since closed it, and is focusing on Hup Lok and his seafood supply business, Gyoren SG.

He says: “Cost and supply side issues are real, but not fatal. It is when they are paired with a demand downturn – a reduction in disposable income and willingness to spend on dining out, and more home-based lifestyles – that the indie restaurant equation becomes untenable.

“We are both suppliers and consumers of restaurant food. Taking the consumer’s angle, dining out has indeed become too expensive, relative to disposable income. I don’t dine out much in Singapore anymore, and find little value. I eat more simply, cook at home more and keep the big meals for overseas trips, or even just across the border.”

Enjoy Eating House’s chef Ong has spun off three casual brands: The Canteen by Enjoy in Jalan Besar, Heartland by Enjoy in Tampines and Home by Enjoy in Bukit Merah. These serve one-dish meals and other comfort food, in a bid to leverage the manpower he has and increase revenue.

Business, he says, has been mixed, with some concepts performing steadily and others affected by what he calls “seasonal fluctuations and consumer pullback”.

“The reality is that volatility has become normal,” he says. “Survival feels dependent on how we can create more demand through offerings or marketing efforts, although customer loyalty and retention must remain a pillar of the business.”

Sometimes, the effort just does not pay off. That was the case for the owners of The Social Outcast in Katong.

Self-taught chef Aminurrashid Hasnordin, 45, and business partner Noelle Chua, 35, closed the restaurant in March 2025.

The business began in a Tampines coffee shop in 2019, where he sold burgers. In 2020, they moved to The Bedok Marketplace, with an expanded menu that included dry-aged meat and oysters.

Then came a mid-priced, 70-seat restaurant at The Grandstand, where he served smoked meats and wood-fired pizza, among other things, from 2021 to 2023. The restaurant moved to Katong in June 2023.

They had done what they could to turn the 12-seat barbecue omakase restaurant around. Among these efforts was introducing a $78-a-person five-course tasting menu, in addition to tasting menus costing $138 and $218 a person respectively.

They also converted the retail front part of the restaurant into a dining area serving burgers and finger food.

Chef Aminurrashid, a former business lecturer, says manpower woes were what felled the business.

He says: “No matter how good your business is, the ability to scale goes down to zero if you don’t have manpower – and the right manpower. This is the honest truth.”

They got by with two part-timers in a restaurant that changed its menu often.

Ms Chua says: “We are very customer-centric in explaining the food and giving top-notch service. It was not easy to find part-timers who could do this.”

Chef Aminurrashid adds: “You know the industry is bad when even Shatec closes down.” The 43-year-old local hospitality and tourism institute has stopped taking in new students, after announcing in 2025 that it was scaling down operations.

Running the business also took a toll on their health. There were times, they say, when their only meal was instant noodles at midnight.

“How can I sit down and eat when things are not running properly before service?” says Ms Chua. “There’s a thousand and one things going on, so eating was not a priority.”

They took time to recover, with exercise and healthy eating, after closing the restaurant. Chef Aminurrashid has also done barbecue pop-ups and taken on consultancy work.

Building a spine

Ironically, what they did to recover from running a restaurant sparked an idea for a new venture they hope to launch later in 2026: healthy meals delivered to people who have no time to cook.

Chef Aminurrashid says: “The business must not be bricks and mortar, and it must not be over-reliant on manpower. That means cooking in a central kitchen, and using automation and technology.”

Other indie restaurant owners are finding ways to keep going.

For chef Petrina Loh, 44, of Morsels in Dempsey, that means going to cook in clients’ homes, growing the events part of her business, coming up with packaged food and getting on food delivery platforms.

“We keep costs low and run a very tight ship,” she says.

Chef Anthony Yeoh, 44, of French bistro Summer Hill at Claymore Connect, says: “We lean into the things that make us a small, indie restaurant. We can make changes without much bureaucracy. Perhaps we can’t do it with the finesse of a larger restaurant group, so we just have to be more nimble.

“With a smaller marketing budget, we also cannot shout as loudly into a noisy market. So we need to focus more on telling our story in a more intimate, personal way that speaks exactly to who our customer is. You need to be very focused to survive now.”

For chef Rathakrishnan Ramaiyan – whose casual restaurant The Black Sheep in Norris Road in Little India serves French food – survival means putting butter chicken ($14.90) and briyani ($14 to $18) on the menu, to cater to tourists who might pop in for souffle but also want to try Indian dishes.

“You have to be very realistic,” says the 56-year-old. “Travellers come because they hear about what we do, and they appreciate the French and European food I serve. But most of them want something Indian, because they are in Little India, right?

“So, being relevant means I have a few popular Indian dishes and I do them well.”

For chef Tang of Mag’s, it is reinvention and new blood.

The former foreign exchange trader opened Mag’s Wine Bar & Bistro 30 years ago in Circular Road. She was there for 23 years before moving Mag’s Wine Kitchen to Keong Saik Road, where she stayed for six years before her landlord declined to renew the lease.

In October 2025, the restaurant, now just called Mag’s, opened in Neil Road. Her food has evolved over the years – from charcuterie and finger food when it first opened, to French classics, to lighter French food, to wafu cuisine now.

In the restaurant, this means a fusion of Japanese, French and local flavours and ingredients. Offerings include Charred Hotaru Ika ($19), a small-plate dish of firefly squid, pickled cucumber, seaweed salad and chilli oil; Steak Tartare Yuk-Hoe ($26), with raw filet mignon, nashi pear, pine nuts and gochujang; and Sakura Ebi Somen ($28), with grilled Argentinian red prawn and ginger scallion dressing.

She has kept two signatures: Mag’s Boston Lobster Risotto ($56) and Devasa Beef Tenderloin ($52), with a beef bone sauce that takes 16 hours to make. Both are popular with guests.

While she is still hands-on in the kitchen, her protege Ian Tan, 29, who has worked at two-Michelin-starred Cloudstreet and one-Michelin-starred Seroja, is leading the change. He joined the restaurant in 2024.

The food, chef Tang says, is resonating with new, younger diners who have found their way to Neil Road, as well as those who dined at the restaurant with their parents and now go with their friends.

She says: “You need the Gen Zs and the millennials. You need those people with the pull. Ian is the strong factor here. He can be the driving force. He reminds me of myself when I was that age – raring to go, willing to push, never say die.”

For her regulars, she tailors menus for them so they have something different every time they dine there.

Asked what it takes for an indie restaurant owner to thrive in Singapore, she says: “You cannot really thrive in Singapore. If I can buy myself a holiday once or twice a year, I’m happy.”

Why bet on an indie restaurant, then?

Chef Aminurrashid says: “We came into it with our eyes wide open. We followed our dream and this has no price. Whether you are successful or became bankrupt, the experience will stick with you for the rest of your life.

“The one thing people ask is: What was the advantage of all this? We grew a lot. No matter how good or bad an entrepreneur you were, you grew that spine.”