Zi Char Restaurant Owned By ‘Singapore’s Anita Mui’ & Her Daughters Draw Customers
Seventeen-year-old seafood joint Kelly Jie Seafood has a pretty decent 4.1 star rating on Google. But it seems patrons don’t come just for the zi char-style crab dishes here - they also pop by for the two generations of attractive lady bosses that run the place.
The 170-seat eatery in Toa Payoh is currently helmed by second-gen owners, Rachel and Zara Lim, 32 and 27 respectively. They took over the reins from their mother last year. In our recent TikTok video featuring the restaurant, a netizen commented: “I [usually] eat at the AMK branch but go to Toa Payoh there just to see the chio sister duo”. We asked the ladies: is it true that some customers visit the restaurant just to check them out? “Yes, yes!” replies mama Kelly Soon, 60, who founded the namesake eatery.
Rachel laughingly shares: “We’ve got some customers, especially those who are a bit more ah beng type, they like to ka chiao (disturb in Hokkien) us and say, ‘Eh! I saw you on Facebook, that’s why we came to try [the food] leh!’. But we also don’t know if they’re joking”.
Spoiler alert: both ladies are already engaged.
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“A lot of customers drool over them”
Their mum adds: “A lot of male customers drool over them, but I told them it’s useless ’cos they’re already taken. Some parents will ask if [my daughters] are married yet, and want to introduce their sons. But I’ll say sorry, they aren’t married yet but they’re attached”.
However, the sisters insist the OG beauty is actually their mum, who they fondly nickname ‘Singapore’s Anita Mui’. The late Anita Mui was one of Hong Kong’s most famous Cantopop superstars in the ’80s. Zara says they call their mum that as she “likes [Anita Mui’s] singing style, and her vocals belong to the same deeper range”.
How “Singapore’s Anita Mui” became a seafood restaurant owner
Kelly used to grace TV screens back in the ’80s. The energetic, svelte senior, who went by the stage name Sun Xiao Yun, had a 15-year singing career, from when she was 17 to 32.
“Since young, I’ve loved to sing. Later on, I realised that I also love to dance, and I love to imitate famous singers. In the beginning, I started doing recordings of kou shui ge (covers of Chinese pop songs), which was very popular back then. I was recommended by a friend to SBC (what MediaCorp used to be known as), so I had the chance to sing on live programmes (such as Bin Fen 83 on Ch 8) every week,” Kelly recounts. Besides singing on live television, she also performed at pubs, lounges and wedding banquets.
Kelly during her performing days in the 1980s
Kelly then began working for her brother who owns Mellben Seafood, at its outlet at Ang Mo Kio, where she learned how to run an F&B biz for the first time. In 2006, she left to open her own shop, Mellben Toa Payoh, before rebranding it to Kelly Jie Seafood in 2017.
Even though she was no longer performing, the songstresses’ star power followed her into her food biz. Rachel chimes in: “Because of how [sociable] she is, a lot of customers like her, and they would come back for her, rather than the food. It’s also for the food lah, but the bonus is because of her also”. These days, Kelly still performs for the elderly while doing voluntary work at eldercare centers. She no longer visits Kelly Jie daily, but often comes down to help on weekends. As for whether she’ll ever perform at Kelly Jie, Rachel laughs and says: “It’s a restaurant leh, how to perform? But sometimes she’ll chit chat with customers, and at times she’ll sing together with them”.
Daughters used to tag along with single mum to singing gigs
The siblings, who come from a single-parent family, are as cheerful and chatty as their mum - though they joke that they didn’t inherit her singing genes. Back when they were younger, the girls would tag along with Kelly for some of her singing gigs, but were mostly taken care of by their late grandmother. “Life was challenging back then, but thankfully [Kelly] raised us to be independent since young,” Rachel shares.
Older daughter quit banking job to work at Kelly Jie
Prior to running Kelly Jie, Rachel and Zara worked as a full-time banker and realtor respectively. Though Zara still works as a real estate agent on the side, Rachel quit her job as a Relationship Manager in the premier banking segment. Currently, Rachel is in charge of day-to-day ops and can be found at the eatery daily, while Zara handles marketing and works mostly on weekends.
But up till last year, the siblings didn’t have any intention of taking over the biz. Rachel says: “I was doing quite well and happy with my banking career, so I never really bothered, until one day [my mum] suddenly said, ‘I really don’t want to work anymore, I feel like giving Kelly Jie away to one of my nephews’. She had already given up on [me and Zara] taking over the business, ’cos we had no interest. But after she said that, I gave it some serious thought, and asked Zara to run the business with me”.
The sisters add that they don’t regret giving up or sidelining their corporate jobs to focus on Kelly Jie. “There’re a lot of things to learn also in managing a business - we are doing management, customer service and more, so it’s very interesting,” says Rachel.
Since they took over, the sisters have made a couple changes. “We changed the flooring, installed air conditioning and also changed our menu by lowering the prices and increasing food portions,” Rachel says. They assure us that they haven’t compromised on any ingredients: “We will never compromise on our food quality. We always choose the best ingredients, our chef takes a lot of pride in his food,” Zara says.
She adds that business has been picking up: “Not only did we manage to reconnect with our old customers, we also gained new ones”.
The menu
Kelly Jie’s head chef has been working here since Kelly opened her shop in 2006. If you’re planning to visit, Kelly recommends their signature Claypot Crab Vermicelli Soup (seasonal pricing, currently from $105/kg).
Other signatures include more mud crab dishes like Creamy Butter Crab ($92.40) and Salted Egg Crab ($92.40), as well as Prawn Rolls ($18) and “Yuan Yang” Crispy Fried Rice ($10) featuring a mixture of fried and deep-fried rice (the grains have differing textures, hence its moniker).
Kelly Jie Seafood is at #01-11/15 Blk 211 Lor 8 Toa Payoh, S310211. Open daily 12pm - 2.30pm; 4.30pm - 10pm. Tel: 8123 4156. More info via Instagram and Facebook.
Photos: Glyn Seah, Kelly Jie Seafood
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