Heng En Noodle House ceased operations on 30 July, a little less than two months after it opened on 9 June. The noodle joint at Bedok had initially gotten recognition for being the sibling outlet to well-loved Japanese-inspired bak chor mee stall, No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle, which opened its first outlet at Bukit Merah last February. It’s owned by ex-Burger & Lobster sous chef, Lam Geng Han (who goes by Han), 27, and ex-accountant Chelsea Goh, 26. Heng En Noodle House served fishball mee with a “lighter” tonkotsu-inspired soup that No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle is known for.

Prior to its closure, Heng En also sold mazesoba (Japanese dry mixed noodles) with minced meat and an onsen egg. It also offered some signature items from its sibling stall, including Garlic Kway Teow and Minced Meat Noodles.

Last week, Han and Chelsea took to Instagram to announce the stall’s closure, citing “steep rental costs and rising food costs” as the main reasons for the closure. In a nutshell, Han tells 8days.sg that the biz was “unsustainable”, and that the duo were “struggling to keep up with the costs”. 

Unsustainable rental costs and mediocre biz 

Shares Han: “I wouldn't say [business at the Bedok branch] was poor, it just wasn’t enough to keep us operational in the long run. The price point expected of coffee shop food is quite low, so we had to sell a high volume to cover our overheads. However, there was stiff competition from the many coffee shops and a hawker center in the area. And the high rent [of $5K a month] didn't help either.”

The couple ended up making a loss that Han says “wasn’t that drastic”, but enough for them to “decide that [their business] wasn’t going to get any better” despite only running the Bedok stall so briefly.

Manpower issues and a rushed opening

Another major issue they faced was a lack of manpower. Chelsea mentioned in a Facebook comment that the couple had “personal reasons for rushing into [the opening of Heng En]”, which Han elaborates was related to staffing problems at their now defunct No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle outlet at Punggol. The couple struggled to find manpower there as foreign work permit and S Pass holders can’t be employed at hawker centres, which led them to shut down the stall and rush into opening Heng En at a coffee shop in Bedok, where they could cast a wider net to hire both local and foreign staff.

Unflattering comparisons between Heng En & No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle

Some customers complained that the food standards at Heng En were lower than at No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle. On a HungryGoWhere post announcing its closure, a few Facebook users commented on Heng En’s bak chor mee quality, one netizen saying it's "a bit pricey", and that "the sauce is very average, wasting the top quality ingredients used".

Han tells 8days.sg that he understands the comparison between the two outlets, but he “wouldn’t compare them” as they’re “very different concepts”. For instance, he explains that Heng En served a much lighter broth than at No. 25, an intentional decision they made to “cater more to the general public”.

Rather than Heng En’s noodles being less tasty, he thinks that they made a mistake when they “used [their] main shop [at Bukit Merah] to push the marketing for [Heng En]”, as it caused customers to compare the food at both outlets, although “it’s not meant to be the same”.

What’s next for the young hawkers?

Han says that while Heng En might’ve had “a bad outcome”, the couple see it as “a good experience” that they can learn from. Moving forward, the duo plan to focus solely on No. 25 Minced Meat Noodle at Bukit Merah, which Han says enjoys stable sales and continues to attract some queues. In fact, Han shares that the salary he’s earning now is “about the same” as the amount he earned when he last worked as a chef at Burger & Lobster. Patrons of Heng En will be pleased to know that the couple plan to serve their handmade fishcakes at Bukit Merah, a new addition to the menu there. They will also sell Singapore-style Mazesoba in the month of August, while stocks last. 

As the lovebirds are planning to get married later this year, Han says they’re currently busy with prep and “are not planning to expand or open anything else at the moment”, although they’ll “know what not to do in the future” if they ever decide to. 

Photos: Alvin Teo

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