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In less than a year, curry stall (Hokkien for ‘eat curry’) at Chinatown Complex Food Centre has undergone a complete rebranding, going from selling Indian-inspired curry to Japanese food under the name Oh! My Bento . While this seems like an abrupt change since she had garnered a bit of buzz after articles and on her stall, it also kinda makes sense considering that hawker Larine Goh, 40, used to own a Japanese restaurant (named My Bento Booze) at Kovan for five years. It shut down in December 2022 due to increasing rental and manpower costs - Larine lost $100K back then, as reported in our . No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 1 6 Larine tells that she decided to make the switch because “ultimately, curry is something people can’t eat everyday, so business was not as good”, adding that even her most regular customers only frequented the shop once or twice a week. But why go back to selling Japanese food? The last time checked, Larine wanted a change, saying “it’s quite readily available these days, so there’s no point fighting the giants” - hence her initial decision to sell Indian food instead.  The hawker laughs and admits “[Japanese food] is very common lah, but at this food centre there’s only one other Japanese stall, and it’s something I’ve been doing for so many years already, so it’s easy to pick up again”. She adds that her long-time customers have also been asking her to sell Japanese food again.  2 6 Larine’s previous stall, Jiakali Didn’t make a loss with Jiakali, but earnings low Though business wasn’t booming, Larine tells that she “didn’t make a loss” while running Jiakali. On average, the hawker made a profit of “$2K to $3K monthly , from working 14 hours a day, everyday” - basically, it was just lots of hard work with little reward. Thankfully, she managed to recuperate her $20K investment.  3 6 Now paying “five to eight times” the rental cost at new stall  To open Oh! My Bento, Larine had to relocate to another part of Chinatown Complex some 300 metres away, as she was only allowed to sell Indian or Halal food at her previous unit. But here’s the shocker - she’s now paying “five to eight times more” than her previous rental fee. While Larine declines to reveal the exact amount, she says she only paid around $400 per month at Jiakali, and is now paying “by the thousands” each month. Why the drastic difference in rent? Jiakali’s location was quite hidden, and “near the rubbish bin”. It was located in the Green Zone of Chinatown Complex, which she jokingly told the TikTok team is often referred to as the “Ghost Villa”, ‘cos of the lower footfall in the area.  But is paying so much more rent now a bad business move? The hawker doesn’t think so. “Yeah definitely, the rental fees are much higher. But if you do the math, it’s better - there's more of a crowd here [in the red zone , near the escalato r], so you can sell more items,” she says. Though she has only been operating Oh! My Bento for over a week, she says business is “20 times better” already, noting that she has gone from selling 30 bowls a day at Jiakali, to around 100 daily at Oh! My Bento.  Larine only invested $5K into her new stall, as most of her equipment was brought over from Jiakali. She admits that closing Jiakali was “a bit of a waste lah”, but “it’s really not worth it to spend 14 hours just to sell 20 to 30 bowls everyday”.  4 6 Similar menu as her old restaurant, but cheaper  Oh! My Bento sells similar items to when it was operating as a restaurant - most of the rice bowls she sold then are available here too, aside from those with raw fish.  Prices here are much more wallet-friendly since it’s in a hawker setting, and Larine assures that it’s for “the same portion”. For instance, her rice bowls back at her now-defunct restaurant started at $11 for Beef Slice Egg or Curry Rice Bowl, which now costs just $7 here. Her priciest dish, her Unagi Rice Bowl, costs $10 here vs $18 at her restaurant.  Larine says that “since [her Japanese food stall is] now at a hawker centre, I tried to make it affordable for everyone”. She adds: “I previously had five staff at the restaurant, now I only have one part-timer, so overheads are not as high and I can afford to slash the prices a bit”. 5 6 Larine recommends her Japanese Braised Pork Belly Rice ($6), which she says is one of her most popular items. She braises the pork for over 12 hours with a mixture of spices, miso, mirin and soy sauce. 6 6 Other dishes to look out for include the Salmon Mentai Rice ($9.50), and if you’re missing her curry offerings, well, perhaps you can settle for her Chicken Cutlet Japanese Curry Rice Bowl ($6.50 ; pictured ) for now.  But if you’re craving Larine’s spicier Indian-style curry, the hawker has plans to re-introduce it eventually: “When we get used to [operating the new stall], we’ll bring back our Indian curry”.  Oh! My Bento is at #02-118 Chinatown Complex Market & Food Centre, 335 Smith St, S050335. Open daily 11am - 8.30pm. More info via their Instagram .  Photos: Oh! My Bento  No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg . 8days.sg is now on #tiktok! Follow us on www.tiktok.com/@8dayseat