Why Is Uncle Roger’s Restaurant Receiving So Many Negative Comments?
I remember having a chat with my sister-in-law the other day about the Uncle Roger restaurant chain in Malaysia. The first one was launched in Pavilion, a bougie shopping mall in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. At that time, we didn’t realise that Uncle Roger’s restaurant was receiving so many negative comments.
I remarked to her that something seemed “off” with the whole setup of the Uncle Roger restaurant but couldn’t explain it much at that time. All I could say was that I felt it was something relating to his brand. She seemed surprised by my remark, but since I didn’t have my arguments ready, I didn’t pursue the matter further, and we moved on to other topics.
I’ve had a chance to think about it more now, and here are my thoughts:
The crux of the issue is that the Uncle Roger restaurant failed to live up to the Uncle Roger brand.
The Uncle Roger Brand
Think about that for a second: what is the Uncle Roger brand? What is a brand?
Simply put, your brand is what other people think about you. It’s the sum of what people are saying about you. It is not what you say about yourself. You can claim all you want till the proverbial cows come home, but unless you can back that up somehow, no one’s going to believe you.
What people experience when interacting with your brand becomes your brand.
So let’s think about Uncle Roger for a second. What’s his brand?
Well, he’s an ethnic Chinese Malaysian uncle with a heavy accent (and a failed marriage). He is rough around the edges, uncouth, and has a ’90s belt phone case. He is the stereotypical Malaysian man who has something to say about everything.
But his main brand is built around his content on YouTube: he seems to know his fried rice well. Reviewing other chef’s egg fried rice videos, he could point out what is wrong with how they were making their fried rice. There’s even content on social media depicting Uncle Roger frying rice that looks rather good!
So what is formed in people’s minds about Uncle Roger? What is his brand?
Uncle Roger = Good Fried Rice
Naturally, when we learned that Uncle Roger has a restaurant, we are all expecting the fried rice to be just awesome. It can’t be less than that right? His entire brand is built around him critiquing other people’s fried rice! He HAS to have really good fried rice, if not THE BEST fried rice in town.
So why is Uncle Roger’s restaurant receiving so many negative comments?
What gives?
The Uncle Roger Restaurant
If you had asked me last year or so,
“Hey, do you think Uncle Roger will open a restaurant one day?”
I’d probably say,
“Of course! It just makes sense. He’s going around critiquing other people’s fried rice; surely he can build a business selling awesome fried rice!”
I would probably have thought that the Uncle Roger restaurant would be a chain of food trucks selling a variety of fried rice that are local favourites like nasi goreng kampung, Yangzhou fried rice, etc., plus some refreshing thirst quenchers.
Heck, even if Uncle Roger’s actual fried rice is subpar in reality, surely his restaurant operations team will make sure they get cooks who can make a decent plate of fried rice, right? I mean, your brand depends on it.
Wouldn’t that be the first and only assignment in the interview:
“Fry me a plate of rice.”
You would think that the restaurant operator would go through great lengths to ensure that the output of the restaurant lives up to the Uncle Roger brand…
The Failure
But we all know how it went down…
I think there were two key mistakes: positioning and credibility.
Positioning
Nigel’s team decided to launch the inaugural outlet of the Uncle Roger restaurant at Pavilion, Bukit Bintang.
No, not a food truck or stall, but a proper sit-down restaurant serving expensive fried rice. Imagine you visited the outlet on launch day together with the throngs of nieces and nephews…
“How much is this fried rice going to cost lah?”
“RM18?! For plain fried rice?! Oh my… But if it’s good, it’ll be worth it lah. Lemme place an order of garlic shrimp fried rice…”
Credibility
Your order of garlic shrimp fried rice arrives.
You take the first bite…
…and disappointment sets in.
“Gosh, I could get better fried rice for RM7 at the warung by my office lah.
I thought his fried rice would be good, you know. It’s Uncle Roger right?
I guess this is just another money grab huh?”
I think that is why is Uncle Roger’s restaurant receiving so many negative comments.
They failed to deliver on the promise of the brand. It’s as simple as that.
Here are what some people are saying on social media about the fried rice from his restaurant:
“… there’s no wok hei…”,
“It’s lukewarm when it got to me…”,
And the kicker at the end? The exorbitant bill.
What’s a Better Approach?
I think Uncle Roger should have opened a takeout-oriented food chain that centres around serving basic but well-prepared simple meals for the average office worker. Why? Because Uncle Roger looks like he belongs in a food truck or warung rather than a fancy restaurant in a bougie mall.
I mean, who is the target market for the Uncle Roger restaurant? He’s serving fried rice, is he seriously expecting to have a fancy, upmarket clientele? Isn’t his target market the average Malaysian workers who would like to get a simple fried rice meal for lunch at work while supporting their favourite fried rice critic, Uncle Roger?!
That setup would be in harmony with his brand of being an everyman character who is a stickler for fundamentals — getting the basics right. It would be approachable by most Malaysians, and his character would bring in customers.
As long as the fundamentals are right in the recipes, people are going to be satisfied with the products, provided that it’s priced reasonably.
Closing Thoughts
Nigel got it right by relying on great publicity to give birth to the Uncle Roger character and brand.
He started by having the Uncle Roger character review content by famous chefs like Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. When that happened, it was the talk of the town. Everybody and their grandmother were talking about Uncle Roger roasting these poor unsuspecting celebrity chefs.
That was the genesis of the Uncle Roger brand. People knew Uncle Roger as the overly critical Malaysian uncle who loves to complain about everything. His shtick helped his Uncle Roger brand gain notoriety through great organic publicity.
But his downfall came when his idea of opening up a bougie restaurant selling overpriced fried rice backfired because his operations team failed to deliver on the promise of “awesome fried rice with great wok hei”.
Nigel’s Uncle Roger restaurant failed to back up the promise of the Uncle Roger brand, and customers are not fooled by it.
