Local influencer Simon Khung (also known as Simonboy) and actor Peter Yu dipped their toes into the F&B market by opening Singabola Chicken Rice in June 2024.

Despite being in operation for less than a year, the hawker stall located in Yishun has shuttered for good.

AsiaOne visited Lepak One Corner @ Canberra, the coffeeshop it's housed in, on Thursday (Jan 9) and saw a vacant stall where Singabola Chicken Rice once operated.

Two large screens above the stall also showed that it was available for rent.

While there has not been any official announcements on the stall's social media platforms, a quick search on Google also shows that the stall is marked "permanently closed".

A staff of the neighbouring stall Kebab Bai, who declined to be named, told AsiaOne that he hadn't seen Singabola Chicken Rice open "for a few weeks".

Based on the responses from other coffeeshop staff, who also declined to be named, it seems that Simonboy and Peter's stall likely shuttered some time in late October last year.

The lack of footfall at the coffeeshop during AsiaOne's visit was noticeable despite it being the lunch hour period.

But this was cited as "normal" by one of the coffeeshop's staff, given that some stalls, such as Black Burn Woodfire Grill, do not open during the afternoons.

Simonboy has commented on Facebook about the closure: "Yup, business is either fail or succeed! At least we tried!

"After entering then I realised F&B is very, very difficult. Hence, I encourage everyone to support our local F&B owners!"  

He added positively that "this experience won't stop me [from] trying and exploring".

AsiaOne has also reached out to Peter for more information.

In a previous interview, Peter had told reporters that he decided to start the business with Simon and their business partner, Winson Ng, because of his "love for chicken rice". 

Another F&B closure on the horizon

Local actor-host Ben Yeo will close his Chinese restaurant Tan Xiang Yuan on Feb 12.

The 46-year-old opened the restaurant, located in Little India, two years ago.

Ben told 8days that he and his partners had invested about $1 million in starting the business, with around $800,000 spent on renovations.

Lianhe Zaobao reported that they did not expect renovation costs to be so substantial and this was cited as "the biggest reason" why the business had failed.

amierul@asiaone.com

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