Most eateries are struggling to maintain prices but despite their best efforts, Malaysians are eating out less to cope with the rising cost of living. TAN CHOE CHOE, MELISSA DARLYNE CHOW, BHARATHI JEGANATHAN, RIZALMAN HAMIM, JULIA CHAN and ZAINUDDIN MUHAMMAD have the story.

Choo Nget Kuan has had to resort to trimming the size of the fish-paste filling for her yong tau foo. — Picture by Rohanis Shukri

Nasi kandar seller Abdul Ahad Abdullah in Lebuh Pitt, George Town worries that raising prices will scare off his customers. — Picture by Fariz Iswadi Ismail

CHOO Nget Kuan, who sells yong tau foo in a corner of a kopitiam in Serdang, hopes her customers will not notice that her fish-paste fillings are slightly smaller than they were just a week ago.

"What else can I do," says the 50-year-old widow who has three children.

"I cannot afford to raise prices but my costs are going up. My customers are not rich people. They are also struggling."

At Sin Siang Kee, a restaurant in Seri Kembangan, all drinks have gone up 10 sen and food costs some 30 to 50 sen more per dish.
And the rice portion has shrunk "just a little bit" too, with tambah nasi (extra rice) going up from 60 sen to RM1 per bowl.

Restaurant owner Kevin Cheng is thinking of cutting back on waiters and possibly the kitchen help in the next two or three months.

"I hate to lay off people. Petrol, then electricity, then vegetables, eggs, chicken, beef - everything is going up," says Cheng.

"Fewer customers are coming. So what do I do?"

Wonderland Restaurant manager Choo Ah Nye and hawker Faridah Mohd Yusof, who are both operating their businesses in Penang, have one thing in common.

They dare not raise their prices drastically for fear of losing customers.

Choo says due to rising prices of food ingredients, charging extra was inevitable.

"I even had to apologise to my regular customers for raising the price of the buffet from RM10.50 to RM11.50," she says. Her customers are mostly office workers.

For instance, says Choo, chillies have gone up from RM6 per kilogramme to RM11. It is so hard to do business as prices of many things have gone up, she laments.

Previously, she could afford to switch on the air-conditioner when there were three customers but now she does it only when there are at least 10.

Her restaurant also recorded a 30 per cent drop in sales because "people who regularly come here for dinner are stopping by less often".

Business has not been easy in the past two months for Faridah, who sells food at the Anjung Selera Pinang Walk eating area in Sungai Pinang.

And she blames it all on the price of rice, which has shot up significantly. Faridah says even santan (coconut milk) has become pricier.

Forced to increase the price of a plate of rice from 60 sen to RM1, Faridah has resisted raising the price of other food as she doesn't think her customers would be able to accept it.

"It's really hard to make a decent profit these days," she says.

Generally in Penang, consumers can still enjoy their teh tarik and kopi-o at old prices - for now at least - as most hawkers and kopitiam outlets have not increased prices.

But Lam Tong Yin, president of the Federation of Hawkers Associations in Penang and Seberang Prai, told an English daily that the association's 1,000-over members would be meeting next month to discuss rising costs.

"Maybe a 10 to 20 per cent increase should be acceptable," he said.

The Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association is also telling customers to brace for a rise in food prices.

Our favourite kopitiam and mamak outlets are not the only ones feeling the effects of rising costs.

Posh restaurants and gourmet eateries are either trimming portions or raising prices.

A Japanese restaurant in a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur has opted to increase prices by RM1 on some dishes.

"Our daily sales have dropped slightly. We are not as packed now at lunch as we used to be. But our bills are going up," says the manager, Serena.

The rising price of oil has led to food prices rising at an alarming rate and the high price of rice because of poor harvest has not helped either.

And with electricity tariff increase coming on the heels of the fuel hike which has led to the spiralling cost of living, many Malaysians are choosing to dine at home.

In Johor Baru, Amir Sahak, a civil servant with four children, says his family will have to forgo their favourite satay and roti canai treats.

Amir, 38, usually spends about RM200 a month eating out with his family and on a teh tarik session or two a week with friends.

"Maybe the occasional roti canai is still okay as my children love it. But for a big family like ours, it's cheaper to cook and eat at home."