Family behind White Restaurant reflects on 20 years of Sembawang White Beehoon legacy
When it comes to Singapore’s most iconic foods, most are associated with a handful of familiar brands. Mention laksa or chicken rice, for instance, and different people will point you to different restaurants, each with their own loyal camp.
But mention white beehoon, and one place usually springs to mind first: White Restaurant, the proud birthplace of Sembawang White Beehoon.
Plenty of stalls and zi char spots have since tried their hand at their own versions of the savoury, umami-rich noodle dish over the years.
Victor Tay, Managing Director of White Restaurant and son of founder Tay King Huak, tells MS News that some “copycats” have even fooled his friends, who would send him selfies while proudly announcing that they have gone down to “support” him.
“Eh, you went to the wrong shop lah!” he would reply with a laugh. Then again, everyone knows imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
‘It’s just an ordinary dish’: White Restaurant founder surprised by success
For the elder Tay, 80, the fact that his white beehoon became so well-known still seems slightly amusing.
After all, to him, it was never meant to be some grand culinary invention. “Because it’s such a common thing,” he shrugs. “It’s just an ordinary dish.”
Anyone can fry beehoon at home. It’s just a matter of whether it tastes good or not.
Well, his clearly did.
Before White Restaurant became a household name with nine outlets across Singapore and a loyal following, it began in 1999 at Chong Pang Market.
At the time, Mr Tay and his wife, like many other families back then, were simply trying to make ends meet.
Their four children were still young, the economy was not doing well, and work was hard to come by.
So when vacant stalls at Chong Pang Market were put up for rent, Mr Tay suggested to his wife that they give it a shot.
The family bid for a stall, got it, and began operating with just Mr Tay, his wife, and their eldest daughter helping out.
From a family stall to a food landmark
For just over a year, they sold simple dishes such as white beehoon and a few vegetable dishes before the site was reclaimed for development.
In 2000, a friend who had taken over a coffee shop on Jalan Tampang, a quiet neighbourhood tucked away in Sembawang, invited Mr Tay to set up there.
The family moved over, and that humble coffee shop would eventually become White Restaurant’s original home.
But the dish didn’t exactly become an overnight sensation.
Business was unpredictable, and the location was not the most accessible or glamorous. Mr Tay also remembers friends warning him that “everyone who opens a shop there ends up closing down”.
Still, the family pressed on. Over time, the business began to find its footing, and Mr Tay eventually took over the whole coffee shop, a move that would lay the foundation for White Restaurant’s growth.
Part of that growth came through word of mouth, then media attention. Victor recalls that an early report around 2005 or 2006 helped bring in the first wave of crowds, while a later article from 2010 gave the dish an even bigger push.
Soon, everyone wanted to know what the fuss was about.
“I never thought this white beehoon would become so famous,” Mr Tay says.
Victor Tay’s slow-burn journey into the family business
Victor’s own journey into the business was less of a dramatic succession plan and more of a gradual introduction to the family trade.
The 45-year-old remembers being at home on weekends in the mid-2000s, around the time business was picking up, when the phone would suddenly ring: “Hey, the coffee shop is crowded, come down now, come down now!”
Since he lived just two bus stops away, he would hop over to help clear tables and wash plates.
At the time, Victor was studying mechanical engineering at Nanyang Polytechnic, and his internship involved designing deep-sea drilling equipment for a company in Jurong.
But the work quickly made him realise that a conventional office job was not for him.
What’s more, the routine meant waking up at 4.30am to catch a 5.30am company bus, before starting a 7am-to-4pm workday.
“That was my terrible three months of internship,” he laughs.
After polytechnic, Victor became more involved in the business, spending about seven years in the kitchen as a chef.
As the business grew, he began handling landlords and leases, helping to turn the family-run stall into a more structured operation with more staff.
Early struggles with first White Restaurant expansion
The first expansion finally came in 2015, when White Restaurant opened at The Punggol Settlement under Victor’s management.
The decision was partly driven by customers who later moved into new BTO flats in Punggol and Sengkang, who came back to the original outlet with a plea: open a branch there because there was “nothing to eat”.
Mr Tay and his wife were understandably worried. The location felt far away. But they gave Victor their blessing.
“If you think that you are confident of doing it, we support you,” Victor recalls them saying.
Confidence, however, did not make the opening any less chaotic.
Victor remembers the early days of the Punggol outlet as a blur of long hours and little rest.
At the time, he was juggling almost everything as a business owner and young father: managing the restaurant, cooking, buying ingredients from the market, and even volunteering at his son’s primary school as a road marshal at 6am.
For four days, he was so caught up with the new restaurant that he completely forgot to eat, losing about 5kg.
After one or two weeks, he and his wife found themselves sitting down and asking: “Why did we open a restaurant?”
Staying hands-on while growing the brand
Things have fortunately looked up since those early expansion struggles.
While the Punggol Settlement outlet has since shuttered, White Restaurant’s Jalan Tampang branch remains its main store, still drawing regulars and new fans to the quiet Sembawang neighbourhood where it all began.
We get a first-hand glimpse of that during our visit. In the middle of our shoot, a customer approaches Victor and Mr Tay after realising they are the owners, then promptly begins praising the food.
Today, White Restaurant has branches stretching from IMM to Jewel Changi Airport, both of which Victor names among their busiest outlets, as well as a central kitchen supporting the business behind the scenes.
Mr Tay has since handed daily operations over to Victor, but the family remains closely involved in the food.
Joining them for lunch, Mr Tay brings Victor a small bowl of noodles to try. Victor takes a bite and offers a comment before explaining that they are testing a new soup base.
“White beehoon has been around for 20 years, but we need to keep up with the times as well, to introduce new flavours,” Victor explains.
Over the years, the restaurant has tried variations such as mala beehoon, truffle beehoon, and cheese beehoon. The goal, however, is not to change the dish beyond recognition.
“We just need to continue innovating for new taste buds,” Victor says. “We try to create traditional dishes with a bit of a twist, but without changing them too much.”
Of course, the restaurant is not limited to white beehoon alone. Part of keeping the menu fresh also means offering variety beyond its signature dish, with fried rice, vegetable dishes, yam rings, and other familiar zi char staples.
Victor is also thinking about growth beyond the current restaurant model, including new concepts, overseas franchising, and possibly bringing other franchise brands into Singapore.
Leaving the door open for the next generation
As for the next generation, Victor is not forcing his three children, aged 17, 15, and 11, into the business.
His eldest son is even looking for part-time work elsewhere, partly because he does not want to be treated differently at the family shop.
“He doesn’t want to be a ‘nepo baby’,” Victor quips.
When asked what he is most proud of, Mr Tay does not start with the brand’s fame, the now-iconic dish, or the long queues.
“My children,” he smiles. “And developing the business to this point.”
As someone from a poor family, he says he is satisfied and proud to have started with nothing, created something that became a legacy, then passed it on so that the name Sembawang White Beehoon is now known in Singapore.
Not bad at all for something he once described as “just fried beehoon”.
If this has awakened a sudden craving for the original Sembawang White Beehoon, you can check out White Restaurant’s full menu and outlet locations on their official website.
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Featured image by MS News. Photography by Felicia Fun.
