Actor Ben Yeo is closing his high-end modern Chinese restaurant Tan Xiang Yuan in Singapore after suffering losses exceeding 3.3 million ringgit (US$732,357).
According to The Star, Yeo told Lianhe Zaobao on Jan. 3: “In business, you either make a profit or you’ve failed.”
“From a business perspective, anything that doesn’t make money, you have to know when to stop the bleeding. Shutting down is how we’re stopping the bleeding,” he further explained.
Tan Xiang Yuan, which opened in Nov. 2022 and is set to close in February, is housed in a two-storey conservation building on Dickson Road. The restaurant, a joint venture between Yeo, celebrity chef Cao Yong, and several business partners, is known for its specialty dishes like seafood steamboat and Peking duck.
Yeo explained that he initially planned to close the restaurant on Dec. 31, 2024, according to The Straits Times. He pointed out that a significant misstep with Tan Xiang Yuan was the 2.6 million ringgit spent on renovations. The high costs, compounded by regulatory challenges due to the building’s conservation status, adversely affected the restaurant’s profitability, according to him.
“Because the restaurant is housed in an old, conserved building, there were a lot of regulations to adhere to. Some of our renovations were not approved, so we had to redo them,” Yeo said. “It cost us a lot of money, and a lot of the expenditure was unexpected. But we had already started on the renovations at that point, so we couldn’t just stop.”
Amid the financial losses, Yeo is also concerned about the impact on his staff, expressing regret over the necessity to lay them off and working to secure them positions within his other businesses.
The actor expressed gratitude on social media to those who supported the restaurant after the closure announcement and encouraged continued patronage of his other food and beverage ventures. He noted significant support for Tan Xiang Yuan’s festive menu, stating: “We’ve been given a lot of support by our patrons, so we shall celebrate our last festive season in Tan Xiang Yuan with them.”
Yeo, 47, transitioned from modeling to acting after signing with SPH MediaWorks, a free-to-air terrestrial television broadcaster in Singapore. He has won three Star Awards for Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes—an accolade from Singapore’s state-owned media conglomerate Mediacorp—in 2012, 2017, and 2022.
Beyond acting, Yeo is an avid cook who often shares his cooking sessions live on his Facebook page.
