SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Famed Malaysian seafood noodle restaurant Hai Kah Lang is opening its first Singapore branch at Funan Mall in September.
This will be the brand’s first overseas outlet, according to CapitaLand’s website.
The move was also announced by the restaurant on its social media accounts. While CapitaLand did not specify the opening date, Hai Kah Lang founder Steven Tan said it was slated to open at the end of September.
Hai Kah Lang’s first outlet in the Taman Cheras neighbourhood in Kuala Lumpur was awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand award for three consecutive years, from 2023 to 2025.
The Bib Gourmand award is given to restaurants that offer the best “value for money”, according to the Michelin Guide.
It added that awardees have a “simpler style of cooking, which is recognisable and easy-to-eat”, and are easy on the wallet with their “reasonable prices”.
Hai Kah Lang’s move to Singapore follows on the heels of its expansion from KL to Johor Bahru in 2023.
Hai Kah Lang has eight outlets across Malaysia since opening its first in 2022.
The debut of the Singapore outlet will take the tally of new branches opened in 2025 to four, with three of them in KL. In August, Hai Kah Lang opened its most recent outlet at Kuala Lumpur International Airport Terminal 2.
The restaurant offers a variety of seafood dishes, including prawn noodles, crab meat porridge and fish head noodles. It also serves snacks such as Teochew oyster omelettes, stir-fried fish lips and fried soft-shell crab.
While the Singapore food and beverage scene has seen its share of challenges in 2025, with some iconic restaurants and food chains closing, Hai Kah Lang is confident its offerings will resonate with “this great nation of food lovers”.
Tan told The Straits Times: “Hai Kah Lang sets its roots in the same mould as Singapore because of its Teochew/Chaoshan heritage, much like (how) the immigrant community helped establish Teochew culinary traditions in Singapore.”
He added that it selected Funan mall to launch in Singapore because it “offers a diverse lifestyle shopping experience for targeted shoppers”.
One dish that will leave diners clam-ouring for more is the mixed seafood noodle/porridge, according to a review on food and lifestyle publication Sethlui.com
The author of the review raves: “This delightful ensemble boasts crab, clams, fish, squid, shrimp and laver seaweed, all bathed in a flavourful fish bone broth infused with the aromatic Huadiao wine.”
A review on Malaysian news outlet The Malay Mail described the fried prawn paste fish slices as “umami bombs” and wished readers luck in “snaring the last piece”. - The Straits Times/ANN
