Author’s blurb: Fish head noodles is one of many comfort foods that are easily accessible in my neighbourhood. There was a time when I had 3 options in my housing area alone and if you’re ever able to find a proper place to park, you’d consider yourself lucky.
Law May Khee, or more fondly known as Maggie, started her first Mr. Fish restaurant in 2014 in the small neighbourhood of Damansara Kim.
Within a few years, what was meant to be a short stint with her business partner was put at a crossroads.
The restaurant was facing some limitations in terms of its capacity, traffic, and available parking spaces.
They needed to decide on whether or not they should expand to a different location that could accommodate more.
After plenty of self-doubt, investments, and advice from other business owners, Maggie finally relocated her outlet to Starling Mall after 2 years.
But that decision paid off. 6 years in, there’s no slowing down Mr. Fish. The 3 outlets are now leveraging on the foot traffic from shopping malls.
Lessons Learnt From The Past
Born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Maggie is a single mother with two children whom she said serve as her motivation in persevering through the challenges of managing the business.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, she started her career as an insurance agent that led to a promotion as business manager within 7 years.
In 2013, she even started a financial consulting firm that was profitable within its first year of business. However, she left this venture after 2 years to transition into the F&B realm.
Putting her clients’ needs at the forefront of her services are lessons she carries today even in running her food business.
Solidifying Her Confidence
Maggie shared that many wondered why and how she decided to step into the F&B industry based on her background in consulting.
As mentioned earlier, the restaurant was only meant as a short-term venture to help out her business partner for 6 months.
Capitalising on her mother’s recipes, she picked up the skills from scratch through trial and error with virtually no prior knowledge in how to run an F&B business.
She had to learn fast and eventually became attached to the endeavour. Maggie was now motivated to build a name for herself in the industry.
What solidified her passion in keeping this business going was when Mr. Fish was named the best fish head noodles in Klang Valley by the Chinese TV programme, Ho Chiak.
A Role Model For Single Mothers
Looking back, Maggie never imagined that her detailed scribblings of how to manage operations would become the current SOP for quality control in all her outlets.
She believes that in order to foster a strong team, it begins with establishing trust and accountability amongst each member.
And because of the reliable team she’s built, it gave her more time to care for her family and further test out new products to offer in the restaurant.
As a single mother herself, Maggie understands the struggles faced by those having to balance their time between caring for their kids and work over the MCO.
She also wanted to diversify, seeing how other restaurants have been delivering DIY kits to their customers to recreate their dishes at home.
Hence, she invested in a blast-freeze machine to prep Mr. Fish’s ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook food packages to deliver to families.
Through this product, she hopes to build a distribution network and to create more job opportunities, especially for single mothers to support their family.
Bottom line: One of my favourite things about Mr. Fish is in the many options they have on their menu. There’s something for everyone in terms of fish and soup choices. The best part is, you’ll have full access to their xiao shing wine to add as much as you want into your soup noodles.
Featured Image Credit: Maggie Law, co-founder of Mr. Fish
