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Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain

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Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain
Johnny Tan and Sylvia Ler have been business partners for almost 20 years.
It’s just before noon on a particularly balmy Thursday at Tang Tea House‘s flagship Bedok outlet, and almost all of the restaurant’s tables have already been filled – as they usually are – with the usual lunch crowd of office workers from nearby buildings and chattering families.
They’re waiting on orders of dim sum, chicken rice and zi char staples like chilli crab or crispy fried bee hoon, which wouldn’t be unusual apart from the fact that each and every dish served here is halal.
Now, Muslim-friendly Chinese food isn’t exactly hard to find today, but that wasn’t the case when Tang Tea House was founded back in 2005.
Sylvia Ler, one half of the duo behind the brand, cuts an imposing figure in the dining room despite her relatively smaller stature. You’ll usually find the 67-year-old playing conductor at the Bedok outlet, navigating the chaos of a busy kitchen and restaurant with practiced ease as she expedites orders, ushers bubbling claypots of Indonesian prawn curry from kitchen to table and welcomes customers old and new.
Her other half, Johnny Tan, prefers to work in the background, spearheading business strategy, procurement and the group’s overall management as a whole. It’s a partnership that’s vital to Tang Tea House’s greater whole, especially given its growth from a single restaurant to five separate outlets and central kitchen in the two decades since it opened.
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Beginning of Tang Tea House
Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain - Tang Tea House outlet in Simpang Bedok
The Tang Tea House outlet in Simpang Bedok, the flagship outlet that owners Johnny and Sylvia started in 2005.
Johnny and Sylvia’s partnership – and eventual relationship – both resulted from the same fateful singing class they attended back in 2002.
Supper after classes with their singing buddies was a regular occurrence, though it was one particular visit to a struggling halal coffeeshop owned by a friend of Johnny’s that would spark their idea for a halal restaurant serving Chinese food.
The pair decided to create a family-friendly restaurant offering affordable halal dim sum and zi char, leveraging on Sylvia’s 30 years of experience in the F&B industry managing her family’s confectionery business.
Even so, finding success in a niche market wasn’t easy.
However, the restaurant eventually found its footing by tweaking its recipes to suit the taste preferences of its mostly-Malay customer base.
Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain - Tang Tea House extensive menu
Tang Tea House has an extensive menu with over 300 items. Signatures include Indonesian prawn curry, Muslim-friendly versions of siew mai and xiao long bao, and chicken rice.
Tang Tea House’s 20-year kinship with customers and staff
This year marks a big moment for the Tang Tea House brand. It will soon be opening two more outlets in Marina Square shopping mall and Tampines within the first quarter of 2025.
For its silver founders, the 20-year anniversary is especially sweet as it signifies two decades feeding a loyal following of customers.
However, the same can be said for Tang Tea House’s team, which includes several of Johnny’s relatives and longtime employees that might as well be kin. The company counts three chefs who’ve been in its employ since the business first started, along with 19 employees that’ve clocked at least a decade with the brand across all outlets.
Meanwhile, his younger sister works as the chief operating officer at Tang Tea House. Previously, his eldest sister managed a rojak counter at the Jalan Kayu branch, while his second sister handled cashiering at the Bedok outlet. Both retired last year after eight and 11 years in service respectively.
Reflecting on legacy
Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain - Regular customers
Sylvia with some of her regulars who have become familiar faces over the years.
Credit: Sylvia Ler
As for Tang Tea House’s founders themselves, neither have seriously considered retirement despite inching toward their 70s.
Sylvia sometimes plays with the idea of stepping back and devoting her time to volunteering. However, she hasn’t yet found the push to actually leave her baby behind.
One of her most cherished achievements over the years was born out of the Covid-19 pandemic. When the disease shuttered stores worldwide, she signed up with Grabfood, saving her business and inadvertently making it onto the Nasdaq billboard in Times Square, New York City, as part of an advertisement for the delivery platform.
Tang Tea House: Meet The Senior Couple Behind This Halal Chinese Dim Sum & Zi Char Restaurant Chain - Times Square Nasdaq billboard
From a humble eatery to the bright lights of Times Square – Tang Tea House takes the global stage on the Nasdaq billboard.
Credit: Johnny Tan
Although the feature did nothing for their business back here in Singapore, it was gratifying to the couple that even a family-run operation like theirs could find an international stage, even if for only a brief moment.
It was a symbolic achievement that underscored a long-felt sentiment for the silver entrepreneurs.

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