Palm Beach Seafood

Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant (Chinese: 棕榈滩海鲜) is a restaurant founded in 1962 along Upper East Coast Road, Singapore and is credited with inventing and developing the popular dish, Singaporean Chili Crab. [1]

History

Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant started as a pushcart roadside stall in 1956 [2][3] by Cher Yam Tian and her husband Lim Choo Ngee.[4] [5][6] Cher, who is said to be the creator of the local chilli crab dish, sold stir-fried crabs mixed with bottled chilli and tomato sauce at the stall.[5][6] The couple eventually expanded their business to establish a restaurant, Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant, along Upper East Coast Road in the early 1960s.[7] The restaurant was named Palm Beach, as there were coconut palms along the beach just outside the restaurant.[5][8] Up till 1985, they remained in a coffee-shop along Upper East Coast Road, holding a menu of 9 crab dishes.[2]

When Cher and Lim migrated to New Zealand in the 1980s,[5][6][9][10] Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant was eventually bought over by Han Jin Juan.[11][12][13] In 1985, Palm Beach merged with the Fisherman restaurant and moved to Halifax Road.[14] After the premises were burned down in a fire, Palm Beach relocated to the National Stadium in Kallang Park in October 1985.[11][15] In 2008, they moved to One Fullerton along Fullerton Road, and they have remained there to the present day.[14] Today, their One Fullerton restaurant mainly attracts a crowd of working professionals and tourists.[13]

Company Profile

Today, Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant offers more than 100 items on their menu, with chilli crab being their signature dish.[16]

As the current owner and managing director,[13] Han Jin Juan keeps himself up to date on the latest trends, which helps to develop Palm Beach’s menu.[16] Head Chef, Wong Ah Kun, runs the kitchen and has worked at Palm Beach for 20 years.[13] According to Chef Wong, Palm Beach takes pride in ensuring that they “keep their recipes consistent and do not compromise on food quality.” [16]

Company Practices

To help increase productivity, Palm Beach has implemented some of the following initiatives:

  • In 2005, restaurant staff carried PDAs to transmit orders wirelessly.[17] To improve efficiency, the restaurant upgraded its mobile point of sales (POS) system to take orders via tablet computers instead of PDAs in 2011. To gather customer feedback, guests are also handed the tablets at the end of every meal.[17]
  • The restaurant had adopted the Japanese 5S system, a housekeeping technique for kitchens, in 2008. With items clearly labeled and sorted, staff can retrieve items quickly, helping to reduce the amount of time spent training new staff.[17][18]
  • Palm Beach is the first Singaporean restaurant to launch the Mystery Diner programme in 2005, in collaboration with the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) and SPRING Singapore. The mystery diner audit is a means for the company to improve service standards.[17][18]

As a result of these initiatives, Han reported that his company’s profits had grown between 10 and 15 per cent annually, from 2008 to 2012.[17]

Notable Projects

In 1994, Palm Beach ventured into the franchise business and awarded their first franchise to an Indonesian company, Sinovo Foods.[19]

In 2008, Palm Beach restaurant collaborated with other notable local seafood restaurants, Jumbo Seafood and Seafood International, to start up two Singapore Seafood Republic outlets in Tokyo, featuring Singapore seafood dishes.[20][21] After the success of their first two restaurants in Tokyo, they set up other outlets in Singapore (2010), Osaka(2011) and Tokyo (2013).[22]

Awards

Selected awards achieved by Palm Beach restaurant:[23]

YearAward Received
1992-2003Singapore Tatler – Singapore’s Best Restaurant
1996-2000Singapore Food Festival – Most Popular Seafood Restaurant
1997-2008Singapore Tourism Board – Excellent Service Awards
2002Restaurant Association Of Singapore – Excellence Service Award
2004/2005Superbrands Singapore [24]
2007Singapore Food Festival - Media’s Choice Award for Ginger Giant Prawns.[25]
2008Singapore Food Festival - City Gas Singapore Chef of the Year Award (Tay Jun Hua) [26]
2008-2010Singapore Tourism Board – Singapore Service Star Award
2010Top 10 Seafood by Hungrygowhere

TASTY Singapore Chef RAS Runner-Up

References
  1. "Best chilli crab in Singapore | The die die must try restaurants". Singapore. 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  2. Palm Beach Seafood. "About Us – History".
  3. Lum, Magdalene (23 June 1996). "40 good years dishing up chilli crabs". Straits Times.
  4. Seow, Dawn (August 9, 2011). "The Keeper of the Chilli Crab".
  5. Tay, Leslie (2010). The End of Char Kway Teow and Other Hawker Mysteries. Singapore: Epigram Books.
  6. Australian Gourmet Traveller (1 November 2012). "Chilli Crab". Australian Gourmet Traveller.
  7. Lee, Jocelyn (19 September 2009). "Chilli crab was created in Singapore". Straits Times.
  8. ieatishootipost. "Roland Restaurant: History of Chilli Crabs, this is as Singaporean as it gets!". Retrieved 31 Dec 2015.
  9. http://www.rolandrestaurant.com.sg/about-us.html. "About Us". Archived from the original on 2015-04-07. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  10. Lim, Damien; Chew, Valerie. "Chilli Crab".
  11. Yeo, Kim Seng (16 June 1985). "Uncertain future for Palm Beach restaurant". Straits Times.
  12. Teo, Pau Lin (12 June 2005). "Feeling Crabby?". The Straits Times.
  13. Said, Nabila; Goh, Kenneth (25 January 2015). "Seafood secrets". The Straits Times.
  14. The New Paper (14 October 2008). "Palm Beach opens Fullerton branch". The New Paper.
  15. The Straits Times (3 October 1985). "Palm Beach restaurant re-opens". The Straits Times.
  16. Wong, Ruby. "Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant". Retrieved 31 Dec 2015.
  17. Chay, Felda (3 July 2012). "Embracing Efficiency". The Business Times.
  18. Palm Beach Seafood. "About Us – Best Practices". Retrieved 31 Dec 2015.
  19. Soh, Tiang Keng (29 September 1994). "Palm Beach Seafood awards first franchise". The Business Times.
  20. Kwan, Weng Kin (30 March 2008). "Chilli crab makes its way to Tokyo". The Straits Times.
  21. The Business Times (1 April 2008). "S'pore-Japan seafood JV opens in Tokyo tomorrow". The Business Times.
  22. Palm Beach Seafood. "About Us – Our Affiliates". Retrieved 31 Dec 2015.
  23. Palm Beach Seafood. "Accolades".
  24. The Straits Times (18 August 2004). "Who's in the list". The Straits Times.
  25. Yeoh, Wee Teck (11 July 2007). "First prize in his 1st contest". The New Paper.
  26. The New Paper (30 July 2008). "Two more chefs in hall of fame". The New Paper.

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