Profile | She’s bringing ‘a slice of Singapore’ to London: Ellen Chew on why her new restaurant Singapulah is about more than just food from the Lion City
- Celebrated UK-based Singaporean restaurateur Ellen Chew has 15 venues under her belt. Her latest, Singapulah, is an ode to Singapore in London’s Chinatown
- She talks about how her new venture pairs authentic food with decor incorporating elements from her childhood to tell the little-known story of her homeland
On Shaftesbury Avenue in the heart of London’s Chinatown, opposite the Sondheim Theatre, stands a new flag-waver for Singapore in the British capital.
Singapulah is the latest venture from Ellen Chew, the Singaporean restaurateur behind London’s long-standing Rasa Sayang restaurant. The menu at this new restaurant features Singaporean mainstays like steaming bowls of bak kut teh, and serves as a window into Singaporean culture, design and ingredients.
When Chew opened Rasa Sayang in Central London back in 2008, she would often fill her luggage on trips back from Singapore with ingredients like tea leaves, Malaysian robusta coffee and anchovies that weren’t readily available in the UK.
Apart from the unavailability of certain ingredients, changing perceptions of Singaporean cuisine were also a challenge for the restaurateur back then.
“At first, we found it tricky introducing our concept to the London audience as some of the dishes were unfamiliar. When we first opened Rasa Sayang we served whole fish and people freaked out,” she says.
