He left his corporate job to help his mom in the family’s 90-year-old restaurant. He almost gave up but figured out how to turn it around. [Video]

As the lunchtime rush builds, Iszahar Tambunan remains calm.

He directs customers to find seats in Sabar Menanti, his two-story Malay restaurant, while ducking behind the counter to serve the restaurant’s signature nasi padang. This Indonesian rice dish is served with various sides of meat, fish, vegetables, and sauces.

It’s a restaurant with a storied history.

His grandparents opened Sabar Menanti in the 1920s and started selling nasi padang near a tombstone shop. It was simply known as “tombstone nasi padang” then.

At that time, it was not a restaurant but a simple push cart in the Malay enclave of Kampong Glam in Singapore. A friend had presented the family with an old signboard that read “Sabar Menanti” — which translates to “wait patiently” in Bahasa Indonesia, and that was how the store got its name.

When Tambunan’s grandparents died in the 1980s, his mother and …