Heng poses proudly in front of her establishment, which held its soft launch last December (Photo: Shahrill Basri/The Edge)
KFC and laksa might, at first glance, have absolutely nothing in common, save for the fact both are beloved by Malaysians. But, for Esther Heng, co-founder of Kafe Le Mak, the American fast-food restaurant chain provided both inspiration and encouragement.
“Colonel Sanders only started his business at the age of 62. I turn 64 this year. If you ask me, I will tell you 60 is the new 40 lah,” she laughs.
Heng, who recently relocated from Penang to the Klang Valley, oozes good energy and chutzpah. Together, she and elder sister Chris, run Kafe Le Mak at Menara Gamuda in the PJ Trade Centre, Damansara Perdana. An offshoot of the Granny Q Lemak Laksa restaurant at Solok Moulmein, Pulau Tikus, in their hometown (managed by their brother Kok Hoe, a retired bank manager with OCBC), Kafe Le Mak specialises in all sorts of laksa. The star of the show is undoubtedly its signature laksa lemak, but there is also the island’s iconic laksa dua rasa (“two flavours” in Malay, essentially a blend of both lemak and assam broths) and special fried laksa. Prawn noodles (or Hokkien Mee to true-blue islanders) and Ipoh-style kai si hor fun are also offered, with nothing priced above RM16.90.
Born into a family of foodies — “It must be our Hainanese blood”, Heng jokes — she shares how dad ran an economy rice stall at Macalister Road, outside what was then the Mandarin Hotel.
“Dad and mum cooked while we helped. He was an excellent chef and I remember his perut ikan and tau eu bak served with sambal belacan were the most sought-after dishes.”
Heng’s family lived in Lorong Seratus Tahun in a pre-war house, and she recalls how it was just like a “mini House of 72 Tenants”, referring to the cult 1973 Hong Kong film. “There were only three rooms, and Room 1 was occupied by an aunt, as was Room 3. All of us piled into Room 2, with the exception of my two eldest sisters who lived with our maternal grandma in Hong Seng Estate, near Mt Erskine. My father didn’t even sleep with us but in the living room on a foldable camp bed called a por ee.
“My friends said I was crazy [to open a café at our age] but I have a great passion for food. Moreover, I also wanted to continue my grandma’s legacy.”
Grandma was Goh Lean Kew, a Thai lady from Chiang Mai who married Heng’s Hainanese grandfather and settled down to life in George Town. Childhood with her made for some of Heng’s happiest memories.
“All of us — siblings and cousins — used to sit in a row near a monsoon drain to be fed. Parts of it were covered up so it was like having a picnic above a river,” she smiles at the memory. “And we were arranged like a row of baby birds. Grandma would make little balls of rice with her hand and plop them into our mouths, one by one.”
Despite a family legacy of F&B, Heng was just about settling into semi-retirement when opportunity knocked.
“I had dabbled in a few things but they were not successful. Maybe the timing was not right yet,” she muses. “Chris’ husband passed away in September 2020 and, naturally, she was devastated. We were both living in Johor then and decided to return home to Penang together, as most of the family were there. We were happy for a while, but there are only so many Chinese or K-dramas you can watch day in day out!”
Out of the blue, the idea to open a restaurant popped into their heads.
“We had never run a proper food business before and, honestly, did not know where or how to start,” she admits. “We did a tze char [economical food] pop-up at night in the same kopitiam where we sold our laksa by day. But it was too taxing for us.”
The siblings also began inviting friends over to try their cooking. And as laksa was a family special, they agreed this would be their main offering.
“It was a good way to test our curries, eventually perfecting them to the version you can now taste at Kafe Le Mak, and our friends’ praise really encouraged us.”
With Granny Q Lemak Laksa enjoying brisk business up north and ably run by Kok Hoe, the sisters are working hard at establishing themselves as a serious laksa purveyor in the Klang Valley — a location Heng had always set her sights on.
“I somehow always wanted to expand to KL,” she admits. “Of course, I had no idea about the how, what and when. But I wanted to make it happen.”
In typical Heng go-getting style, she rang friends and a cousin, asking them to take her to all the “happening” food areas.
“I tried out [the competition] and thought we were in with a chance,” she grins. Another friend then recommended looking at PJ Trade Centre as a potential site. Despite the quieter location, compared to the cluster of shoplots just down the road and a plethora of eating spots around Mutiara Damansara and nearby Bandar Utama, gut instinct told her it was okay. She duly organised a tasting session and presentation for the Gamuda management and “to cut a long story short, we got their blessing [to open]”.
The restaurant held its soft launch last Dec 16, and the Heng sisters have thrown themselves into their new enterprise with gusto. Open daily from 7:30am to 3:30pm (save for Sunday), the 50-seater café serves typical Malaysian breakfasts of half-boiled eggs and sugared toast, although “the laksa is probably ready to eat, even at that early hour, should you be craving a bowl”.
Despite the long hours and the age factor, Heng insists she gleans energy simply from watching the contented faces of diners.
“The energy comes from knowing our customers love our food. Really, satisfaction and pride [in one’s work] is underrated. But we don’t want to stop there either. We need to work on adding more items to the menu — our Penangite customers have been asking for cendol and rojak — and our otak-otak, so popular at Granny Q’s, needs to be made available in KL also.”
Seemingly tireless, the Heng sisters share how they are ready to take on small-batch catering by special request, offering classic dishes such as cencaru sumbat, yellow curry, chai boey and jiu hu char. “We are looking at a minimum headcount of 20 pax to begin with. I also want to qualify that we don’t just serve Nyonya food but good food, in general. We don’t want to limit ourselves.”
In parting, the ever-jaunty Heng adds: “Now that I am running my own business, all I can tell other people is, you are never too old to do anything. As long as your focus is right, your passion is there and you have the energy to run it, off you go. I always joke to Chris that the café is really to stop us from turning senile!”
D-G-03, Menara Gamuda 8, PJ Trade Centre, Jalan PJU 8/8A, PJ.
This article first appeared on Mar 3, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
