https://www.straitstimes.com/life/food/how-a-27-year-old-grew-a-nine-outlet-hokkien-mee-chain-within-three-years
"Each stall cost $15,000 to $20,000 to set up and typically broke even after a month.
More outlets followed in Sengkang, Bishan, Woodlands and Jurong.
He closed two underperforming stalls in Whampoa and Ang Mo Kio in September 2025."
How a 27-year-old grew a nine-outlet Hokkien mee chain in three years
Get tips on how to grow your career and money
Mitchell Ong of Shiok Hokkien Mee at his newest outlet in Serangoon Central.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
SINGAPORE – When a coffee shop stall became available in Serangoon Central, Mitchell Ong snapped up the lease for the ninth outlet of his Shiok Hokkien Mee chain. The location was near his family home, and he wanted his mother to see how far he had come in life.
But she never saw it. His mother died from multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer that affects the bone marrow, on July 4 at age 63, just three weeks before the stall opened on July 26.
“My plan was for her to see the new outlet and show her how well I have done,” says the 27-year-old, tears welling up in his eyes.
The day after her funeral, he returned to work.
“If I stayed at home, I would be depressed. It feels empty without her around,” he says. “Since she died, I have thrown myself into work.”
Ong is no stranger to rolling with life’s punches.
He started Shiok Hokkien Mee at Golden Mile Food Centre in late 2023. The chain, which now has nine outlets and hires 36 full-time and 10 part-time employees, is furiously expanding.
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A tough childhood
Ong grew up in a one-room rental flat in Aljunied Crescent, sharing a mattress on the floor with a brother two years older. His other brother, a year younger, lived with his maternal grandmother. His father worked at hawker stalls as a cook or stall assistant, while his mother ran a two-seat hair salon in Jalan Bukit Merah.
At age six, Ong helped his paternal grandmother, who worked as a wet-market toilet cleaner, collect cans and cardboard to sell on the side. She passed him and his elder brother five-cent and 10-cent coins from each haul to have the occasional fast-food treat. While they were ecstatic at being able to order a McChicken burger each – they could not afford Happy Meals – they had to endure cashiers’ loud complaints about having to count the coins.
“For the sake of eating the burgers, we put down our pride,” he recalls. “Our precious treat was paid for with my Ah Ma’s hard-earned money.”
He did not realise his family was poor until he invited classmates home in Primary 3. They mocked his small, dirty flat and labelled him a “poor kid” and “financial problem kid”.
Being looked down on left him with low self-esteem, he reflects, but also gave him “the motivation and desire to do well in life”.
From age 12, he helped his father sell fish soup noodles and sesame oil chicken at an Ang Mo Kio coffee shop. His father started working at a Hokkien mee stall in 2016, first in Toa Payoh and later at Chomp Chomp Food Centre in Serangoon Garden.
He made his sons fry the noodles, serve customers and handle the till, mostly unpaid. Ong had to help out from 5pm to 9pm after school and from 11am to 9pm during school holidays.
“My dad was very fierce. We had no choice,” he says. “But looking back, I am so grateful that he made us help him. That’s how I acquired my Hokkien mee frying skills.”
From age 15, he took on whatever part-time work he could find. He installed price tags on supermarket shelves before they went electronic, waited tables at eateries Bali Thai and The Providore, and packed vegetables. Much of his earnings went towards defraying household expenses.
Recognition at the workplace helped undo years of feeling worthless. He was often the first to arrive and last to leave. “With hard work and my own abilities, I was able to get recognised, even admired,” he says.
After completing his N levels at Geylang Methodist Secondary School, he studied aerospace avionics at ITE College Central, hoping to land a well-paid engineering job. At 18, he bought Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker from a Popular bookstore.
Ong takes on shifts at whichever outlet is shorthanded.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
“It turned on a light bulb. I felt that to make a lot of money, I should be a businessman, not an engineer,” he says. But he dutifully finished his course in 2016, fearing his father’s wrath if he dropped out.
During national service, he devoured over 100 books on entrepreneurship, investing and leadership.
Pride before a fall
After national service, Ong joined a sales and marketing company where his elder brother was working. The shy introvert learnt to approach strangers and racked up sales quickly. Within three months, at 21, he became a team leader.
But the early success went to his head. He stopped listening to the sales director. All nine members of his team quit. “I got too cocky. It went downhill from there,” he says. “My ego was too big.”
