When he’s not busy being an actor and one of the Eight Dukes, Shane Pow’s a great makan kaki. The 28-year-old is leading us down a counter laden with a myriad of wholesome dishes like sautéed brussel sprouts at his restaurant Mojo’s second outlet, earnestly telling us what’s good to eat here. For the uninitiated, Shane had partnered the owners of local retro cafe Sin Lee foods in 2017 to open Mojo, a hip Telok Ayer eatery that sells grain bowls by day and yakitori and booze by night. After two years, and over $400,000 invested (Shane pumped in a “five-figure” sum of his own money), their first eatery broke even. And due to “demand from customers”, the young towkays decided to open a second, same-named express concept outlet at the nearby Republic Plaza in Raffles Place.

8days.sg meets Shane at his new joint to check things out, and he gives us a little tour of the space. “We serve beetroot here, which a lot of [grain bowl] places don’t, but beetroot is healthy. My favourite is the mushrooms, but the kitchen is still preparing it,” he chirps as he points at an empty slot in between giant bowls holding heaving platters of nourishing toppings for the eatery’s grain bowls.

The menu here is pretty much the same as the original Telok Ayer branch, except there’s no nighttime izakaya menu (the newer outlet closes at 8.30pm), since this is aimed at cubicle rats on their lunch break. Customers can build their own grain bowls here, and wolf it down on the spot at one of the 20 plus seats available, or tapow the food in a nifty cardboard bowl. “We want our concept here to be healthy and tasty. People always think that healthy food is tasteless, but I’m confident they can eat our Mojo bowls every day,” grins Shane.

For a CBD eatery, the grain bowl prices here are pretty standard, but the portions are pretty big: a customisable Regular Bowl ($14) comes with a carb, a protein base and three side dishes, while the Petite Bowl ($10, almost the same size as a Regular Bowl) offers one base and one side. There’s also an exclusive-to-this-outlet Acai Bowl ($4.90 for one; $9 for two), which comes in three fruity flavours. Did we mention the prices here are all nett?

“We opened an outlet ’cos we got feedback from our customers working in the CBD that Telok Ayer is too far for them to walk to during lunchtime,” Shane tells us. “I’m grateful for our regular customers. I feel that the initial push of marketing from me only works for a while. If the food isn’t good, it’ll just be an overnight [popularity] thing. But the fact that we’ve opened a second outlet shows that people really like our food.”

Other than dine-in business, Shane tells us that Mojo has also been focusing on its catering arm. “We’re doing lots of event catering for MNCs now, and our setup is nice ’cos you do everything for the ’gram these days (laughs),” he says.

Though he and the late actor Aloysius Pang shared a strong bromance, Shane says Aloy had never been to Mojo. “He was a very private person,” he shares solemnly. “There were a few times we wanted to go out and eat, but we always ended up at his house. He doesn’t really like to go out, so we’ll have steamboat at his home.”

If you want to catch a glimpse of Shane here, he tells us he “pops by whenever he can, usually alone”. He explains: “It all depends on my production dates. Yesterday I had an overnight scene, and ’cos I’m on set practically 24 hours a day, there’re lots of things I can't do. Time is really quite tight, so I have two partners to help out [with the operations].”

But if you’re lucky, you might just bump into, say, the cast of Ch 8 drama C.L.I.F. 5, which Shane is currently filming, while you’re at Mojo. “We just did a C.L.I.F. 5 gathering here. [The cast like] Pierre [Png], Bonnie [Loo], James [Seah] were all here,” Shane reveals.

He also has “once in a while” date nights with his girlfriend, 987 DJ Kimberly Wang, here. “We hardly have date nights now,” laughs Shane. “We’re too busy! The both of us are still at the point in our careers where we’re still climbing up. My hands are quite tied with my acting, and she’s busy with her hosting and acting. But I feel we’re at a very good spot now. We have a comfortable relationship and our communication is good. We’ve mutual trust and a lot of space to do our own stuff. That really keeps us going. After C.L.I.F. 5, I’m going to Japan with Kim for a holiday for 10 days!”

Mojo’s latest outlet is located at a hard-to-find new enclave of eateries at Republic Plaza’s recently revamped basement, which also houses other casual takeaway shops like a Winnie’s bubble tea outlet. Unlike Mojo Telok Ayer’s dimmer setting, the new branch is well-lit and comfy, but we foresee the small space being cramped during lunchtime when it’s packed with customers.

The food

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If you’re starving, order the full-sized customisable Regular Bowl ($14, there’s also a smaller Petite bowl, see below). You get to pick a carb base from options like bulgur wheat, brown rice and pasta, and three hot sides (no poké here, folks), including one type of meat like salmon, snapper or chicken, plus a complimentary topping like sunflower seeds, and a sauce (the most popular ones include pesto and roasted sesame sauce).

But if you want a heaping of Mojo’s tasty, medium-rare pan-seared beef cubes, go for this Beef Bowl that costs an extra $1. And you still get to pick three more sides — we got sautéed brussel sprouts, beetroot and a slab of grilled eggplant, plus a free topping (we went with bonito flakes) and roasted sesame sauce. It’s all pretty delish, homely and fresh; our beef bowl tastes gourmet and is not too heavy.

The petite bowl gets you just one carb base, one serving of protein and one side, but the portion is almost the same as the Regular Bowl or Beef Bowl. We tried Shane’s favourite garlicky sautéed king oyster mushrooms (sadly a tad bland, as is the aglio olio pasta base), though the Teriyaki Chicken Thigh we picked is very yummy — tender with an umami coat of sugar-and-soy dressing.

New and exclusive to this outlet is this Acai Bowl, which comes in three flavours, topped with fruits like mangoes, blueberries, dragonfruit, bananas and kiwi, plus crunchy stuff like almond flakes and sunflower seeds. Refreshing and not too sweet. Plus we like the smaller serving portion. Grab this as a healthy dessert.

In the cutthroat F&B world, a celeb name can only do so much for a business. “If the food isn’t good, it’ll just be an overnight [popularity] thing,” Shane astutely notes. But the food here is decent and hearty, and the prices reasonable for the generous portions. The dishes offered are healthy(ish), but it's not depressingly tasteless rabbit food.

#B1-07 Republic Plaza, S048619. Tel: 6220-0723. Open daily except Sat & Sun, 11am-8.30pm. www.mojosingapore.com.

C.L.I.F. 5 debuts on September 23, 9pm on Channel 8 and Toggle.

PHOTOS: ​​​​​​​AIK CHEN