Mentai-Ya owner closes five stalls after losing $550,000 over two years

Mr Khoo Keat Hwee, 38, the millennial boss behind Mentai-Ya, has had a remarkable F&B journey so far.

The ex-sales engineer's first F&B business, a restaurant named Tenryu Japanese Dining and Teahouse, lasted from 2015 to 2018, incurring debts of around $120,000.

Instead of relocating to his previous engineering job in Jakarta, he worked as a Grab driver to pay off his debts.

He re-entered the F&B scene with his affordable Japanese hawker stall concept, Mentai-Ya, in 2020 and expanded rapidly with four new stalls over the next two years.

Mr Khoo also opened a cafe called Chirashi-Ai in Beauty World Centre in 2021 and another called Coffee & Chirashi in Choa Chu Kang.

Both had extensive menus catered to not only the breakfast and brunch crowd, but also those who were looking for dinner, supper or dessert.

He did have a few bumps in the road though, with an alleged smear campaign by a competitor in September 2021.

In a Facebook post, Mr Khoo claimed that fusion donburi hawker chain, Ishiro, was behind a fake negative review campaign against Mentai-Ya and another restaurant called The Social Outcast.

However, those bumps seem to be bigger now after Mr Khoo recently announced a major downsize of his Mentai-Ya stalls.

He estimated that the setup of Coffee & Chirashi totalled a "$250,000 loss" within its first two years of operation.

He also lost approximately $300,000 across his Mentai-Ya stalls between 2023 and 2024.

Coffee & Chirashi closed down on March 4, with Chirashi Ai closing at the end of this month.

He is reducing his chain of eight Mentai-Ya stalls to just three outlets at Punggol, Tampines and Bukit Panjang.

Mr Khoo told 8days the decision to register his businesses for GST was a big mistake or what he coined as "keh kiang" (Hokkien for act clever).

"From the start, we were selling at affordable prices and with low profit margins," he said.

"Although the GST registration forced prices to increase by only $1 per dish on average, it still drove customers away."

In the end, he had to let his workers go. "Most of them were sad and reluctant to leave, but I really had no choice, and they understood."

Mr Khoo lamented about the current F&B landscape in Singapore, with high rental rates and food supply costs increasing "20 to 30 per cent through 2023 and 2024".

"Even if business is good, your next contract renewal is sure to result in increased rent," he pointed out.

"F&B is really tough, but I'm not going to blame anyone else but my bad decisions. I regret growing too fast with too little capital and registering for GST."

For now, he plans to focus on his remaining Mentai-Ya stalls and explore automation like the one adopted by Wok AI, a hawker stall that cooks Hokkien mee and char kway teow using a machine.

He admitted that he thought about giving up after this setback but his passion in selling affordable, good food is what keeps him in the industry.

"This journey is damn tough, but if I want to exit, it means I have to declare bankruptcy and restart again," said Mr Khoo.

"So I'll continue this business to repay the debt.

"I might have lost a lot, but I'll definitely do a final fightback and live with no regrets".