I've spoken to many Malaysian restaurant owners over the years and nearly all unequivocally share the same dream: they want to expand.
While many simply look at opening outlets throughout the Klang Valley or perhaps even setting up shop in another state in Malaysia, there are others who dream bigger.
These are the restaurateurs looking to spread their wings and set up roots in foreign lands. Some have regional aspirations while a few set their sights even further and aim for entirely different continents. What drives these individuals to leave the comforts of home for entirely unfamiliar territory?
Stepping out of comfort zones
For some restaurant owners, opportunity simply comes a-knocking and they decide to seize the moment and brave uncharted waters.
Yeoh Zong Xian, for example, is no stranger to the F&B industry. His father has been running the legendary Klang bak kut teh restaurant Yeoh’s Bak Kut Teh for 36 years now, so the family’s roots in bak kut teh run deep.
And while having a flagship restaurant in Klang has always been a point of pride for Yeoh and his family, when the opportunity presented itself to set up in Singapore with established partners En Group, Yeoh didn’t hesitate to plant a flag in a new country.
“My partners came to my Klang shop and tried our Klang bak kut teh and after that, they approached me and said, “‘How about we partner together and create a new brand in Singapore?’”
And that is how En Yeoh’s Bak Kut Teh was born in Singapore. The brand replicates Yeoh’s father’s decades-old recipe to a tee, but that is where the similarities end. Instead, this quirky Japanese-influenced outlet has gone a step further by operating as a teahouse during the day and a bar at night – replete with a range of cocktails and Japanese additions like ramen and udon to reflect the En Group’s experience in Japanese cuisine.
Since the first outlet opened in Singapore in 2024, two more have followed suit. This year, En Yeoh’s opened its very first Malaysian outlet in Mont Kiara, duplicating the teahouse-bar concept that gained traction in Singapore.
For Brian Chin, meanwhile, the opportunity to set up a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, a few years ago was the culmination of a dream that came true. Brian is the head honcho at Dave’s Deli and the son of renowned chef David Chin, who started Dave’s Deli off the back of his hugely popular roast chicken and now helms Café Bistrot David and Ramen David. His brother, meanwhile, is redoubtable chef Darren Chin of KL’s Michelin-starred DC.
Brian’s credentials speak for themselves. He literally grew up with F&B running through his veins, so he was excited and somewhat confident about his chances of success when setting up abroad.
“Back in 2019, Dave’s Deli had a franchise in the Mid Valley shopping mall and the executive director of IGB (which owns Mid Valley) really liked the concept, so they approached us to open a café in Sydney, Australia. They had a really nice space on the ground floor of a hotel.
“So on paper, everything was great. We had professional chefs, a PR and marketing team, we were right in front of a square, the area was packed with execs and there was a very supportive team that helped us with everything,” says Brian.
At first, that initial ecosystem meant business was good, but over time, Dave’s Deli Sydney started to struggle and failed to gain the kind of traction that Brian had initially envisioned. Within a year, Brian decided to close his Australian venture.
“We closed just before the Covid-19 pandemic, so commercially we didn’t succeed, but I learnt a lot,” he says.
For Kesavan Purusotman, the founder of the Continuum Hospitality Group – which owns and operates restaurants like Cili Kampung and Benihana KL – there is a sense of excitement brewing in the air as he is currently working on opening the first international outpost of his homegrown Italian restaurant brand Stefania in London, the United Kingdom.
The restaurant is slated to open in late July/early August 2026 in Westbourne Grove, which is in a salubrious, trendy area of West London.
Stefania was launched in central KL last year in collaboration with chef Diego Reali, with a second outlet recently opened in the upmarket enclave of Damansara Heights.
Reali is a seasoned Italian chef who has spent 20 years working in countries like Italy, England, Australia and Oman, to name a few. In London, he previously worked at the Michelin-starred Lindsay House.
So why venture so far afield? The more natural thing would be to test the waters regionally, yet Kesavan or KC, as he is better known, picked another continent altogether!
“There are a few reasons behind it. One is that to grow our brand and visibility, we need to look global. If we open in London – as competitive as it is – we can make a big statement and create an impact and once that’s successful, there’s more room to open in other parts of the world.
