Tony Lim

Tony Lim's death was announced on 2 November 2026 in statements posted on the official social media pages of BananaBro and Boat Noodle. Malay Mail and Sinar Daily reported that he was 47. Neither brand disclosed the date, place or cause of death, and memorial or funeral arrangements had not been made public when the news was reported by outlets including Malay Mail, Free Malaysia Today, The Star, Sinar Daily and Scoop.

BananaBro wrote: "Tony gave more than just his vision. He gave his heart to the people and the journey he believed in. Though he is no longer with us, his dream lives on in every banana leaf we serve and every life he has touched." Boat Noodle described him as "a dreamer, a fighter, a mentor, and above all, someone who truly believed in people".

Tony Lim was born in Kedah into a family that ran EH Utara Holdings, a regional logistics company providing inland and cross border trucking across Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos. As the eldest brother, he was expected to take over the business so his parents could retire.

Interested in cars, he studied automotive engineering, graduating in the United Kingdom around 2002 according to a 2017 symposium profile, and entered the job market in 2001. He told Vulcan Post that he went through three rounds of interviews with Proton before being turned down, and then set up his own car garage with his parents' backing. The garage did not succeed, and he joined the family trucking business in early 2005.

Lim spent nearly a decade in the family logistics business and became an executive director of EH Utara Holdings. In 2012 and 2013 he helped his youngest sister establish the Chatime bubble tea master franchise in Cambodia, which grew to 24 outlets within two years.

That experience pushed him towards a cash based retail business of his own. Rather than open a full Thai restaurant, which he felt would be hard to scale, he chose Bangkok's boat noodles, served in small bowls, paying Thai stall owners for recipes and simplifying preparation. The first Boat Noodle opened at Empire Damansara in 2014 with capital of about RM160,000. The halal concept was an instant hit, with diners stacking empty bowls for photographs, and the chain grew quickly.

In 2016 Toridoll Holdings of Japan, operator of Marugame Udon, paid RM30 million for a 40 per cent stake in his holding company, Utara 5 Food & Beverage Sdn Bhd, with an option to increase it, and Boat Noodle later became a Toridoll subsidiary. By 2026 it had 49 outlets in Malaysia, having also opened in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Yangon.

In 2018 he launched BananaBro, a modern, faster and more affordable format for Malaysian Indian banana leaf rice. He said he saw a gap outside the Klang Valley, especially among Muslim and Chinese Malaysians who knew the dish but had never tried it. BananaBro grew to more than 40 branches, and The Star reported estimated revenue of RM70 million by 2023.

Lim was married to a Thai national, whose idea of opening a Thai restaurant helped inspire Boat Noodle. The couple had twin daughters, and Lim said their birth was part of what made him want to build a business of his own.

Lim is credited with starting a nationwide craze for small bowl Thai boat noodles in Malaysian malls and with reinventing banana leaf rice as a quick service brand. Boat Noodle's acquisition by Toridoll was one of the more notable foreign investments in a young Malaysian restaurant brand. His staff remembered his belief in improving "even by just 1 per cent each day" and his motto, "Together We Grow".