For years, Denise Deanna Chew has been serving up halal Chinese-style prawn noodles.
The Muslim convert started Deanna’s Kitchen as a home-based business and later opened a hawker stall in Toa Payoh in 2017.
And now, she has fulfilled her dream of owning a restaurant, located at 10 Jalan Masjid in Kembangan, offering an expanded menu with new dishes and rebranding to Deanna’s Kitchen Signatures.
The 41-year-old first announced the news in an Instagram post on her personal and business accounts on Jan 17.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DE62UteT2Uy/?hl=en
“This year, one of our top priorities is finally bringing Deanna’s Kitchen to its next chapter,” she wrote in the post.
In a separate post on Jan 28, she described this milestone as “a dream eight years in the making”.
Speaking to AsiaOne, Deanna shared that she and her team started operations at the restaurant in September 2024, the same month they secured the unit.
They also took over the previous restaurant owner’s name and menu, with the unit currently having two different store names — Al Rayyan and Deanna’s Kitchen.
“My husband and I negotiated a new lease with the landlord, and the restaurant continued running as usual under our management,” Deanna told us.
Since procuring the unit, Deanna has also shuttered all her other hawker and coffee shop stalls.
“All our focus, energy, and resources are now dedicated to this space to ensure we can offer the best possible experience for our customers,” she said.
Deanna added that taking over a fully fledged restaurant was a “huge leap” for the team as previously, they only managed small stalls in coffee shops and hawker centers focused solely on her prawn noodles.
“Now, we’re handling a much bigger operation, which includes Western food, zi char, drinks, and more,” explained Deanna.
“On top of that, we have to manage utilities like gas and electricity, as well as pest control and other operational complexities.”
Out of everything, the biggest challenge is the financial aspect.
“Running a restaurant is about 10 times more expensive than running a coffee shop stall. It’s a constant worry, but Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), we have managed to pull through so far,” said Deanna.
Now that they have more time on their hands, Deanna and her team are making the restaurant their own.
Their first project was during Chinese New Year, where they introduced a special menu available for all 15 days of the Lunar New Year.
After the festive period, she and the team will be making further updates to the menu. They will also be carrying out a few minor renovations to the unit and have a new signboard.
The new menu will have more Chinese zi char dishes.
“Basically, the kind of food I personally love and want to share with our customers. Some dishes we plan to add include san lou hor fun, authentic char kway teow, oyster omelette, and mui fan (braised rice),” Deanna revealed.
“These are classic flavours that I feel are essential in a halal Chinese restaurant.”
And of course, her beloved prawn noodles will still be on the menu.
“Our prawn noodles remain a core part of our menu. Even as we expand our offerings, our signature prawn mee will always be available,” she said.
While the menu is still not finalised, Deanna shared that staples would cost around $5 to $9.
Prices of her prawn noodles will also remain the same. A bowl of Big Prawn Mee costs $7.50, while a bowl of Clams & Prawn Mee costs $7.50.
Making Chinese halal food accessible to everyone
For Deanna, one of the hardest parts of converting was eliminating pork from her diet and one of her comfort dishes was a hearty bowl of prawn noodles.
“Prawn noodles was something that my family cooked every Sunday when we had family gatherings, so for me, not having prawn mee — it seemed very dismal,” she told AsiaOne in a previous interview.
Hoping to satisfy her cravings, she and her husband tried to find alternatives but nothing tasted similar to an authentic bowl of prawn mee.
Deciding to take matters into her own hands, Deanna created her very own bowl of halal prawn mee by tweaking her grandmother’s recipe and substituting pork and lard components with ingredients like chicken.
It took her six years to get the recipe right and while she had initially only wanted to create a halal rendition of the dish to satisfy her own cravings, her loved ones encouraged her to sell it.
So Deanna’s Kitchen came to be, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Address: 10 Jln Masjid, Al Rayyan, Singapore 418930
Hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 12pm to 10pm
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