Dining Out 2 minutes 05 June 2018

Why An Old Chang Kee Curry Puff Costs Three Times More In London Than Singapore

The British version of the chain's Hainanese-style curry puff is almost twice as large and includes ingredients imported from Singapore.

Popular Singapore snack chain Old Chang Kee has been causing quite a stir in London, where it just opened its first British outlet.

At £2.80 (S$5), a curry puff in London costs more than three times than one in Singapore, where a curry puff is S$1.50. However, it is also almost two times bigger, to cater to Western appetites.

Song Yeow Chung, Old Chang Kee’s chief financial officer, says that the price difference is also due to the cost of shipping the curry paste from Singapore, and high rental and labour costs in London. The 16-seat restaurant, which is located at 15A New Row, opened on 2 June. The shop is along a busy pedestrian walkway between Covent Garden and Leicester Square.
Securing a good location has been one of the biggest hurdles of opening an London outpost for Old Chang Kee.
Securing a good location has been one of the biggest hurdles of opening an London outpost for Old Chang Kee.
Like in Singapore, the curry puffs in London are made in a semi-automated cooking process. The pastry dough is produced in a central kitchen while the fillings are cooked in the restaurant’s kitchen. The puffs are sealed and crimped by hand and fried at the shop.

Despite the higher price, the shop has been selling the curry puffs faster than it can fry them. Song says that it has sold about 400 to 500 curry puffs daily since it opened, with Singaporeans and Malaysians making up 80% of customers.

Other hot favourites include the curry potato puff (£2.60), and chicken and mushroom puff (£2.80). There are also seasonal items such as chilli crab and black pepper tuna puffs.
Old Chang Kee's curry puffs in London are about two times larger than those in Singapore to cater to Western appetites.
Old Chang Kee's curry puffs in London are about two times larger than those in Singapore to cater to Western appetites.
The home-grown chain’s British debut is a joint collaboration between the Singapore-based food and beverage giant and Sandra Leong, a Singaporean who has been living in London for the past seven years.

Leong, director of Old Chang Kee UK, decided to bring the brand to the UK as she missed food from home. “The curry puff is Singapore’s version of the Cornish pasty,” she says. “Singapore was at a trading crossroads and was influenced by many cultures, from Chinese to Malay. Legend has it that the curry puff was invented by Hainanese chefs working for the British during Singapore’s colonial era. We’re very excited to bring it back to British shores.”

Besides curry puffs, dig into Singapore dishes from Old Chang Kee’s subsidiary brand, Curry Times. Dishes include chicken potato curry, mixed vegetable curry and dry chicken curry, which has cubes of chicken stir-fried in curry leaves and spices. Curry dishes, which are served with rice or baguette slices, start from £6.30 (S$11.20). Non-curry options, which are nonetheless still spicy, include nasi lemak and laksa.
Old Chang Kee's signature curry puffs in London.
Old Chang Kee's signature curry puffs in London.

To ensure that the taste of the food stays consistent, laksa and sambal pastes will be imported from Singapore and a team from Singapore will visit the London outpost every six months.

In the pipeline are more outlets in London and expanding the menu to include non-spicy main dishes. Old Chang Kee’s London outlet opened a month after the chain opened its Singapore flagship shop near Rex Cinema, where it started out as a humble curry puff stall in 1956.

It was bought by Han Keen Juan in 1986, who has since grown it to more than 100 outlets in Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia. In Perth, a signature curry puff costs AUD$3.30 (S$3.30). The chain sells more than 1.5 million curry puffs a month globally.


RELATED: Singapore Curry Puff Chain Old Chang Kee to open first Europe outlet in London’s Covent Garden

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