A recipe that took
three traditions to build.
Loo's started in 1946 as an unnamed stall on Tian Lye Street in Tanjong Pagar, founded by Mr Loo Niap Tan and his brother to feed the port workers nearby. The curry recipe came from a brother-in-law who had worked as a family chef in a Peranakan household. The pork chop came from Hainanese cooks who had served British families during the colonial era. The braised pork followed the traditional Hainanese way. Three distinct culinary lineages, brought together in one stall in post-war Singapore.
When Tian Lye Street was redeveloped in 1978, the stall moved to Telok Blangah. A year later, the second generation took over. By 1990, the family had settled at Eng Hoon Street in Tiong Bahru — where, for the first time, the stall was given a name: Loo's Hainanese Curry Rice.
Dawn Loo, granddaughter of the founder and the third generation to run the stall, joined full-time in 2025, having apprenticed under her father through every part of the operation before taking it on.
1946
Eighty years
Loo's has been serving the same curry rice since 1946, from a recipe that has not been altered since the first generation built it, with the same suppliers, held to the same standard that the stall was founded on.
0
Zero changes
The curry paste is still ground by hand and cooked over three days. The fried pork chop, coated in pounded biscuit crumbs, is among the last of its kind in Singapore, a preparation rooted in the original Hainanese curry rice tradition that few stalls still honour.