He left in 2022 to join his father and younger brother at YouFu Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle, which they had opened for $20,000 at Golden Mile Food Centre in 2020. He started as a minority shareholder when the stall opened, then worked there full time in 2022 after his father left to start his own Hokkien mee stall in Chinatown.
His younger brother taught him to control costs, standardise recipes and run the stall. A year later, the brothers opened a second outlet in Woodlands, but disagreed over their next move. Ong wanted a Hokkien mee chain, while his brother wanted to diversify into other dishes. They split amicably in 2023. His brother kept the Woodlands outlet, while Ong retained the Golden Mile stall and started Shiok Hokkien Mee with help from his mother and a friend from secondary school.
Just as Shiok was taking off, his mother was diagnosed with cancer in May 2024. She had neither health insurance nor savings, so Ong kept the stall running to pay her medical bills.
When his friend took a break, he ran the stall alone for two weeks. He worked 14-hour days, peeling 18kg of prawns daily, preparing all the ingredients, frying noodles and taking orders himself.
“Those two weeks were the lowest point in my life,” he recalls. “I would think of my mother and the tears would come while I was peeling prawns. Even with customers around, I would sometimes cry inside my mask while frying Hokkien mee.”
Ong then roped in a former schoolmate as a minority partner.
After hiring a helper to care for his mother, Ong pushed ahead with expansion plans in July 2024. He trained three workers and opened stalls in Bedok North, Tiong Bahru and Beauty World. Each stall cost $15,000 to $20,000 to set up and typically broke even after a month.
More outlets followed in Sengkang, Bishan, Woodlands and Jurong. He closed two underperforming stalls in Whampoa and Ang Mo Kio in September 2025.
In February 2026, he invested $30,000 in a 200 sq ft commercial kitchen in Jalan Pemimpin.
He now starts his day there at 8.30am. Working with five employees, he prepares 500kg of prawns daily, shelling over 120kg himself. At about 3pm, he leaves to visit his outlets. When employees go on annual or medical leave, he mans the woks at shorthanded outlets. His day can end at 1.30am.
He pays himself a fixed salary and ploughs all the profits back into the business. He says he eats Hokkien mee at his stalls daily to check on its quality and because he enjoys the dish. He goes to work in a company T-shirt – the same as those worn by his employees – and his elder brother’s old army shorts.
His indulgences are a $5,000 gold chain and a Pokemon card collection worth $60,000. His iPhone 15 Pro Max’s cover is broken, but he leaves it that way to deter theft. He drives a Honda Civic and lives with his father and elder brother in a four-room Housing Board flat.
He says he pays above-market salaries, celebrates employees’ birthdays and spends $800 to $900 on monthly team dinners. Probationary cashiers earn $3,000 a month, while cooks start at $4,000.
“If I am an employee, I want my boss to take care of me like I am family,” he says.
Family matters to Ong, who plans to propose to his realtor girlfriend, aged 24, soon.
He says: “I hope to have five kids. I like having a big family. Even with all the struggles during my childhood, I remember being happy when I had my brothers with me. My parents would be at home, and we would watch TV together. Family time meant the world to me.”
Ong’s once-strained relationship with his father has improved. He often visits the elder Ong’s You Fu Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle stall in Chinatown for advice.
“It is better to have no wok hei than Hokkien mee that is chao tar (Hokkien for burnt),” Ong quips, repeating his father’s advice. “My father told me, ‘No wok hei, still can eat. Chao tar, cannot eat.’”
Hokkien mee at Shiok Hokkien Mee.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
At his Golden Mile Food Centre outlet, Hokkien mee is priced at $5 for a small plate, $8 for medium and $10 for large, while his other outlets sell it for $6, $8 and $10 respectively.
Ong plans to open up to 15 outlets by the year end. He is launching a premium brand, Hokkien Mee Club by Mitchell Ong, using higher-end ingredients. It is slated to open at Newton Food Centre in October, while his halal brand Syok will debut at Ayer Rajah Food Centre in November.
Within 20 years, he wants to have 40 outlets in Singapore and to take the Shiok Hokkien Mee brand to Thailand. He is eyeing Malaysia and Indonesia for Syok.
“I want to be the king of Hokkien mee, in terms of having the best flavour and the most stalls,” he says. “I don’t consider myself successful yet. My goal is to have a stall in every neighbourhood.”
Shiok Hokkien Mee
Where: Various locations including Stall 4, 01-15, Block 261 Serangoon Central (open 10.30am to 12.30am daily, tel: 8243-5141)
Info: @shiokhokkienmee on Instagram
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