At the beautifully appointed Super Blonde in Kuala Lumpur’s KLGCC Mall, 10-year-old Arya Iman and her brothers Arman Noah, eight, and Arif Azeez, five, reign supreme.
Arya has set her sights on Taffy, her aunt’s gelato shop that adjoins Super Blonde. Running confidently behind the counter, she coaxes one of the staff into giving her a heaping scoop of ice cream.
Arif and Arman, meanwhile, are curled up on a banquette bench in the restaurant, their eyes glued to a phone. A waiter passes by and ruffles their hair and they giggle cheekily.
It’s a happy scene – one that bears testament to the children’s familiarity with their parents’ restaurants. The three are after all the offspring of Datuk Mohd Najib Abdul Hamid and his beautiful wife Datin Qistina Taff, both of whom are directors of the family-run restaurant group Serai Group.
The group is home to famed homegrown restaurant brands like Serai, Super Blonde, Jibby & Co, Jibby Chow as well as international brands like London-based steakhouse Meet Bros (run in partnership with Menate Steak Hub).
As the oldest of Najib’s brood, Arya has grown up seeing her parents expand their business exponentially and she enjoys helping out over the weekends and visiting the outlet in London. “Meet Bros is my favourite because it is so fun there and everyone who works there is my friend,” says Arya sweetly.
When asked if she is proud of what her parents have accomplished, she cheekily responds, “Yes, because the restaurants make us money!”
In many ways, Najib and Qistina have unconsciously recreated the sort of close-knit restaurant environment that they themselves grew up in. Qistina’s mother, Rina Abdullah, started the first Serai Thai restaurant in 1990 in Shah Alam, Selangor and Najib grew up in Sabah with a father who was a good cook and eventually owned a restaurant too.
“Before my father opened his restaurant, my parents would cook dishes like nasi lemak and mee goreng at home. Then they would put everything in large baskets and my father would go to the government offices to sell the food and test the market.
“During my school holidays, I would follow my father and help him carry the heavy baskets. And after doing that for about a year, he opened his own restaurant. So I pretty much grew up in a restaurant too,” says Najib.
Najib and Qistina first crossed paths when they were in Melbourne, Australia. They knew of each other but weren’t really friends. Eventually Qistina moved back to Malaysia after graduating and it was only when Najib was on a short trip back home that they started dating, eventually forming a long-distance relationship.
At the time, Najib already had accumulated over a decade’s experience working in the restaurant industry in Melbourne, regularly pulling 16-hour days.
Najib moved back to Malaysia in 2009 and the lovebirds got married in 2010. They spent the next five years working hard to expand the restaurant group’s presence in the Klang Valley.
“I said, ‘Let’s bring Serai to a different level, like Serai 2.0. The original brand was started 37 years ago and we decided to maintain the name and set up the restaurant group so we could do different concepts,” says Najib.
In the early years, Najib and Qistina recall doing everything themselves, including waking up early to go to the market and then rushing to the restaurant where Najib did all the cooking and she was the cashier. Those early years were characterised by the couple working relentlessly together to reach their goals.
Five years into their marriage, they had their eldest daughter Arya and her life soon unfolded in restaurants too.
“She grew up in our restaurants. She would sit with her colouring books while we worked and even when she was two, she would talk to all the staff and pretend that she was running the restaurant,” recalls Najib, laughing.
Najib’s two sons were born later on, and the family’s activities continued to revolve around food. As a consequence, Najib says that despite their diminutive sizes, all three of his kids know their way around food.
“They’re growing up surrounded by food and we always talk about food when we go out. And when we do go out, it’s always to our restaurants for a family meal,” says Najib.
These days, the Serai Group has over 30 outlets employing over 1,000 staff under the auspices of a multitude of brands, including two Meet Bros outlets in London and a third in the works in Manchester, UK. Najib is also hard at work developing a boutique resort named after his daughter Arya in Sabah.
Najib credits his wife with being his partner both in terms of raising their children as well as growing their restaurant empire.
“Qistina is a very hands-on mum. Every morning, she prepares home-cooked food for our kids to take to school and even when they were babies, we had a nanny, but she did 90% of the child-rearing.
“She does a lot, so if my wife wasn’t in the same industry as me, I think I might come home to an empty home because even though I have toned it down, I still work a lot!” says Najib, laughing.
Despite being a self-avowed workaholic, Najib says that after having his third child, he realised the importance of spending more time with his family and now actively rearranges his time and schedule to make sure of this.
“I’m still busy Mondays to Fridays – it’s full-on, but I make sure I send them to school myself every day and I always try to spend time with them during the weekends. So now if I go to visit an outlet, I might just go for a few short hours and I will try to bring them with me.
“When we were opening our restaurant in London a few years ago, I needed to focus on the renovations and meeting the suppliers, so the whole family moved there for four months so we wouldn’t be apart,” says Najib.
Najib says one of the pitfalls of building an F&B business and helming multiple outlets is that it leaves very little time for other things. Which is why aside from carving time every day for his family, he also dedicates at least two weeks a year to family holidays.
“Qistina’s aunt made all the cakes for our restaurant Naj and Belle and I remember her daughter would keep calling when she was little and ask to speak to her mother and often she couldn’t pick up the phone because she was really busy. It really stuck with me.
“Now my daughter still looks for me. She will call and ask ‘Where are you and what time are you coming back?’ and things like this. So I don’t want to miss anything. In the restaurant business, it’s always busy, but every year, I make sure we have family holidays where I fully spend time with the kids,” he says.
