A conversation with Junda Khoo – Ho Jiak (Haymarket, Strathfield & Town Hall)
Well-established now at 3 locations, Ho Jiak has been a giant of the Malaysian food scene in Sydney for over the last few years. From their humble beginnings as an eatery in Strathfield, Ho Jiak powered on to open up their first big restaurant in Haymarket. On the back of their success there, they decided to take an even bigger step by setting up another (and even bigger establishment) in Town Hall where the former ‘The Cuban Place’ resided. Their grand opening was held on the 2nd of April, just before the COVID-19 pandemic got worse and forced a lockdown across the state. Junda Khoo (the co-owner of Ho Jiak) and his staff, many of whom are from overseas, were forced to find a way to navigate through uncertain times. It’s a frank reminder, that restaurants both big and small were affected by the COVID-19 shutdowns. I caught up with Junda to ask about him, how Ho Jiak came about and how he navigated through the challenges of the shutdowns.
D: “Tell me about yourself – what were you doing before Ho Jiak?”
Junda: “I actually graduated with a double degree from UTS in Commerce and IT. I majored in finance and project management so I worked for a few big banks like Commonwealth Bank and ING. I did it for a year but I always knew I wanted to be in the food industry. Before all that, I told my parents I wanted to go to cooking school but you know Asian parents they were like ‘don’t be stupid’ so I did Uni and worked for a year. But I left the finance industry around 8 years ago and this was when the café industry was really booming. I became a barista and eventually opened up Petaling Street.”
D: “How did Ho Jiak eventually come about?”
Junda: “I went to Melbourne 8 years ago and came across Petaling Street. I thought to myself ‘holy sh*t, this is really food Malaysian food’. Back then, and we’re talking like 8 years back, Mamak were the only ones dominating Malaysian food in Sydney. The only thing you’d see in Malaysian restaurants were the same dishes like Hainan chicken rice, laksa, roti and curry. I get why people had to do it – it sells! But I told myself if I’m going to do this, I had to showcase what Malaysia has to offer which is more than what I just listed out.
“Petaling Street had many different things on their menu like home-cooked dishes such as roast chicken – things you’d never seen in Sydney before. There were heaps of places doing this in Melbourne. So, I decided to open up Petaling Street, in partnership with the original owners from Melbourne, in Sydney and it was going really well. We opened up in George St, Kingsford and Chatswood. The problem was that I always wanted to be hands-on with the food. The original owners were restaurateurs who always hired other chefs to cook for them. Every time I wanted to come and ask for changes, the chefs would never be happy about it. After 2-3 years, I was done because I was doing all the work here in Sydney and all the profits were being split 50-50. At that time, I just said ‘I want out’ and I told them to buy me out for my original buying price.”
“I took the money and opened up the first Ho Jiak in Strathfield. Built a 12-seater and bought all these woks and steamers but I’ve never cooked commercially before. The day before I was like ‘holy sh*t I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
D: “Was it nerve-racking?”
Junda: “Oh definitely! We actually didn’t open up until 6 months later. I spent all that time in the kitchen practising and doing R&D – I would flip an egg 300 times just to get the hang of using a wok! We needed to find our identity and we had to be different from other Malaysian restaurants. We decided to start with the hawker concept so we started with the Hainan chicken and laksas but we had to do it better. When we started, a lot of people told us that we’re ‘not authentic’ and we had to put up with that. I didn’t want to be authentic or traditional in the first place. This was how we cooked and ate it at home. This is how I want to serve it and I’m the chef – this is my take on the dish. ‘Finally’ we thought to ourselves, this is how we knew we were different. Other Malaysian places hated us and that’s how we knew we had our own identity. After 1 year of testing, we finally decided to go ahead and started promoting. From there, broadsheet and concrete playground got a hold of us so we kicked off from there. We got really popular and it was starting to take 45 minutes for people to even get their food. At that point, people told us we should go open up in the city. I was nervous; the rent would be bigger, we’d be competing against Mamak and Petaling Street. But after 2 years we came to the city and figured we needed to do something different to compete.”
D: “How did you plan to do that?”
Junda: “I decided to pay homage to my grandmother. She’s always been a big influence on my life and taught me everything about cooking Malaysian. We were going to do simple home-cooked food. When Haymarket opened, we were so quiet. No one knew who we were. First few months it was so quiet and we were bleeding money. We were tempted to go back to the Strathfield concept but we stuck to our guns. Eventually, we took off 5-6 months after articles from Broadsheet, Sydney Morning Herald and the Telegraph. We won the Sydney People’s Choice award and that’s when Ho Jiak became Ho Jiak today.”
“After that, I had the confidence to take Malaysian food to a higher level and start using more premium ingredients. The problem we had at Haymarket was that we didn’t have the kitchen to accommodate these premium ingredients. One day the Cuban Place (in Town Hall) shut down and I decided to take it. I believe we could make Malaysian food great with the produce we have in Australia. We just opened up at the wrong time.”
D: “That’s unlucky. What were your experiences during COVID and how did you navigate that?”
Junda: “We were affected quite early being situated in Haymarket. Chinatown was quite ‘dead’ obviously due to the stigma of the coronavirus and the Chinese students weren’t coming in. I knew the lockdowns were coming so before it hit us we decided to source more funds and build up a financial war chest – which we did. We did this because I had to keep all of my guys afloat so they could pay their rent and necessities. A lot of my guys are from overseas so they received no support from the government so I had to make sure they got paid somehow. I didn’t want to close down and re-open because that would be a harder way to come back. We knew we had to re-invent to survive so we shifted to making the vacuum take-home packs and focus on making sure our take-home packs were being sold in different markets. I spent more money and time focusing on the vacuum packs to make sure they were a good product. True enough, those take-home packs helped us survive. You can now find our take-home vacuum packs at places like Thai Kee IGA Supermarket (located in Haymarket’s Market City) or Miracle (Miracle Supermarket located at Macquarie Centre in North Ryde).”
“Thankfully, and our premier did a great job, we weren’t in shutdown for too long. I think it was only about 2 months, I mean it was a big 2 months and we incurred large losses. But we were eventually allowed to re-open and it’s slowly getting better now. Right now, we are only serving at 50% capacity. We just have to re-shuffle the team and the costs to make sure the staff and I can keep afloat and keep fighting. It’s been stressful, but if we fight, then we’ll come out of this together. No profits are being made right now that’s for sure – we’re just trying to survive, fight and come through the other side.”
D: “Tell me about those free lunchboxes you do on Wednesday.”
Junda: “I cook staff meals for my guys every day. I recently collaborated with other big chefs in Sydney and we called it ‘Hope Staff Meals’. Every Wednesday, I cook an extra portion of 150 staff meals because I cook for them every day anyway. When the pandemic hit, my staff were left on their own because they’re from overseas. So, I cook an extra 150 portions to give it to anyone (in the public) who is struggling. For example, if I’m cooking fried rice for my staff, I’ll make an extra 150 portions out there. So, if you’re struggling and this free lunch will help you save some money, then that’s all that matters to me.”
“We’re doing a charity dinner next Monday night for Foodbank because the food hunger report showed that 1/3 Australians are going hungry because of the pandemic. I do all these charity events because I believe giving back to the community is important. I started from nothing and my success I owe to the community. I try to help when things happen like the bushfires or help raise money for breast cancer.”
D: “What are some of your favourite places to eat in Sydney?”
Junda: “I’m a really big fan of omakase. So places like Sushi Oe, the Omakase at Sokyo and Sushi E. Sushi E’s omakase I think is doing really well right now – they’ve come out better since the shutdowns. Felix is good and I really like Lotus (Lotus Merivale) too.”
D: “What’s your favourite dish from Lotus?”
Junda: “Oh the Cheeseburger for sure! I also like my simple places like Tan Viet, Pho Gia Hoi and visit a lot of the local Malaysian restaurants.”
D: “What’s your favourite Malaysian restaurant?”
Junda: “It would be Cinta Rasa in Campsie. Very simple home-cooked food and nothing fancy, the complete opposite of what we do!”
We both share a laugh here – no caviar and lobsters to be found there!
“I also like Sixpenny. They’re doing really good things too.”
D: “Any plans right now for the future?”
Junda: “Right now is a funny period you know. The main goal is to lead and inspire right now – that’s our main job, I think. We’re not making money but we’re hoping to inspire others who can help those who are struggling. I want to show that we are going on and fighting. Not just the industry, for everyone in general. Don’t give up, fight! A lot of people are suffering from mental health issues. So, that’s what’s next for Ho Jiak. We used to only do 2 community events a year but we’ve done like 4 since July this year. We are trying to do something every month. Luckily with some of our charity dinners, a lot of suppliers have jumped on board and have been giving certain supplies for free. They told me ‘we’ve seen what you’re doing and we want to help’. ”
Whilst things haven’t gone back to the way they were just yet, it appears that the current climate is certainly on the improve and the shutdowns have accelerated many new innovative ways for restaurants to deliver food beyond their doors. Particularly in the case for Ho Jiak, this has allowed them to gain back some ascendency in the race back to normality. From this position, it appears Junda’s primary focus is not to win the race but rather inspire others to ‘fight’ and finish the race with him. It looks like he’s doing a great job of it and here’s hoping that finish line comes soon.
To check out their delicious Malaysian cuisine on offer, see what they’re up to and get a reservation, check out their Instagram pages at: