SINGAPORE – In 2023, Mervyn Chua moved to Bangkok in search of greener pastures, only to lose $90,000 on a restaurant he ran for six stressful months.
Then 25, he took over a two-storey shophouse in the trendy Ekkamai neighbourhood for $2,700 a month. He turned the first storey into the 20-seat Mervyn’s Ekkamai restaurant and lived upstairs.
His confidence was bolstered by the early success he found starting a small poolside cafe within Ridgewood Condominium in Ridgewood Close in December 2020.
Then 22, he had opened Mervyn’s Madeleines with $12,000 of his savings, two months after graduating from At-Sunrice GlobalChef Academy with a diploma in food services (culinary arts) and a specialist diploma in food entrepreneurship.
The cafe recovered its set-up costs and turned profitable within three months. He ran it for two years, but felt constrained by its location. Most customers were people living nearby, and attracting new walk-in customers was difficult.
“I was young and wanted something more. I felt the need to progress to a bigger space with room to grow,” he says.
Now 28, after his expensive detour to Bangkok, he is back at Ridgewood Condominium, where his family lives, running two eateries. He reopened Mervyn’s Madeleines there in September 2024 and launched MM Diner on May 27 in 2026.
The new 18-seat diner allows him to showcase a wider menu. It is also his final make-or-break test of his entrepreneurial abilities. He has given himself two more years to decide whether the sacrifices that come with running F&B businesses are worth it. If it is a no, he says he will throw in the proverbial towel.
Inspired by Gordon Ramsay
Chua studied at Raffles Institution under the Integrated Programme and completed his A levels in 2016. After national service, instead of university, he chose culinary school.
His interest in cooking began at 18, after British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay visited Singapore in 2016. Curious about the chef everyone was discussing, he began watching Ramsay’s videos on YouTube.
“I realised I could sit there and watch him cooking on screen for hours without feeling restless,” he says.
Before NS, he worked part time at ramen restaurant Ippudo Mandarin Gallery and Wala Wala Cafe Bar, which prepared him for the grind of working in F&B.
During his army stint, he spent his days off experimenting in his family’s kitchen, cooking many iterations of Western dishes such as crispy-skinned salmon with potato salad.
His mother supported his decision to attend culinary school, while his father remained neutral. Both of them are professionals. He has two younger sisters.
In 2020, he used his savings accumulated through part-time work and hongbao collected since childhood to open Mervyn’s Madeleines.
The 400 sq ft cafe began as a one-man operation, with two tables and eight chairs outside a ground-floor unit taken up almost entirely by a kitchen and storage area.
The food menu had only six items, which included Citrus Madeleines ($8 for a box of 10 then, $7.50 for a box of five now) and Prawn Angelhair ($14 then, $18 now), and five drink choices, including Mango Smoothie ($5 then, $6.50 now).
Venturing overseas
After visiting Bangkok with his family on a weekend holiday in June 2022, Chua was struck by the potential of the city and made six more scouting trips that year, intending to set up shop there.
He found an Ekkamai shophouse which appeared to offer value in terms of location, space and rent.
But the opening was delayed by two months because he underestimated the paperwork required to incorporate a company in Thailand. He ended up paying rent and utilities for two months before the restaurant began operating in May 2023.
His initial budget of $50,000 ballooned to $90,000 at the end of six months. Half that sum came from his mother.
His menu of pastas – like carbonara pasta, priced at 300 baht (S$11.50) – almond financier (180 baht for a box of 10) and nasi lemak (275 baht) attracted an assortment of Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Japanese and Western patrons, but failed to win over Thai residents in the area.
He recalls: “I didn’t do enough market research. My mistake was trying to replicate the success of Mervyn’s Madeleines, thinking I could transplant the same concept to Bangkok and it would take off.”
A Western diner next door proved tough competition too, with its attractive aesthetics and ambience.
Soon after opening, Chua realised the road outside, which he had mistaken for a main thoroughfare, saw limited pedestrians and walk-in traffic.
Nevertheless, he worked from 8am to 9pm six days a week. Business was so slow, he spent most of his hours agonising over costs.
In a last-ditch attempt to save his restaurant, he paid a Thai marketing agency $2,000 for a three-month social media campaign. Business improved by about 15 per cent, but not enough to cover operational costs.
He cut his losses and closed Mervyn’s Ekkamai in October 2023, selling his new equipment cheaply to a second-hand dealer.
It was crushing to watch the restaurant being dismantled and its fittings and furniture put up for sale. “I sold whatever I could to minimise losses. I felt destroyed. The feeling was worse than the worst relationship break-up I had,” he recalls.
Anxious to return to paid work, he secured a part-time job in Singapore even before he flew home.
Starting over
Back in Singapore in January 2024, he took on part-time gigs as a kitchen assistant at Kaarla Wood-Fire Grill and Bar and TungLok Catering, before working full time as an assistant operations manager at a cafeteria management and catering company for three months. He also served as a trainer at a bubble tea company for five months.
When his former landlord told him the Ridgewood Condominium unit he used to occupy was available, he jumped at it and reopened Mervyn’s Madeleines there in September 2024.
Applying the lessons he learnt in Bangkok, he invested a more modest $10,000, buying mostly second-hand equipment this time. He watched expenses closely and recovered his capital within three months.
The cafe made $100,000 in revenue in 2025. Chua spent another $20,000 to open MM Diner, also outfitting it with second-hand equipment and furniture.
The 435 sq ft diner lets him serve his favourite comfort food dishes which showcase his craftsmanship.
The top-selling Ragu Bianco Pappardelle ($24) pairs chewy housemade pasta with white pork ragu, cooked from a sofrito of onion and celery, without tomato or carrot, and enriched with a four-hour pork stock, portobello mushrooms and rosemary.
The Classic Beef Burger ($19) comes in a daily-baked brioche bun with a pure beef patty – seasoned simply with salt – caramelised onions, mozzarella and gherkins, alongside hand-cut fries and a salad.
The rich Oreo Biscoff Milkshake ($10) blends Meiji milk, vanilla ice cream and Oreo cookies without added sugar.
He works from 7am to 10pm, pacing between the two eateries, which are in the same block. He also does kitchen preparation on days when they are closed.
Mervyn’s Madeleines has one full-time employee and one part-time employee. His mother also works there part time, but Chua says he feels guilty watching her tire herself out. He hopes to hire a full-timer soon for MM Diner.
His goal is for MM Diner to achieve a stable monthly revenue of at least $20,000 and employ two full-time workers within two years. If it succeeds, he hopes to open up to three more outlets here.
If it does not, the bachelor is prepared to take on a salaried F&B job. “In two years, I will turn 30 and have spent a decade in F&B,” he says. “By then, I will have devoted much of my youth and energy to my culinary passion. I have to decide whether running my own business is a sustainable way to make a living.”
MM Diner
Where: Unit G5 (upper level), Ridgewood Condominium, 5 Ridgewood Close
Open: 11.30am to 3pm and 5pm to 9pm (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays to Sundays). Closed on Mondays and Thursdays
Tel: 8161-3543 (reservations recommended)
Info: E-mail mervynsdiner@gmail.com or go to @mm_diner_rw on Instagram
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
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