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After 25 years of serving authentic Singaporean cuisine in downtown Menlo Park, Shiok! Singapore Kitchen is facing an uncertain future. Co-owner Dennis Lim confirmed that the restaurant will have to vacate its current location at 1137 Chestnut St. by the end of January, following the sale of the building, as the new owner requested that the building be empty. The new owner of the building could not be reached for comment.
Lim and his family learned that the building had been sold around Christmas, and received formal notice to vacate on New Year’s Day. Shiok has until the end of the month to find a new location or shut down. The two other businesses in the building — Gerry’s Cakes and Ela Lingerie — have also been given notice to vacate, according to Lim. Signs posted at Gerry’s Cakes and Ela Lingerie confirmed these businesses will be leaving as well.
Lim is worried that if the restaurant cannot find a new location in time, that he will have to lay off his business’ eight employees.
“They’re saying ‘oh, you can leave in 30 days,’ but have you considered I have my staff that is depending on this business to raise a family?” he said. “Myself as well; I have a family that depends on this business. By telling me to leave in 30 days, it is effectively cutting off a source of income for myself and all my staff.”
Lim and his family have explored several options, but said that he is finding it difficult to secure a location in the time they have been given. He said that moving a restaurant is essentially like starting a brand new business, and usually takes several months to complete.
“Thirty days is just brutal,” he said. “I’m happy to move into an empty restaurant or even an existing restaurant … I can assume their lease if they want to.”
For Lim, leaving the Menlo Park location is particularly emotional after two and half decades of building relationships with the community. He says that in an ideal world, he would like to find a new location for Shiok that is still close to downtown.
“I’ve seen people get married. I’ve seen their children grow up, all their happy occasions. And I’ve also seen many of my customers pass away as well,” he said. “We fed our family through this place, and now we just have to move.”
‘I’ve seen people get married. I’ve seen their children grow up, all their happy occasions. And I’ve also seen many of my customers pass away as well. We fed our family through this place, and now we just have to move.’
Shiok Co-owner Dennis Lim
The Lim family has also considered finding commercial kitchen space and converting Shiok into a ghost kitchen for delivery apps, but says it wouldn’t be the same restaurant that they love without the customers.
Lim also credits the Menlo Park community for keeping the restaurant afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic, when it had to shut its doors for almost two years.
“For two years we could only do takeout,” he said. “I have to credit the Menlo Park community who continued to order takeout from us. Even if they can’t eat out, they’ll come and support us.”
Shiok was founded by Lim’s mother, Rosalind Tan, and his sister, Maggie Lim, because they enjoyed entertaining people with their food. The restaurant originally opened in a small space in San Carlos in 1999, but quickly moved into a bigger space in Menlo Park in 2000 when demand outstripped the space available in its original location, and Shiok has remained in the Chestnut Street space ever since.
Lim said at the time the restaurant opened, ethnic restaurants on the Peninsula were much rarer, and there wasn’t anything else like it around. He explained that Singaporean food is unique because it is “the original fusion food,” which represents a blend of Indian, Chinese and Malay cuisine. Menu items include Roti prata with curry sauce, Singapore chicken rice, beef rendang and Tahu goreng.
“If you eat at our restaurant, you’ll find that if you order five dishes, they will have five different tastes,” he said. The recipes at Shiok are family heirlooms, passed down from Tan’s mother to her, and now to Lim and his sister.
“It’s very personal when you are feeding somebody from your kitchen, and this is the food you ate as a kid,” he said.
Lim said he can’t count the number of memories that he cherishes at Shiok, but recalled a time when the Singaporean prime minister visited in 2016 as one of his favorite moments at the restaurant. He proudly displays a picture of him and his family with the prime minister in the restaurant.
Lim doesn’t know what will come next for the restaurant, but says he is taking it one day at a time. There is no definitive closing date planned for the restaurant, but Lim says he will try to keep Shiok open as long as he can so he can continue to pay his staff.
Despite the uncertainty, Lim expressed deep gratitude for the support he and his family have received for the 25 years that they have been in Menlo Park.
“We wouldn’t have survived for 25 years without the community,” he said. “Our customers are like family to us.”
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I expect the owner of this building will either combine the spaces now occupied by Shiok, Gerry’s Cakes and Eli Lingerie in the existing building or perhaps construct a new one. Either way, the Downtown Affordable Housing Project will impact the future availability of nearby public parking for a new tenant.
I wonder if they could move to where Galata Bistro was, on Santa Cruz Ave.? Although, I think the owner of that building may have raised the rent so much that Galata had to close.
One more incident, along with removal of convenient parking that will lead to the retail death of “downtown” Menlo Park. No close parking, no customers. No-one learned anything from the closure of CA Ave. and the dying University Ave in Palo Alto?
This is absolutely absurd. There is no excuse for not providing more notice. The statutory rule may be that the new owner need only provide 30 days notice, but it’s immoral and the law needs to be changed to require more notice given the realities of running a small business.
Based on the article, these businesses weren’t provided any notice by the current owner and were taken by surprise. This is exactly why family and small businesses struggle to survive in California. Had they been given 60 or 90 days notice, they might have had a shot at relocating, but it’s basically impossible to do this in 30 days. Considering the new owner will either renovate or rebuild, a process that will take 1-3 years, it could have spared these business-owners another 30 days…..
And for those of you who are going to say “but the new owner has rights…,” sure, they do. But this would have cost nothing and would have helped all the employees of these businesses and possibly prevented a bunch of unemployment claims which will need to be made since there will be no time for owners and employees to line up income to live on now. The private owners of this building are now just relying on the public to offset their poor practices.