“Also, we’re opening a pork-free Italian brand. Stefania in Malaysia is pork-free, so a lot of Muslims come to our restaurant and London has a big market for Muslim-friendly restaurants, so that’s why we’re bringing Stefania there,” says KC.
KC admits that it isn’t an easy feat opening a Malaysian-owned restaurant in London with no local partners to help smooth things along, but thankfully, Reali and another partner have some business dealings and experience in London, so that has made the process a little easier.
“It’s much harder, but Diego has worked in London and understands the culture and one of our other partners has multiple other businesses in London. So that has given us a slight advantage because compliance, corporate structure and taxation in London are very complex, so we’re grateful that our founding partners have more insight,” says KC.
Learning lessons
Like the start of any new thing – much less something developed entirely outside your country of origin – most restaurateurs have found that setting up globally isn’t without its challenges and there are often lessons to be learnt from these experiences.
KC, for example, says that there are so many new things to navigate when doing business in a new country. Many were things that he had to learn on-the-go simply because he had never encountered these issues in Malaysia before.
“I think we’re learning so much about how things work in London. Like for example, when you do construction in London, there is so much more compliance. In Malaysia, you can pay people to work overtime. In London, after certain hours, you cannot get people to work more hours than what is legally required. Also licenses and permits take more time and are more complex,” says KC.
There are also lessons that are only learnt with hindsight and reflection. Brian, for instance says that time and experience have given him the clarity to figure out why Dave’s Deli Sydney floundered and ultimately failed.
He says part of it is that he was young, a little naïve and very excited about opening overseas with a huge backer.
“I was all ‘Fortune favours the bold’ type of thing. But in hindsight, there were two major mistakes I made. The first thing is that it wasn’t about our food. We did market research and travelled a few times to Sydney and found that our food was better than what was offered there. So we were confident that we would take Australia by storm.
“But we miscalculated our product fit and the positioning of our brand. I mean, roast chicken and meat pies are like staples in Australia, so it’s like we were trying to sell ice to Eskimos. Also, we opened in a hotel and our concept and environment didn’t match. Because in a hotel, people had this idea of a premium experience, so it would have been more suitable if we opened in a shopping mall or food court,” he says.
Ultimately, Brian says that what he learnt is that having a good brand or good food is not enough. Market positioning, location and understanding of the local food culture are all far more important and he believes that if he had ticked all these boxes, the outcome might have been different.
Constant growth
For many restaurateurs, growth doesn’t just mean opening one standalone international outpost and calling it a day. The first overseas eatery is a litmus test and if that succeeds, it often paves the way for bigger, broader dreams and goals.
For Yeoh, his dream is to bring a homegrown heritage dish, for example, Klang bak kut teh to entirely new markets and introduce this uniquely Malaysian herbal soup to newer audiences through the familiar conduit of Japanese ingredients and elements.
“Yeah, we are discussing some partnerships in other countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Taiwan as well as expanding our presence in Malaysia.
“We want to bring En Yeoh to wider audiences and more countries in the world. And because it is Klang bak kut teh, the recipe will not change, but with the addition of drinks and ingredients like ramen, we can target a more diverse, younger customer base,” he says.
KC, meanwhile, says that if Stefania succeeds in London, the possibilities moving forward are endless.
“A lot of people would open in somewhere like Singapore and then make their way to London. We are doing it the other way round – it is more risky and more expensive, but if it’s successful, it’s a great asset for our growth.
“Opening in London carries more weight, so if we want to open closer to home after this and talk to bigger franchisees, this will help us because that’s the kind of optics people look for,” says KC.
Brian, meanwhile, has not been deterred by the failure of the Sydney outlet. Instead, he has used the intervening years to accumulate experience and wisdom and learn the intricacies of what it takes to run an overseas business, one he is now contemplating getting into once again.
“Yeah, I would definitely do it again. The thing is, if you don’t grow, you die. And since the Sydney venture, I have travelled a lot more and have more experience in running businesses.
“Like recently I went to China and everyone has a dream to open a restaurant in China, but I realised that if I opened a Western restaurant in China, I would fail because Chinese people love Chinese food.
“But when I went to the Philippines, it was totally different – I have a feeling it would work there. So I am working with a government agency now and we’re trying to work something out, because I think the Philippines is a good target market for us,” says Brian.
