Let’s be honest — owning a restaurant sounds glamorous, right? You imagine a stylish café with perfect lighting, famous friends dropping by, and foodies tagging your place all over Instagram. But for many Mediacorp stars, that fantasy quickly turned into a financial nightmare.
The truth? Singapore’s food-and-beverage scene is a battlefield. And it doesn’t care how many followers you have.
5 Mediacorp Artists with F&B Ventures That Failed / Closed
| Artist | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1. Hong Junyang Thai street-food chain The Original Boat Noodle, also brought in Machi Machi (bubble tea), and other ventures like Caf (café-cloud kitchen), BananaBro (Indian banana leaf rice), Oppa Kitchen stall. | Declared bankruptcy in Sept 2025. The food chain had expansion, but business was hit hard since Covid, many outlets closed; other ventures shut down in 2022; debts piled up from under-performing units. |
| 2. Ben Yeo Modern Chinese restaurant Tan Xiang Yuan; also other F&B concepts. | Lost more than S$1 million over two years before deciding to shut down Tan Xiang Yuan in early 2025. Big cost overruns (e.g. on renovation, conservation-building regulations), difficulty recovering start-up costs. |
| 3. Sora Ma Retro-themed café “The Mama Shop” opened with Felicia Chin in Chinatown (2014) | Closed in less than a year (August 2015). Didn’t build enough traction, possibly low foot traffic, maybe operational/marketing or cost issues. |
| 4. Chen Shucheng Bubble tea shop (Meme Xpress), restaurant ventures (The Chinese Kitchen: Taste of Taiwan; Teochew City); vegetarian stalls etc. | His bubble tea shop closed after just 3 months. The restaurants and stalls were also closed down over time. Probably a mix of weak demand, oversupply, competition; perhaps undercapitalisation or not enough biz planning. |
| 5. Zhang Yaodong Multiple F&B outlets: Restoran Selayang (roast meat stall), Niu Taste (Taiwan- beef noodles in KL), fusion restaurant Maru in Tanjong Pagar. | He ended up pulling out of all his eateries (as of 2017) because of busy acting commitments; many were already closed. So poor sustainability / management oversight was one issue. |
The Recipe That Went Wrong
Take Hong Junyang, for example. He once rode the wave of fame from Project SuperStar, only to find himself swept under by the tide of bad business luck. From bubble tea to banana leaf rice, he tried it all. Sadly, the ventures didn’t just fizzle — they collapsed, dragging him into bankruptcy. Turns out, passion doesn’t pay rent when your outlets are bleeding money faster than your Instagram grows.
Then there’s Ben Yeo, the TV heartthrob-turned-restaurateur. He poured his savings and soul into Tan Xiang Yuan, a modern Chinese eatery with all the right vibes. But even the best menu couldn’t save it. The restaurant shut down in 2025 after bleeding over a million dollars. Imagine cooking up dreams only to serve loss after loss — that’s brutal.
Next up, Sora Ma and Felicia Chin’s retro café The Mama Shop. It had nostalgia, heart, and a charming concept. Yet, within a year, the shutters came down. The lesson? Good vibes can’t beat bad foot traffic.
Chen Shucheng, a respected veteran actor, tried his hand at bubble tea and themed restaurants. But the reality hit hard — the bubble burst in three months. No amount of star power could compete with oversaturated markets and rising rents.
Lastly, Zhang Yaodong, the man with multiple eateries under his belt, found himself stretched too thin. Acting commitments pulled him one way, business another. Eventually, he bowed out completely. Fame is great for promo, but it can’t replace hands-on management.
The Harsh Reality of Singapore’s F&B Scene
Let’s call it like it is — running an F&B business in Singapore is not for the faint-hearted. The rent alone can make you cry before you even buy your first wok. Add manpower shortages, stiff competition, and customers who always want something “new,” and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.
Celebrities often start with hype and headlines, but when the buzz fades, the bills remain. You can’t just open a café and expect fans to eat there forever. Food trends are fickle. Today it’s mala everything; tomorrow, it’s oat milk bubble tea.
And let’s not forget — being famous can be a double-edged sword. When a regular business fails, it quietly disappears. But when a celebrity’s venture collapses, the whole internet knows about it before dessert’s even served.
My Two Cents
Here’s what I think — fame might open doors, but business sense keeps them open. Many of these stars jumped into F&B with enthusiasm but not enough preparation. Maybe they underestimated how tough it is. Maybe they trusted the wrong partners. Or maybe, they just thought their names alone were enough to keep people coming.
But success in F&B isn’t about who you are — it’s about what you serve and how well you run things. Passion helps, sure. But without experience, strategy, and a solid team, it’s like serving a meal without seasoning — looks great, tastes flat.
If these stars ever want to give it another shot, they should spend time understanding the grind — not just the glory. Because, let’s face it, in Singapore’s F&B world, even Michelin chefs sweat to survive.
The Takeaway
So, what really happened to Mediacorp’s F&B dreamers? They had the fame, the fans, and the funds — but not the formula. The market doesn’t care about star power; it cares about staying power.
At the end of the day, being a celebrity might get people through your doors once. But keeping them coming back? That takes more than a selfie.
