SINGAPORE - Mandopop king Jay Chou made a surprise visit to a local bak kut teh eatery on Saturday (Aug 25).

The 39-year-old dropped in at the Balestier branch of Founder Bak Kut Teh Cafeteria, where he is said to be a regular.

The cafeteria uploaded a picture of Mr Chua Chwee Whatt, the founder of the bak kut teh eatery, with Chou on the same day, accompanied by a caption written in Chinese which said that the eatery was honoured that Chou was there to celebrate Mr Chua's birthday.

Mr Chua's son, Mr Nigel Chua, 44, who runs the eatery with his father, said that Chou came in after 2pm and was accompanied by two friends and a bodyguard. He stayed for around 35 minutes.

Chou's wife, Hannah Quinlivan, was not with him.

"It happened to be my father's 73rd birthday, so my father treated them to lunch," said the younger Mr Chua.

He added that Chou is a regular who frequents the shop when he is in Singapore and has been acquainted with his father for many years.

"If he holds a concert in Singapore, usually he will come and have some bak kut teh. There was one year when he bought bak kut teh from us five times in the span of three days."

According to Chou's Instagram account, he was in Qingdao, China, for his The Invincible world tour until last Friday (Aug 24), following which he immediately hopped on a private plane.

His streetwear label Phantaci opened a branch in Kuala Lumpur last Friday and Chou previously posted on Instagram that he plans to check out the store personally after its opening. It is not known why the singer made a stop in Singapore.

Chou, who held a sold-out concert at the National Stadium in January this year, is set to return to Singapore next month as one of the major music acts headlining the upcoming Formula 1 2018 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix.