Dim sum has been served at 126 Sims Avenue since 1985.

The shop is named after its own address.

揾到食 — wan dou sik in Cantonese, roughly “found something to eat” — is a play on the street number. It hung in gold letters on a cherry-red board over the counter for the best part of forty years, above the glass case of pastries and the bao warmer, and it is still the name most regulars use.

In June 2024 the original owner retired and both shops closed. For a Geylang street that had eaten here after midnight for decades, the shutters staying down was the news.

They did not stay down. The Boon Keng shop reopened that July, taken on by two people who had spent years working in the business — one from the front of house, one from the kitchen that makes the pastry — together with a customer who had been coming for more than ten years. Sims Avenue followed on 15 December 2024, after roughly six months dark.

The shophouse came back painted bright blue, which is how you spot it from down the street now. Inside there are murals of steamers and Cantonese tea-house scenes, marble-topped tables and orange chairs. The recipes, the steamers and the habit of staying open long after the rest of the street has closed did not change.

[PLACEHOLDER — confirm with owner] This story is a draft. The people running the shop today are not named here yet — tell us how you would like to be described, and anything you would put differently, and we will rewrite this page in your own words before launch.