Muristek
Malaysian engineer who quit job after 15 years to sell ‘pisang goreng’ finds success with Nasi Ayam Mafia
Nik Johari (left pic with his wife) started a humble food stall selling banana fritters with a capital of RM1,000. ― Picture courtesy of Nik Johari
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PETALING JAYA, April 14 ― Nasi Ayam Mafia restaurant owner Nik Johari Nik Mat took a leap of faith to venture into the food and beverage industry after 15 years of working as an electrical engineer.
Armed with only passion in his mind, the Perlis-born 42-year-old left his high-paying job as a technical landscape improvement manager at Shell Malaysia to start a small pisang goreng (banana fritters) stall with a capital of only RM1,000.
For him, age was never a barrier to start something new and small from scratch.
“My goal was to pursue my passion on a small scale and I had no intention of making a profitable food business,” he told Malay Mail.
“So, I decided to sell pisang goreng in Sepang since it’s an evergreen snack known to all races.
“But I had no clue how to make pisang goreng until I went for a training programme under the famous franchise Pisang Goreng Crispy Sambal Kicap Johor.
Having learned the business model, he managed to grow his business by having four other stalls at a radius of five kilometres from one another.
From banana fritters to Nasi Ayam Mafia
After a year of selling pisang goreng in 2017, problems arose such as the central kitchen for his pisang goreng business was underutilised as it was only used for two to three hours and he had to pay full rental for it.
Having a stall wasn’t easy for Nik Johari as he had to brace for strong weather conditions such as extreme heat or heavy rain.
The entrepreneur then saw an opportunity to make use of the central kitchen by diversifying and experimenting his meal to include selling nasi ayam (chicken rice) after being inspired by his travel to Thailand.
“I thought of curating a chicken rice dish that had Malay, Hainanese and Thai flavours in it after being inspired by a chicken rice stall in Thailand that had been etched in my mind ― Nasi Ayam Mafia.
“At that point, I decided to transfer all staff from all the four pisang goreng stalls to sell nasi ayam instead.
“But I didn’t expect Nasi Ayam Mafia to do well so I shifted my focus from pisang goreng to Nasi Ayam Mafia as people were crowding my restaurant to buy my Nasi Ayam Crispy.
“I remember wanting to create my own crispy fried chicken like the one in KFC and have people come to my restaurant instead of heading to the famous fast food chain.”
He also added that he made it a point to add variations to the dishes such as making other chicken styles such as ayam bakar (roasted chicken) nasi briyani, ikan keli and various other dishes.
Food delivery riders make a beeline for Nik Johari’s Nasi Ayam Mafia during the pandemic. ― Picture courtesy of Nik JohariTakeaways and delivery orders soar during lockdown
Nik Johari was lucky that he had signed up with food delivery platform Foodpanda at the end of 2019 ― months before the pandemic hit in early 2020.
Those few months gave him and his staff enough time to adapt to deliveries and takeaways which included upgrading the kitchen from one to six to cope with the growing demand of food deliveries.
“I'm proud of myself for not giving up on my business as many were hard-hit by the pandemic, but I saw it as an opportunity to go fully online,” he said.
“We (my staff and I) were lucky that when we had to fully switch to deliveries and takeaways, we could cope with the increasing sales ― sometimes about 3,000 sales a day during the lockdown as compared to 300 daily during pre-pandemic.
“By the second lockdown, we had partnered with other delivery companies to help with the redistribution of the large amount of sales for the day.
“Most of our food recipients are from areas in Sepang, Nilai, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and once we even had our food delivered to Puchong.”
His profitable and successful business made him want to contribute and give back to society which was why he created a vendor group on Facebook with 30,000 followers to share insights with small businesses on how to bounce back.
“Some of the businesses that I’ve helped include small businesses and big franchises as well.”
Drive-thru and future products in the pipeline
Nik Johari has plans to market his famous sambal belacan other products on Shopee in the future.
“Some days, customers as far as Ipoh and Johor would visit my restaurant just to taste my sambal.
“And I thought to myself that if I can promote it on Shopee, it would be easier as anyone from any state in the country can get it whenever they want.”
Apart from that, having a drive-thru system in his restaurant is another facility that is in the pipeline for his business as he has already purchased a piece of land.
“Why not have a drive-thru system that my business can leverage on so that my customers can easily order their takeaway orders?
“With my background in information technology (IT), I can use my knowledge to help build the intercom systems so that everything is smooth and can help with the large amount of orders.
“Why should only famous franchises like McDonald’s or KFC have their own drive-thru system? Why can’t a local entrepreneur like me have my own?” he said.
He also hopes that his restaurant becomes a famous tourist attraction not just for staff working at the nearby Kuala Lumpur International Airport but also for tourists who are visiting Sepang.
Food prices at his restaurant start from RM7.90.