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Seafood lovers, this may hurt quite a bit. Old Lai Huat Seafood Restaurant opened its doors for the last time on 26 Nov, inking out the last page to their 60 years of history and welcoming customers for a bittersweet meal before their permanent closure.
The news first came via a post on their Facebook page stating the last day of operation while also offering their sincerest thanks to customers who have supported them over the ‘past 20 odd years’, hoping that they would pay the restaurant one final visit.
As reported by Shin Min Daily News, the seafood restaurant started as a business selling Teochew Porridge in the 1950s, before deciding to focus on seafood in 1963. They then shifted to Ophir Road in the 1980s, where Lim Poh Huat (now retired) worked as a chef cooking up Teochew Porridge. In 2001, he went on to open his own seafood zi char eatery with his wife on Rangoon Road in Little India.
Though the couple had been considering retirement for 4 to 5 years, they were initially reluctant to do so as their younger son, 23 years old then, was still studying.
With both sons showing no interest in taking over the business, they eventually decided to proceed with closing Old Lai Huat Seafood Restaurant after years of exhausting work and no successor in sight. Mr Lim had been cooking on his own all these years, rarely taking a break.
Speaking with Shin Min, he said: ‘We’ve been working for 20 years, and I want to spend time with my wife. Now that we are retiring, we can enjoy life.’
