Seafood Restaurant The Naked Finn’s Owner Makes Unusual Request For “Help” To Drum Up Biz

“Reach out to customers before it’s too late”

According to Ken, he wanted to “reach out to customers before it’s too late”. Speaking to 8days.sg, he shares that there was “no one big reason” that led him to share his post, but “a lot of things came together to make it very hard for us”.

While he had his reservations about making a public plea to help his restaurant, Ken shares that “what held me back from pulling out of that post was that we have been here for more than 10 years, and we have been profitable”.

But business at The Naked Finn has been unpredictable lately. “We have days when we are very good, and we have days when we are very bad. Zero customers for lunch. People are not eating out. There are so many restaurants [to choose from] nowadays, it’s also beyond our control,” Ken notes.

Customers are now dining out… overseas

He explains that a lot of The Naked Finn’s customers have been travelling regularly — “monthly or even fortnightly” since borders reopened. “People have to spend the airline miles they accrued as well, because there is an expiry date,” he adds.

The strong Singapore dollar against weaker currencies also meant that Singaporeans have been flocking to countries like Japan, where they can spend less for more, especially on local specialities like seafood. “It’s very desirable to go to places like this where you can enjoy the weather and quality of food at a much better price point,” Ken points out candidly.

He also observes that people are cautious about spending when the economic climate is unstable and they have less disposable income. “All these are things we cannot change. Being an older restaurant in the industry, we are not a new thing. That’s why it was important for me to write something, to let people know that we are still around, if our food is relevant and they simply forgot about us ’cos they were distracted,” he says.

Ken reasons: “If our food is damn bad and we’re not worth visiting, that’s when we will die. But restaurants have access to social media, they have a platform. If I reach out and get some attention, that’s what we should do. Whatever I can do to help the business, I will do it.”

Pivoting to “comfort food”

Instead of fancy experimental dishes, Ken and his team have been focusing on offering “comforting, familiar Chinese-Japanese food”, like Teochew-style fish soup bee hoon with good quality fish like wild-caught Indian threadfin and New Zealand blue cod, chye poh pepper crabs paired with chwee kueh, and homely donabe (Japanese claypot) loaded with nasi ulam and yellow croaker.

“Not that creativity is bad, but we are past Covid now. People can travel the world to taste things. We need to be comfort-focused. A lot of our dishes are still on the menu, but simplified to make comfort food. Something that you can eat on a regular basis, without compromising on what [our chefs have] created,” shares Ken.

Since his Instagram post, Ken has seen more customers returning to his restaurant. “Old faces are coming back — people are reaching out and making posts. Now it’s about how to keep them coming back and how regularly they can eat our food,” he says. “Right now, what's happening is an industry-wide thing. It depends on who has the deep pockets to wait for things to normalise.”

The Naked Finn is at 39 Malan Rd, Gillman Barracks, S109442. Tel: 6694-0807. Open Tues-Sat, 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10.30pm. Advance orders recommended to ensure dish availability. Instagram, Facebook

Photos: The Naked Finn

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